Commander: Magic: The Gathering's March of the Machine expansion reveals powerful new Commander cards

Magic: The Gathering’s upcoming March of the Machine expansion will feature several new powerful Commander cards. Some of these cards are going to have very familiar names, but their powers will be new. Although these Commanders aren't Standard-legal, they will be allowed across various Eternal formats. If you're looking to try something new or shake up your decks, these cards won't disappoint.

We will cover the five new Commander deckleaders that have been revealed by Wizards of the Coast, and what they can do in Magic: The Gathering. All of these multi-colored creatures will be powerful. Thankfully, it's also easy enough to determine which cards are Commander-only, since they feature a unique symbol from normal cards in this set. Fans won’t have to wait long either, since March of the Machine releases in April 2023.

Which new Commander cards were revealed for Magic: The Gathering’s March of the Machine expansion?

Based on what's available, all of these new Commander cards are fairly fascinating, with Magic: The Gathering decks of all types likely to take advantage of them. These new cards will also show off some of the new mechanics and card types, like Incubate.

March of the Machine introduces the new Incubate keyword, which creates an artifact that you can pay 2 colorless mana to transform into an artifact creature. Its base power/toughness will be 0/0, but it gains +1/+1 counters based on the incubate value. You can see that on Brimaz, Blight of Oreskos.

Brimaz, Blight of Oreskos

Mana Value: 2WB
Type: Legendary Creature - Phyrexian Cat
Rarity: Mythic Rare
Stats: 3 power, 4 toughness
First Ability: Whenever you cast a Phyrexian creature or artifact creature spell, incubate X where X is the spell’s mana value.
Second Ability: At the beginning of each end step, if a Phyrexian died under your control this turn, proliferate.

Fans of artifact decks will also love Gimbal, Gremlin Prodigy. The baseline ability to give artifact creatures that you control trample is already amazing, but the more unique artifacts you have in play, the better your deck will be. Since Commander is all about uniqueness, this definitely won’t be a problem for Magic: The Gathering players.

He creates a 0/0 Gremlin artifact creature token at the beginning of your end step, with X +1/+1 counters, based on the number of differently named artifact tokens. This Commander isn't going to disappoint Green/Blue/Red decks at all. There are plenty of different artifact tokens a player could have - Food, Clue, Incubator, Pest, and many more.

Gimbal, Gremlin Prodigy

Mana Value: 2GUR
Type: Legendary Creature - Gremlin Artificer
Rarity: Mythic Rare
Stats: 4 power, 4 toughness
First Ability: Artifact creatures you control have trample.
Second Ability: At the beginning of your end step, create a 0/0 red Gremlin artifact creature token. Put X +1/+1 counters on it, where X is the number of differently named artifact tokens you control.

What about Convoke support? Magic: The Gathering now has a Commander that rewards you for having other Convoke cards. For players who are unfamiliar with this concept, Convoke allows you to tap your creatures to pay for 1 colorless mana per creature tapped, in a casting cost. Kasla, the Broken Halo has exactly what convoke fans crave.

Kasla, the Broken Halo

Mana Value: 3URW
Type: Legendary Creature - Angel Ally
Rarity: Mythic Rare
Keyword: Convoke, Flying, Vigilance, Haste
Stats: 5 power, 4 toughness
Ability: Whenever you cast another spell that has convoke, scry 2, then draw a card.

Interestingly, an ability that hasn’t been seen for quite some time is making a comeback - Eminence. Whenever Sidar Jabari of Zhalfir is in your command zone or battlefield and one or more Knights attack, you draw a card and then discard a card.

Furthermore, he allows you to play hyper-aggressively with your Knights, since, whenever he deals combat damage to an opponent, you return a Knight back into play from the graveyard. In general, this is definitely a fantastic Magic: The Gathering card for Knight tribal Commander decks.

Sidar Jabari of Zhalfir

Mana Value: 1WUB
Type: Legendary Creature - Human Knight
Rarity: Mythic Rare
Keyword: Flying, First Strike, Eminence
Stats: 4 power, 3 toughness
Ability: Whenever Sidar Jabari deals combat damage to a player, return target Knight creature card from your graveyard to the battlefield.

Another fantastic ability that fans can look forward to in Magic: The Gathering is Backup. When you play a creature that has this ability, you give a +1/+1 counter to a creature. If that creature isn’t the card that you just played, it triggers a new ability. Bright-Palm, Soul Awakener is going to make Commander decks focused on +1/+1 counters overwhelmingly happy, especially if you can bounce her out of play repeatedly.

Bright-Palm, Soul Awakener

Mana Value: 1RGW
Type: Legendary Creature - Fox Shaman
Rarity: Mythic Rare
Keyword: Backup 1
Stats: 4 power, 3 toughness
Ability: Whenever this creature attacks, double the number of +1/+1 counters on target creature. That creature can’t be blocked by creatures with power 2 or less this turn.

Magic: The Gathering’s newest Commander cards will be available in the upcoming March of the Machine expansion, which officially releases on April 21, 2023.