Early last month I decided to look back at what I felt were some of the best Planechase planes for you to use to start out a planar deck. This was in celebration of the upcoming March of the Machine set which was bringing all new Planechase cards in its Commander decks. This marks the first new planar cards in almost a decade, and I couldn't be more excited. The day the set released, I ran out and got my full set of the 25 new cards and am looking forward to getting some games in with friends for years to come. The decks also came with 25 reprints across all five Commander precons, six of which were included in my list from last month and honorable mentions.

However, while it'd be cool to talk about how my top choices stacked up to their reprint options, I instead want to talk about the new things Wizards has delivered with this set. With the rise of casual gameplay at the forefront of Magic over the last decade, more players than ever will be getting to try out Planechase for the first time ever. Personally, I think some are a bit better on a universal level than others and I want to take a look at what I think are the ten best additions to Planechase from these new decks. I'm looking for how well they help everyone, without providing so much value that it makes players not want to leave (looking at you, The Fertile Lands of Saulvinia, aka the second coming of Eloren Wilds).

First, though, I want to take a moment and shout out a couple interesting options that didn't quite make the cut in my main ten. Starting with The Caldera - one of the things I wasn't terribly big on with a number of these planes is how some seemed to benefit some strategies more than others. Yes, my Sharuum deck would absolutely love to land on Esper, for example, but my opponent's Lathril deck might not. There are many cards like that, and the fact that The Caldera benefits some strategies a bit more than others - namely sacrifice and sneak/reanimator ones - is the only thing keeping this from the main list. Blitzing in creatures only to have them die after one turn might not sound the most impressive, until you start slamming things like eldrazi titans, phyrexian praetors, or something like a Rune-Scarred Demon to get a powerful effect at a bargain rate. Even better, a rolling chaos can reanimate creatures you lost due to the blitz effect. You can do some wildly powerful things here, and that rules, but it's important to know as well that not everyone may benefit as evenly, which can lead to some true feel-bad moments.

The Pit

This plane is such a cool nod to old school Magic I just had to give it a nod. I think that if you're looking for a simple planar deck, this might not be good enough for the game due to its one-time effect and punishing chaos roll. However, there's something fun in getting the option to make an angel or essentially a Lord of the Pit if you're willing to push your luck. The Abyss nod on chaos is just a bit of extra icing on the nostalgic cake. The appeal on this one is going to be more for Magic diehards than anyone else, so it's not going to be essential for every planar deck, but it's going to elicit plenty of reactions when you land on it.

Valor's Reach

Valor's Reach is such an odd card, which is why it rounds out the honorable mentions here. A team can be determined in a lot of ways. In a free-for-all, you're effectively a one person team. In Two-Headed Giant, it's - obviously - a two-player team. You can even go into something like Emperor where you end up on a three-person team. This allows for some interesting play for a number of format variants, which is especially unique. Only attacking with two creatures in a big multiplayer game, though? That's a lot less exciting, though the chaos roll does a lot of additional heavy lifting here. An odd card, but worth checking out if you like experimenting with a number of different gameplay variants.

Now that we've gotten the handful of honorable mentions out of the way, let's get right on into the main list of my top new planes from March of the Machine Commander. These cards will not be in any particular order and will simply be presented alphabetically with my thoughts on what makes them such great inclusions.

Enigma Ridges

Right off the bat, we're starting with what I think might be one of the best abilities and designs of every one of these new planes. There's one simple thing that sucks more than anything else in Magic: mana screw. We've all been there. You keep a bad hand on a gamble, or a decent hand but then never draw enough lands to really get the ball rolling. This isn't fun for anybody. Enigma Ridges does something wonderful: gets rid of that mana screw and puts everybody pretty much back on an even playing field.

That absolutely rules. This gets everyone who's been feeling a little behind firmly back in the game without feeling overwhelming. That's all the better given that Planechase is a casual format first and foremost. Hell, the ability itself feels like the kind of thing that could only work in a Planechase setting. Putting it on an actual card is somewhat pointless, because you wouldn't likely want to cast it when it gives your opponents the most advantage. Here, it's something you can hit at a moment's notice and doesn't rely on that question of "should I?" It just happens, and your games will be better off for it. That doesn't even cover the chaos roll effect either, which is just good old-fashioned bread and butter value everyone can enjoy.

I do recommend enacting a house rule that if you start a game on this plane, you instead put it one or two cards deep in the planar deck. That way you can make sure people can actually benefit from the effect in the event of a mana screw issue popping up a few turns in.

The Golden City of Orazca

What makes The Golden City of Orazca such a great choice is that it gives players benefits for just playing Magic. Attack and get some bonuses, and if you have a lot of permanents, you can get some extra value as well. One reason the Monarch mechanic was so good for multiplayer (which we'll get to soon enough) is that it encourages combat in what might be an otherwise slowed down or stonewalled game. This plane encourages similar gameplay and benefits you more if you not only have a ton of permanents, but if you attack multiple players as well. The chaos effect of getting to play just about anything is extra gravy on top. This is a plane that rewards just about everyone at the table, and that rules.

The Great Aerie

Of all the 25 new planes, it's interesting that there's actually two that give lots of +1/+1 counters. The Great Aerie is one, obviously, while the other is Ten Wizards Mountain. So why is one here and not the other? The answer is simply that I think this one provides a greater benefit to the overall table. Being on this plane doesn't exactly encourage players to roll to get off of it as much, so it's likely that most players will try to get some benefit out of it before rolling in an attempt to hit chaos for a dash of removal.

Ten Wizards Mountain has the problem that it can lead to some incredibly uneven gameplay, as to get its benefit, it encourages rolling the planar die a lot. That means that with how much you'll be rolling, odds are decent that it won't even last a full turn cycle, meaning some players will get left out while others will have created some bonafide monsters. Worse still, the "all your creatures get flying" chaos roll can just end games out of nowhere. It's a cool card with an interesting design that plays off of both Jiang Yanggu and Mu Yanling's core elements, but I think for your average Planechase game, you'll likely have a better time with The Great Aerie.

Inys Haen

I love this card in a way that's similar to Enigma Ridges. Essentially, everyone is guaranteed to get some decent value here by getting all their lands back from the bin whenever you planeswalk away here. If you mill three cards, as well as other random lands often hitting graveyards over time, most players will likely find some benefit here. Couple that with the fact that it encourages rolling the planar die to try getting a Regrowth effect, and what you have here is a really rock solid card that's going to be largely inoffensive while providing some good gameplay to boot.

Ketria

Oh baby, now we're really talking. +1/+1 counters are cool and all, but they're so last decade. Now we've got ability counters, and this allows for some really cool customization of how you want to build up aspects of your board. What's especially fun is that while each of these abilities are decent in their own right, they're not oppressive either. You're not getting abilities like first strike, deathtouch, lifelink, and/or flying for a whole mess of problematic creatures. Instead, what you're able to build is a reasonable creature with a few respectable keywords that adds a little more flavor to the game without being too overbearing in the process. The chaos effect being a full spinning of the wheel is just an extra dash of fun as well, as I've never known players to not enjoy that little bit of randomness in a game.

Littjara

While I love cards like Enigma Ridges and Inys Haen for providing players with a reasonably even playing field of mana resources, Littjara takes a similar yet different approach. Instead of lands, this plane provides you with creatures, allowing you to have something to help stand up against opposing forces. It gets even better if you roll chaos, as you can buff not just your tokens but other creatures you may just happen to have sitting around as well. This plane's value goes up even higher if you happen to have a copy of Velis Vel in your planar deck as well, as that will provide you with a crazy board state thanks to that plane's Coat of Arms ability.

Naktamun

The big draw on this one is the embalm ability, allowing players to get a one-off copy of a creature in their graveyard. This effect comes with a real tradeoff, as it prevents you from ever getting to use that creature again with various other reanimation and Regrowth-style effects. However, I think most players will be happy to get a second chance at powerful creatures, unique abilities, or even just a little bit of extra value. It's not the biggest or flashiest plane, but it's almost always going to prove to be welcome at the table.

Paliano

Remember before when I was talking about how great the monarch is when covering The Golden City of Orazca? Well here it is in all its glory! This effectively puts the monarch into the game, though doesn't do so automatically. It gets players moving on trying to go for it, though, which gets the ball rolling and encourages attacking the same way the actual monarch itself would. Rolling chaos might just give you an extra shot to help get you there too, providing a simple yet truly effective plane for any multiplayer game.

Strixhaven

Strixhaven is a particularly awesome plane. I think it's a big help given that many people may not even realize that Strixhaven isn't even the name of the plane, but rather a location on the plane of Arcavios. It's also really cool for what it can do to big multiplayer games of Magic. Demonstrate was a neat mechanic for 1v1 Constructed play as it provided a serious drawback to you getting a copy. In a multiplayer setting, though, you can choose who gets the extra copy, allowing for some interesting political plays and serious gameplay swings. Something strong yet not overbearing like Return to Dust feels a lot stronger when three copies get cast all at once - and that's to say nothing of something like a Demonic Tutor or kicked Rite of Replication. There's a lot of strong potential here, but in a way that adds an interesting dynamic to the overall gameplay as opposed to simply being oppressive.

The Wilds

This was actually the last choice I made and one of the harder ones I had to pick from, because it's just kind of mediocre. As I mentioned at the start, though, I felt many of the other planes benefited some players more than others. Riptide Island is bound to play perfect for a sliver player if one happens to be around, Towashi benefits modifiers, Nyx benefits enchantress decks, New Argive benefits historic-heavy decks, and Megaflora Jungle supercharges token decks to the max. Then you get ones like Norn's Seedcore and Unyaro, which while sweet effects are going to be a bit more complex for your average player. So yes, The Wilds seems like a very simple choice here, but it's more of a nice palette cleanser the way something like Goldmeadow might've been in earlier Planechase sets. It benefits everyone a very tiny bit, and that's really all it needs to do to be a great option for any planar deck.

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At the end of the day, these are just my personal thoughts and choices on these new planes. Some people are obviously going to disagree, and that's fine! I'm sure there's absolutely players who want to experience the Mana Flare fever dream of The Fertile Lands of Saulvinia or the sheer madness of Norn's Seedcore. On the whole, though, there's a ton of great new planes, as well as lots of great reprints to go around. Whether you want to get them all for true variety, or prefer a curated experience, I cannot recommend you try Planechase highly enough. It's been one of my favorite ways to play Magic - especially Commander - for over a decade now, and I can guarantee you'll have a blast if you're looking for a great casual experience.

Grab those planar dice and get planeswalking!

Paige Smith

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