Magic: The Gathering is getting a new card type in March of the Machine, something that hasn’t happened since planeswalkers were added to the game in 2007. Before now we didn’t know anything about the new Battle card type. Now we’ve got a little bit more information, courtesy of a Wizards of the Coast email asking folks to preorder March of the Machine. This reveals that one “double-faced Battle card will be available in every Set and Draft Booster” for the set.
So now we know that Battle cards are guaranteed to appear in packs, and that they’re double sided. Perhaps one side will show the conflict itself, and the other will show the outcome?
Up to now, we could assume these cards would depict the fights against the Phyrexians taking place throughout the multiverse, but there were no details (plenty of theories though) about how they would actually work.
The Battle card type was revealed in Phyrexia All Will Be One rules text on the chase card Atraxa, Grand Unfier, a popular creature that’s seen a recent price spike. Though we’ve not had any Battle cards confirmed as of yet, artwork for a cycle of ‘invasion of’ cards showing various planes seem certain to belong to this new card type. Above you can see art for the Invasions of Alara, Shandalar, Tarkir, and Lorwyn.
It’ll be interesting to see how prevalent Battle cards are in sets that aren’t all about one epic war. If we’re following the MTG planeswalker model, we’d expect to see a couple in every MTG set going forward. We suppose many of the story moments shown on Saga cards like Battle of Frost and Fire and Kiora Bests the Sea God could now appear as Battle cards instead.
Notably, MTG Lord of the Rings is coming up on the MTG release schedule. I do believe there were quite a few battles in the little-known novella it’s based on.