Alright this year's been pretty busy and I'm a whole set and a half behind so let's get to talking about March of the Machine!
In this post I'll be writing about all the cards from March of the Machine and March of the Machine: The Aftermath that people are talking about or should be talking about for an unpowered unrestricted cube environment in the context of my personal cube, the Possibility Cube. I'll likely be a bit more brief than usual as I want to catch up to releases asap. Let's do it!
Archangel Elspeth
The Good: Elspeth, Knight-Errant is an all timer and this card steals one of her +1s and adds lifelink to the mix, that's nothing to scoff at. You can pretty comfortably +1 until your opponent lets up a bit and you can take a turn off to -2 and get a real nice threat going.
The Bad: The beatdown pressure being on a -2 is pretty rough if you want this as an aggro card, which is generally what I'm trying to supplement with my 2WW creatures/planeswalkers. The great thing about Knight-Errant is how easy it is to consecutively beatdown because that plan's on a +1.
The Verdict: If you're in a lower powered environment that wants white to dip into midrange a little more often, I think this card could be pretty decent. For me though this is a pass, the white 4-drop slot has some of the highest quality cards in the game nowadays and this doesn't quite get there.
Guardian of Ghirapur
The Good: Flickerwisp is a great card in the blink deck and this will generally be just as good there.
The Bad: So much of what makes Flickerwisp good is the ability to target your opponent's stuff. Even setting aside comboing it with Containment Priest or using it as removal for a token, using your 3-drop evasive beater to turn off your opponent's blocker to let your 2-drop get a hit in is huge game.
The Verdict: If you run a dedicated blink archetype, this seems like an obvious choice. If you're not that commited to a blink strategy in your cube, don't go running this thinking it's Flickerwisp #2. Pass for me.
Invasion of Gobakhan // Lightshield Array
The Good: Cheap disruption and pressure is exactly what I want in white and that describes this card perfectly. Add in wrath protection and now we're cooking.
The Bad: While the highs will be high the floor looks quite low. 2-mana Thoughtseize just isn't good enough so you really need to be able to kill this. You're losing 3 damage to transform it and likely won't make that damage up in counters until your next turn if you can make some attacks.
The Verdict: Now this is where I'd usually say I think I'll test this one, but since we're not fresh off spoiler season like usual I'll let ya'll know I've already cubed with this card and it's results were underwhelming. Like I said 2-mana Thoughseize isn't good enough and in my cube it just didn't line up to be much more as often as I would like. This card was best later in the game when you had a decent board presence and can cash in on counters right away, but it just didn't always work out like that. I tried it and now I'm passing on it.
Seal from Existence
The Good: The worst part of Oblivion Ring is getting it blown up. Making that weakness harder to exploit is a good recipe for improvement and this is much harder to exploit, Ward 3 might as well be Hexproof in a lot of games.
The Bad: So one of the best things about Oblivion Ring is that it's really easy to splash. It's basically the thing you can reliably pick up a bit later in a draft just so you know you have at least something in your sideboard for anything that might come up in your matches. 1WW instead of 2W makes it a bit harder to fill that role.
The Verdict: So again, I've actually cubed with this card at this point and it turns out with my amount of fixing this card is quite castable basically all the time. Pretty easy swap for my old Banishing Light for me.
Chrome Host Seedshark
The Good: 2/4 flying is a pretty good statline and this triggered ability is no joke. Every noncreature you cast while this is on the battlefield draws you a 2-mana creature. Even if that creature is a Grizzly Bears on average, that's still really good for the blue spells deck's gameplan.
The Bad: Honestly there's nothing overtly bad about this card, the question is simply does its power level gel with the rest of my environment.
The Verdict: This card I have not actually gotten to cube with but I'm definitely testing it at some point. It's actually right here next to me as I write this and I'll be finding a spot for it in my cube, whether it stays or not I'm unsure but optimistic.
Faerie Mastermind
The Good: A 2-mana 2/1 flier that draws you a card is just plain great. If this draws you more than 1 card you're powering your way to a victory.
The Bad: Some people say a 2-mana 2-power evasive creature is solid enough itself in blue, I am not one of those people, I don't think it's particularly good at all. I'm just unsure how reliably this will be drawing cards. Obviously you can get your opponent with the flash, but I wonder how often you can realistically sandbag this card to do that. I really wish this was "Whenever an opponent draws a card, besides the first one they draw in each of their draw steps. This triggers once per turn." So you could get them with their Considers and other instant cantrips.
The Verdict: I haven't played with this card yet and I'm content to either see it in action and/or play it somewhere else rather than test it in my environment. Pass for now but I'm going to watch out for it, there's obviously power here.
Rona, Herald of Invasion // Rona, Tolarian Obliterator
The Good: If you ran Merfolk Looter in a powered vintage cube it would make its way into decks. These 2-mana looters are always playable and getting extra loots when you have legendary spells will come up more often than you think. The 1/3 statline is pretty great for the decks that want this and the ability to spend 5 mana to turn this into a threat late game is a great extra "card" to be stapled on.
The Bad: This card is sweet, nothing to say here.
The Verdict: This is pretty dang close to a slam dunk, I think this is going to play great.
Ayara's Oathsworn
The Good: This seems like good beatdowns for a 2-drop and your opponent really needs to kill it because they are really losing if this thing continues to connect.
The Bad: I don't know, there's just nothing really crazy attractive about this card. There's nothing exactly wrong with it, I just think it's another mid black card.
The Verdict: If your running the gaining in popularity black aggro archetype, I think this is a shoo-in. For me however, I have a copy and I'll throw it in because I have a bunch of cuts in black I want to make, but I'm pessimistic about how long it will stay.
Etali, Primal Conqueror // Etali, Primal Sickness
The Good: This is a sweet card to cheat out, the 7/7 Trample can kill fast and the ETB can potentially win on the spot. It's also nice that the ETB has a pretty low miss chance since it can't hit a land.
The Bad: There is maybe a bit too much variance to the ETB, a 7/7 trampler isn't really the cheat target of your dreams on its own. I wonder how often you'd rather just straight have Triplicate Titan instead of this.
The Verdict: I have the card and I'm going to cube with it for a bit, at the very least this is a card that can produce some awesome stories.
Khenra Spellspear // Gitaxian Spellstalker
The Good: A 2/2 Trample Prowess for 2 mana is not a bad of a floor, add a fairly cheap level up to make it large threat that's hard to remove? That seems pretty good. Double prowess means the transformed side will attack for 5 with trample any turn you have a noncreature spell which, if you're playing this card, you're likely going to have. Combine this card with some burn spells and your opponent is dying pretty fast.
The Bad: I think this is just solid.
The Verdict: I'm definitely going to be cubing with this card. I'm excited to see how well it performs.
Deeproot Wayfinder
The Good: Surveiling is always good and if you ramp multiple lands with this you've more than gotten your value out of a 2-drop.
The Bad: I really don't think this card is good. First you need a land in your graveyard or on the top of your library, sure not that hard a feat in a lot of cubes but it's far from guaranteed. Plus layered on top is an even bigger if, this card needs to hit your opponent to trigger and it has nothing helping it to do that, in regards to combat it's just a vanilla 2/3.
The Verdict: I saw a lot of people high on this card during spoiler season, but it just misses on consistency for me. I'm willing to bet this ramps you 0 lands more than it will ramp you 2. Hard pass.
Wrenn and Realmbreaker
The Good: This is a turn 3 planeswalker that ticks up to 5 and has a threatening ultimate, that's always going to be fairly powerful.
The Bad: You won't always cast this on turn 3 and I don't see myself being happy with its impact when I draw it past turn 5. The static is usually going to be irrelevant in my cube so no bonus points there. A 3/3 vigilance with hexproof so long as you +1 every turn and play a mana down (unless you don't want to block with it) is just something that gets outclassed so fast. Anticipate on a -2 is a big thumbs down from me as well.
The Verdict: This is another I saw lots of praise for but I just don't see it. Pass for me.
That's all I'm covering for this one folks. Like I said I was a bit more brief than I usually am and covered less cards because I really want to catch up with releases and get back on track as I love finding the time to write these. There really weren't many exciting things for cube this set for me but fear not, the Lord of the Rings set more then makes up for it. As always if you want to hear my opinions on a card I didn't cover let me know. Happy cubing!
