March of the Machine prerelease is right around the corner! The setup for the massive end of the Phyrexian arc has taken years of preparation, and players finally get a first taste of all the action this upcoming weekend! To up the ante for the March of the Machine Prerelease, Wizards of the Coast has included another interesting promotional MTG item. In Phyrexia: All Will Be One, we saw the introduction of the Phyrexian 20-sided die – a collectible that went for big money due to its scarcity. This Prerelease’s promotion isn’t as difficult to come by – in fact, its in every kit. The catch? You can’t play with these MTG cards!
Since this is a very odd event compared to past prereleases, the goal of this article is to aid in the effort to communicate that these particular MTG promotional cards will not be allowed for use in your Sealed Prerelease decks. At the end of the day, this extra add-on provides even more content at no extra cost – which is a great thing! The issue is the potential problems that a lack of communication can cause if some players build their entire Prerelease decks around these cards while others do not include them.
Some of Your Promos Aren’t Legal!
In a Good Morning Magic! YouTube video released recently, MTG designer Gavin Verhey showed off a March of the Machine Prerelase kit, building a sample Sealed deck throughout the video. For those unaware, a Prerelease kit traditionally offers six packs with additional promotional items that can be used to build a Sealed MTG deck. You can use these to explore the new set that the Prerelease features while battling other players in your area for even more sweet booster packs!
Traditionally, whatever you open in a Prerelease Kit is fair game as far as playing MTG goes. It doesn’t matter if the card is your Prerelease promo or a card found in a booster pack – if you open it you can play it! This, of course, comes with the caveat that you didn’t open an error kit, which does occasionally happen.
In March of the Machine prerelease kits, players receive an extra promotional card. This unexpected bonus comes at no price in regards to the product, which is always welcome. The issue, however, is that players are not allowed to play this additional promotional card in their Sealed decks.
To be crystal clear, these promotional cards are all completely legal for Commander play. The usual Prerelease promotional card that is, generally, a foil stamped Rare from the main set is also completely legal for Prerelease play. The Commander legal promotional cards featured below, however, are not legal for Sealed play at your March of the Machine Prerelease!
What Do These Promotional Cards Look Like?
Communication is going to be key with this one since many MTG players are likely to make this mistake. These promotional cards are all incredibly powerful in their own rights – boasting abilities that could warp the entire construction of your deck! Knowing about these cards can save a lot of lost deckbuilding time trying to make them work since you aren’t allowed to play them in your deck:
Katilda and Lier was the card that MTG designer Gavin Verhey opened in his sample Prerelease kit. This Commander legal features two Legendary characters featured in the recent return to Innistrad. Katilda is a Legendary Creature that cares about the Human creature type, while Lier grants the absurdly powerful ability of granting Flashback to all of your Instants and Sorceries. Katilda and Lier offer a very affordable three-mana Legendary Creature that features an ability that meshes both of these creatures together. Whenever you cast a Human spell, you can give target Instant or Sorcery in your graveyard Flashback. The Flashback cost is equal to the spell’s mana cost.
Notably, the original Lier, Disciple of the Drowned is a five mana card. While this combo creature needs a Human spell to be cast to grant Flashback, the effect comes at a cheaper price outside of that. Unlike the original Lier, this creature doesn’t make all spells uncounterable – meaning that Flashing back counterspells is a sound strategy.
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Goro-Goro and Satoru
The second Prerelease Promotional card that you cannot play in your deck is Goro-Goro and Satoru. This Grixis Commander features two legendary characters from the recent Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty set. One is interested in interacting with Ninjitsu abilities and the other wants to create gigantic Dragon tokens while interacting with Modified creatures.
This ability, once again, blends both creature’s abilities that appeared in Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty, lending to some immense flavor. Goro-Goro and Satoru synergizes extremely well with Haste and Ninjitsu since, as long as a creature that entered the battlefield this turn (that you control) deals combat damage to an opponent, Goro-Goro and Satoru creates a 5/5 red Dragon creature token.
Do note that Goro-Goro and Satoru can even grant your creatures Haste, allowing you to cover some ground if cards you’re playing don’t synergize with the Legendary Creature’s abilities on their own. This makes the card an absolute house in a Sealed environment since it can create a 5/5 Dragon off of, basically, any creature that you cast.
Slimefoot and Squee
Slimefoot and Squee is the last potential Legendary Creature that you can open in your Prerelease kit that is not allowed to be used in your Sealed deck. This Commander legal card is incredibly difficult to deal with in a Prerelease setting. Not only is the card capable of creating multiple bodies when it enters the battlefield or attacks, but Slimefoot and Squee can sacrifice those bodies to resurrect themselves and create more.
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Communicative Controversy
Featuring promotional cards that are not playable in your Sealed decks is very peculiar. As such, many MTG players are worried that this point will not be properly communicated to players participating in Prerelease events. All of these quotes can be found in the comment section of Verhey’s video above:
“I like the promo cards, but I really wish they were handled in a different way. Like being part of the multiverse legends or set boosters. Even if the judge says 10 times at prerelease that “these cards cannot be part of your deck” someone is gonna put it in anyways because they’re new/ignorant etc. They’re cool cards but I don’t think they should be in the prerelease pack and not be playable”
Jimbo
“As a judge, can I just say how awkward and feel-bad it is to have to explain to occasional players that there is a card in the pre-release kit they just opened that they cannot play with in the event? That there are three different cards that they might open that they can’t play with makes the explanation at the start of the event needlessly complicated. I love the idea that everyone gets a partner card, even ones unique to the sealed pre-release experience – I just hate that they ruled them to be effectively “banned” in a sealed format where bans don’t typically need to be explained. It’s genuinely confusing and disappointing.”
Andrew Wright
The core issue of the unplayable MTG prerelease cards is simply communicating that the cards are not legal for Sealed play. This has not happened in quite some time, and mistakes in deckbuilding may be a pretty common occurrence, especially in a setting geared towards newer players.
Two of these cards offer powerful abilities that excel in a Prerelease environment (you need to open the right cards for Katilda and Lier to be a Sealed powerhouse) and they all require a big deckbuilding cost since they are three-colored spells. This could create a situation where players spend a lot of time trying to include these cards into their decks – only to realize during their first game that they registered an illegal Sealed deck. There may even be some prerelease event hosts that are unaware of this rule. As such, make sure to encourage that this rule is communicated to all of the players at a prerelease.
At the end of the day, if everyone agrees that these cards are playable at your local event, at least everyone will be on the same page. The bigger problems may arise when some players treat these cards as banned and others do not. If this matter isn’t addressed at some sort of ‘player meeting,’ which is common at the beginning of the events, mention it to your host and see how they want to handle the situation. Chances are that you’re not the only person that is aware that these MTG cards are not allowed in your Sealed deck, but there are also likely players who have no idea that this is the case.
Finally, as a reminder, unlike these Commander-legal MTG Prerelease cards, the normal foil-stamped Prerelease Promo from the core set is perfectly legal for Prerelease play.
