In case you somehow missed all the hubbub over the past few days, recently, March of the Machine: The Aftermath was leaked. These MTG leaks, however, weren’t just for one or two cards, oh no. Instead, over the course of three days, a YouTuber managed to leak all 50 cards from the set.
As you can imagine, considering the hype surrounding March of the Machine: The Aftermath, these leaks thoroughly delighted MTG players. Wizards of the Coast, however, hasn’t been too happy about their prized set getting spoiled before release. Subsequently, Wizards has reportedly stepped in to confiscate the leaker’s cards and take down their content.
The Aftermath of The Aftermath
Toward the tail end of last week, YouTuber oldschoolmtg surprised the MTG community with quite the monumental leak. Opening a sealed March of the Machine: The Aftermath Collector Booster box, over half the set’s cards, were leaked. As if that wasn’t enough, in the following days, oldschoolmtg went on to leak even more cards. Opening two more Collector Booster boxes, ultimately, every single card would be leaked.
After concluding their leaking escapade, oldschoolmtg would return to their regularly scheduled content, opening a March of the Machine Collector Booster. This product opening, however, would be far from typical, as it was followed by a mysterious knock at the door. As oldschoolmtg explained in a follow-up video, on the other side of their door was “The Pinkertons.”
In case you’re unfamiliar with that name, The Pinkertons (now known as just Pinkerton) is a world-renowned private security company. Infamously famed for its union-busting practices, Pinkerton has previously been hired by the likes of everyone’s favorite megacorporation: Amazon. Pinkerton also reportedly foiled an assassination attempt on president elect Abraham Lincoln in 1861.
Fast forward to today, and Pinkerton reportedly arrived on oldschoolmtg’s doorstep to retrieve Wizards of the Coast’s “stolen product.” While oldschoolmtg fully cooperated with the request to hand over the unreleased March of the Machine: The Aftermath cards, they claimed the cards weren’t stolen. Instead, oldschoolmtg claimed that it was simply a case of mistaken identity thanks to the set’s similar names.
“Just to clear the record: as far as I know, nothing was stolen. What I believe happened was, the names were too similar […] and somebody screwed up and sent out the wrong cases to the gentleman that I brought the boxes off of. Because when he sold me the stuff he said he was selling me March of the Machine Collector Boxes, not Aftermath. […] He didn’t even know what Aftermath was I don’t think, so I don’t think he stole anything. I think it was just, he got the cases thinking they were March of the Machine, sold them to me thinking they were March of the Machine, I bought them thinking they were March of the Machine, and I didn’t know until after I gave him the money and opened the box to look at the boxes inside that they were Aftermath.”
oldschoolmtg
Alongside having their March of the Machine: The Aftermath cards confiscated, oldschoolmtg also took down their videos containing the MTG leaks. For better or worse, however, while the source may have been taken down, copies of these leaks still exist across the internet.
A Leak to Remember
Despite spoiling Wizards’ plans, according to oldschoolmtg, they were “very nice and very apologetic” once they got in contact. As, rather than being enraged at their leaking antics, Wizards instead wanted the cards to follow the card’s paper trail. This way they could hopefully plug the hole that the leaks sprung out of. Alongside this, Wizards reportedly also spoke about compensating oldschoolmtg with some product to make up for the cards being confiscated.
While it’s certainly nice to hear that oldschoolmtg isn’t being punished for their leaking antics, it’s nevertheless quite a surprise. After all, Wizards surely had plenty of reason to be furious that the set had been spoiled, weeks before release. In fact, some of WotC was rightfully annoyed, as MTG’s Lead Designer, Mark Rosewater, recently spoke out about leaks.
Responding to Cashmoneymisplay, who asked if leaks bother them, Rosewater flatly stated, “it bothers me greatly. Imagine instead of a carefully created trailer, a movie you’re excited to see is spoiled by someone showing random ten-second scenes from it.” Thankfully for Rosewater, it seems not every MTG player feels leaks completely ruin a set. As, when Phyrexia: All Will Be One was leaked, players still managed to get excited about the detailed story chapters.
For everyone else who rather enjoyed the recent leaks, it’s also no issue that they’ve been taken down. This, however, isn’t because people can’t wait to get excited about the set once again. Instead, as players were quick to point out there’s no forgetting what we’ve seen now the set has been spoiled. This led to many players joking about the situation across social media.
“It is too late for I have seen everything”
u/ThatHoodedMan
“In the words of Sean Connery from Family Guy: ‘It’sh too late, the damage ish done.’”
u/Environmental_Eye_61
“Okay guys, now we have to unsee what we have seen and unremember it.
u/DoItSarahLee
There’s More In Store
Thankfully, despite literally every single March of the Machine: The Aftermath card being spoiled, the set still has some details worth getting excited about. Namely, the story chapters, which will be released on the 1st and 2nd of May. While these chapters may not be a lot of story content, they should help give consequences to the Phyrexian Arc.
From the leaked cards we’ve seen, it certainly seems like there will be plenty of consequences, to say the least. After all, Planeswalkers such as Nahiri, Nissa, and Sarkhan have all lost their spark. Why this happened and what it means for the future, however, are still unknown, despite the set’s cards being spoiled. Subsequently, we’ll just have to wait for the upcoming story chapters to know more!
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