March of the machine: The Aftermath - 7 Point Highlander Set Review

Release date: May 12th 2023

Latest points change at the time of writing this - The Lost Caverns of Ixalan

Throughout my set reviews I use '~' to denote the subject card.

Attack on Titan anyone?

Pretty straight forward. There aren't many Human tribal payoffs (thankfully, for game health's sake). However, there are plenty Human cards that are good by themselves. More than you could fit in a deck. You don't sacrifice much card quality to have a tribal subtheme.

Champion of the Parish is by far the best payoff.

~ obviously only works in aggro Humans, which surprisingly may not be the best Human deck; Pyre of Heroes into Spellseeker into Time Walk into Eternal Witness probably is.

Incidental graveyard hate is nice in this delve/escape heavy meta.

~ is protection against a natural enemy of tribal decks, sweepers.

Fury is one of the most popular cards right now; having a clean answer is very nice.

~ is a Mox Amber enabler.

~ protects unbeatable Humans like Monastery Mentor, Seasoned Dungeoneer, Winota, Joiner of Forces, Thalia and The Gitrog Monster, Aragorn, King of Gondor, Kess, Dissident Mage, Spellseeker + Ephemerate + Timewalk, etc

Human tribal.

Looks like a terrible multiplayer card but I actually like ~ in food decks that run all the tutors for Asmoranomardicdaistinaculdicar. If they don't kill ~ with a card from their hand immediately, he is gonna generate a lot of food for Asmo when she arrives for dinner.

You can maindeck ~ in a metagame with lots of Intuition, Initiative (you can't be trapped) and Burn. That sounds pretty close to the metagame for CanCon 2024, which is happening next week! Everyone is hyped on Forth Eorlingas! too, which ~ is strong against.
Castable with sol mana, i.e. Mana Crypt, Ancient Tomb, City of Traitors.

Powerful in Zirda, the Dawnwaker creature decks.

~ can be Lightning Bolted, but in Zirda creature decks you're aiming to run them out of removal by slamming threat after threat until they run out.

Worldly Tutor + Emrakul, the Aeon's Torn.
Congregation at Dawn into ~ revealing Gishath, Sun's Avatar and use the Gishath trigger to put itself and Etali, Primal Conqueror on the field. Unfortunately you'll have to put ~ in the bin due to legend rule but at that point you've lived the dream and don't really care!

~ becoming The Tarrasque is a nice alternative to Gishath if the opponent has ≥7 toughness to stop you triggering Gishath.

Velomachus Lorehold, Two-Headed Hellkite and Korvold, Gleeful Glutton are nice ones if you want to go Dragons rather than Dinosaurs.

~ is super powerful. I feel if it was printed 10 years ago everyone would know it.

You need several cards in your deck that put +1/+1 counters on ~ to make it better than a generally good black 2drop, but in the games where you don't draw those cards, a 2/2 menace that grows is still respectable.

Obviously Vampire Tribal, but less obvious is the potential for gaining priority in your cleanup step.

There are some weird combos that draw your whole deck but rely on your graveyard being full of lands or whatever to win the game, in which case discarding a madness spell in your cleanup will trigger and stop the turn from ending; You'll gain priority, which will let you win the game before the opponent untaps and gains access to their mana. I suppose you could say that for every madness spell but since ~ has convoke, there's a chance you can cast it for zero mana, which is exciting.

Midgame you can have big Survival of the Fittest turns, e.g. Bloodghast into Pox Walkers into Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis returning Pox Walkers into Vengevine into ~ returning Vengevine.

Dragon Tribal.

Everyone should be well aware of how powerful ~ is by now.

In case you haven't versed her yet, here's what happens:

Effectively she gets played like a 4drop to minimise the chance of her being removed before doing her thing. Once she resolves you play a fetchland, get a mana, crack the fetchland for a land, get a second mana, then start revealing; When building your deck you need to design for ~, i.e. you only run Elves and Elementals that you would be happy finding on turn4 or afterwards. Currently one of the most popular and best performing decks is Omnath, Locus of Creation, which is either built around Spellseeker+Ephemerate+Time Walk+Eternal Witness combo or you simply run the generally best cards. ~ is a natural fit for this deck as she finds the namesake Omnath, Locus of Creation but also the stupidly powerful Fury and Solitude. Most builds also run Endurance out of respect for Thassa's Oracle combo and Underworld Breach combo.

If you want to go really big you can run Titania, Protector of Argoth, and if ~ is still alive when you cast Titania, then you're gauranteed another reveal trigger.

If you run ~ you'll want to hold your fetches in hand as long as possible incase you draw ~, but you also need to be mindful of whether your opponent is running Blood Moon or Opposition Agent, in which case you may want to crack them preemptively.

If your opponent is holding up mana and you have time and multiple fetchlands, you can slowroll ~ until you have a fetchland on the battlefield and one in hand. That way, even if your opponent has a removal spell, you'll be able to sac the second fetch in response to still get an Elemental/Elf.

I personally am looking at a brew which has Grief and Leovold, Emissary of Trest as hits for ~.

An option to rival Knight of Autumn and Reclamation Sage. Knight of Autumn is better if you're running Restoration Angel and Felidar Guardian because on turn4 you won't have the G required for ~. Knight of Autumn is also better if the artifacts you're looking to kill need to die on turn3. However, if you expect to have spare mana available, then ~ is the go. ~ is more maindeckable as it is more versatile and has a higher ceiling.

I think the first 'naturalize' creature you add to your deck should be Cankerbloom or Qasali Pridgemage because instant-speed is important against Underworld Breach and Time Vault, but after that you should add an ETB one to give a higher value option and allow a continued Birthing Pod Chain.

Fantastic in Cranial Plating decks, especially because Cranial Plating is so easy to find with Steelshaper's Gift and Stoneforge Mystic. Nettlecyst is another good one.

Infinite life and power EOT with loops like Saffi Eriksdotter + Loyal Retainers. 

Hard to imagine this being good enough though, since you're looking at a 3card combo.

So powerful it has to be playable right?

Here are some legends that you could get into the graveyard relatively early and easily that would be worth exiling to ~:

Tasigur, the Golden Fang

Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis

Monstrosity of the Lake

The Balrog of Moria

Entomb

Gorex, the Tombshell

Karador, Ghost Chieftain

You're probably Abzan. You also want some zero-mana spells to protect you when you draw ≈6 cards and lose ≈6 life, e.g. Solitude and Grief, which fit the heavy creature strategy forming here.

Triggers from your opponent using fetchlands or lands from the Horizon Canopy series.

Another payoff for the '1 damage deck'. Other payoffs include:

Siegehorn Ceratops, Hornet Nest, Ghyrson Starn, Kelermorph. That ain't many.

Ways of dealing lots of '1's' to your own creatures include: Walking Ballista...and not much else.

Probably best to go Grixis for ~ and Ghyrson Starn, Kelermorph then run all the good 1power dudes like Dreadhorde Arcanist, Baleful Strix, Orcish Bowmasters, Ledger Shredder.

Hexproof is by far the most important, if you can get that with the ETB trigger then you should be sweet. Obviously the opponent will have a window whilst the ETB is on the stack, but that's acceptable.

Following that you'll ideally get either deathtouch + first strike + vigilance or flying + lifelink.

~ is more of a Pioneer card where you can run 4x Striped Riverwinder.

Solid card in general.

All-haste deck with Ardoz, Cobbler of War and Goro-Goro and Satoru? That's 4colours with not much payoff, maybe not.

~ is a good creature to exile to Urborg Scavengers or Soulflayer.

~ is a Warrior and a Cleric. Could be good for turning on the party mechanic, e.g. Nalia de'Arnise or Coveted Prize. Those are the only two exciting payoffs though. Again, not enough payoff.

You'll need disruption to slow the opponent down enough to let ~'s big value take the game.

~ is not powerful enough to build your deck around but I can see it in an artifact or enchantment deck.

Your deck will already be running a bunch of powerful 3 and 4 mana artifact/enchantments that will win the game unless they die. You could also add big artifacts/enchantments with cycling but beware that if you exile these in the two cards from ~, then you may not be able to cast them:

ENCHANTMENT DECK

Battle at the Helvault

Fable of the Mirror-Breaker

Courser of Kruphix

History of Benalia

The Bears of Littjara

The Bloodsky Massacre

The Huntsman's Redemption

The Restoration of Eiganjo

Eidolon of Blossoms

Cast Out

Ruin Grinder

Lay Claim

Shark Typhoon

Angel of the Ruins

ARTIFACT DECK

Urza's Saga

Fable of the Mirror-Breaker

Shambling Suit

Metalworker

Crystalline Giant

Traxos, Scourge of Kroog

Sojourner's Companion

Cast Out

Ruin Grinder

Lay Claim

Shark Typhoon

Angel of the Ruins

The most likely home for ~ would be a Goblin Welder deck that is already trying to cheat out big artifacts with Goblin Welder, Tinker, Daretti, Scrap Savant and plain ol' Reanimate effects.

There are heaps of decent cards that trigger ~:

Reckless Impulse

Rob the Archives

Eruth, Tormented Prophet

Florian, Voldaren Scion

Light Up the Stage

Breeches, Eager Pillager

Atsushi, the Blazing Sky

Showdown of the Skalds

Bonecrusher Giant

Virtue of Courage

Decadent Dragon

Heartflame Duelist

Kellan, Daring Traveler

Kellan, the Fae-Blooded

Scalding Viper

Virtue of Loyalty

Woodland Acolyte

Like so many cards I review though, she isn't powerful enough to build a whole strategy around; You need other reasons. The big one that comes to mind is Balance. You would want more than that though. Perhaps simply things that trigger when you cast multiple spells in one turn, like Monk of the Open Hand.

Good for decks that rely on key permanents, e.g. Urza's Saga, Time Vault, Oath of Druids and White Plume Adventurer. Opponents will kill/discard/counter these permanents and you need ways to bring them back.

One of my favourite strategies is to run a tonne of disruptive creatures to beat combo decks and all the removal creatures to deal with big dudes. I also run all the equipment tutors for Skullclamp to beat control and Jitte to beat aggro. A key to this strategy is being able to get back Skullclamp if it dies. We already have Renegade Rallier to Green Sun's Zenith for but ~ is a nice backup.

~ also brings back Lion Sash and Umezawa's Jitte.

Seems quite powerful to me. You probably need to be mono colour to justify the colourless land and you'll need a lot of cheap creatures. ~ is especially good with lifelink creatures. Good with persist creatures.

If I ever have another shot at building the Hardened Scales deck then ~ will be in there.

Saves a mana with Walking Ballista.

If Wrenn and Six goes to 2 points, then Young Pyromancer and Third Path Iconoclast become better and then I could see ~ in a Jeskai Tokens list featuring Monastery Mentor, Seasoned Pyromancer and Kasla, the Broken Halo.

~ gets blasted both ways but I think she's worth the risk because if you untap with her you win, so you wanna run Misdirection, Force of Will and Force of Negation to maximise her chances of survival.

I don't think you can be a legends deck and not run Yoshimaru, Ever Faithful and Dihada, Binder of Wills, therefore you're 5 colours if you wanna run ~. As a rule I try to avoid runnings lands which don't cast my triple pip 3drops. For example if I were running ~ in a 5colour deck I would not want to run a Plateau. ~ doesn't seem worth the risk of being able to cast it with Plateau. I can't deny the playability though. The ward1 and 4 toughness really makes it for me. Perhaps if you built Sultai goodstuff and incidentally had a lot of legends, e.g. Leovold Emissary of Trest, then you could add ~.

SIDEBOARD

Sideboard option against Progenitus, Blightsteel Colossus, Inkwell Leviathan, Kappa Canoneer, Emrakul, the Aeon's Torn, Tyrranax Rex, etc.

CONCLUSION

Alrighty! Another one down. I feel productive.

The best card in the set is Nissa, Resurgent Animist by a lot and then Vesuvan Drifter.

See you on the glorious field of battle,

Mulch