Exclusive Commanders In March of the Machine Prerelease Kits

The new “Team-up” Legendary creatures are possibly the most exciting aspect of the upcoming MTG Set, March of the Machine. Iconic characters from Magic’s past are banding together on a single card to fight off the Phyrexians. Cards such as Thalia and the Gitrog Monster Thalia and the Gitrog Monster First strike, deathtouch
You may play an additional land on each of your turns.
Creatures and nonbasic lands your opponents control enter tapped.
Whenever Thalia and The Gitrog Monster attacks, sacrifice a creature or land, then draw a card. , Yargle and Multani Yargle and Multani , and Ghalta and Mavren Ghalta and Mavren Trample
Whenever you attack, choose one —
• Create a tapped and attacking X/X green Dinosaur creature token with trample, where X is the greatest power among other attacking creatures.
• Create X 1/1 white Vampire creature tokens with lifelink, where X is the number of other attacking creatures. have, broadly, been received warmly by MTG fans. Members of the community on Reddit are even discussing their own ideal MTG team-ups.

Not all of the team-up cards in March of the Machine will be Standard legal. At last week’s March of the Machine First Look event at MagicCon Philadelphia, three team-up legendary cards were announced. These cards are not a part of the main set itself. Although these cards will be included exclusively in Prerelease kits, they will not actually be usable at the Prerelease event. The cards are designed to be powerful Commanders, let’s give them a look…

Katilda and Lier

The first of our cards depicts a pair of Innistradi spellcasters, Katilda, Dawnhart Prime Katilda, Dawnhart Prime Protection from Werewolves
Human creatures you control have "{T}: Add one mana of any of this creature's colors."
{4}{G}{W}, {T}: Put a +1/+1 counter on each creature you control. and Lier, Disciple of the Drowned Lier, Disciple of the Drowned Spells can't be countered.
Each instant and sorcery card in your graveyard has flashback. The flashback cost is equal to that card's mana cost. . This card combines Katilda’s Human tribal elements and Lier’s focus on flashing back Instants and Sorceries from the graveyard.

When this card was first revealed Dave Humphreys, the lead designer of March of the Machine, put forward a brief argument to explain its appeal. He said: “The elevator pitch here is pretty much all of your humans become Snapcaster Mages“. While this description isn’t quite accurate, Katilda and Lier don’t grant all of the humans in your deck Flash, there is still a very, very powerful Human tribal/Spellslinger deck that can be built around this Commander.

Fortunately, given that Humans are the most populous tribe in the game, there are already a huge number of Human cards that support Spellslinger strategies. Cards like Baral, Chief of Compliance Baral, Chief of Compliance Instant and sorcery spells you cast cost {1} less to cast.
Whenever a spell or ability you control counters a spell, you may draw a card. If you do, discard a card. and Wizards of Thay Wizards of Thay Myriad (Whenever this creature attacks, for each opponent other than defending player, you may create a token copy that's tapped and attacking that player or a planeswalker they control. Exile the tokens at end of combat.)
Instant and sorcery spells you cast cost {1} less to cast.
You may cast sorcery spells as though they had flash. will make your spells cheaper both to cast initially and to Flashback later on. Monastery Mentor Monastery Mentor Prowess (Whenever you cast a noncreature spell, this creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn.)
Whenever you cast a noncreature spell, create a 1/1 white Monk creature token with prowess. and Murmering Mystic will develop your board presence while your spells go off. Additionally, low-cost Humans like Recruitment Officer Recruitment Officer {3}{W}: Look at the top four cards of your library. You may reveal a creature card with mana value 3 or less from among them and put it into your hand. Put the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order. and Avacyn’s Pilgrim Avacyn’s Pilgrim {T}: Add {W}. can provide useful effects, while their low cost enables you to keep lots of mana open to Flashback more expensive spells.

As for the Spellsligner side of the equation, there are some Instants and Sorceries which really stand out in this deck. Mass Appeal Mass Appeal Draw a card for each Human you control. can offer some very powerful card draw if you’ve got a well-developed board. Your ramp spells like Cultivate Cultivate Search your library for up to two basic land cards, reveal those cards, put one onto the battlefield tapped and the other into your hand, then shuffle. and Kodama’s Reach Kodama’s Reach Search your library for up to two basic land cards, reveal those cards, put one onto the battlefield tapped and the other into your hand, then shuffle. will accelerate you twice as much, as they can be flashed back. Finally, Call the Coppercoats Call the Coppercoats Strive — This spell costs {1}{W} more to cast for each target beyond the first.
Choose any number of target opponents. Create X 1/1 white Human Soldier creature tokens, where X is the number of creatures those opponents control. is a very useful Instant for creating a lot of Human Creature tokens quickly.

Goro-Goro and Satoru

This Akki Samurai and Human Ninja from Kamigawa form a rhyming pair. Goro-Goro and Satoru Goro-Goro and Satoru Whenever one or more creatures you control that entered this turn deal combat damage to a player, create a 5/5 red Dragon Spirit creature token with flying.
{1}{R}: Creatures you control gain haste until end of turn. generate a 5/5 Flying Dragon token whenever one or more creatures you control deal combat damage to a player on the turn they have come into play.

Goro-Goro and Satoru’s ability to grant creatures you control Haste makes it easier than it might seem for this effect to work, so you won’t have to fill your entire deck with Hasty attackers. Appropriately enough, this commander also works well with creatures that have Ninjutsu. Ninjas generate Dragon tokens, as they swap straight into play from the hand, attacking as they enter the battlefield.

One ability that synergizes particularly well with this Commander is Myriad. Since the copies generated by Myriad come straight into play attacking, they are eligible to generate dragon tokens so long as they don’t get blocked. Blade of Selves Blade of Selves Equipped creature has myriad. (Whenever it attacks, for each opponent other than defending player, you may create a token copy that's tapped and attacking that player or a planeswalker they control. Exile the tokens at end of combat.)
Equip {4} and Elturel Survivors Elturel Survivors Trample, myriad (Whenever this creature attacks, for each opponent other than defending player, you may create a token copy that's tapped and attacking that player or a planeswalker they control. Exile the tokens at end of combat.)
As long as this creature is attacking, it gets +X/+0, where X is the number of lands defending player controls. fit nicely into any Goro-Goro and Satoru decks.

Some other cards to consider are Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker Haste
{T}: Create a token that's a copy of target nonlegendary creature you control, except it has haste. Sacrifice it at the beginning of the next end step. which can create Hasty attacking clones of your best threats, ready to spit out more Dragons. Dragon Tempest Dragon Tempest Whenever a creature you control with flying enters, it gains haste until end of turn.
Whenever a Dragon you control enters, it deals X damage to any target, where X is the number of Dragons you control. a card that can deal out a pretty significant amount of damage as you start to build up more and more Dragons, with the additional upside of granting any flyers in your deck Haste. Finally, Purphoros’s Intervention Purphoros’s Intervention Choose one —
• Create an X/1 red Elemental creature token with trample and haste. Sacrifice it at the beginning of the next end step.
• Purphoros's Intervention deals twice X damage to target creature or planeswalker. can grant you a Hasty attacker with Trample that is almost guaranteed to get some combat damage through, as well as acting as a removal spell in a pinch.

Slimefoot and Squee

The last of the three Prerelease exclusive Commanders are Slimefoot and Squee Slimefoot and Squee Whenever Slimefoot and Squee enters or attacks, create a 1/1 green Saproling creature token.
{1}{B}{R}{G}, Sacrifice a Saproling: Return this card and up to one other target creature card from your graveyard to the battlefield. Activate only as a sorcery. , a Dominarian duo of Weatherlight warriors. This Commander has gotten the community quite excited, with some players even arguing that the card has Competitive EDH potential. Slimefoot and Squee create a 1/1 Saproling token whenever they enter the battlefield or attack. They can also be returned from the graveyard to play, along with another creature, by paying 4 mana and sacrificing a Saproling.

Players have already brewed some powerful combos that can close out the game quickly using this card’s effect. As long as there are five or more Artifacts or Enchantments in play under the control of your opponents, this card can secure a win alongside Dockside Extortinonist and Goblin Bombardment Goblin Bombardment Sacrifice a creature: This enchantment deals 1 damage to any target. . Simply sacrifice Slimefoot and Squee alongside the extortionist using bombardment and then bring them back using Slimefoot and Squee’s effect, sacrificing the Saproling which was generated when Slimefoot and Squee entered play. Slimefoot and Squee will generate another Saproling and Dockside Extortionist will generate enough mana that this can be looped infinitely, gradually pinging each opponent’s life total down to zero through damage from the Goblin Bombardment.

This card can also enable some powerful reanimator strategies. Putting an effect that resurrects dead creatures in the Command Zone is very powerful. These reanimator strategies use targeted effects that send cards from the library into the graveyard like Entomb Entomb Search your library for a card, put that card into your graveyard, then shuffle. or Buried Alive Buried Alive Search your library for up to three creature cards, put them into your graveyard, then shuffle. to get a powerful creatures ready for reanimation. Then, once Slimefoot and Squee have been killed off or sacrificed, they can be used to bring back a powerful threat like Craterhoof Behemoth Craterhoof Behemoth Haste
When this creature enters, creatures you control gain trample and get +X/+X until end of turn, where X is the number of creatures you control. , Griselbrand Griselbrand Flying, lifelink
Pay 7 life: Draw seven cards. or Archon of Cruelty Archon of Cruelty Flying
Whenever this creature enters or attacks, target opponent sacrifices a creature or planeswalker of their choice, discards a card, and loses 3 life. You draw a card and gain 3 life. . This gives you access to your most powerful cards many turns before you would normally have the mana to cast them.

Will Slimefoot and Squee live up to the hype or will this Fungus/Goblin pair end up wilting under the harsh light of day? Once March of the Machine comes out, we’ll be able to find out.

Read more: Shocking First Look at MTG March of the Machine Cards