March of the Machine Commander - 7 Point Highlander Set Review

 

Release date: April 21st 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.

Slow, but if you put in a little more work, e.g. Construct Tribal or just any tribal deck that runs Stoneforge Mystic and Steelshaper's Gift, then I like ~.

Inspiring Veteran

Marshal of Zhalfir

Worthy Knight

Only another 21 Knight lords and we can have a round table.

Win condition for Tainted Pact into Foodchain + Squee, the Immortal combo.

Haste lord.

If they print some broken blue Goblin then I can imagine running ~ in my Jund Goblin deck.

Particularly strong with ≤2mana cards that put a haste creature on the battlefield turn 3, i.e. Kari Zev, Skyship Raider and Skyknight Vanguard. Those two and ~ are all Humans, could be a Human Tribal build.

~ has made it into my Jund Goblins list, which is impressive because the list has been tight for a long time.

~ play patterns are interesting; In a weird way it plays a bit like Voice of Resurgence: Your opponent doesn't want to kill it because you get value, so you get to dictate the flow of the game. That is, if you don't attack with ~, then your opponent probably won't attack because you'll block and get to bring something back. Otherwise, you attack with ~ and they don't block because taking 3 is better than you bringing something back.

Having a Goblin that can bring back Muxus is nice, especially because we have a couple tutors for ~.

Obviously the opponent may have exile removal but at least we get a 1/1.

~ can't be cast with Mana Crypt or City of Traitors but it's good enough to run in the games where you don't have the sol manasource.

~ is at odds with Blood Moon. Currently red is as popular as blue because Fury, Red Blasts, Minsc and Boo, Timeless Heroes and Wrenn and Six are all super strong. Therefore Blood Moon is often weak. Furthermore, the landcyclers from Lord of the Rings have given decks greater access to basic lands. I only really want Blood Moon against 4colour decks or non-red 3colour decks. Therefore it's in the sideboard, which eases the tension between it and ~. Of course the tension is still there when we want to board in Blood Moon; do I accept the risk or board out a perfectly acceptable threat in ~? I dunno.

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 and Seasoned Pyromancer.

~ gets blasted both ways but I think she's worth the risk.

Effectively 6 power. Hits too hard to ignore. The dash is effective haste in the late game and let's you surprise planeswalkers and dodge sorcery-speed removal.

CONCLUSION

Nice short set review. Slimefoot and Squee is the best card. I may be biased but it's seeing play in straightup Jund even without the tribal synergies.

See you at CanCon in a week!

Mulch