Promising spectacular reveals that would change the very fabric of the multiverse, it’s safe to say March of the Machine has been incredibly highly anticipated. Now, at long last, all those reveals are out in the open, even before the official set debut video. Thanks to what appears to be an accidental early showing, we now know what Battle cards are at long last! Alongside that, the story for March of the Machine has finally concluded in spectacular fashion. Unfortunately, however, while March of the Machine’s story has done a lot of good, MTG players aren’t entirely happy with it. Namely, the somewhat obvious ending to the story has left some MTG players seriously disappointed after the literal years of build-up.
As a heads up, during this article, we’ll discuss the content from the latest March of the Machine story chapters. Consider this your official spoiler warning in case you’re not all caught up yet. If you want to read the story episodes for yourself now that they’re all released, you can do so here. Alternatively, if you want to listen to the opening of each episode, you can now do that too!
Obvious Endings
Throughout most of the Phyrexian Arc, things haven’t been going well for MTG’s heroes. As the Phyrexians all but succeeded in their conquest over the multiverse, players have endured numerous fan-favorite characters being killed and Compleated. Given that MTG isn’t ending anytime soon, however, it was expected the Phyrexian victories wouldn’t last too long. Sure, times were bleak, however, MTG’s iconic heroes couldn’t actually lose, right? Of course not!
Following the return of Archangel Elspeth in the aptly named story episode “Divine Intervention,” the story’s outlook changed significantly. Not only did Elspeth skewer Elesh Norn with her awesome sword, but New Capenna’s angels appeared to save the day in the next episode. As if that wasn’t enough to turn the tide of battle, Teferi is back with the armies of Zhalfir. With all these Deus Ex Machina happening at once, it’s safe to say things aren’t going well for the Phyrexians.
In fact, to get into the major spoilers, Jin Gitaxias and Vorinclex both die with little fanfare. Shortly after these lackluster deaths, Karn got around to finally reassembling himself before eradicating Elesh Norn with a frown. As if that didn’t destroy the Phyrexians enough, Wrenn later sacrificed herself to finally burn Realmbreaker.
While the big Phyrexian bad was defeated during episode nine, there was still some housecleaning to do. Namely, un-Compleating some of the corrupted Planeswalkers. Throughout the story, Wizards has been doing their best to be coy with this important detail. In reality, however, thanks to a few teases, this revelation has been shockingly predictable. Nevertheless, it’s certainly nice to see Ajani and Nissa being un-compleated at long last. Nissa and Chandra even got to hug and kiss, confirming their relationship!
Dramatic Disappointment
Throughout the March of the Machine story, it’s been no secret that WotC has done a lot right. Listening to the longstanding requests of fans, Wizards allocated addiction story chapters, for instance, while also improving their accessibility. Alongside this, including spoiler cards within story chapters was a major success. Furthermore, many players were thoroughly pleased by the specific story details. Reddit user u/scarlet_twitch, for instance, recently applauded wizards for “finally righting their wrong,” by making Chandra and Nissa cannon.
Despite all the good that Wizards, and the incredible team of talented writers, have done, not everyone was happy. For some players, such as u/Blakwhysper, the ending of the story was a crushing disappointment. In Blakwhysper’s own words, “the conclusion of the Phyrexian story arc is a terrible let down to an amazing build-up.” Within their post, Blakwhysper bemoaned how despite once being a truly terrible and terrifying foe, Phyrexians went out incredibly easily.
Highlighting the Compleation of Tamiyo and Ajani, for the longest time, Phyrexians felt like a genuinely scary foe to Blakwhysper. This incredible build-up, however, was quickly undone by Archangel Elspeth’s appearance in episode seven. Following this, literal deus ex machina, the story would wrap itself up quickly and with little explanation. “Every plane was being completely overwhelmed. They were losing…. Until suddenly they weren’t,” Blakwhysper comments.
As if the tide didn’t hadn’t turned quickly enough during episode seven, episode nine pushed things one step further. In a matter of paragraphs, each one of the supposedly devastating Praetors went out like a chump. As Blakwhysper notes, each death was “fast enough to be a footnote.” While this is incredibly disappointing, unfortunately, it’s not entirely unexpected, after all, as u/GGrazyIV points out, it’s practically tradition.
The Aftermath
While many players on Reddit were keen to echo Blakwhysper’s sentiment and voice their disappointment, thankfully, the story isn’t over yet. As, in a new and unusual twist, March of the Machine is getting its very own supplemental follow-up set. Aptly named March of the Machine: The Aftermath, this standard legal 50-card set will address how the multiverse has changed. More than just giving players not story-rich cards to play with, however, this set will also get its own story chapters.
At the time of writing, it’s unclear just how many story chapters there will be. Unfortunately, since the story seems to start and end on May 1st, I wouldn’t expect much more than a whirlwind tour of the MTG Multiverse. Hopefully, unlike March of the Machine’s final episodes, these story segments won’t feel rushed, as that’s evidently a major problem for MTG players. With how much the Multiverse has changed during March of the Machine, however, it feels challenging to hold out much hope for that.
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