March of the Machine Spoiler Feature the Most Hyped Planeswalker

Five days before the official spoiler season begins, and we already have one of the most anticipated planeswalkers on this set. At least, lore-wise anyway. As it is expected that more will be spoiled as their respective chapters are released, this article will continue to be updated and refreshed until the spoiler season officially begins on March 29th!

^{(with the exception of Chandra, Hope's Beacon, this list is actively updating)}
(UPDATE MARCH 29, 2023: Added Invasion of New Phyrexia//Teferi Akosa of Zhalfir)

Archangel Elspeth

The latest spoiler is a bit of shocker since it wasn’t expected that Elspeth is going to return this quickly to the story. But, as the chapter dedicated to her first reappearance was released, so did her card was unveiled .

Even for those who never read the Phyrexia: All Will be One stories, just by looking at the story spotlight card Vanish into Eternity, we already get a glimpse of Elspeth’s attempt to planeswalk away with the recreated sylex. This is in order to prevent a potential cascading disaster (destroying all planes connected to the Realmbreaker) when Jace decided to forcibly activate the artifact as a spiteful, last-ditch attempt to eliminate the Phyrexians once and for all.

Then, earlier last month, the card Moment of Truth was also spoiled for March of the Machine, which further gives us hints of the ultimate fate of our steadfast white planeswalker. Everyone at this point in time already expected her to return in one of the story’s climax events, in a culmination of everything that was hinted at for her so far during her stay in New Capenna.

But, it seems we’re still far from the final assault, and she already returned to her full blazing glory as an archangel. As we can see from the card details, her stats and abilities seems to be a direct callback to her older Elspeth, Knight-Errant form. It features four mana (two colorless, two white), four starting loyalty counters, and three abilities representing token generation, creature buffing, and exiling tapped creatures board maintenance.

Which is… kind of underwhelming, to be honest.

Here we have her fully realized, fully developed form of the character, and all we got was a variant of her existing skill set. To be fair, even in the story she didn’t really seem all that powerful and invincible when she dashed to save her allies. But, players well… kind of expected more for someone who is poised to be the lead hero of the set, with her sword even featured in the set symbol.

But, let’s give credit where it’s due, as here are some of the considerable benefits that she can offer:

• Upticking token generation planeswalker abilities for current Standard are kind of rare at four mana, with only Jaya, Fiery Negotiator on the legal list. These are usually reserved for planeswalkers with mana value of five or more, such as Nissa, Ascended Animist.
• Her -2 loyalty ability can easily pay for her cost. The entire effect is also permanent, which means that the targeted creature becomes an Angel and has flying until it leaves the battlefield.
• Given the current Proliferation landscape of Standard, her ultimate would most likely be far easier to pop off than current estimates suggest. It does takes a bit of investment to make it worthwhile. But, since it doesn’t have restrictions apart from the mana value requirement, she can flavorfully recreate that “comeback” feel for the few types of decks that can choose her over The Wandering Emperor.

Archangel Elspeth would most likely still be a bomb in Limited formats. But surviving Standard is going to be very tough, especially when matched with the aforementioned The Wandering Emperor.

Wrenn and Realmbreaker

Jokingly referred to as Wrenn and infinity (“eight” but sideways), her first appearance in this form in the story was a delightful surprise, even if it was already somewhat hinted even before the planeswalker strike team arrived on New Phyrexia.

We don’t have many Wrenn and partner cards, but at least Wrenn and Seven is still currently legal in Standard (Wrenn and Six is banned on Legacy anyway). They’re pretty much incomparable with each other though.

Old version references aside, Wrenn and Realmbreaker is almost Golgari in nature, splashed with abilities that would be best served in black. Which is understandable, given the nature of the entirety of the creature that became her current partner. This is even if the original sprout, the “primodial sapling” from within, was originally just as pure as the World Tree.

So far, this is the better planeswalker card of the two newest revealed so far. Being a three-mana permanent with such a passive ability immediately draws comparisons with Chromatic Lantern, making her a default potent mana fixer in a wide variety of formats. But beyond that, is her loyalty abilities that makes her casting cost very much worth it:

• The addition of vigilance and hexproof ensures that any targeted land can add to the offensive pressure very early into the game. The obvious caveat is that, unlike cards like Nissa, Who Shakes the World, the land does not get untapped, twisting your mana curve a bit if should you decide to get the most out of its effect. The “until your next turn” clause is also a double-edged sword, though with hexproof, spot removal shouldn’t be much of a problem.
• Her -2 loyalty ability does not have any stat restrictions, but it does restrict the user to just the milled cards, much like Ravenous Gigamole. At the very least, it is convenient enough that you a guaranteed to use it twice with just her default loyalty counters.
• Her -7 ultimate would of course be great to use if it sets off, but technically not part of why she’s will be included in Standard decks. Coincidentally, the very recent Conduit of Worlds has almost the exact same ability, although flavor-wise they are not really related to each other.

Lastly, she starts at four loyalty counters with that three-mana value, allowing her utilities to shine even more. This stat was also a bit of a concern for players, because the last three-mana four-loyalty planeswalker that we dealt with was… not exactly as benign as he seemed.

Invasion of New Phyrexia / Teferi Akosa of Zhalfir

The awaited climactic return of Teferi didn't seem to be as straightforward of an implementation as it seemed. But, at least it was flavorful, for the exact moment that the story meant for him to appear.

This latest skill set, however, feels significantly different from what he was given since his last few incarnations. As far as being an Azorius card goes, we went from many different status manipulating shenanigans, and even delved into creating spirit tokens that take advantage of his long-known abilities.

This time, he now takes the role of a knight commander, with at least two abilities that are directly related to the front facing battle card that he would transform from. Definitely still has that Azorius-esque flavor, but very different from what we expect of typical Teferi planeswalker cards.

To complicate things further, because he is hidden behind a brand new card type, gauging his practical use is kind of difficult at the moment. Thus, I'd like to put a disclaimer in case this card turns out to be a bomb in the near future. But based on the intended use of battle cards, we may at least infer a few points about this particular card:

• Battle cards seem to be made for midrange decks, or at least the type of setup builds that require you to invest additional resources to increase the usability of these permanents beyond their basic effects.
• In the case of Invasion of New Phyrexia, six defense counters feels a bit heavy, as you effectively divert six points of damage that could have been dealt to the opponent instead. You need really good heavy hitters in order to force this card to transform as early as turn four, and nope, you cannot use the generated tokens during the turn this is casted.
• Thus, the game would most likely need to be grindy enough before Teferi Akosa of Zhalfir can even see play. Unlike Urza, Planeswalker who is immediately a threat the moment he gets melded, this Teferi doesn't seem to instantly impact the board that much. His stats and effects aren't bad. But taking so much effort just to make the card transform into him significantly lessens his usability, even in grindy games.
• This give me a conclusion that unlike other battle type cards, he is most likely treated as a bonus. The original intention for the card might be to give its defense to the opponent, and then you whittle it down bit by bit until Teferi becomes strategically relevant to any huge moves that you intend to do that turn.

Also, take note that battle cards need to be "defeated" in order to trigger the transformation effect. So simply destroying it most likely would not make it flip over instantly (giving your opponent, its "protector", the incentive to use removal effects to prevent its transformation).