The five Commander decks releasing alongside MTG March of the Machine will have Planechase cards, including both reprints and the first new content for the game mode since 2012.
There’ll be 10 Planechase cards in each of the five March of the Machine Commander decks. Five of these will be new plane cards, four will be reprint planes, and one will be a phenomenon card, with a one time effect. That’s 10 different cards in each deck – they don’t all have the same ones.
Created in 2009, Planechase or ‘Planar Magic’ is a casual game mode that adds a chaotic twist to regular MTG gameplay. Matches are played as per the rules of your chosen format (Commander, Standard, etc) but with the addition of a planar deck, a separate deck of oversized plane cards that change the rules of the game.
Each one has a ‘passive’ effect that shapes gameplay, and a chaos effect that can trigger when the Planar die is rolled. Obviously this isn’t great for competitive play, but can augment a casual game for a really fun experience. In the March of the Machine first look stream on Sunday, designer Dave Humphreys says Wizards thought this was the right time to bring Planechase back given the multiverse-spanning setting of the upcoming set.
So far only one new MTG Planechase card has been spoiled – Towashi from the recent futuristic Kamigawa set. This gives Modified creatures the ability to draw cards, and has a chaos effect that lets you throw +1 counters around.
The MTG Commander decks for March of the Machine will be releasing alongside the main set on April 21 with the set’s global tabletop release.