5 powerful Magic: The Gathering Arena Standard decks to try in March of the Machine expansion

March of the Machine is the next Magic: The Gathering Arena expansion coming to the game, and with it, come some truly amazing decks. I spent some time in the early access event at MTG Arena, courtesy of Wizards of the Coast. In my time playing in the event online, I competed against some truly amazing decks. Mine were nothing to sneeze at either, but I certainly enjoyed seeing the possibilities in the upcoming expansion for Wizards of the Coast’s card game.

These decks can be built and played in a variety of ways, so I’m going to highlight them briefly. They aren’t guaranteed to be top-tier, must-play decks, but in my experience, they did quite well in the Magic: The Gathering March of the Machine preview session.

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5 decks to play in Magic: The Gathering Arena for March of the Machine

5) White/Blue Control - Shark Typhoon

This is the deck I played the most, and easily the one I enjoyed the most. I love control decks, and this Magic: The Gathering Arena deck delivered when it was moving quickly enough. It has ways to remove low-cost threats from the board (Temporary Lockdown), but it can also remove your Incubators - and you need those.

The stars of this deck are Chrome Host Seedshark and Elesh Norn. The Seedshark Incubates X whenever you cast a non-creature spell, so you can stack several of these. You combine this with the transformation ability of Elesh Norn. She incubates two to five times and then triggers all of your incubator creatures for free.

This means you can use spells like March of Otherworldly Light to exile expensive cards and create amazing creatures. Mindsplice Apparatus makes your sorceries/instants faster for this Magic: The Gathering Arena too. It’s not an especially fast deck, and you can easily go down under 10 cards thanks to Jin-Gitaxias. However, it will be worth it when you swarm someone with Phyrexians.

Deck

• 4 March of Otherworldly Light
• 4 Syncopate
• 4 Silver Scrutiny
• 4 Chrome Host Seedshark
• 4 Union of the Third Path
• 4 Temporary Lockdown
• 4 Witness the Future
• 2 Elesh Norn
• 4 Mindsplice Apparatus
• 2 Jin-Gitaxias
• 4 Adarkar Wastes
• 4 Seachrome Coast
• 4 Deserted Beach
• 6 Plains
• 6 Island

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4) Black/Blue Hidetsugu and Kairi Combo

There are so many amazing combos you can use with Hidetsugu and Kairi, but this one was probably my favorite. You’re going to want to run Kaito Shizuki and Liliana Vess, though I think Liliana’s more important due to the constant discard on your opponent. However, one problem with this Magic: The Gathering Arena deck is that it can be unreliable.

Your goal is to play Hidetsugu and Kairi and use the ETB ability. You draw three cards and put two of them from your hand on top of your deck in any order. You want to put the biggest spells you have on top - like Shadow of Mortality for example. That card has a value of 15 Mana. From hereon, just kill Hidetsugu with one of your own spells, and make your opponent lose 15 life.

If you’ve dealt even a little damage, it’s the end of the game. I’ve seen this deck also use Red, for cards like Explosive Singularity (10 Mana Value). It’s an amazing, fun Magic: The Gathering Arena deck for March of the Machine, that’s for sure.

Deck

• 2 Cut Down
• 4 Go for the Throat
• 4 Make Disappear
• 4 Faerie Mastermind
• 2 Rona, Herald of Invasion
• 2 Kaito Shizuki
• 2 Invasion of Innistrad
• 4 Hidetsugu and Kairi
• 2 Gix's Command
• 2 Invoke Despair
• 4 Phyrexian Fleshgorger
• 2 Shadow of Mortality
• 8 Swamp
• 4 Island
• 4 Darkslick Shores
• 4 Shipwreck Marsh
• 1 Otawara, Soaring City
• 1 Takenuma, Abandoned Mire
• 4 Underground River

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3) Monored Spellslinger/Monastery Swiftspear

Prowess is back in a big way in Magic: The Gathering Arena! Monastery Swiftspear and Khenra Spellspear do a great deal of damage on their own. Then there’s the Bloodfeather Phoenix, which can keep coming back when you cast instant/sorcery spells, for a mere 1 red mana.

It’s also a deck that uses Invasion of Regatha to deal 4 damage, alongside Stoke the Flames, which does the same amount to a target. There are enough non-creature spells for Prowess, and you can transform the Spellspear into Gitaxian Spellstalker, which has a double prowess in addition to Trample.

I see this also being a Red/White deck, or even Red/White/Blue, for all the powerful instants and sorceries that come in those decks.

Deck

• 1 Sokenzan, Crucible of Defiance
• 2 Mishra's Foundry
• 19 Mountain
• 4 Play with Fire
• 4 Lightning Strike
• 4 Stoke the Flames
• 4 Monastery Swiftspear
• 4 Kumano Faces Kakkazan
• 4 Khenra Spellspear
• 4 Bloodfeather Phoenix
• 4 Bloodthirsty Adversary
• 3 Invasion of Regatha
• 3 Nahiri's Warcrafting

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2) Mardu Reanimator

I think Mardu Reanimator is going to be one of the bigger decks coming in Magic: The Gathering Arena’s upcoming meta. There are plenty of ways to play this deck, but use the early Bloodtithe Harvester, and follow that with Fable of the Mirror-Breaker. In fact, you want to get a few discard options going for this deck.

Sheoldred the Apocalypse, Atraxa, Grand Unifier, Kaya, Intangible Slayer, and The Wandering Emperor are fantastic things to bring back from your deck or graveyard. Atraxa, Grand Unifier lets you play quite a few cards from your deck, and Invasion of Tolvada is another reanimator for the deck.

You can buff your creatures, thanks to the Wedding Announcement’s transformation. Portal to Phyrexia is something you’ll hopefully play with Atraxa, since it costs 9 mana. But it lets you constantly bring back creatures, and when it comes into play, your opponent sacrifices three creatures. It’s a very fun Magic: The Gathering Arena deck, but I think it still needs a bit of work.

Deck

• 3 Atraxa, Grand Unifier
• 4 Bloodtithe Harvester
• 2 Brotherhood's End
• 1 Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire
• 4 Fable of the Mirror-Breaker
• 1 Farewell
• 3 Go for the Throat
• 3 Haunted Ridge
• 4 Invasion of Tolvada
• 1 Kaya, Intangible Slayer
• 4 Mountain
• 4 Plains
• 3 Portal to Phyrexia
• 3 Shattered Sanctum
• 2 Sheoldred, the Apocalypse
• 1 Sokenzan, Crucible of Defiance
• 3 Sundown Pass
• 2 Sunfall
• 4 Swamp
• 1 Takenuma, Abandoned Mire
• 3 The Wandering Emperor
• 4 Wedding Announcement

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1) Jeskai Dragons

For Magic: The Gathering Arena decks, Jeskai Dragons gave me some pretty genuine problems. Ao, the Dawn Sky, and Atsushi, the Blazing Sky coming into play quickly were so aggravating. They reward you when they die, putting more threats on the board in a variety of ways.

You can also combine Fable of the Mirror-Breaker to duplicate your Battle creatures (Defiant Thundermaw, Refraction Elemental). Both deal extra damage, which is never a bad thing. You win by whittling players down with dragons, or you could get a few Manaform Kites in play. Then, duplicate one, and cast a large Invasion of New Phyrexia.

Manaform Hellkite will then create an X/X red Dragon Illusion with Flying/Haste, based on how much mana you spent. Depending on the situation, you can overwhelm your Magic: The Gathering Arena deck with a few illusory dragons.

Deck

• 4 Zurgo and Ojutai
• 4 Fable of the Mirror-Breaker
• 2 Sunfall
• 4 Invasion of Tarkir
• 3 Reckoner Bankbuster
• 4 Seachrome Coast
• 3 Make Disappear
• 2 Invasion of Karsus
• 3 Nahiri's Warcrafting
• 2 Ao, the Dawn Sky
• 2 Invasion of New Phyrexia
• 4 Deserted Beach
• 2 Plains
• 2 Mountain
• 3 Manaform Hellkite
• 2 Atsushi, the Blazing Sky
• 4 Sundown Pass
• 1 Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire
• 1 Sokenzan, Crucible of Defiance
• 1 Island
• 4 Stormcarved Coast
• 1 Otawara, Soaring City
• 1 Shivan Reef
• 1 Battlefield Forge

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Magic: The Gathering Arena’s March of the Machine expansion promises to be quite interesting across all formats. This is just a selection of decks that I found to be interesting. We’ll revisit this once the meta has settled and see what’s the strongest of them all.