The 4th and final instalment of the 4-part story has finally happened with March of the Machines, where the biggest battle has happened. Despite defeating New Phyrexia, Elesh Norn’s invasion of the planes sure did cause a huge mess – which now falls in the hands of others to clean it. There is the Aftermath, which shows the damage they have caused – one being Planeswalker losing their spark except for some – but that’s a story for another day. In this article, we cracked the MTG March of the Machines Set Booster Box with our friend – and here’s what we think about it.
MTG March of the Machines Set Booster Review
MTG March of the Machines Lands
Normal Basic Land Returns…
Unlike the Phyrexia: All will be One where we got to see two different types of land – the full art and the Phyrexian lands, the March of the Machines brings back the normal basic land cards and 2 different art styles for full art, which shows the Phyrexian-ised corrupted logo on the lands. My personal favourite has to be the Plains this time around the sky view of the plain basic land is just magnificent and beautiful to look at.
The foiling on these lands is a whole lot more subtle than usual – not sure if they are going for a different foiling style but it does seem like it. Take in case, the green crystals on the Plains are the only area you could immediately look at and tell if it’s foiled or not. It’s more obvious with the Island as there’s a waterfall-like area where the foiling shines brighter. But if you think you could hit a lot of these lands, you are so wrong because when we cracked it, we couldn’t get many either.
So much so to the point that I had to go out and purchase the Plains, which I wanted as singles from other players. Expect to do the same, as it’s very hard to come by but it is cheaper than the ONE land cards.
Tapped Life Lands
This isn’t the most exciting land, but if you want something cheap to start off your lands because it is usually the most expensive part of a deck to upgrade – Tapped life lands don’t sound so bad. So, in this set, we cracked 6 different types, which you can see below. Using more of these in an EDH deck or even in Standard Format during a late game can be very hard to set up. But when it does come out earlier, it is rewarding, I can say that for sure.
The List Card We Cracked
We cracked 8 list cards in this set booster – to be honest, there aren’t many good List Cards here. And I have to say that this is my third Broodbirth Viper list card (Magic, please stop printing this, we have enough). Otherwise, Thran Quarry is a nice pull with a value of $2.99 for NM, followed by Austere Command and Citanul Hierophants both at $1.29 each for NM.
New Mechanic: Battle Seige Cards
Battle Seige is a completely new mechanic that got introduced in this set (MTG March of the Machines Set Booster) and it’s a two-sided card that flips to become something else. To make it simple, these cards have a counter at the bottom, similar to Planeswalker cards – but it’s called a defence counter. Essentially the card stays under your control, but the chosen opponent must defend the card from transforming. Once the counter goes to zero, the card gets exiled and it comes back into the battlefield transformed. If you are not defending it, well, you can by all means attack it as well.
These “Invasion” or Battle Seige Cards, whichever you want to call it – are great cards to bring some interesting elements into the game. That said, here are all the Battle cards we have cracked in this set and what does it when it flips. Sadly, the one Invasion card I wanted to add to my dragon deck is the one card I didn’t crack here – Invasion of Tarkir, which is valued at $15.99 for NM.
Multiverse Legends
March of the Machines brings Multiverse-battle to the table and that said, there are so many reprints of popular cards from older sets, including sets I have not played personally such as Amonkhet and so on.
How do you tell that these cards are from different sets? Simple – the artwork follows the set it was from – like for instance, Kaldheim had Aegar in a variant card with a pillar border, which we see again in this set with the MUL text at the bottom and a new art. Dominaria United with the stained glass artwork, in MUL cards, the list goes on.
My personal favourite has to be the Companion cards from Ikoria with the EA art that just looks straight-up stunning which you can see below.
There are chances of cracking normal art like with Jegantha, we cracked both Full art and Etched foil – so that was nice.
What did we Crack?
The Mythics
We didn’t crack many Mythics – in fact, we only cracked 8 to be specific with three cards in them being the pre-constructed commander set main commander cards – which we have content on, so stay tuned by clicking here.
So, we cracked Sidar Jabari of Zhalfir from Cavalry Charge, Rashmi and Ragavan and Gimbal, Gremlin Prodigy from Tinker Time. Yes, both Rasmi and Ragavan and Gimbal are from the same pre-cons. Other than that, we cracked Archangel Elspeth which is a Story Spotlight card. This generally means that the character plays a significant role in the story.
Sadly, no Elesh Norn – but we cracked the other Phyrexian Preator, Jin-Gitaxias. Finally, my personal favourites – Borborygmos and Fblthp, which I hoped to crack and I did.
The Rares
The Rares from this set are alright as well – with Orthion, being a favourite of mine as it is pretty disgusting in a deck where you do have big creatures – case in point, is my Miirym deck, which is a Dragon Tribal deck. Breach the Multiverse is becoming one of the pricey cards and has been seeing an increase in value, as of 18th May 2023, at $4.49 USD for NM and it’s out of stock on the Card Kingdom.
Hoarding Broodlord isn’t too shabby either – as it does have a convoke mechanic where you can tap other creatures for mana to cast it. The other card which isn’t here but worth getting is Drana and Linvala, if you love playing in those colours. But we did crack one in our Pre Release – so, I am pretty content with it.
Once again, the alternate art cards in Rares and Mythics are pretty cool – especially the Dinosaur-based cards, where you do get this “Power Rangers” emblem version as you see here with Ghalta and Mavren.
Every Common and Uncommons we Cracked
Finally, here are all the common and uncommon we have cracked in every colour in order from Red, Blue, Green, Black and White. Here are some of my favourites from each colour.
- Red: Stoke the Flames, Beamtown Beatstick, Miiran Banesplitter, Lithomanic Barrage.
- Blue: Moment of Truth, Change the Equation
- Green: Atraxa’s Fall, Seed of Hope
- Black: Collective Nightmare, Traumatic Revelation, Etched Familiar
- White: Surge of Salvation, Elspeth’s Smite, Infected Defector, Norn’s Inquisitor, Seal from Existence, Inspired Charge.
Our Opinion about MOM
That’s all we have cracked in this set. To be honest, based on this Set Booster we cracked, it’s safe to say, we didn’t have like a good amount of hits. So, from that standpoint, it is normal to feel disappointed. But other than that, there are two things I do like in this set: the fact that Magic went as far as giving a multiverse experience through cards like Battle Seige – which elevated the experience.
Secondly, for someone who only started playing Magic circa 2022 with Battle of Baldur’s Gate, I did get the chance to get some cards I wanted. But this also affects existing collectors whose value has also tanked because of the reprints. But not all though, because Ragavan still holds to be one expensive card to date. Otherwise, cards like Sheoldred and Elesh Norn are in the 20+ USD range, followed by Urabrask, Wrenn and Realmbreaker in the 10-20 USD range – which is far more affordable than the pre-release pricing where Wrenn and Realmbreaker, which was in the 50 USD mark.
But currently, with Aftermath out, since 12th May 2023, honestly, cracking March of the Machines isn’t really a bad idea. However, do take note, that you won’t be able to get the absolute value out of it as there are many cards from a collector’s perspective. This brings us to the point, get the singles – better now than ever as some cards are going up in price. Otherwise, personally, I found it exciting to crack Phyrexia: All will be One more than March of the Machines. But cracking this MOM set with friends made things worth the experience.
Conclusion: MTG March of the Machines Set Booster – To Crack or Not to?
I’d say: get the singles – solely because most card prices have dropped and are now hovering at a certain price point. But if you still have the itch to crack a box, perhaps share it with a friend. This particular set is one that you won’t be able to hit many “high” value cards, so singles are the way to go. In fact, as we ended up purchasing some singles with three cards I have yet to purchase: Tribute to the World Tree, Elesh Norn and Vorinclex. But cracking this MTG March of the Machines Set Booster or MTG MOM whichever you wanna call it, was fun.
By the way, do stay tuned to us as we will be making content on the Pre-cons for March of the Machine and even play a game where you get to see us do our own shenanigans on camera. So, follow us on Facebook | Instagram | Youtube.
Thanks a lot to Wizards of the Coast for providing us with the MTG March of the Machines Set Booster for us to be able to do this content here at The Adventures of Vesper.
