March of the Machine - cEDH Set Review
Invasion of Ikoria | Illustrated by Antonio J. Manzanedo
White | Blue | Black | Red | Green | Artifacts/Lands | Gold I | Gold II | Reprints | cEDH | Battles | Pauper
Greetings, mothers and machines, Jake FitzSimons here to review the best new cards from March of the Machine for cEDH. Unfortunately, I was painfully compleated and remade by the Phyrexians, but just like all the characters people actually care about, I got better and the consequences were vague at best.
March of the Machine feels like a return to form as far as cEDH impact goes, with a card advantage engine, an efficient creature tutor, a new Rule of Law effect, two commanders with a one-card win condition, and even a commander with multiple one-card win conditions. Maybe I'm just starved after the last handful of releases brought cEDH so little, but for the first time in a while, I'm excited.
White
Phyrexian Censor
Phyrexian Censor is the seventh1 variant of that wonderful horrendous enchantment we saw way back in Mirrodin, with a few key differences. For one, it's the beefiest yet, at 3/3, more than enough to tangle with Tymna and most everything else and still come out on top. Locking everyone to a single spell per turn needs no introduction for seasoned cEDH players, but for the uninitiated, the only decks Rule of Law effects don't hurt are decks that want to be playing them in the first place, making them very powerful.
The second line of text on Phyrexian Censor is harder to evaluate. Making non-Phyrexian creatures enter the battlefield tapped will shut off combo wins, like Godo, Bandit Warlord + Helm of the Host and the classic Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker + Hyrax Tower Scout/Zealous Conscripts/Combat Celebrant, and while that can be useful, it can be self-defeating, because infinite creature combos are often what stax decks are trying to win with. Part of Kiki-Jiki's appeal is how it plays through common stax, meaning a Rule of Law that stops Kiki-Jiki is a bit like shooting yourself in the foot. Village Bell-Ringer and Deceiver Exarch are the the exceptions here: the combo still works, but they're less common Kiki-enablers.
Which brings us, as always, to Winota, Joiner of Forces. Despite a solid statline and enabling Winota triggers, I don't think Phyrexian Censor is as much of a Winota card as it looks like. More than just shutting down the Kiki-Jiki combo, it also shuts down the Rionya, Fire Dancer + Combat Celebrant combo, and even in a list eschewing both infinites and going for raw combat damage as a wincon, Phyrexian Censor will make cards like Loyal Apprentice, Legion Warboss, and Goblin Rabblemaster significantly slower, which means fewer flips and less damage.
Regardless, Phyrexian Censor will certainly find a home in cEDH. Stax decks that don't play Kiki-Jiki combos in the first place (think Heliod, Yasharn, Tymna/Kamahl) will love it as a way to gain an edge over opposing stax decks.
Blue
Change the Equation
Solve the Equation is a powerful cEDH tutor that will see play for years. But Change the Equation? More like change the record. Two mana counterspells with conditions are simply not good, their flaws always outweigh their features. Yes, the majority of spells you run into in cEDH cost two or less mana. There are also good red and green spells it will answer, like Jeska's Will, Eldritch Evolution, Culling Ritual and a host of powerful commanders like Najeela, the Blade-Blossom, Winota, Joiner of Forces and The Gitrog Monster.
But you know what else can counter all of the above and every other spell in the game? Delay. Mana Drain. Even humble Counterspell. There's nothing Change the Equation can do that an alternative in the same mana value range can't do better.
"But Jake, it's easier to cast than Mana Drain!" You're right. It also doesn't give you a mana refund. If you're so worried about finding two blue, just play Delay. If you're already on Delay and Mana Drain for some reason, take Arcane Denial for a spin.
If you're not convinced, take a look at the misses. Ad Nauseam, Archon of Emeria, Toxic Deluge, Fierce Guardianship, Force of Negation, Force of Will, Intuition, Necropotence, Opposition Agent, Ranger-Captain of Eos, Rhystic Study, Rule of Law, Sevinne's Reclamation, Spellseeker, Timetwister, and Windfall. If I'm spending two mana on a counterspell, I want it to counter whatever I point it at. Steer clear.
Faerie Mastermind
First thing's first, the art isn't great. But the card itself? An evasive two-mana card advantage engine with flash is a promising elevator pitch for a cEDH creature, and that's precisely what Yuta Takahashi has designed. Much has been written about Faerie Mastermind already, but I'll summarise the key points: a 2/1 flier is a great beater for decks that care about combat triggers, namely Tymna the Weaver and the flash makes it significantly more flexible than similar tools, like Ledger Shredder and the rarely seen Ghostly Pilferer.
The activated ability, while being a terrible rate, still functions as an infinite mana outlet, albeit a risky one. It's not likely to be activated purely for advantage because giving every opponent a card in exchange for two of your own (if you activated it on an opponent's turn) isn't worthwhile for four mana, but forced draw is deceptively powerful in cEDH on account of Thassa's Oracle + Demonic Consultation wins. Simply wait until an opponent has exiled their entire library, drop four mana, and bam, they've lost the game by trying to draw from an empty library.
Now to the triggered ability. There are a lot of cards in cEDH that draw, have a look: Gitaxian Probe, Brainstorm, Windfall, Wheel of (Mis)Fortune, Timetwister, Sylvan Library, and Skullclamp, not to mention Esper Sentinel, Mystic Remora, Rhystic Study, Veil of Summer and Sensei's Divining Top. Then you have commanders like Tymna the Weaver both Selvalas, Sythis, Korvold, Tevesh Szat, Edric, Shorikai, occasionally Thrasios, Kraum, and just for emphasis, Tymna the Weaver again.
The only catch is that I made all the same arguments this time last year when I reviewed Smuggler's Share, a card I thought would make waves, but barely caused ripples. It didn't even break surface tension, it was a complete and total dud. There are other reasons for that, like being white, costing an extra mana, lacking flash, not being a creature, but what I learned through testing it is that unless there's a Tymna the Weaver in play, your opponents won't draw two cards in the same turn as often as you might think.
Give it a few months, a bit of testing, and I think it'll end up looking more like Ledger Shredder or Archivist of Oghma: good, but not great. If you're just looking for card advantage and you don't have a use for either the activated ability or the 2/1 body, Faerie Mastermind may underwhelm. Still, if you're going into a hyper-competitive cEDH environment, let's say a tournament where half the decks on offer are bound to have Tymna the Weaver, or you're playing Tymna the Weaver yourself and looking for combat damage triggers, Faerie Mastermind Yuta's design will shine.
Omen Hawker
A blue mana dork at one? Except it's not really a mana dork, because unlike its green counterparts, the mana it makes has an extremely narrow application: it can only be used on activated abilities. Powerful activated abilities exist in cEDH, most notably Thrasios, Triton Hero, but mana is best when it's real mana you can spend on anything. Casting Omen Hawker is not a good opening play, and at the point you have Thrasios, Triton Hero live and you're ready to start grinding advantage, you'd rather see a genuinely impactful card.
You could pair it with Pemmin's Aura or Freed from the Real for infinite mana, just remember it's still infinite mana that you can only use on activated abilities and is much less flexible than alternatives like Bloom Tender and Faeburrow Elder. Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy is another cEDH powerhouse with an activated ability, where Omen Hawker could possibly find a place making three mana, one of which won't have the same activated ability restriction, but I'm convinced the restriction makes it too clunky to see play.
Saiba Cryptomancer
As a diehard Yuriko player, seeing Ninjas outside of supplemental products or specifically Kamigawa is always exciting, even when they don't have Ninjutsu. Saiba Cryptomancer fits that bill, and despite being a two mana Ninja with no evasion, she may be useful regardless. By herself, a 1/2 Ninja with flash is fine, but not great. The real appeal is the Backup ability and the chance to buffer Yuriko from damage, make her trade with a blocker, or save her from targeted removal. What Saiba Cryptomancer loses in Ninja skills, she makes up for in versatility.
Black
Hoarding Broodlord
Hoarding Broodlord is a Rune-Scarred Demon with upside, and easy combo fodder with the best black card printed in 2022, Saw in Half. Simply resolve or reanimate the Broodlord, find Saw in Half, saw it into two mini Broodlords (at a discounted rate thanks to convoke) and you'll have two more cards in exile, both of which can be convoked. From there, any two card combo will do, it's a question of whatever floats your boat, or rather, whatever flies your dragon. It seems particularly good in Prosper where casting from exile is the name of the game, or in Kaalia of the Vast, where cheating dragons into play is all in a day's work. The fact it's a Dragon rather than a Demon could also lead to possible lines with Magda, Brazen Outlaw.
Infernal Sovereign
Infernal Sovereign would be a powerful reanimation target if it wasn't competing against all the great reanimation targets that already exist in cEDH. While turning every single land and spell into a cantrip is an undeniably powerful effect, it's not as good as receiving two cards per mana spent, as is the case with Vilis, Broker of Blood, not as good as having a tutor engine by the name of Razaketh, the Foulblooded, and not even as good as the big black creature we just discussed, Hoarding Broodlord. You could always hard cast it, but it's no sure bet and relies on a few cards in hand to get rolling anyway. If you happen to have six mana to spare, just play Bolas's Citadel.
Red
Dance with Calamity
Some people have called Dance with Calamity "the red Ad Nauseam", and try as I might, I don't think I'm ever going to get my hands on exactly what those people are smoking. They're somewhat similar in execution with an exciting decision to be made at every flip and a question of how far you'll push your luck, but Dance with Calamity will almost never provide as much advantage as Ad Nauseam can. Add the enormous eight mana price tag, the sorcery speed, and the fact you have to shuffle first (preventing top-deck setups) and you're left with an underwhelming card. The only possible exception is in Prosper, Tome-Bound, where every spell you cast from Dance will reward you with a treasure, but even then it's still EIGHT mana.
Lithomantic Barrage
Ever wanted an uncounterable way to nuke powerhouses like Kraum, Ludevic's Opus, Tymna the Weaver and Winota, Joiner of Forces? Just play Rending Volley. Instants are almost immeasurably better than sorceries when it comes to removal and just about everything else. Lithomantic Barrage can kill a Kenrith, the Returned King or a Niv-Mizzet, Parun, but is that worth losing the flexibility that Rending Volley provides? Try as I might, I can't think of a good use for the 1 damage effect. You could kill a dork, but at the point you're spending a whole card to remove a single dork, something has gone very wrong.
Urabrask // The Great Work
It's a Food Chain outlet and an infinite mana outlet with Temur Sabertooth, both good starts for a potential commander. Unfortunately, it's also Gruul. I say that begrudgingly because I love Gruul, but I'm not going to kid either of us by saying Gruul is among the better two color pairs. Going infinite with Food Chain is the basis for plenty of decks, but what all those decks have in common is the ability to actually find Food Chain.
In Gruul, all you have is Gamble. Given Etali, Primal Conqueror // Etali Primal Sickness has glacially slow card advantage, finding Food Chain will be next to impossible. There's no point playing a commander-centric combo if you can't reliably tutor the cards you need to execute it. Being able to win the game with Dockside Extortionist and Temur Sabertooth is nice, but already possible in Gruul. Minsc & Boo, Timeless Heroes (no, I won't stop talking about them) can win the game with infinite mana, and do an awful lot besides. Click here for more info on that deck.
Halo Forager
Snapcaster Mage, much as we all love it, has never been that useful in cEDH. Halo Forager has the distinct advantage of casting a spell from "a graveyard" which allows you to cast your opponents' spells as easily as your own, but it's a one time effect and a sorcery speed one at that. It even allows you to cast Suspend spells free of charge, but that's something for Modern to worry about, not cEDH. A free Crashing Footfalls isn't much to phone home about. If you want to cast spells from your own graveyard, you'll get better mileage out of Underworld Breach or Yawgmoth's Will, and if you want to cast spells from everyone else's, stick with Mnemonic Betrayal.
Kroxa and Kunoros
Easily the winner for best creature typing in the set, I don't think anyone expected to see an Elder Giant Dog. At a whopping six mana, Kroxa and Kunoros are a lot bigger than typical Mardu options for cEDH like Tymna the Weaver and Jeska, Thrice Reborn/Rograkh son of Rohgahh, but as Tivit, Seller of Secrets illustrated, inflated mana costs aren't a big deal when you can combo off with one other card. In Kroxa and Kunoros's case, that card is Altar of Dementia.
With Altar of Dementia and Kroxa and Kunoros in hand, you can cast the Elder Giant Dog and in response to the trigger, sacrifice it to the Altar to mill six cards. Having done that, the reflexive trigger will resolve and you can bring Kroxa and Kunoros back into play with its own ETB, only to respond to the new trigger with another sacrifice. This creates a loop that will animate and reanimate K&K indefinitely, netting one extra card in your graveyard with each repetition and milling your entire deck.
That done, you need only find Karmic Guide and Abdel Adrian, Gorion's Ward, at which point it gets... complicated. Use the last Kroxa and Kunoros trigger to reanimate Karmic Guide, which itself can reanimate Abdel Adrian, flickering Karmic Guide on entry. With the new Karmic Guide trigger on the stack, sacrifice Abdel Adrian to the Altar to mill an opponent, and then bring Abdel back to start the whole loop again. You can repeat until you have milled every card in every opponent's deck and created an infinite number of 1/1s. You'll still have to pass the turn, but unless they can save themselves with an Endurance, they'll lose on their draw trigger. If you want more info on this combo and the deck built around it, check out this fantastic list and primer.
Omnath, Locus of All
It finally happened, Omnath is every color. It's been quite a journey from Worldwake with Omnath, Locus of Mana, and if any Omnath stands a chance in cEDH, it's this one. The first point to note is that it's five colors, and more colors is always better. That's not to say that commanders with fewer colors are inherently bad, only that any commander would be stronger if they had access to more colors. Thankfully for Omnath, Locus of All, his strengths go beyond color identity.
Omnath, Locus of All's primary use is as a mana battery with some incidental card advantage tacked on for good measure. From the point you can generate WURG (you don't need B, pay life instead), you have an especially colorful Dark Confidant that can save up spare mana and paint it black. While all mana is good mana, black is particularly relevant for cEDH given how many game winning spells want a lot of it, like Ad Nauseam, Peer into the Abyss, Doomsday and Necropotence. The latter two can even be cast for free with Omnath, Locus of All's ability if you happen to topdeck them before the trigger.
Where Omnath, Locus of All falls short is in comparison to alternative five color commanders. Kenrith, the Returned King is a Swiss Army Knife that can do near anything and adapt to any meta, Najeela, the Blade Blossom is an army in a can with multiple one-card combos, and Codie, Vociferous Codex is tantamount to playing Ad Nauseam in the command zone. I'm not convinced a mana battery and an extra draw every turn can compete with that.
Rona, Herald of Invasion // Rona, Tolarian Obliterator
A Dimir commander that can win the game with Isochron Scepter and Dramatic Reversal, how daring. In fact, it's not even the first Rona that can kill with Dramatic Scepter! Thankfully, unlike the first Rona, this one can also crack Doomsday piles, functions as more than just as a win outlet, and is one of three commanders from March of the Machine with a one-card win condition.
Enter Wishclaw Talisman. With Rona in play alongside Wishclaw Talisman, it's easy as paying {1} to tutor Retraction Helix and {U} to stick the Helix on Rona, tapping her to bounce the Wishclaw Talisman back to hand. Recast Wishclaw and activate it to find Mox Amber (or Mox Opal if you have Metalcraft) and on account of being a Legendary permanent, casting the rock will untap Rona. Congratulations, you've now created infinite mana! That done, you can use the final Rona trigger to bounce Wishclaw back to hand and recast it finding Brain Freeze for infinite mill on every opponent. Alternatively you can find Urza, Lord High Artificer and turn that infinite mana into exiling and casting your entire deck.
Wishclaw is already perfectly playable in its own right, and turning it into a whole win condition is extremely powerful. Unlike the other one-card win condition commanders above, Rona has extremely robust backup combos in the form of Thassa's Oracle + Demonic Consultation and the aforementioned Dimir classic, Isochron Scepter + Dramatic Reversal.
She also has a backside, but at six mana to activate (five if you pay life) it's not going to come up often and when it does, it's not going to matter. Opponents will simply avoid swinging into it and even if they do, the payoff is unreliable. The exception to this is when you've generated enough blue mana with Mox Amber and need to start producing black. If you want to understand this combo better and look into what a full Rona decklist looks like, check this out.
Shalai and Hallar
Now we're talking. Commanders that can go infinite with just one other card are usually are the theme of the set, but there are precious few2 with three cards that can go infinite. With War Elemental, The Red Terror or Heliod, Sun-Crowned in play with Shalai and Hallar, all you need is a single +1/+1 counter and you can deal infinite damage to everyone.
If you've seen Heliod in action, you'll realise how similar this interaction is to the Walking Ballista combo, but where Shalai and Hallar set themselves apart is not just the redundancy of having three combo cards instead of only one, but the ability to dodge a lot of commonly played stax. It's a combo that works under Rule of Law, a combo that works under Null Rod and Collector Ouphe, and extremely rare for a creature combo, it even works with a Cursed Totem in play. The Red Terror is the easiest to execute at four mana, Heliod, Sun-Crowned is a little harder at three to play and two to activate, and while War Elemental is the cheapest, it's a three red pips at once and some frustrating restrictions get it into play and win on the same turn.
Having a Naya color identity means that Shalai and Hallar are perfectly poised to run every type of stax under the sun, slowing the game to a crawl without worrying about stepping on their own toes. I think this could even be the first deck in the history of cEDH that could run Signal the Clans with a straight face because it has three viable targets that all serve the same purpose. Heck, it can even run Time of Need just to find Heliod, Sun-Crowned or The Red Terror.
There's more I could say, but I don't want to rob my own punch so I'll save it for the next edition of Let Me Sell Ya! For now, expect to see Shalai and Hallar at a cEDH table near you soon.
Slimefoot and Squee
Pair Slimefoot and Squee with Goblin Bombardment and a big enough Dockside Extortionist, and baby, you got a stew going. If you don't have those ingredients, try Phyrexian Altar and Sprouting Thrinax for infinite mana and infinite tokens. You can get even more complicated if you like; throw Mayhem Devil, Carrion Feeder and Dockside Extortionist into the pot and you'll be rewarded with infinite damage to whichever targets you like.
There are no shortage of possible combos with Slimefoot and Squee, the only problem is that combos requiring multiple cards and a commander are a dime a dozen in cEDH. There's nothing Slimefoot and Squee can do that really set them aside. It would be nice to see something for Jund in cEDH that isn't a partner pair or Korvold, Fae-Cursed King, but Slimefoot and Squee just don't have enough juice to be worth the squeeze.
Thalia and The Gitrog Monster
Thalia has seen a lot of cEDH play in her various iterations, and The Gitrog Monster is one of the most iconic decks in cEDH, so what happens if you pair them together? You get a stax effect with conditional card advantage, an extra land per turn and the ability to sacrifice a Protean Hulk. That's a hell of a start in cEDH.
First, the stax. Forcing opposing creatures to enter tapped completely neuters a lot of creature combos, and will incidentally increase the amount of combat damage a Thalia and The Gitrog Monster can lay down once they resolve. Making nonbasic lands enter tapped is tantamount to making all lands enter tapped given how few basic lands are run in cEDH, not to mention dragging Fetchlands down to a glacial pace. The stax is asymmetrical and all upside, the question is how much it will actually matter by the time you've found four mana with three different pips.
The card advantage is less exciting. Needing to swing makes it much slower than alternative advantage tools, and the cost of sacrificing a creature or land shouldn't be overlooked. You can throw away a dork or start churning through your lands, but it's technically card parity because you only get out as many cards as you put in. Tymna the Weaver, it ain't.
As for working as a Protean Hulk outlet, Thalia and The Gitrog Monster get the job down, but not nearly as quickly as alternatives like Dina, Soul Steeper, Varolz, the Scar-Striped, or the finest Hulk outlet in the command zone, Minsc, Beloved Ranger. Not only do you have to wait a turn before Thalia and The Gitrog Monster are actually ready to attack, you have to make it to the combat step, giving opponents extra time to disrupt the combo.
All up, the card advantage might not be the best, the stax effect might not be the strongest and the Hulk outlet certainly isn't the fastest, but no other commander can boast all three things wrapped in the same neat package. There's potential here, and I'm sure we'll feel the full wrath of a Cathar riding a Frog in the near future.
Zimone and Dina
Zimone and Dina are the second team up on this list that work as a sacrifice outlet for Protean Hulk strategies. Unfortunately, just like Thalia and The Gitrog Monster, they also suffer from summoning sickness and you'll have to wait a hot second before you can actually sacrifice anything, but Sultai has a lot more going for it than Abzan does. If nothing else, Sultai decks have access to Thassa's Oracle and Demonic Consultation, easily the best combo cEDH and one of the strongest win conditions ever printed in the history of Magic.
Leaving Protean Hulk piles to the side for a second, Zimone and Dina have a remarkably similar effect to the Cathar and Frog: sacrifice a permanent for card advantage. Thankfully for them, the payoff is a stronger as it can directly ramp you and in a long enough game, it'll go off twice from each activation. Unfortunately, when it comes to Sultai decks capable of sacrificing Hulk, Zimone and Dina don't have any real advantages over Thrasios, Triton Hero and Tevesh Szat, Doom of Fools.
April of the Machine
Releasing March of the Machine the month directly after March seems like a missed opportunity to me, but I recognise Wizards might have concerns that go beyond getting a sensible chuckle out of lining up a release with the name of a set. I'm off topic.
What matters is that March of the Machine is one of the more powerful sets we've seen in a long time. Competitive EDH has been a little starved for new tools recently, which may well be good news for the wider Commander playerbase, but isn't quite so good for those of us who like broken things. Not mending broken things, mind you, but taking broken things and appreciating them for just how broken they are. My top picks for the set are Phyrexian Censor, Faerie Mastermind, and Invasion of Ikoria, and my top commanders are Kroxa and Kunoros, Rona, and Shalai and Hallar. What do you think will see play in cEDH? Let me know in the comments!
- Preceded by Archon of Emeria, Arcane Laboratory, Deafening Silence, Eidolon of Rhetoric, Ethersworn Canonist, and Rule of Law.
- Najeela, the Blade Blossom also fits this bill. She can go infinite with Derevi, Empyrial Tactician, Nature's Will, Faeburrow Elder, Druid's Repository and others I'm forgetting. Check out Commanderspellbook to see more.
