Thread by @wizards_magic

The #MTGMachine First Look panel at #MCPhilly is about to begin! Follow this thread for our live tweets!

This First Look features world building lead Emily Teng, story lead Roy Graham, and set design lead Dave Humpherys talking with Blake all about #MTGMachine

Emily explains that Studio calls #MTGMachine an "Event set" telling a story about a central event, in this case - the Phyrexian invasion of the Multiverse.

Emily dives into the nature of the changing of the worlds under the invasion. We especially love pointing out the easter eggs of the subtle Phyrexian symbols in the arts #MTGMachine

Roy starts discussing the story of this set and highlights that the Phyrexian story (kicking off March 16th!) is one of Magic's oldest, with seeds for it planted all the way back in Antiquities (1994!) #MTGMachine

And in the more recent timeline, we've been seeing Praetors peeking into sets across the multiverse as the invasion. Roy delves into their progresses and what has all lead up to this moment. #MTGMachine

Obviously this story is not just about the worlds, but about the characters facing this invasion, many of whom are still on their homeworlds and fighting to save them. Emily delves into Ayara and the story. #MTGMachine

This multiangled storytelling in #MTGMachine enables us to really show the emotional stakes at play for so many recognizable faces from across Magic's multiverse.

FIRST #MTGMachine CARD! Let's see the first Phyrexian leading this invasion: Jin Gitaxias and The Great Synthesis! #MTGMachine

Dave talks about how design revisited the Praetors of Phyrexia to find ways to bring completely new takes on them. They came to the idea of making them flip into Sagas and Dave loves Sagas, so they made it happen.

Emily discusses that these Sagas aren't quite as fans have seen. Phyrexians do not have their own art which the sags can represent, the idea was to show the culmination of each Praetor's philosophy. His idea of a great piece of art is a surgical compleation of the multiverse.

All great stories require a hook, and this one delivers! Breach the Multiverse is a momentous start the March of the Phyrexian Machine. #MTGMachine

Roy loves this card for being big and splashy but also for the narrative it tells about the story, across and between the planes. "This is happening everywhere." Emily: "Nowhere is safe."

We jump to Theros and see Heliod has been Compleated!?! #MTGMachine

Dave discusses the flavor win of Phyrexian mana being used to cause transformation in these cases, and that they felt it was best situated in rules text more than casting costs here. #MTGMachine

Lore bomb! Emily explains that Phyrexians can't exactly compleat a god like Heliod. Instead, the Phyrexians discovered they could compleat the citizens of Theros and that would corrupt their belief to then phyrexianize Heliod. #MTGMachine

What can we say?

Roy talks about how last we saw Elspeth, she was taking the Sylex into the Blind Eterinities presumably to be vaporized by its blast and save the realms and made a huge sacrifice doing that… but it isn't exactly in Elspeth's nature to run from a fight.

The planes featured in #MTGMachine are the obvious and well known, but also the lesser known planes - some of which have just been mentioned previously.

This. Art. Is. Incredible. Amazing scenes all with the foreboding title of "Invasion of…" - These are fine, I'm sure.

THIS. ART.

Emily continues about the transition from the macro view of the planes, to the close-up view with... character teamups! #MTGMachine

Dave dives into the design side of making teamups and the challenge of finding abilities or features which are evocative of the named characters.

Roy chimes in noting that Drana and Linvala are a great buddy cop movie pairing.

MULTANI IS A YARGLE FAN. 18/6. #MTGMachine is perfect. No notes.

Blake and Roy do a dramatic flavor text reading. Roy does Yargle proud.

Dave about this pairing, "Yes, this one was hard to resist for a lot of reasons."

THALIA AND GITROG, TOGETHER AT LAST.

You have a theory to rewrite @BWheelerMTG. #MTGMachine

@BWheelerMTG The cycle of ten Gain lands in #MTGMachine are in the heart of the invasion and showing these locations fully under siege by Phyrexia.

@BWheelerMTG Chandra is still on fire, both in the card art, and in the rules text. #MTGMachine

@BWheelerMTG Dave notes that Design has to always start on finding a new angle or mechanic to explore which fit with the Planeswalker character and card colors. They started from a non-loyalty ability and then worked from there.

@BWheelerMTG Blake tries to trick Dave into giving away too much info about how many Planeswalkers are in #MTGMachine, sorry folks, he's too good. He gives a vague "At least 3 and less than ten"

@BWheelerMTG Blake notes that it's time for a slight shift, by delving into the treatments for #MTGMachine

@BWheelerMTG 👀😅

@BWheelerMTG Emily notes that obviously the Ichor-e treatment had to return, we weren't done with Phyrexia and they weren't done with us yet. #MTGMachine

@BWheelerMTG But wait… it's a multiplanar invasion of booster fun! All the card styles from various planes of Magic's recent past.

@BWheelerMTG Oh... and these from Dominaria and Innistrad.

@BWheelerMTG Blake and Dave discuss the bonus sheet in #MTGMachine, and this one is "Multiversal legends" A non-Standard-legal bonus sheet like the Mystical Archive or the retro artifacts of The Brothers' War

@BWheelerMTG Did we mention there would be commander decks? There will be. Five decks for this set!

@BWheelerMTG *record scratch*

PLANECHASE IS PART OF THE COMMANDER DECKS. Each deck has 5 new plane cards, 4 reprint Plane cards and 1 Phenomenon card!

#MTGMachine

@BWheelerMTG It's the perfect match for this setting, as players walk through the Magic multiverse.

@BWheelerMTG Blake reminds folks about the 30th Anniversary promos going out with each prerelease. Not new, just a reminder for folks. Earn these at the #MTGMachine prerelease!

@BWheelerMTG And in support of more awesomeness, there are Commander-legal prerelease promos! These are not Standard legal and they are NOT playable in your Prerelease decks.

First up is Goro-Goro and Satoru with Dave discussing the design and mashing up these two characters.

@BWheelerMTG Blake's favorite of these cards (because obviously) #MTGMachine

@BWheelerMTG Dave discusses the flavor and design of these character teamups and how this is turning all your Humans into Snapcaster Mages.

@BWheelerMTG Design wanted to capture the eternal nature of Squee and the slimy nature of Slimefoot.

@BWheelerMTG Another promo, this is the bundle promo version for the card in #MTGMachine.

Be honest, who had Vampire on a Dinosaur on their set bingo card? No, no you didn't.

@BWheelerMTG Booster Fun for everyone! Emily discusses how Ixalan didn't have a treatment when we first traveled there, but that we're debuting one in #MTGMachine.

@BWheelerMTG COMPLEATED FIVE COLOR OMNATH

The #MTGMachine Buy-a-box promo!

Omnath is finally, TRULY, perfect. #MTGMachine

@BWheelerMTG Blake built the audience up to be mega hyped for this reveal and then the cheers turned into an "oh no" at the realization that Omnath has been Phyrexianized.

@BWheelerMTG Emily says this was possibly the card most people in the studio were excited about for being Phyrexianized. Dave noted that studio loved the aesthetics of its mana cost.

@BWheelerMTG MORE OM-NOM-NOMNATH!

@BWheelerMTG Dave reveals he brought a Commander deck featuring Omnath, Locus of All for the remainder of #MCPhilly

The lineup of products for #MTGMachine is fairly expected.

There will be three Secret Lair drops for #MTGMachine, one of which will be 'Showcase: March of the Machine Vol. 1'

Now for us to pull back some of the veil over #MTGAftermath. Blake hands it to Roy who notes that there isn't a lot to say beyond it being a very story focused set looking at the consequences and fallout of the Invasion.

50 cards, sold in 5-card boosters.

Ready for as unspoilery (but still pretty spoilery) there is a preview card for #MTGAftermath?

F's in chat, y'all.

With that shown, now for a look at the marketing schedule for #MTGMachine.

They highlight that there are 10 main-story episodes, and 8 side-story episodes for #MTGMachine which will appear on the Magic website!

And that does it from the #MTGMachine First Look! We will get the panel VOD up as soon as we are able.

Now, pardon us as we go watch more of #PTPhyrexia 's coverage!