MTG Arena Release Notes – March of the Machine
In that moment, the fate of countless worlds rested with one dryad and a handful of the bravest Mirrodin had to offer.
This is it—the Multiverse rests in the hands of the newly joined heroes fighting back against the Phyrexians. Will you join them for one last stand on MTG Arena with March of the Machine?
Collecting March of the Machine on MTG Arena
If we're going to fight back against the Phyrexians, we'll need to collect all our friends. Like the treatments showcased for tabletop play, most treatments will be available to collect in MTG Arena, either from the in-game Store or by participating in various in-game events (such as the Historic Artisan and Historic Brawl Festival events). Foil treatments and serializations will not be available in MTG Arena, per usual.
March of the Machine Mechanics on MTG Arena
For more information, check out the March of the Machine Mechanics article.
Battles
Battles are a new-to-Magic card type. Battles can be cast during your main phase if the stack is empty (like creatures, sorceries, and other non-instant spells). Battles enter the battlefield horizontally on target opponent's side of the battlefield with a number of defense counters equal to its defense value.
Like planeswalkers, battles in March of the Machine can be attacked and damaged. Battles all have the subtype Siege and can be attacked by every player except their protector. There are also some spells and abilities that may deal damage to battles.
Damage dealt to a battle causes it to lose that many defense counters. Once the last defense counter is removed, the battle is defeated and a triggered ability triggers. As the ability resolves, the battle's controller exiles it then casts the back face from exile without paying its mana cost.
Admittedly, that's a lot, and battles are brand new. There's greater detail on the tabletop mechanics page above! The tldr: battles are cast on the front face onto target opponent's side of the battlefield. Players may attack it, and the opponent can defend it. Once the defense counters reach zero, the card is exiled and recast on the back face.
Transforming Double-faced Cards
Transforming double-faced cards (TDFCs), denoted with a triangle in the top left, are making a return in March of the Machine.
As a refresher, TDFCs have only the characteristics of their front faces while not on the battlefield. You always cast the front face, and a TDFC always enters the battlefield with its front face up unless something explicitly states otherwise. Lastly, the back face doesn't have a mana cost, but its mana value is based on the mana cost of the front face.
Backup
Another new mechanic to Magic, backup allows cards to
Backup is always followed by a number. Whenever a creature with backup enters the battlefield, you put that number of +1/+1 counters on a target creature. In addition, if you chose another creature as the target, that creature also gets every ability of the original creature that is printed below backup until end of turn. Note: even if a creature gains the abilities of another through backup until end of turn, the original creature keeps those abilities.
Incubate
Lastly, we have incubate. Baby Phyrexians? Could they be any cuter?
An Incubator token is a new kind of predefined token, like Food and Treasure. Incubator tokens are colorless artifact tokens (that appear in the same parts of the battlefield as other artifact tokens). They have "{2}: Transform this artifact." Upon transforming to their back face, they become a 0/0 colorless Phyrexian artifact creature! Oh, joy!
The instruction to incubate will include a number that indicates how many +1/+1 counters to put on the Incubator
token, which don't do much
March of the Machine Multiverse Legends on MTG Arena
For the full list of Multiverse Legends cards, check out the March of the Machine Multiverse Legends Card Image Gallery.
The Multiverse needs all its heroes to come together to battle against the Phyrexians. How would MTG Arena stand up against the Phyrexians unless we brought in the March of the Machine Multiverse Legends? As such, MTG Arena will have Multiverse Legends in both Limited packs and store packs. Not only will opening a Multiverse Legends card give you the base card, but it will also automatically award you the Multiverse Legends card style! This will have some fringe cases.
For example,
If you already had four copies previously in your collection, you won't open any from Multiverse Legends in a store pack until you have opened four copies of all other rares (since Lurrus is rare) not similarly situated. If you already have four copies of Lurrus, and then you draft Lurrus or obtain one in your sealed pool, you will receive the card style and 20 gems. The same applies to store packs.
Alternatively, if you only have two Lurrus of the Dream-Den copies from Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths, then you can get up to two more from Multiverse Legends in the normal ways mentioned. Once you have four copies between Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths and Multiverse Legends, Lurrus will get pushed to the end of the line again, as mentioned in the previous paragraph.
A final note on the Multiverse Legends styles: crafting a Multiverse Legends card does not grant the associated style, though if you have the style already or get it later such as by opening another copy in a pack, the style will still be applied to crafted copies.
These powerful legends are coming to save the Multiverse with availability in the same formats as tabletop—they
will be legal wherever they typically are. Regarding MTG Arena-specific formats, Multiverse
Legends will be available in Alchemy only where they were already available. All Multiverse Legends cards will
be available to play in Historic upon release, except Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer, who is pre-banned in Historic
but will still be available to play in Historic Brawl. (Yes,
March of the Machine: The Aftermath
We do want to mention a couple of notes for March of the Machine: The Aftermath. We will be bringing The Aftermath to MTG Arena! The Aftermath will be legal in all major formats (Standard, Alchemy, Explorer, and Historic). Just like Alchemy releases in MTG Arena, The Aftermath will be available in store packs and in a limited-time draft format. Expect any questions to be answered closer to release!
Due to The Aftermath content coming about a month after March of the Machine, there will be no Alchemy set for March of the Machine. Instead, Alchemy efforts and excitement will continue to be focused on The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-Earth™, which will be legal in Alchemy and Historic. More details to come for that set alongside tabletop announcements and closer to its release date. If you resisted the temptation of that announcement but want to know more, check out our first look!
Teaming Up for Another Feature
Preferred Printing has leveled up, and it will now remember your preferred card style as well. This means that,
for every card in the game, you can pick your favorite card style, and it'll be used for the collection view and
whenever you add or import it into a deck. (You'll also still be able to change this on a deck-by-deck basis,
such as if you want
In Addition to All the Incredible Gameplay
We recently started what we like to call MTG Arena Dev Chats, where we write up articles (such as this article), post onto Reddit threads (like this), or even tell stories across our social media channels (like Twitter).
The community response to these has been wonderful. Most of you appear to be enjoying these down-to-earth, peek-behind-the-curtain conversations. We'll continue striving to bring you more of these as we can. We have lots of ideas on what to bring next, and we have seen your feedback on what you want to hear next. All that to say, you can expect us to continue these in the future, and we appreciate your participation in us having these conversations!
One Last Stand
On the precipice of eternity, Elspeth made a choice. The fight would not end without her. Join us as we band together for March of the Machine on MTG Arena starting April 18, 2023! Keep an eye on our status page for the latest information and tune in to our weekly MTG Arena Announcements blog for the latest updates on in-game events and offerings.