March of the Machines Conclusions and Additions

 

Well, I don't think I like this set on balance and that is pretty rare for me. I don't hate it but it isn't going I what I would consider to be the right direction. It might be down to my bias in that I am somewhat disenfranchised with Wizards/Hasbro and MtG at present. More likely than bias making me dislike this set is that  historic positive bias has let me overlook poorer sets in the past. There certainly is plenty I do like in March of the Machines but more that I don't. So what are my gripes? For such a cool multi-set story line I found the conclusion in this one unsatisfying. I find the flip cards to be tedious to play with and there are simply too many here. I don't love the extreme printing frequency and power push on certain legends. I can see myself curving Elesh into Elesh or Vorinclex into Vorinclex or Sheoldred into Sheoldred more and it isn't a flavour I like. I am fine with printing legends again in general and totally fine with it on walkers. It has just been too much all at once here. All the best top end in my cube seems to be the same couple of characters. I want variety in flavour. I fear battles will not improve the game and don't love the design on them. The basic land art is some of my least favourite and most discordant in recent years which is a particular turn off for me and my basic land fetish. Those are my various gripes, story line flops, power creep again and focused poorly, too many flip cards and too many of the same characters on cards, and a seemingly unnecessary and poor new card type. I do also have positive take aways. The set looks good for limited. There are plenty of cards I am excited to play with. It has some strong new mechanics too. We will return to the perks but for now the gripes seem more important. 

I don't like all the flip cards - too much. A few of them is fine but the density is silly now. For some reason loads of the best cards that wind up in cube are flippers. Perhaps because Wizards can do their favourite thing of putting all the text on them! It is just the fiddle with them rather than it being mechanically bad, much more a functionality thing, flip cards are great in online play. Just so much messing around in draft and in game when playing IRL. Flip cards are inaccessible to newer players.  They are a pain to double sleeve and damage quickly if not. They give away information. To be fair, the battles will do that without even flipping, we can all see you sideways reading! 

Yet more power creep is my biggest of the gripes. This time it is focused in the top end. Just a load of cards that really make sure the game is going to end. Probably some market research showing that their online Arena players want games to end in like 8 turns or something. Perhaps not unreasonable but it is going to stamp out some of the range. I like to have to find my means to win, I enjoy the challenge of getting enough reach in my decks and getting there in game before I run out of library or what have you. Now it seems like every card at five or more mana is just winning the game in short order through most stuff. I feel like this trend is killing of the long game, reducing the complexity in deck design, and wiping out large swathes of design space. Cube games seem to devolve into both players just swinging haymakers into each other for a couple of turns and finding out who's panned out better. 

The new mechanics are cool, both incubate and backup look like they will play well. Always impressive when some fresh and clean ideas are coming out 30 years down the line. My only gripe about incubate is the limiting flavour making it unlikely we will see it again on the regular.

In terms of additions we have a lot here. This is a lot even for a set in the age of extreme power creep. Doubly scary considering we have just had a good 3 or so years of such sets which you would expect over time to slow down on that front. Exponential power creep would be required to maintain an increasing influx of new potentials. One cool note here too is that there is a big shift away from cards that I only expect to perform in constructed and build around settings towards cards that have a shot at being playable regardless. 

I have now had a chance to play some games with the new cards, and notably the battles. I had judged them harshly and found they played better than I had expected. They are a bit more interesting, a bit more dynamic, rather less powerful, and not quite so win more as I had anticipated. I am not in love or anything but certainly not quite so averse. I still think making them an enchantment subtype was the way to go but whatever. Tis done now and is not a biggie really. 

To Add

Rona, Herald of the Invasion

Sheoldred

Vorinclex

Elesh Norn

Ancient Imperiosaur 

Invasion of Tarkir 

Slimefoot and Squee*

Seed of Hope 

To Test (high hopes)

Omen Hawker

Surge of Salvation

Guardian of Ghirapur 

Invasion of Ravnica 

Guardian Scalelord*

Rashimi and Ragavan

Bloodfeather Phoenix

Kolga and Yidaro 

Sunfall

Invasion of Gobakhan

Nahiri's Witchcraft

Captive Weird 

City on Fire 

Pile On

Ozolith, Shattered Spire

Doomskar Warrior 

Voldaren Thrillseeker

Chrome Host Seedshark 

Hoarding Broodlord 

Invasion of Fiora 

Elspeth's Smite 

Jin-Gitaxias 

Meeting of Minds 

To Test (low hopes)

Mirran Banesplitter 

Flywheel Racer 

Interdisciplinary Mascot 

Knight-Errant of Eos 

Rampaging Raptor

Invasion of Pyrulea

Zephyr Singer

Invasion of Innistrad 

Invasion of Kaldheim 

Invasion of Karsus

Deeproot Wayfinder 

Invasion of New Phyrexia 

Infernal Sovereign*

Tribute to the World Tree 

Death Greeter's Champion*

Ayara, Widow of the Realm 

Invasion of Mercadia 

Invasion of Segovia 

Hidetsugu and Kairi

Invasion of Azgol

Borborygmos and Fblthp

Polukranos Reborn 

Glissa, Herald of Predation 

Zurgo and Ojutai 

Archpriest of Shadows 

Boon-Bringer Valkyrie 

Moment of Truth 

Etali, Primal Conqueror 

Quintorius, Loremaster 

Omnath, Locus of All

Faerie Mastermind 

Archangal Elspeth 

Wrenn and Realmbreaker 

Halo Forager 

Thalia and the Gitrog Monster 

Chandra, Hope's Beacon 

Constructed Reserves

Temporal Cleansing 

Errant and Giada 

Elegant Denial 

Botanical Brawler 

Invasion of Ergamon 

Invasion of Ikoria 

Yargle and Multani 

Scorn-Blade Berserker 

Marshal of Zhalfir 

Sabia Cryptomancer