Top 10 Best Commons in March of the Machine

Now that preview season is over, it’s time for us to look at the complete list and make our preliminary assessments for specific cards, and how they are going to be relevant in the meta in the near future. For commons, there is actually quite a good selection for March of the Machine. But as always, we are going to narrow it down to the best ten.

… with additional runner-up entries, of course.

DISCLAIMER: This list will not include lands or reprints, and the evaluations are not optimized for Pauper, leaning more toward formats like Standard and Modern (how they would synergize with higher rarity cards).

(UPDATE: Added Volcanic Spite)

10. Cosmic Hunger

Okay, okay, I admit this isn’t as impressive as it initially seems if we view it strictly as a fight card. But it is essentially a better Rabid Bite, which means your creature doesn’t have to take damage (therefore doesn’t need its toughness), putting you at no risk of losing the creature should a traditional fight card result in a draw. Plus Cosmic Hunger also targets planeswalkers and battles, so the additional eligible targets massively adds to its flexibility.

Being able to target battles, in particular, is very crucial for this particular set (and any future battle-oriented sets), since at mere four power you can transform a lot of battle cards at instant speed without relying on burn spells.

9. Final Flourish

That’s right, Vicious Offering has effectively been powercrept… with added sacrifice targets! But more importantly in the meta that it is about to appear in, the value of instantly getting its kicked -6/-6 effect with either a creature or artifact is just so easy, that it might as well be only that effect for just two mana.

It may not be as precise or as ruthless as Annihilating Glare. But the value it offers at instant speed provides complex flexibility that even its kicker “cost” can effectively be used as a defensive maneuver for many different situations.

8. Knight of the New Coalition

Spells that offer the same amount of creatures or the same stats to the mana they cost are generally rated as “okay” at best, especially in Limited. But, Knight of the New Coalition might actually have the chance to see play in constructed formats. Well, maybe in Standard. This is because of two key factors: Convoke and Knight tribal.

The set seems to be steering toward this massive repeatable creature generation meta, which is already supported previously by Phyrexia: All Will be One. So while this card may be mediocre at best when it comes to what it can provide in a vacuum, its synergy with better combo pieces makes it much more playable than it seems.

7. Preening Champion

Another dual-value creature with a similar structure as Knight of the New Coalition, Preening Champion seems to also be set on being a very usable card by virtue of its solid mana value and token attributes alone. Its viability with Convoke may not be as stable without vigilance though, so it would work more in Limited than in constructed formats. Still a blue Knight creature with flying by default at least, so the second factor still counts if it ever becomes usable in Standard.

6. Beamtown Beatstick

Any cheap-mana equipment that can potentially generate a lot of advantages is always a welcome option in any common for a new set. Beamtown Beatstick largely resembles that of Prying Blade, but with its color identity now being red, its trigger also working on battle cards, with the equipped creature gaining menace. It’s this trifecta of seemingly mundane but very important attributes that makes it a lot more playable than it looks.

For one thing, it diversifies your play choices aside from being a third-turn ramp card. Second, it forces your opponent to commit more resources than normal (for such a cheap card) in dealing with the equipped creature, the equipment itself, or if applicable, the battle card that it attacks. As a bonus, it doesn’t even have to be just one. Additional Beamtown Beatsticks lying around will endlessly generate Treasure tokens so long as you can pump out equippable targets every turn.

5. Zhalfirin Shapecraft

These transformation-based “pump” spells do kind of deceptively look mediocre at a first glance. But, with a solid cantrip effect, it suddenly becomes a very powerful utility card for various builds and formats. Yup, these sleeper cards often turn up to be overperformers in Limited simply due to that extra draw effect, breaking out eventually in Standard or Modern when the right niche deck is assembled together.

For Izzet prowess decks in particular, this spell is going to be an absolute boon. Probably not broken, but certainly a very usable option for the current meta.

4. Akki Scrapchomper

An rather unassuming permanent that sacrifices some sort of specific permanent type plus two mana and a tap in order to keep drawing cards. Not exactly cheap, even if it does cycle resources constantly. However, it helps your mid-game tempo or endgame push whenever extra resources are required. Or at least, allows you to dump excess land if you’re flooding at that moment or something.

Plus, there may be additional synergies to sacrificing those permanents depending on the build of the specific deck. Especially since March of the Machine also has certain cards that provide rewards whenever using Phyrexian-based sources.

3. Sunder the Gateway

Pure Disenchant effect cards are rarely included in the main deck since, you know, they’re really more effective as sideboard material. But Sunder the Gateway, as slow as it might be, gives you the modularity to add a Disenchant option to your deck, while mostly relying on its second, more consistent effect.

Of course, in a metagame that is basically flooded by Wedding Announcement // Wedding Festivity, Reckoner Bankbuster, Fable of the Mirror-Breaker // Reflection of Kiki-Jiki, and all sorts of high-value enchantments and artifacts, this card will always have some use for its first effect in Standard. But if not, well, just crack open than giant 8/8 you just got from a previous Sunfall (while putting another sleeping 2/2 in play).

2. Corrupted Conviction

Wait, does this count as a reprint? It’s literally another copy of Village Rites, exactly down to the letter, unlike the other alternatives on this list. Well, a more recent version (Standard-legal) would be someething like Reckoner’s Bargain. But ah well, different card names so I guess it technically counts. They would be used separately on formats like Commander and Historic Brawl anyway.

In any case, it’s a simple, but effective black-oriented draw spell. That’s it. Again, made even better by just how insignificant the “cost” really is for the current meta. You can even tap the very creature you are sacrificing with Invasion of Segovia // Caetus, Sea Tyrant of Segovia in play.

1. Enduring Bondwarden

The title for the best common in March of the Machine goes to our venerable anti-Phyrexian-invasion bonder, Enduring Bondwarden. This card is just so versatile in many ways, plus it a one-drop that is essentially a 1/2 plus another future 1/1 (in a vacuum). Throw it into a build that can efficiently synergize its counters (like, you know, a Proliferate deck?), and it can snowball into even bigger advantages that just "ignores" single target removal for any of this card’s copies.

In fact, its high modularity isn’t even limited to +1/+1 counters! If you can somehow put some sort of ability-based counter to it, those will also transfer onto another target creature as well. But yeah, it would most likely see play in modular pump counter decks, the types that like to mess around with +1/+1 counters on different types of payoff creatures.

Now, where are all those future Invasion of Moag // Bloomweaver Dryads copies…

Honorable Mentions:

• Aerial Boost – makes your opponent think twice about crashing into untapped white creatures.
• Ephara's Dispersal – a rather tricky and conditional Unsummon variant, but with a juicy surveil 2 effect.
• Atraxa's Fall – a tad bit too conditional at the moment. Maybe wait first after battles become a normal thing?
• Overgrown Pest – a worse version of Contagious Vorrac, but at least helps stabilize battle cards better.

ADDITIONAL ENTRY: Volcanic Spite

My apologies, somehow this nice common burn spell slipped my eyes when we initially checked the rest of the red commons. Anyway, very solid effect, with the option to also filter your hand all the way. Very likely to see play in Standard in some form, probably even more than Enduring Bondwarden.