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The Top Ten Cards from March of the Machine Commander

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Hello awesome people! I hope that your day is going incredibly well! Today I want to look at the best cards from March of the Machine's Commander set! We'll do my normal Top Ten plus 3 Honorable Mentions normally, but because this is my only list, I'll do 4 instead. To make my list you need to be good in Commander, sure. But, also, multiplayer generally, Five Color, Type Four, and Highlander. Ready for the list?

Let's do it to it!

Honorable Mention #1 (#14 Overall) - Herald of Hoofbeats AND Exsanguinator Cavalry

Herald of Hoofbeats
Exsanguinator Cavalry

Check out this Knight-enabling duo. The blue one is a 3/3 four-drop with horsemanship, on-curve and hard to block. Then your other Knights gain horsemanship too. Nasty! Outside of pricey P3K cards, no one is running this at the kitchen table, so that basically reads, "unblockable." The Black one costs three for an on curve 2/3 with both evasion in menace and lifelink. Then it has a Knight combat damage trigger. You will make a Blood token and then also put a counter of the +1/+1 variety. Nasty for enabling. Both are strong in multiplayer, since the first will have some angles to attack and the second will have some open defenses to get the combat damage trigger. Nasty together too!

Honorable Mention #2 (#13 Overall) - Pain Distributor

Pain Distributor

Check out this fun mono-Red three-drop 2/3 also with menace. When a player (you too) cast their first spell each turn (including opposing turns) they get a Treasure! That's a great Treasure Matters or Group Hug in multiplayer scales up. But when your foe's artifact die? They take a damage, so that's a win-con connected to it! People might sacrifice their Treasures with this on the stack to prevent that damage as well as Clues, Food, Blood, Gold, or Incubators. That way there is no way that a mass removal spell like the in-color Vandalblast or Shatterstorm will hurt them. We know how much Commanders love Treasures since it's the second most common archetype according to EDHREC. Give them some, plus a brake, on the same card!

Honorable Mention #3 (#12 Overall) - Gimbal, Gremlin Prodigy

Gimbal, Gremlin Prodigy

Check out our first gold card and legendary dork for leading a Commander deck. Gimbal is the face card for a new Commander deck and looks the part. This five-drop 4/4 is in three colors. Then you can give your artifact dorks trample, so they have green evasion. Note that this artifact caring leader is in Green, not your normal home for that support. In your end step, you can make an artifact, Gremlin dork token with power and toughness equal to your differently named artifact tokens. That means you can dip into things like Blue and Green for Clues, Red for Treasure and Blood, Red and Blue for creatures like Servo and Thopter, and more. It's obviously a weird and unusual take on tokens matters, in this case, artifact tokens with different names. And the creatures will have trample. That's a fun card to build around. Are you ready for it?

Honorable Mention #4 (#11 Overall) - Infernal Sovereign

Infernal Sovereign

This is a very powerful adjunct to any multiplayer deck. For your six-mana investment you net a 6/6 flyer with trample so two evasions. Nasty! Sure, you'll skip your draw step, but it's a winner. Then you can draw a card and lose a life for each land you drop and each spell you cast, so that way you'll never not have cards to play. This ability has been printed on enchantments like Recycle that skip your draw step and draw when you cast, but hitting a land stops it. Not here! In a 40-life format like Commander you should have tons of time to draw a ton. Note that's not a may effect...

#10. Schema Thief

Schema Thief

Check out this fun four-drop 3/3 with flying in the Phantom Monster persuasion. When it deals combat damage to a player, you make a token copy of an artifact that they control. A free copy each turn while damaging them and winning? That's very strong here with the triggers. It's also great with getting a Skullclamp, Sol Ring, or Lightning Greaves for your battlefield. Attack the person with the best artifact to copy. Also note the flying evasion and the right size power for Access Tunnel. Love this thing loads, and it would have been a good addition to my Dimir Combat Damage Matters deck built around Zareth San, the Trickster in my Building Your First Commander series here. Did you note this is a Rogue for Dimir Rogue decks?

#9. Uncivil Unrest

Uncivil Unrest

Our first enchantment is this new powerhouse! For five mana, you get two powerful abilities. The first is a Fires of Yavimaya in mono-Red. Your non-tokens get riot, so they have haste. Or you can give them +1/+1 counters for later beatings, but usually you want haste. Then when your stuff with a +1/+1 counter deals combat damage to a player, or a permanent, it deals double damage! You might want to toss counters on your dork instead of haste with this damage doubler. Also note that this only works on your stuff, and just +1/+1 counters not others. Yuppers puppers!

#8. Conclave Sledge-Captain

Conclave Sledge-Captain

This is our only charting backup card, but it has three backups. When it deals combat damage to a player you get that much damage in +1/+1 counters on it! That is nasty here! With three backups you can have three dorks do that on arrival and then punch with three combat damage triggers plus that trample to get them and you have permanently boosted dorks that also smashed for damage. Yeah! This costs six for a 4/4, a bit pricey, but worth it. Remember that the combat damage doesn't give a +1/+1 counter once, but for each damage dealt, so this will kill quite assuredly, even in a 40-life format against multiple foes! Good stuff for the winning fun times to commence!

#7. Rashmi and Ragavan

Rashmi and Ragavan

Hitting halfway in my countdown is this fun three-color four-drop. It's the next gold and legendary card for your Commander considerations. When you cast your first spell each turn you exile the top card of a foe's library, make a Treasure, and then you can cast the exiled card for free if its cost was less than your first spell, otherwise you can cast it with mana and the Treasure. That's very strong here, with a nice tension. Cheap stuff is less likely to give you a free cast but more likely to leave you mana to hard cast it. Ditto expensive stuff. Also note the Treasure can be cracked for it. Did you see that this won't let you play lands? It uses "cast" language. That'll stop your card flow from this. Free casts from the Command Zone are rough to deal with, but you cannot build around it since you exile opposing stuff.

#6. Chivalric Alliance with a Shout Out to Firemane Commando

Chivalric Alliance
Firemane Commando

Check out this mono-White rare pair that just got added. This slot is the enchantment's, with a shout out to the four-drop. The two drop enchantment is a key card flow, as you'll draw cards when you attack with two or more dorks. Turn one dork, turn two Alliance, swing, turn three dork and attack, turn four attack with both, draw. Keep up the card flow turn after turn. Note in multiplayer this will draw one even if you split attacks with two in each. You can also activate this with two mana and discard a card to make a 2/2 Knight token. It has vigilance. That's half the discard of commonly seen Zombie Infestation, but with mana. I prefer this. Then you can discard lands for cards after you set up. Then the Commando is a four drop 4/3 flyer on curve, and then has the same attack trigger, and then when someone else attacks with two (or more) they draw a card if they didn't attack you - nice break, but on a four drop creature, so it's easier to answer and won't work until later and giving away cards in multiplayer is a break on the White Aggro and Token decks that this pair will like.

What hit my Top 5?

#5. Blight Titan

Blight TItan

Another in the Titan cycle, with a six-drop 6/6 Giant with a keyword and an ETB and attack trigger. This one has deathtouch as its keyword and self-mills two and then Incubates equal to your creature count in your graveyard. It's great in Sultai self-mill for creatures like Sidisi, Brood Tyrant. It's very strong at the self-milling as well as the token making in things like Orzhov tokens. It's good at loads of deck archetypes and formats at the kitchen table since it's pretty flexible. This is our last scoring black card, and it's all mono-Black.

#4. Kasla, the Broken Halo

Kasla, the Broken Halo

Our penultimate gold card and legendary dork is this 6-drop 5/4 with convoke, flying, vigilance and haste - probably worth the mana to drop her. You can drop this ally earlier than turn 6 thanks to convoke. Also note that Red and White are the colors of loads of cheap tokens, just like Green and Black, so you can drop cheap tokens, then cast her. Also note you can drop the cost of Commander Taxes by convoking too. And haste from the Command Zone will kill one turn faster with Commander Damage. Then did you see her last ability? Yup! When you cast a spell with convoke? Scry 2 and draw a card. Note that unlike most of those things this is not just once per turn, but each time! Since you already built in a convoke infrastructure to cast her, why not add other cards for the card flow and scrying good times?

#3. Shalai and Hallar

Shalai and Hallar

Our last gold card and Commander-eligible legendary dork is this four-drop Naya-colored 3/3 with both flying and vigilance. Cheap! And then when one or more +1/+1 counters are placed on your things, you can deal that much damage to a targeted foe. Nasty! That's a win con in your +1/+1 counter deck as well as in two colors that care about +1/+1 counters in white and green. Nasty stuff there! Also don't sleep on its double keywords. With flying you can swing over grounded dorks, and with vigilance you can attack an open player and stay black to block. Good stuff for the win-tuff! See why this is my highest-charting Commander-eligible card in the set?

#2. Bitterthorn, Nissa's Animus

Bitterthorn, Nissa's Animus

This three-drop equipment is my #2 card. It equips for three. Then it gives +1/+1 and when it swings, you ramp out a basic land tapped, so it's recursive ramping over time. Also note that it doesn't have to deal combat damage. It also has living weapon, so you can attack as a 1/1, ramp, get blocked and killed, and equip and then swing later. This is very similar to the very powerful Sword of the Animist that also does the same thing, without living weapon, but a cheaper two to drop and two to equip as well. You can run both as one ofs in the Highlander format of Commander and others. And the fact both are legendary won't hurt there either or with each other. Nicely done!

Ready for the White card that hit my #1 spot?

#1. Excise the Imperfect

Excise the Imperfect

Check out this three-cost mono-White instant that's my top card from this set! This is a strong answer to problems at any kitchen table! You exile any target nonland permanent, not just creatures. Note this is just one color unlike Utter End or Anguished Unmaking. With the Color Identity rules for Commander, that makes it much easier to play in that format. Then you give them something good to make up for it just like Crib Swap, Path to Exile and Swords to Plowshares. In this case they can Incubate the exiled card's mana value.

If you answered a three-drop like Sword of Fire and Ice, they now get a 3/3 Phyrexian Artifact after spending two mana. This is basically Beast Within or Generous Gift that cannot target lands and exiles instead. Its exile can answer indestructible things like Blightsteel Colossus or responses like Rootborn Defenses. Great new removal spell for Commander and friendly formats. It's my #1 card by far!

And there we are! I hope you enjoyed it! Have an awesome weekend!

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