Magic: The Gathering is about to embark on its multiverse saga in the upcoming set March of the Machine, the climax of the trading card game’s most recent storyline. The presence of the multiverse is not anything new. The existence of multiple planes, which only powerful beings called planeswalkers can travel between, is the core premise of the game’s lore. However, the non-planeswalker characters, with a few exceptions, have typically been contained to their home plane. The barriers between these realms break down in March of the Machine when the Phyrexians, biomechanical beings bent on assimilating all life, attempt to spread across the multiverse.
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While Magic: The Gathering has seeded hints of the Phyrexian invasion in sets for a decade, the invasion properly began in the by returning to the first plane introduced in the game’s story. The following set, . The game’s most recent expansion, , saw members of the Gatewatch, a team of heroic planeswalkers, “compleated,” turning them into powerful soldiers in the Phyrexian army. March of the Machine sees the Phyrexians attempting to compleat the multiverse, breaking down its barriers and spreading to every plane.
Defeating the Phyrexians will require teamwork from unlikely allies, represents with new Legendary Creature cards. Where a Legendary Creature usually represents a single noteworthy figure, the Legendary Creatures of March of the Machine instead represent powerful pairings from across the multiverse. The vampire Mavren rides the legendary dinosaur Ghalta of Ixalan. Kamigawa‘s samurai Goro-Goro and ninja Satoru unite. Innistrad‘s witch Katilda and wizard Lier fight side by side, while the knight Thalia adds The Gitrog Monster’s might to hers. Slimefoot walks beside the legendary goblin Squee.
March of the Machine will also represent the multiversal madness of it all in other ways. Characters from past sets will return with new cards that feature the same frame treatments used in previous sets on their planes. For example, Omnath, Locus of All gets a familiar Zendikar treatment while Heliod, the Radiant Dawn gets the constellation treatment used previously for the gods of Theros.
That same spirit comes to Magic: The Gathering‘s popular Commander format, which gets five new decks and the return of the Planechase mechanic, allowing players to travel from one plane to another, changing the rules along the way. Each March of the Machine Commander deck comes with ten different Planechase cards, five of which are new while the other five are reprints.
But a story this big needs an epilogue. Magic: The Gathering will follow March of the Machine with March of the Machine: The Aftermath, a first-of-its-kind set. Wrapping up still-lingering plot threads from March of the Machine, Wizards of the Coast says the set is story-focused, consists of 50 cards, and will be sold in five-card booster packs. Here are the dates on Wizards’ rollout schedule:
March 16-19: March of the Machine story
March 29: Set debut, cinematic trailer, and previews begin
March 29-April 4: Card previews
April 5: Complete card image galleries revealed
April 14–20: In-Store Pre-release Events
April 18: MTG Arena and Magic Online Digital Release
April 21: Global Tabletop Release
May 1: March of the Machine: The Aftermath story
May 2-3: March of the Machine: The Aftermath previews
