Hello everyone and welcome to another Pauper review of all the latest and greatest common cards! This time we're talking about the newest set March of the Machine, which is dropping later this week. The multiverse is in peril from the threat of the Phyrexians, and its up to a ragtag group of fighters to take them down! As such, this set is doing quite a lot for the game in terms of story and design, and there are a ton of cool commons cards to talk about as they enter the game's greatest budget format.

We're in for a long ride, so let's not waste any time and dive right in!

Alabaster Host Intercessor, Tidal Terror, Gloomfang Mauler, Furnace Host Charger, Timberland Ancient

Right off the bat we've got ourselves a cycle of, well, cyclers! Each of these not only cycles for a relevant basic land, but it's also a pretty big creature. Pauper's lacked a lot of good Reanimator targets and many of these are actually quite decent - especially when they cycle into your graveyard with ease. Gloomfang Mauler and Timberland Ancient seem the most boring of the bunch, but they bring some interesting play space to an archetype that's always felt on the edge of being good enough without quite getting there. I doubt most are going to make the cut, but it's good to see some new potential for these strategies.

Angelic Intervention

This reads a lot like another type of Gods Willing or Apostle's Blessing kind of effect. One of the bigger appeals of those cards is that they cost only one mana to cast, making this one feel fairly mediocre by comparison. That's especially in something like Heroic, the one deck that would be interested in it.

Attentive Skywarden

This card is extremely narrow in its applications, but if there ends up being playable incubators in the future and this is able to hit players and/or battles easily, there's some play here. White Wind Drakes aren't the most common, but are showing up more and more lately, so those stats are decent enough if incubators ever end up being relevant.

Bola Slinger

There was a time once where Territorial Hammerskull was a playable card in aggressive White decks. That card's time in the sun has long since come and gone, but this has some interesting shades of it. Being more expensive is a real downside, but being able to buff another creature and make its ability relevant the turn it hits the field is decent play. Four mana is a tall ask, and likely is far too slow for how fast the format has gotten over the last few years, but I like what's going on here in spite of that.

Enduring Bondwarden

There's been people trying to brew a +1/+1 counter deck here and there over the last couple years. This is a great card for a strategy like that and provides more fuel to such a strategy's potential moving forward.

Kithkin Billyrider

Fencing Ace is already at common, so even though this has more toughness, I'm going to go out on a limb and say this one's probably a pass. This is a good direction for double strikers, though.

Knight of the New Coalition

I've seen a little discussion about this as a potential card for Flicker decks, so I'm just going to note that we've already had Gallant Cavalry since 2018 and move on.

Kor Halberd

This is a lot of bite-sized value packed into one little equipment. Bonesplitter this is not, but it's not too far off. Bonesplitter was so good because of how massive its power boost was, so while this doesn't offer quite as much, it does grant a reasonable toughness bump as well and also grants vigilance. That's quite potent in a ton of decks, especially since unlike, say, Sentinel's Eyes it will actually stick around if the attached creature dies. This is a really rock solid card for aggressive strategies, so I think this has some real potential in the format, but only as a very niche role player.

Realmbreaker's Grasp

This card isn't going to do anything, but it's worth noting due to its similarities to Planar Disruption. That one is still a better card because that can shut down mana abilities and even then, isn't really seeing much play. However, what seemed like a wild one-off change to beefed up Pacifism effects is looking like it might be a bit more of a trend going forward. That's pretty interesting and worth noting to keep an eye on going forward.

Scrollshift

The power of Ephemerate and Ghostly Flicker is that you're able to flicker multiple targets and get a ton of value in the process. This can't hit multiple targets, but it can repeatedly draw you cards and set up some value blocks with cards like Archaeomancer and Mnemonic Wall. In a pinch you can also use it on other creatures as well and get some decent value as well. While Ephemerate and Ghostly Flicker remain in the format, I think it's safe to say this won't have a home. If those ever go away, though, I'd say this card's stock goes up quite a bit.

Sunder the Gateway

There's a ton of value potential here. Two mana to blow up an artifact or enchantment - of which there are many in the format - and get an artifact you can flip into a creature is an outstanding rate. It's even better when you have the modal option to just make the creature outright instead. There's a lot of value potential here, even in spite of the fact that this card is sorcery speed only. It's a bit niche, but has enough play that I'd expect to see it show up in sideboards quite a bit going forward.

Swordsworn Cavalier

If there's ever a surplus of cheap aggressive knights, this card can hit like a brick. Until then, it's unplayable, but has some decent long-term potential - especially whenever we eventually go to Zhalfir now that it's its own plane in the story canon.

Tarkir Duneshaper // Burnished Dunestomper

This card is quite potent. A one-mana 1/2 is fine as a solid blocker that can also get in chip damage pretty early. Once you get later into the game, dumping four mana into this turns it into an absolute beating. In practice, it's likely going to be a bit too slow to get that backside online to warrant playing, but it's an interesting effect worth your consideration.

Assimilate Essence

I normally pass on conditional counter magic, but the fact that this either counters a spell or drains your opponents' mana while giving you a potential creature means it's rarely dead. It also has that long-term potential thanks to the line about battles, so while it's probably not the most likely to see a lot of play given the host of other counter options the format has to offer, it's an interesting option for the arsenal.

Expedition Lookout

This card blocks well early on and if you can get the opponents' yard filled up, it gets in for a ton of damage. That's pretty decent, especially as you can often bank on opponents to fill their bins quite often. However, I think most of the decks that would want this are creature control strategies like Faeries that both counter spells and remove creatures, allowing for you to fill their yard while contributing to your board presence. Unfortunately, the "shut down the board and then go in with small-yet-decent attackers" is kind of what Faeries already does and does well, so I doubt this is going to be making waves anytime soon. It's definitely a decent card, so I'm happy to be proven wrong on it.

Meeting of Minds

Oh boy do we have a heater! Inspiration - the same effect at instant speed for the same mana cost - isn't great on its own. However, when you add that little convoke cost, it suddenly gets a lot better. Suddenly, you can pay the cost at your own speed. Holding back some copies of Augur of Bolar, Fallaji Archaeologist, or Ninja of the Deep Hours because of opposing creatures? No problem! You can turn them into mana to cast this for free or for dirt cheap. There's some debate floating around about whether or not this is better than Of One Mind, and while I think that card is frequently better if it's consistently castable at one mana, I think this one is far better in general and can see a lot of play in a variety of archetypes and brews out there.

Moment of Truth

This gives you decent card selection and fills your graveyard a little bit in the process. If you can take advantage of that graveyard synergy, this becomes an extremely useful Anticipate variant. Otherwise, though, Anticipate isn't exactly seeing play for a reason.

Order of the Mirror // Order of the Alabaster Host

The front side of this isn't super exciting, though it can get in some damage fairly easily. It does transform quite efficiently, though, with a rather low flip cost. The problem is your average Blue deck wants to hold up mana to do stuff at instant speed. Only being able to flip this at sorcery speed is a very real drawback, so while this looks like a sweet card, I don't think it's necessarily going to have a home worth playing it in.

Preening Champion

This is fairly comparable to Eldrazi Skyspawner, which has shown up in the distant past a bit, but very much has fallen out of favor over the years. A big part of that was no doubt the 1 toughness that card had. At 2 toughness here, this is a lot more durable. Is that enough to make it playable in today's environment? Maybe not, especially since you can't sacrifice the token for mana, but it is still a decent tool for Flicker decks to mess with if they want it.

Protocol Knight

Four mana is a lot for a glorified Frost Lynx, but that's a pretty big body for the value. It's almost definitely too slow and too clunky for Pauper, but this a really neat take on this traditional sort of Blue effect.

Saiba Cryptomancer

This one looks cool, but I can't say I'm a huge fan. It's neat as a defensive body, but what are you doing with this most of the time? If you pump another creature, this is just a chump block that doesn't do many interesting things. If you want to use it as a bogle in a different sort of Bogles build, giving your other creatures hexproof is pointlessly redundant. This is a really sweet design, but I'm not sure it's quite cut out for Pauper.

Temporal Cleansing

Griptide effects typically don't see a lot of play in Pauper, but that's because you usually need to pay the full mana in order to cast them. Using convoke allows you to get it for free or at least at a substantial discount. Unfortunately, being sorcery speed makes it hard to justify given that you can't hold up blockers and then cast this. That might be for the best, ultimately, but it really hurts this card's chances at seeing play in Pauper as a result.

Thunderhead Squadron

This card costs quite a bit, but once more, convoke comes in hot. Even just getting this down to three or even four mana is a bargain. Mono-Blue decks will no doubt continue rocking Spire Golem over this as it's a more straight-forward cost reduction, but I definitely feel like we'll see a few copies of this float around - especially with the amount of Squadron Hawks in the format at the moment.

Zhalfirin Shapecraft

We see these effects quite a bit, but we don't usually see them this cheap with a cantrip. It's a neat trick, but I don't think there's really a sort of deck to take decent advantage of it at the moment, which tends to be the case with these kinds of spells.

Aetherblade Agent // Gitaxian Mindstinger

Getting to that backside rules, but the front side just doesn't really do enough on its own to justify playing it, I think. Even then, you're paying six mana and two life to maybe stave off an attack for a turn and get a 3/3 with an Ophidian effect? That seems a bit mediocre overall compared to many of these other transforming creatures.

Bladed Battle-Fan

I'm normally not a fan of these kinds of indestructible combat tricks like this, but the fact that it sticks around isn't that bad. This can be used in something like Affinity or sacrifice-style strategies where you can play it, get the indestructibility, continue pumping a creature, and then when you don't need it anymore you can sacrifice it to Deadly Dispute. What it does is ultimately small, but the synergies it provides are useful enough I'm not willing to count it out entirely.

Corrupted Conviction

Did you want a functional Village Rites reprint? Well, here you go. There's enough powerful sacrifice and draw cards effects going around that I don't think most decks really need 5-8 of Village Rites, but having the option for more is rarely going to be a bad thing.

Dreg Recycler

Hey look, a new way to sacrifice stuff and drain players' life totals! The big problem with this is how fragile and slow it is, but it is another way to get some decent value out of sacrificing artifacts like Chromatic Star and Ichor Wellspring.

Etched Familiar

...or you could simply sacrifice this instead! This is a decently cost aggressive creature that's more than happy to take out an opposing creature and drain opponents' life totals. Better still, it can get some normal damage through before it dies and cause some massive life swings. It's pricey in a format of cheap spells, but has some real potent play in the right deck.

Final Flourish

This is basically a strictly better Vicious Offering that allows you to sacrifice not just creatures but artifacts as well. If you want some additional ways to sacrifice value artifacts while also picking off creatures, this is a great way to do it. However, I feel obligated to remind you that Annihilating Glare exists as well and isn't making a particularly major splash in the format at the moment.

Ichor Shade

This is kind of similar to Gixian Infiltrator, but has some very harsh limits on how many counters it can get. It might be an interesting way to brew with four of each card to try out a new sacrifice strategy, but I think in general, the Infiltrator is just going to be better in most situations. Even then, its stock has gone down quite a bit over the last few months, so I'd highly doubt this card makes the cut.

Tenured Oilcaster

If you can fill an opponent's graveyard before this comes online, it hits like a truck for the mana you paid to cast it. If you're trying to use this to do the milling, though, you're going to have a really bad time. There definitely seems like some interesting play to be found with this card, but it really needs to go into a specific sort of strategy that wants to get stuff into your opponents' bins.

Traumatic Revelation

Divest has long felt like a bit of a trap card that's not quite as good as it reads. This being more expensive makes me that much warrier about its playability. However, the fact it can hit battles if they become relevant and you get something even if you whiff is reasonable value. Two mana for targeted discard like this is a bit of a tough sell, but it's got a lot going for it over a lot of the usual discard effects.

Unseal the Necropolis

Milling your opponent isn't always where you want to be, but milling plus a double Raise Dead isn't the worst deal I've ever heard of. That's especially true if you end up with a Gurmag Angler or Tolarian Terror in your graveyard, as you can get them back while also filling up your graveyard and making them easier to cast. Three mana is a lot, but there's decent value here, especially when you can cast it at instant speed if you still have open mana during your opponent's end step.

Akki Scrapchomper

More sacrificing, more card draw. That's just good value! What's not good value, though, is how slow and fragile this is to get off the ground. There's some strong potential, but not enough that I'd bank on this seeing a lot of real play anywhere.

Beamtown Beatstick

We've seen a few variants of this ability in Goldvein Pick and Prying Blade. Neither of those has really seen much play, however neither of those gave the equipped creature menace either. This is a very odd role player that only really works in certain metas lacking in go-wide strategies, but when it works, it's really not hard to be swimming in mana. It's narrow and unlikely to make a big splash, but I imagine it'll show up from time to time.

Hangar Scrounger

Pauper players quickly noted that this goes infinite with Seeker of Skybreak. You give Seeker the Scrounger's ability and a counter and then tap Seeker targeting itself. This allows you to rummage and then untap the Seeker to then re-tap it and do it all over again. There's two issues with this. One: while this combo is a great way to sift through your whole deck, there's not a lot of great ways in Pauper to really end the game after that. We don't have Thassa's Oracle, after all. Two: Seeker doesn't have haste, play order matters (Seeker has to come down first), and it's quite fragile. This all means it's probably not worth playing at the moment when there's more reliable combos in the format. However, it absolutely is going to be something brewers will be messing with in the coming weeks, so expect people to try finding cool ways to break this combo and prove me wrong!

Karsus Depthguard

Three mana for a big defender isn't great, but all it takes is a small pump effect to make this an absolute house for a very low cost. This is a great brewing option for aggressive decks, even if it doesn't stick the landing in the long term (which it probably won't).

Mirran Banesplitter

Remember Dueling Rapier? Yeah, I don't think many people do. This is the same thing but with a cheaper equip cost. I doubt that's going to be the thing that makes this effect suddenly playable, so I'd leave this one in the bulk box for the time being.

Pyretic Prankster // Glistening Goremonger

This is one of the cheaper and easier transformations, and thankfully it works great for aggressive strategies. It's not even a creature that minds dying, either, as if it does, you can take an opposing artifact or creature with you in the process. It's still probably a bit too slow and costly to warrant playing, however, but I feel like it's one of those creatures people will mess with just to see if it's good enough.

Ral's Reinforcements

It's been a long while since we last saw Dragon Fodder and, well, it's another Dragon Fodder all right. That card hasn't seen play in ages and I doubt that having another four copies is suddenly going to make people want to play this one as well.

Trailblazing Historian

This ability is nothing new, but what is somewhat new is both the fact that this creature itself has haste and that it's got a higher toughness than previous options like Axgard Cavalry or Bloodlust Inciter. There's a real tradeoff in this going back to only 1 power, meaning this loses a lot of its utility for aggressive decks. There's always a possibility of it having a home somewhere, but given that none of the others really see play and there's better ways to give haste en masse thanks to Crashing Drawbridge and Tuktuk Rubblefort, I'm not feeling particularly hopeful.

Volcanic Spite

Fire Prophecy is a card that I believe hasn't really shown up outside possibly some Spell Control strategies, but has its moments from time to time thanks to its rummage-style effect. This is basically just a strictly better version of that. For the purposes of Pauper right now, it's basically the same, but if we ever get common battles (which feels like only a matter of time) then it's possible this card's stock may go up a bit.

Wrenn's Resolve

In case you haven't been paying close attention to the world of Pauper much lately, Kuldotha Red has very much been tearing up the competitive meta. A big part of that has been in no small part due to Reckless Impulse. This is a functional reprint of that card, allowing for even more potential for explosive draws. This being copies 5-8 of Reckless Impulse, it's clear as day that this one's going to see some serious play. The question is just how many additional copies can Kuldotha Red bear? Opinions are divided on exactly how much you want, but you're 100% going to be seeing people testing those numbers in the next few weeks. This one's a guaranteed role player in the format.

Arachnoid Adaptation

We've seen this sort of thing before, but in the past it provided +1/+3 (Sudden Spinnerets). It's been a minute, but I do believe that card showed up once in a blue moon thanks to all the fliers floating around. The big appeal with Sudden Spinnerets isn't just the stat buff, but also the fact that the creature gets the reach effect permanently. This one is only temporary, however the stat boost is a little bit more aggressive. This might see play here and there as a cute trick, but generally speaking, it's nothing really worth writing home about.

Atraxa's Fall

Naturalize and Plummet effects are always improving. This being sorcery is rough, but there is a ton of potential stapled into this one card. I think I'd still much rather have more sweeping effects that hit multiple targets, but if/when we get common battles in the future, this card's stock is going to go up tremendously.

Bonded Herdbeast

If you can cast the front side, flipping this over is a no-brainer. Unfortunately, to actually cast that front side, you need to pay five mana, which is a tremendously high amount for a format like Pauper. You also can't reanimate it easily into the backside, so while this one seems somewhat neat, it's an easy pass.

Chomping Kavu

Four mana is a lot, especially for a 3/3. However, it both pumps a creature and gives it some decent evasion in a format too often filled with small creatures. I don't think this one's quite going to make the cut because that mana value is a tough sell, but there's a lot going on here.

Converter Beast

Four mana for a 0/1 and an artifact that can turn into a 5/5 for a little more mana doesn't seem like the greatest deal in the world. However, if you cast an Ephemerate on it, then you can get three of those 5/5 Incubators down. There's a lot of mana to dump in here and it's kind of clunky, but there's some real power to having three 5/5s down. This is one I've seen some chatter about, so while I'm not sure it's really going to make it in the long run, people are going to try brewing with it in the coming weeks, so expect to see it here and there.

Cosmic Hunger

For other formats, this card has some real potential to be an absolute house. For Pauper, with a distinct lack of planeswalkers or battles, it's nothing more than a Bite Down with some extra flavor text. However, I still feel like there's a decent chance battles might show up at common down the line, so if they do, this card gets a lot more powerful. One day it might make the cut, so it's probably worth holding onto a couple spare copies in your collection.

Crystal Carapace

Four mana is a ton, especially for an aura. However, having ward gives the creature protection, and cycling assures that you can always cantrip if you get stuck on your mana to cast it. There aren't many decks that want this effect, though, and the ones that might (Stompy, for example) rely on tremendously low mana counts and struggle enough to cast a three-mana spell, never mind a four mana one. The majority of the decks that would ideally like this will find themselves cycling it more than they will casting it, which leads me to feel like it's a pretty easy pass.

Fairgrounds Trumpeter

Hey look, a random downshift got tossed into the mix! This one's only in the Jumpstart packs for the set if you really want the common symbol version of it. It's a neat downshift that isn't exactly going to shake the foundation of the format, but there's a lot of +1/+1 counter synergies floating around to make it potentially viable in the right kind of deck. Downshifts - especially interesting ones - have a tendency to bring out the brewers, so I'd expect to see people at least messing with this one, even if it doesn't necessarily make the cut.

Iridescent Blademaster

This is a decent creature that pumps well and has a relevant creature type. The problem is it's hard to fit into a lot of decks. Despite the creature type synergy, Elves doesn't want this - especially when it can play cards like Wildheart Invoker or Spectral Hunt-Caller instead for more value. Stompy also likely doesn't want this, as you can find better value in low costs and there's going to be many situations where the activated ability is unusable.

Overgrown Pest

If you play a deck with a lot of double-faced cards, this may be a decent library selection option as it can either find you a spell or a land while also giving you a reasonable body. For most other decks looking for the land, there's much better options to go with - including the likes of Satyr Wayfinder, which gives you graveyard synergies as well.

Portent Tracker

Voyaging Satyr has been known to show up from time to time. For now, this is basically a strictly worse version, but like many cards in this list, it has the potential to have its stock go up if battles get printed at common.

Seed of Hope

This basically reads like "look at the top two cards of your deck. Put one in your hand and the other in your graveyard. You gain 2 life." That's not really a bad rate at all. The problem is, you have to put a permanent into your hand. This means you can't chain copies of Seed of Hope back to back or use them alongside other traditional cantrips like Ponder, Preordain, and Brainstorm. It's a very weird spot but has a very strong effect in the right home. As it stands right now, the only thing really sticking out to most people is Tortured Existence, but I have a sneaking suspicion this will show up somewhere soon enough. Definitely one you can expect to see people brew with.

Wildwood Escort

This thing is expensive, but having a Gravedigger effect in Green without the addition of Black in its colors is a rarity at common. The high cost on this one makes me doubt its playability but it does have a relevant creature type and if battles come to common, it can grab more than creatures. There's a lot to like here, but that mana cost makes it hard to justify. I'd keep your eye on this one.

Halo Hopper

Well, this sure is interesting, huh? For a lot of people, this reads as the second coming of Frogmite. Unfortunately, Frogmite this is not, and realistically the idea of an 8-Frog deck is pretty unlikely since most decks using Frogmite (basically just Affinity) don't run enough creatures to reliably get this for free. It has a lot more play in other decks. Consider this line in Stompy: turn one you play Nettle Sentinel. Then on turn two, you can attack with the Nettle Sentinel, cast a Nest Invader untapping the Sentinel, and then you cast Halo Hopper with convoke. That's not a bad deal in a hyper aggressive deck, and it gets better if you have copies of Burning-Tree Emissary as well. This is simply one potential line, too, and there's definitely some real potential in a variety of decks and brews thanks in no small part to being a colorless card. Expect to see this one in the coming weeks.

Urn of Godfire

The big appeal for most of the mana filtration effects in the format is that they draw a card and thus replace themselves. Not only does this work great as a one-off effect but has benefits thanks to Ghostly Flicker as well. This one lacks that utility but benefits from being castable earlier and acting as removal later on, especially if you have multiple filtration effects by that point. There's been some chatter among Tron players about the potential for this one, so if you run into Tron, expect to see this at least in the next few weeks as players try it out and see if it's worth keeping around for the long haul.

That wraps up another sweet Pauper review! March of the Machine doesn't add too much spice into the mix, but brings a lot of interesting cards, design space, and a handful of notably powerful cards. It's going to be interesting to see how things look in a few weeks' time. For better or worse, the next release - March of the Machine: Aftermath won't have any commons in it. As such, my next review will be for Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-Earth, which is no doubt going to have some especially interesting cards to discuss when that comes around. Until then, I'll see you next time!

Paige Smith

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