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, Yargle and Multani, and Ghalta and Mavren 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 and Lier, Disciple of the Drowned. 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 and Wizards of Thay will make your spells cheaper both to cast initially and to Flashback later on. Monastery Mentor and Murmering Mystic will develop your board presence while your spells go off. Additionally, low-cost Humans like Recruitment Officer and Avacyn’s Pilgrim 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 can offer some very powerful card draw if you’ve got a well-developed board. Your ramp spells like Cultivate and Kodama’s Reach will accelerate you twice as much, as they can be flashed back. Finally, Call the Coppercoats 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 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 and Elturel Survivors fit nicely into any Goro-Goro and Satoru decks.
Some other cards to consider are Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker which can create Hasty attacking clones of your best threats, ready to spit out more Dragons. Dragon Tempest 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 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, 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. 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 or Buried Alive 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, Griselbrand or Archon of Cruelty. 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