Hey everyone! We’re far enough into our adventures in MOMing to take a look at how everything has been performing compared to their original expectations. No matter how long you’ve been doing it, it’s impossible to get everything correct during preview season. While some people hate being wrong, I prefer to find and point out my own mistakes before digging into what caused them. I’m always trying to find ways to improve and hopefully this helps you along the way as well.
The March of the Machine and Multiverse Legends Limited Tier List has also been updated with all the new ratings after the first week of gameplay, and in this article we highlight the Underperformers and the Overperformers that you should be watching out for.
March of the Machine (MOM) Limited Guides
- Five-Color Archetype Guide - New!
- Tier List
- Archetypes Guide and Example Decks
- Battles Guide
- March of the Machine: The Aftermath Guide and Review
- Arena Open
- Draft Guide
- Combos and Synergies
- Underperformers and Overperformers
- Mechanics Guide
- Removal Guide: Unconditional Removal
- Removal Guide: Conditional Removal, Tempo and Sweepers
- Sealed and Prerelease Guide
- Multiverse Legends
- White Review
- Blue Review
- Black Review
- Red Review
- Green Review
- Artifacts, Lands, and Multicolor
Underperformers
Heliod, the Radiant Dawn
3.5 to 2.0
Most of the time I end up pretty close with the misevaluations being due to minor interactions or the meta being slightly different than expected. (Or occasionally because I misread something) When I’m this far off on a card, I really need to take a step back and see what happened.
Starting off, the odds of ever getting something off of the front half are extremely low and it’s a difficult to cast 4/4 for four. That is certainly not going to cut the mustard these days. I knew this going in, but underestimated how poorly a random 4/4 would play in this format.
I was excited about the back half and getting to play the rest of the game at instant speed. One of the big problems with the transform cards is the massive hit you take when they remove or bounce them in response. Most of them have a cheap front so it’s not as punishing when you recast them while this exacerbates that problem with an expensive up front cost.
It isn’t aggressive enough to go under anything and it doesn’t even synergize with the creature type for the best white deck. Power wise, it’s a solid jab in a world dominated by haymakers. This would be a good card in plenty of other formats, but not this one. Kind of a sad ending for Heliod.
Into the Fire
3.0 to 2.0
Low to the ground aggressive decks have been wildly underperforming with most MOM games having a bunch of battle cruisers blasting at each other. Dealing two damage to all creatures in that scenario is the equivalent of a hobbit running around kicking a bunch of trolls in the shins.
Another huge problem is that it is indiscriminate when it hits battles so you could be helping your opponent more than hurting them. There are still instances that this will be good in, but it is more of a sideboard card.
Invasion of Belenon
3.0 to 2.0
The decks that really benefit from a Glorious Anthem are go wide aggressive decks. Those same decks really struggle when it reaches the point in a game where people are piling on value and dropping insane monsters.
The nature of battles causes games to be extended by providing what is functionally extra life points to your opponent. Giving the midrange or control decks an extra turn or two to stabilize is going to put you in a position where you are facing much bigger problems than your deck is equipped to deal with.
Lathiel, the Bounteous Dawn
3.0 to 2.0
It’s highly unlikely that Lathiel is going to safely navigate its way through combat (unless it’s a game where you are so far ahead that any creature would win it for you) so it’s going to require other life gain effects (Bite spells, Herbology Instructor, other creatures with lifelink, etc…) to really get anything out of it.
Selesnya can stack counters on its own without needing to play a four drop that requires additional setup to do anything other than being an overpriced unicorn.
Radha, Coalition Warlord
2.0 to 1.5
I was sure this was going to be bad without the DMU dual lands to help it go off. It’s somehow managed to be even worse than that though. Turn four playing Hill Giant and saying go is not going to get the job done in MOM.
The only things that this really works with are Marauding Dreadship and Flywheel Racer that let it tap as a trick. Even then, it’s a pretty bad rate for something that they can see coming.
Tymaret, Chosen from Death
3.0 to 2.5
Attacking the graveyard just doesn’t have the same kick that it has had in other sets and it can even be a negative if you have anything looking for eight or more cards in opponent’s yard. On top of that, the incidental life gain has significantly less value when chonky spells are taking over the game.
It’s still a solidly statted creature that could potentially do something extra, but it’s more of a supporting player once you factor in the rough casting cost.
Overperformers
Artistic Refusal
2.0 to 3.0
Who would have thought that Cryptic Command that we have at home would still be really good? I initially thought it was solid, but that the cost was going to be a bit prohibitive. In a world where games mostly end up being determined by whose bomb trumps the others, a counterspell without restrictions is a great card. I think if straight up Cancel was around, it would be very playable in this format.
There are enough convoke enablers that you can usually play this for only a few mana and it can “get” people who aren’t thinking about a counterspell when you don’t have any blue mana untapped. The card draw and selection is also powerful in a late game bomb fest because it can dig up yours after you just denied theirs.
Aerial Boost
1.5 to 2.0
The biggest reason this is better than I was thinking is how relevant being free can be. It lets you continually develop your board while still holding this up on defense. While you shouldn’t rely on it, sometimes people just forget it exists and walk right into it.
One of the problems with aggressive decks is stalling out right before the finish, but this can solve that by Jumping your way to victory.
Blighted Burgeoning
1.5 to 2.5
I was too caught up on how these enchantment ramp effects have historically been very medium and I passed right by how valuable a random 2/2 can be when it’s thrown in on something.
It helps splash some really nasty multicolor legends or even crazy things like Invasion of Alara. You can even combo this with Portent Tracker to mega ramp up to your first battle cruiser. It quickly went from something that I wasn’t interested in playing to the first one almost always making the cut.
Ephara’s Dispersal
2.5 to 3.5
This is such a strong tempo card as the potential for one mana blowing out something they just wasted a bunch of mana transforming is bonkers. There are also plenty of tokens running around that this utterly wrecks.
As I said during previews, surveil two isn’t quite drawing a card, but it is close. So far that close has felt right up there with actually drawing it.
Render Inert
1.5 to 2.5
I thought this was going to be restricted to hanging out in the sideboard, but as long as you have battles (and let’s be real here, you do) as a fall back, this is fine to run in the main. Getting to cantrip kill there Phyrexian tokens is a powerful ability for three mana.
If you have out Phyrexian Censor and they play a spell on your turn, you get to bust out this fun line. Point this towards their battle and they lose out on the back side while you happily draw an extra card. Just make sure they played a non-phyrexian spell or you’ll be the one looking ridiculous.
Seed of Hope
1.5 to 2.5
The odds of you missing on this are very, very low and the decks that shouldn’t be playing it are pretty obvious. The multiverse legends bonus slot being all permanents along with being able to hit battles pretty much ensures that you’ll be hitting on this.
Most of the time this ends up playing out like an instant speed Sleight of Hand with two life thrown in. Multiples can get questionable, but the first one should do some work for you.
Wrapping Up
Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed our little journey looking through which cards have defied their expectations in March of the Machine limited so far. Don’t forget to check back tomorrow for my comprehensive draft guide. Until then, stay classy people!
If you have any questions, let me know in the comments below.
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