Quick Links
March of the Machine has been celebrated as one of the most interestingMagic: The Gatheringdraft formats printed. The sets introduction of a new card type in the form of Battles as well as its use of powerful mechanics including Incubate, Backup, and Convoke have created a draft environment preening with possibility.
RELATED:Magic: The Gathering - The Best Cards With Convoke
Additionally, the presence of all kinds of multicolored bomb rares incentivizes a more varied deck building. Lastly, the format isn’t overly aggressive which allows for slower decks with more value-based game plans. Put all of this together, and you’ve got a draft format that’s likely to go down in Magic history.
Evaluating Battles
First of all, it’s important to understand the value offered by Magic’snewest card type: Battles.
These cardsproduce an effect upon being cast and then become a card under your opponent’s controlthat you can choose to attack. Once a Battle’s loyalty counters are reduced to zero,you can flip the Battle and cast its other side for no additional cost.
The best way to rate these cards is to consideronly what they do upon being initially played. There’s no guarantee that you’ll be able to flip a Battle in a given game as it’s quite easy for your opponent to gum up the board with creatures.
Alternatively, you could have a low life total and need your creatures to play defense,preventing you from attacking Battles you play.
These are both common cases thatwill result in you being unable to access the backsides of your Battle cards.Consequently, you should only consider a Battle’s immediate effectwhen deciding whether or not it deserves a spot in your deck.
Evasive creatures such as those with menace or flying will help a lot in successfully flipping Battles you play. As a result,evasive creatures are more desirable than usual in this format.
Value Over Speed
Many draft formats are defined by synergistic, aggressive deck builds that can finish off opponents by turn 7 or 8, if not sooner. This is not one such format.
Instead, March of the Machineis defined byslower, protracted gameplaythat allows for even the highest mana cost cards to hit the battlefield.
As a result, you want tovalue drafting cards that offer more value over cards with lower mana costsand more aggressive statistics. This is counter to the majority of draft formats that Magic has released, soit may take some time for you to get a handle on this tip.
The big takeaway is that youshouldn’t be afraid to stock your decks with more high mana costs spells than usual.While a typical draft deck doesn’t want more than two or three five mana cost spells, decks in March of the Machine are happy to play up to twice as many.
Land cycling cards like Furnace Host Charger and Gloomfang Mauler allow you to play even more high mana cost spellsthanks to their ability to double as lands in a pinch.Due to the value-centric nature of this format,these cards should be picked highly.
RELATED:Magic: The Gathering - The Best Abzan Commanders
Embrace The Splash
It almost goes without saying thatin a slower draft format, splashing a third color becomes more viable. However, this fact is even further stressed in March of the Machinedue to the high number of available mana-fixing cards.
At common rarity alone, there are nearly 20 cards capable of fixing your manabase, including 10 dual lands that enter the battlefield tapped and gain one life.
Couple this high volume of available fixing with a huge pool of powerful bomb rares, and you’ve got a draft formatthat highly rewards splashing a third color in your manabase. Games in March of the Machine often go long enough thatyou can get away with playing just two fixing cards in your deck, but three or four are ideal(including dual lands).
Splashing allows you to draft additional highly valued bomb rares andremoval spellsfrom a third color that willexponentially increase the power levelof your deck.
You don’t need to splash in this format to have a great deck, but it can really help.
Watch For Signposts
Signpost uncommons are present in every draft format we take a look at, and they are almost alwayssome of the most powerful and synergistic cards available to our decks. Not only do these cards provide a welcome power boost, but they can also tip us off towhat colors other players aren’t drafting.
Successful drafters take notice of what colors are being passed around more than they should be and often take up those colorstogain access to a larger pool of playable cards. That being said, there are some signposts in this format that are considerably better than others.
These include the following color pair uncommons:Dimir (Blue/Black), Rakdos (Red/Black), Selesnya (White/Green), Golgari (Green/Black), and Orzhov (White/Black).
In case you didn’t notice, Black is present in four of these five color pairs and islikely the best single color to draft in the set.
RELATED:Magic: The Gathering - The Best Red Cards In March Of The Machine
A Heavy Hitting Format
A byproduct of a slower format is thatbigger and better cards have more time to hit the board. On top of that, March of the Machine is chock full of incredibly impressive rares with very dangerous effects.
Consequently, getting your hands onas many of these cards as you can should be your first priority.
Your second priority is picking up answersto these cards. Removal spells like Shatter The Source, Invasion Of New Capenna, Deadly Derision, and Realmbreaker’s Grasp should all be top picks during your drafts,assuming there’s not a bomb available that supplies more value.
Blue/Black Are The Best
Perhaps it shouldn’t come as any surprise in a format that rewards value over speed butblue and black are undoubtedly the best colorsto draft in this set.Green and white come in second, though they are notably far behind what blue and black offer.
Last and least,the aggression and speed that red offers is sadly next to uselessin March of the Machine. Thanks to the ease of splashing in this format, it’s recommended touse blue or black as one of the primary colors of your deckand splash bomb rares you pick up in another color.
While black may be the best single color in this format, blue is often criminally underdrafted. As a result, you may get more mileage out ofleaning toward blue decks.
To put it simply,blue and black offer the most removal, evasion, andcard selection,which puts them leagues ahead of the competition in a slow format like March of the Machine. As always though, your best draft decks will be thosewhere you don’t have tons of other players at the table drafting the same colors as you.
