Bright-Palm, Soul Awakener · Shalai and Hallar
A Naya +1/+1 counter and token deck led by Bright-Palm, Soul Awakener, proliferate counters to grow your creatures, create tokens, and swing for lethal with a board of oversized threats.
# set · MOC · 5 decks
The Phyrexian invasion set. Five decks about counters, Knights, convoke tokens, incubated Phyrexians and artifact tokens.
- Colors
Mechanics
Backup
When a creature with backup enters, put a +1/+1 counter on a creature. If you choose another one, it also gains this creature abilities until end of turn. Eleven cards in the set carry it, and it makes combat math awkward for everyone else.
Convoke
Tap creatures to help cast a spell. With five decks full of tokens, convoke turns a wide board into free mana, and the Jeskai deck is built entirely around that conversion.
Incubate
Incubate makes a colorless Incubator token with counters on it that you later transform into a Phyrexian artifact creature. Two steps, but the token is safe from creature removal until you flip it.
Battles
March of the Machine introduced Battles, a permanent type opponents defend and you attack. The set is full of them, and beating one gives you the card on the back.
The set
March of the Machine is the Phyrexian invasion, and it brought a new permanent type with it. Battles sit on the stack of things you attack, and knocking one over flips it into a reward.
The Commander decks pick up the counter and token threads more than the invasion story. Backup spreads counters and abilities, incubate builds Phyrexians in two stages, and convoke turns the resulting board into mana.
Backup is the design worth studying. Putting the counter on another creature also gives that creature the backup creature abilities for the turn, so a small body can hand flying or deathtouch to something enormous mid combat. Opponents who have not read your board carefully tend to block badly against it.
Incubate is slower but harder to answer. The Incubator token is not a creature until you pay to flip it, which means creature removal cannot touch it while it waits. Five decks came out of this release, which is more than the usual four and gives the set an unusually wide spread of archetypes.
Where to start
Divine Convocation is the easiest to pilot and the most satisfying when convoke lets you cast a seven drop on turn five. Tinker Time is the most fiddly and the most rewarding if you enjoy tracking token names.
The decks 5
Sidar Jabari of Zhalfir · Elenda and Azor
An Esper Knight tribal deck led by Sidar Jabari of Zhalfir, amass an army of Knights, reward first strike with bonus attacks, and close out with an overwhelming cavalry charge.
Kasla, the Broken Halo · Saint Traft and Rem Karolus
A Jeskai token and convoke deck led by Kasla, the Broken Halo, flood the board with creature tokens and tap them to cast large spells for free through convoke, then win through an overwhelming air force.
Brimaz, Blight of Oreskos · Moira and Teshar
An Orzhov Phyrexian proliferate and artifact deck led by Brimaz, Blight of Oreskos, incubate tokens to create Phyrexian threats and win through an army of transformed artifacts backed by exile removal.
Gimbal, Gremlin Prodigy
A Temur artifacts and tokens deck from March of the Machine. Gimbal, Gremlin Prodigy rewards you for making many differently named artifact tokens, then builds a fresh Gremlin every end step that grows with your token variety.
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