Choosing Your Battles, Part 2
Last week, I started going through all the battles from March of the Machine and explaining how they were designed. For each one, I'll talk about the plane and walk through why we chose its color(s), what effect we chose to put on the "enters the battlefield" (ETB) effect on the front face, and what card we wanted as the prize on the back face for winning the battle. I'm going to be talking about the cards as they appear in collector number order. In the first column, I got most of the way through black, so that's where I'll start.
Invasion of Ulgrotha
Invasion of Ulgrotha
Battle — Siege
(As a Siege enters, choose an opponent to protect it. You and others can attack it. When it's defeated, exile it, then cast it transformed.)
When Invasion of Ulgrotha enters the battlefield, it deals 3 damage to any other target and you gain 3 life.
Sets that primarily take place there: Homelands
Planeswalker natives (with planeswalker cards): None
Ulgrotha is the plane created for the set Homelands. The set took several components that were high profile when the game came out (things like
Because the plane is most associated with vampires (it's home of the Sengir clan), we decided to give it a drain as its ETB effect. For the back face, we did something that we did on several battles: we put a legendary creature from that plane on it. In the case of Ulgrotha, that creature was Grandmother Sengir. She had appeared as a legendary creature card in Homelands and was the second most popular of the Sengirs. Baron Sengir, the most popular, had appeared on a new card in Commander Legends, so we decided to go with Grandmother Sengir. We riffed on
Invasion of Kaldheim
Invasion of Kaldheim
Battle — Siege
(As a Siege enters, choose an opponent to protect it. You and others can attack it. When it's defeated, exile it, then cast it transformed.)
When Invasion of Kaldheim enters the battlefield, exile all cards from your hand, then draw that many cards. Until the end of your next turn, you may play cards exiled this way.
Sets that primarily take place there: Kaldheim
Planeswalker natives (with planeswalker cards): Tyvar
Kaldheim first showed up on a plane in the original Planechase back in 2009.
Back when we made Planechase, we were looking at planes we thought we'd visit. One of them was a plane inspired by Norse mythology. We named it Kaldheim. Unlike Theros and Tarkir, which had to change their name from the plane that represented our hint at the future plane in Planechase (Arkhos and Mongseng, respectively), we were able to keep the name Kaldheim when we made the 2021 set built around Norse mythology.
This card was designed backwards. There was an important story point that didn't show up in the written story, but had huge implications for the plane, so we wanted to make sure players saw it. To stop the Invasion Tree, the inhabitants of Kaldheim burn their own World Tree. This is the tree that connects the ten different realms that make up Kaldheim. To represent this, we have an effect that allows you to discard land to deal direct damage. This effect was red, which is why we made the card red.
Because it was a rare card, we needed a second ability. To tie it into the first effect, we made a triggered ability that cares about lands being discarded. The one we liked best used impulsive draw (i.e., exiling the top card of your library and letting you play it for the turn). This second ability then influenced the ETB effect.
It's a modified version of a famous artifact called
One, the cards you can cast are the ones exiled. With
Two, you only draw cards equal to the number in your hand rather than drawing seven.
Invasion of Karsus
Invasion of Karsus
Battle — Siege
(As a Siege enters, choose an opponent to protect it. You and others can attack it. When it's defeated, exile it, then cast it transformed.)
When Invasion of Karsus enters the battlefield, it deals 3 damage to each creature and each planeswalker.
Sets that primarily take place there: None
Planeswalker natives (with planeswalker cards): None
Karsus is one of the deeper cuts of the battles. It has appeared on one card, one that didn't even appear in a for-sale product.
Mirrored Depth was a plane given away as part of something called Gateway promo cards that were sent to players for participating in tournaments at local game stores. This card was part of a promotion tied to the set Worldwake. There wasn't anything established about the plane other than people fight atop giant crystals.
When Dave Humpherys and his design team filled out the battles, they used every plane we knew we wanted to visit but saw where there were gaps. They then used the lesser-known planes to fill in these gaps. Karsus is a good example of this. They liked the idea of a plane that dealt damage to all creatures and planeswalkers, and then looked for a plane that made sense for the effect. Belenon, Fiora, Rabiah, and Tolvada were all considered for this slot.
For the back face, they tapped into one of the only things we knew about the plane—it had a lot of crystals, so they decided to make a crystal Elemental. They wanted an effect that captured the flavor of refraction and tied into the ETB effect, so they ended up with a triggered effect that dealt damage to the opponent whenever you cast a spell. The creature's size and ward ability were chosen to balance out the card.
Invasion of Mercadia
Invasion of Mercadia
Battle — Siege
(As a Siege enters, choose an opponent to protect it. You and others can attack it. When it's defeated, exile it, then cast it transformed.)
When Invasion of Mercadia enters the battlefield, you may discard a card. If you do, draw two cards.
Sets that primarily take place there: Mercadian Masques
Planeswalker natives (with planeswalker cards): None
Mercadia showed up in just one set, Mercadian Masques. It was defined by two main elements. It was a mercantile city that was undergoing an attack by a series of rebels. The plane had some weird properties, as physics did not work there the same as it does on other planes, so you had odd things like an upside-down mountain (that most players thought was some kind of tornado). Mercadia was not a particularly popular plane (nor was Mercadian Masques a popular set), but it seemed wrong not to make a nod to it in March of the Machine. I think it ended up in red because of the effects we wanted for the back face rather than for any flavor purposes. (I guess a city famously known for its rebels may lean a bit red.)
This is another card whose flavor was more about the back face than the front. Mercadian Masques had a series of creatures with the creature type Spellshaper that allowed you to spend mana and discard a card to generate an effect. The Time Spiral block had a bunch more Spellshapers, but they haven't been used since then. We thought it was a good idea to use them here, as they're so tied to Mercadia. This card is specifically a Goblin because Mercadia is famous for having smart goblins. The card makes creature tokens because it's helping the blue-red draft archetype that's built around convoke. Blue and red traditionally have the fewest creatures, so the Set Design team had to add in more token makers to make the archetype work. Note that the tokens it makes are blue and red to allow them to convoke for those two colors.
The front used a simple ETB effect, rummaging (discarding and drawing). The card was an uncommon, so it wanted to be simple. I think the card filtering felt apropos on a mercantile plane built around bartering.
Invasion of Regatha
Invasion of Regatha
Battle — Siege
(As a Siege enters, choose an opponent to protect it. You and others can attack it. When it's defeated, exile it, then cast it transformed.)
When Invasion of Regatha enters the battlefield, it deals 4 damage to another target battle or opponent and 1 damage to up to one target creature.
Sets that primarily take place there: None
Planeswalker natives (with planeswalker cards): None
Regatha is probably best known as the plane Chandra first travels to when she initially sparks in Magic Origins. It's the home of the Order of Heliud and the Keral Keep where Jaya was a teacher and Chandra a student. The plane first showed up in the novel Purifying Fire. It appeared on one plane, Mount Keralia, in Planechase (2012 Edition). It's a volcanic plane that's about as red as a plane gets, so it was clear from the start that Regatha needed to be a red battle.
It was also clear that it should have a direct-damage ETB effect. The art shows the students of the Keral Keep using pyromancy to fight the Phyrexians. To capture the sense of the spread of fire, the effect hits two targets. The back face represents the students. We wanted it to tie thematically into direct damage, so it boosts the power of any direct-damage spell and has prowess to boost the creature as you cast those spells.
Invasion of Tarkir
Invasion of Tarkir
Battle — Siege
(As a Siege enters, choose an opponent to protect it. You and others can attack it. When it's defeated, exile it, then cast it transformed.)
When Invasion of Tarkir enters the battlefield, reveal any number of Dragon cards from your hand. When you do, Invasion of Tarkir deals X plus 2 damage to any other target, where X is the number of cards revealed this way. (X can be 0.)
Sets that primarily take place there: Khans of Tarkir, Fate Reforged, and Dragons of Tarkir
Planeswalker natives (with planeswalker cards): Narset and Sarkhan (Ugin is technically from Dominaria but did make Tarkir his adopted home.)
We spent a whole year on Tarkir in the Khans of Tarkir block. This plane is a little different than most, as one of the sets, Khans of Tarkir, takes place in a timeline that no longer exists due to events in the story. That means that, while many elements of Khans of Tarkir exist in the plane, a bunch are different in some way. Tarkir is a plane of dragons and clashing war clans, so, like Regatha, it's about as red as a plane gets.
Tarkir is famous for its dragons, so it was obvious from the start that the back face had to be a Dragon, but not just a Dragon; we wanted it to be a Dragon that rewarded you for having other Dragons. It uses a technique we like where it triggers off its own creature type, meaning the card can work in a vacuum for things like Limited but allows you to build around it.
We then looked for a way to have the front ETB also care about Dragons. We ended up allowing you to reveal Dragons to make the ETB effect stronger, but it was still feasible even if you didn't have any.
Invasion of Ikoria
Invasion of Ikoria
Battle — Siege
(As a Siege enters, choose an opponent to protect it. You and others can attack it. When it's defeated, exile it, then cast it transformed.)
When Invasion of Ikoria enters the battlefield, search your library and/or graveyard for a non-Human creature card with mana value X or less and put it onto the battlefield. If you search your library this way, shuffle.
Sets that primarily take place there: Ikoria: Lair of the Behemoths
Planeswalker natives (with planeswalker cards): Lukka
We designed Ikoria as a top-down plane capturing the flavor of monsters. It first appeared in the set Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths. A plane with minimal civilization and giant beasts is green in flavor, so it was clear from the beginning that this should be a green card.
The needs of this card were straightforward. The front face should help you with giant creatures, and the back face should be a giant creature. In the end, we chose to make the ETB an effect that allows you to get creatures from your deck onto the battlefield. We gave the mana cost an X so that you could get giant creatures in the late game but wouldn't have a dead card if you drew it early. The "non-Human" rider was added to give a little Ikoria flavor to the card. In Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths, to separate the monsters from the people living on the plane, we made the mutate ability only work on non-Humans.
The back face is a giant monster, but not just any giant monster. As part of the promotion for Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths, we had a series of cards where we skinned Godzilla characters on them (Godzilla Series Monster cards). Each card in the promotion had a normal version and a Godzilla version. That is, except one. There was a Buy-a-Box promo of Godzilla, and while it listed the name of the card it represented,
Invasion of Ixalan
Invasion of Ixalan
Battle — Siege
(As a Siege enters, choose an opponent to protect it. You and others can attack it. When it's defeated, exile it, then cast it transformed.)
When Invasion of Ixalan enters the battlefield, look at the top five cards of your library. You may reveal a permanent card from among them and put it into your hand. Put the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order.
Sets that primarily take place there: Ixalan and Rivals of Ixalan
Planeswalker natives (with planeswalker cards): Huatli
Ixalan is a plane with a Mesoamerican inspiration that first showed up in Ixalan and Rivals of Ixalan. The sets have a creature type theme that cares about Dinosaurs, Merfolk, Pirates, and Vampires. There was some color flexibility for this battle, but the plane leaned green, and Dinosaur was the most popular creature type in those sets, so we decided to make the battle green.
The back had to be a Dinosaur. To separate it from Zilortha, we made it a little smaller but gave it a trigger that made it indestructible to encourage you to attack with it. We then made the front a mana fixer that had a little extra flexibility. You can search your top five cards for any permanent, which allows you to search for land in the early game and for other permanents in the mid- to late game.
Invasion of Muraganda
Invasion of Muraganda
Battle — Siege
(As a Siege enters, choose an opponent to protect it. You and others can attack it. When it's defeated, exile it, then cast it transformed.)
When Invasion of Muraganda enters the battlefield, put a +1/+1 counter on target creature you control. Then that creature fights up to one target creature you don't control.
Sets that primarily take place there: None
Planeswalker natives (with planeswalker cards): None
In Future Sight, we did a series of futureshifted cards that showed potential futures for Magic, both mechanically and flavorfully. One of those planes was a prehistoric plane we named Muraganda. It showed up on two cards.
To capture the sense of a prehistoric plane, we showed a dinosaur and cave drawings. We paired them mechanically with effects that seemed "less evolved," caring about basic lands and vanilla creatures (creatures without rules text).
Muraganda then showed up in the initial Planechase product on the plane Feeding Grounds. Finally, it showed up on the creature
To capture the sense that this is a wild, primordial place, the ETB effect causes one of your creatures to fight with one of your opponents. The effect also gives you a +1/+1 counter to help you win that fight. For the back face, as we had two other green cards with Dinosaurs on the back, we decided to make it an Ooze. We liked the idea of the Ooze helping other creatures. To have a little fun tie-in to the Future Sight card
Invasion of Shandalar
Invasion of Shandalar
Battle — Siege
(As a Siege enters, choose an opponent to protect it. You and others can attack it. When it's defeated, exile it, then cast it transformed.)
When Invasion of Shandalar enters the battlefield, return up to three target permanent cards from your graveyard to your hand.
Sets that primarily take place there: None
Planeswalker natives (with planeswalker cards): None
Shandalar first appeared in a video game called Magic: The Gathering made by a company called MicroProse. It was a fan favorite at the time and has built up a lot of nostalgia. We would later make use of it as a setting for some core set cards after Dominaria was turned into a post-apocalyptic setting in the Time Spiral block. The plane is defined by its overabundance of nature and richness in mana, so it felt most at home as a green battle.
This was a card that had a cool mechanical tie between the two faces, and Shandalar felt like a good fit. The front ETB puts permanent cards from your graveyard into your hand and the back puts permanent cards from your hand onto the battlefield. We wanted the back face to be an enchantment, which felt at home on Shandalar. The card mostly stayed as it was first designed (except it went from getting you two cards to three) and never left Shandalar.
Invasion of Zendikar
Invasion of Zendikar
Battle — Siege
(As a Siege enters, choose an opponent to protect it. You and others can attack it. When it's defeated, exile it, then cast it transformed.)
When Invasion of Zendikar enters the battlefield, search your library for up to two basic land cards, put them onto the battlefield tapped, then shuffle.
Sets that primarily take place there: Zendikar, Worldwake, Rise of the Eldrazi, Battle for Zendikar, Oath of the Gatewatch, and Zendikar Rising
Planeswalker natives (with planeswalker cards): Kiora, Nahiri, and Nissa
Zendikar is one of five planes we've visited three or more times. It was built around a mechanical identity of land mechanics and taps into a lot of adventure-world tropes. It's another plane that's core green, so we knew it had to be a green battle.
Because the plane is so land-centric, we knew we wanted to tie both faces to land. The most obvious choice for the ETB effect was land fetching. For the back face, we wanted to make a creature land, but that proved to be a little trickier to do than we expected. When you remove the last defense counter, battles are exiled and then cast transformed, but lands aren't cast.
The workaround for this was to make the back face a creature that counted as a land while on the battlefield. That way it could interact with any mechanic that cared about lands. We also gave it the ability to tap for mana to further give it the feel of a land.
Invasion of Alara
Invasion of Alara
Battle — Siege
When Invasion of Alara enters the battlefield, exile cards from the top of your library until you exile two nonland cards with mana value 4 or less. You may cast one of those two cards without paying its mana cost. Put one of them into your hand. Then put the other cards exiled this way on the bottom of your library in a random order.
Sets that primarily take place there: Shards of Alara, Conflux, and Alara Reborn
Planeswalker natives (with planeswalker cards): Ajani and Tezzeret
Alara was designed as a plane about three-color arcs (three colors next to each other in the color pie). The Invasion block had been about four- and five-color combinations, while Ravnica had been about two-color pairs, so Alara was a multicolor block that focused on the one thing we hadn't yet done.
The plane was initially divided into five separate shards, with each shard built around a plane that had a color and its allies, but not its enemies. Much like Ravnica, it felt wrong to put Alara in just one color or color combination, so we chose to make this the one a five-color battle.
Because we were charging five mana, one of each color, that meant we could have a splashier effect. We chose to do something like cascade, a popular mechanic from Alara Reborn. You get two smaller spells and get to cast one and put the other in your hand. The back face was designed to feel reminiscent of Ultimatums, a cycle of giant sorceries from Shards of Alara. Each effect was meant to be reminiscent of one of the five shards.
Battle of the Stars
That's all I have for today. As always, I'm eager to hear your thoughts on today's column, any of the battles or planes I talked about, or just March of the Machine as a whole. You can email me or contact me through my social media accounts (Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, and TikTok).
Next week, I'll do part three.
Until then, may you have fun playing on your favorite Magic plane.