There were a ton of things revealed during today’s March of the Machine preview panel at MagicCon Philadelphia. From story tidbits, design insights, and plenty of previews—let’s dive in!
Don’s miss our coverage of the five Commander decks, three Secret Lair drops, and the sneak peak at March of the Machine: The Aftermath that were also revealed during today’s panel!
Context and Story
March of the Machine is an “event set,” according to the set’s worldbuilding lead, Emily Teng. “The last event set we did was War of the Spark,” she said, but in this case, the event is Phyrexian invasion of the multiverse following the events of Phyrexia: All Will Be One.
In March of the Machine, the Phyrexians are “trying to take on the entire multiverse,” Teng said. While the invasion is this multiverse-wide thing, Teng continued, it also impacts the people who live in the multiverse. They wanted to portray that part of the story by Phyrexian-izing characters we met in previous sets, like Ayara, First of Locthwain from Throne of Eldraine.
Araya will be Phyrexianized in March of the Machine.
We will find Araya in March of the Machine as Araya, Widow of the Realm—who will then be Phyrexianized as Araya, Furnace Queen.
There are plenty of other character moments in store, as well. “Our heroes are gonna have to confront some serious consequences in the story,” Teng said. For example, Chandra—who survived the events of Phyrexia: All Will Be One—will come face-to-face with the compleated Nissa, Ascended Animist for the first time in Traumatic Revelation.
Traumatic Revelation from March of the Machine.
Phyrexian Previews
With the story setup out of the way, it was time to show of some Phyrexian previews!
Jin-Gitaxias / The Great Synthesis
Dave Humphreys, the lead designer for March of the Machine, spoke about how the team revisited the Phyrexian Praetors to try and find a new way of designing them. The idea they came up with: make them flip Sagas.
Teng added that the new Sagas are unlike the Sagas we’ve seen before. While previous Sagas focused on telling historical tales with plane-specific art styles, Phyrexians don’t really have their own art, let alone art style. So, instead, they art team tried to depict each Praetor’s philosophy.
“The Great Synthesis is the ultimate vision of perfection through experimentation,” Teng said. The art shows him able to compleat anywhere in the multiverse.
Roy Graham, the writer of the March of the Machine story, spoke about how much he loves Breach the Multiverse for how well it tells the narrative of the story. “This is happening everywhere.”
“Nowhere is safe,” Teng added.
Heliod, the Radiant Dawn / Heliod, the Warped Eclipse
Despite appearances to the contrary, Phyrexians can exactly compleat a god. According to Teng, Phyrexians can instead compleat a sufficient number of a Theros god’s devotees, whose corrupted belief can then in turn Phyrexianize the god.
“Once it reached this critical tipping point, the gods were compleated,” Teng said.
Look, it was predictable that Omnath would eventually get a five-color version. But it didn’t have to happen like this!
Team Up (to Save the Multiverse) Previews
As the Phyrexians invade the multiverse, the multiverse is fighting back. To represent this, Humphreys and his team designed a series of “team up” cards. Each card features a pair of legendary characters from the same plane teaming up to fight Phryexia and save the multiverse.
Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief and Linvala, Keeper of Silence team up to defend Zendikar.
Yargle, Glutton of Urborg and Multani, Maro-Sorcerer team up to defend Dominaria.
Thalia, Guardian of Thraben and The Gitrog Monster team up to defend Innistrad.
Ghalta, Primal Hunger and Mavren Fein, Dusk Apostle team up to defend Ixalan.
And More Previews!
But that’s not all!
Chandra, who didn’t get a card in Phyrexia: All Will Be One, returns in March of the Machine as Chandra, Hope’s Beacon. She’s one of the more-than-three-but-less-than-10 Planeswalkers in the set, according to Humphreys.
The last time we saw Elspeth in Phyrexia: All Will Be One, she was sacrificing herself be taking a Sylex into the Blind Eternities, as seen on Vanish into Eternity.
“When last we see Elspeth, she was walking into the Bling Eternities with the exploding Sylex to keep it from damaging or destroying other planes,” Graham said. “She made a huge sacrifice, but whether it means she’s out of the fight, I’ll leave to you all to find out.”
While not particularly flavorful in terms of March of the Machine’s story, former World Champion Yuta Takahashi got to show of the card he got to help design and appear in thanks to his victory in World Championship XXVII. Very fitting for the master of UB Faeries!
Multiversal Legends
But wait, there’s even more!
Similar to the Mystical Archive from Strixhaven: School of Mages and the retro artifacts of The Brothers’ War, March of the Machine will have a bonus sheet with non-Standard legal cards. In March of the Machines, this sheet will be called Multiversal Legends and will include iconic characters from throughout the multiverse in showcase frames.
Check out Atraxa, Praetors’ Voice and Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer!
A few new cards from March of the Machine will also get this Multiversal Legends treatment and will get the showcase frame from their home plane—or a new one if the set didn’t originally have a showcase frame.
Don’s miss our coverage of the five Commander decks, the three Secret Lair drops, and the sneak peak at March of the Machine: The Aftermath that were also revealed during today’s panel!