Invasion of Segovia – March of the Machine
Date Reviewed: May 5, 2023
Ratings:
Constructed: 3.25
Casual: 4.00
Limited: 4.00
Multiplayer: 3.88
Commander [EDH]: 4.00
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is bad. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
I don’t think it’s come up in this column, but you might have seen in other lore discussions that Segovia is a plane that is very small. A Segovian Leviathan, for example, is about the same size as an elephant (3/3 in Magic’s combat stats). Normally, when someone, say a planeswalker, travels to Segovia, the mystical forces that govern Magic’s multiverse adjust their size, so that they arrive about the same height, weight, volume, and surface area as comparable locals, and revert to their normal size when they leave for a plane scaled for them. Apparently that didn’t happen with the invaders, which people are speculating has something to do with Realmbreaker messing up the Blind Eternities. Unfortunately, it’s not explained in March of the Machine: The Aftermath (but then again, neither is what Realmbreaker did to the Blind Eternities).
The front face of Invasion of Segovia begs the question: what use is a 1/1 creature with trample? Of course, we know well by now that this is kind of a trick question – the likes of Almighty Brushwagg and even Charging Badger get some play in limited and casual decks that can buff them up. Conveniently, doing so will help you defeat the battle, and Caetus is probaly well worth doing so for the right deck. You need both a number of creatures and powerful spells to get the most out of his first ability – he can always chip in himself, of course, but he’ll need help to get the most broken stuff going on. That might seem to mark him more for theme decks and Commander than, say, draft, but I wouldn’t underestimate his second ability. Being able to keep up to four creatures available to block even when they attack can be more helpful than it looks at first, and he gets you extra uses of activated abilities, too.
Constructed: 3
Casual: 4
Limited: 4
Multiplayer: 4
Commander [EDH]: 4
Invasion of Segovia is an interesting enough card: three mana for a pair of 1/1 bodies isn’t exceptional value at first, admittedly, but convoke is a pretty big part of March of the Machine, and it feeds into the back side of the battle (but more on that in a bit). Four defense is one of the lower totals for a battle that we’ve seen so far, and it’s certainly an amount that can be handled without a ton of issue, even in blue. The Krakens you get otably have trample; while they are 1/1 bodies, remember that the flavor of Segovia is that everything is abnormally small, from its Angels to its Leviathans to even its Krakens.
Considering Caetus, Sea Tyrant of Segovia is only a 3/3, it might not seem like much of a threat, but it very much is. Giving all of your noncreature spells convoke can be very dangerous, given that blue tends to like a lot of noncreature spells, and you have three total bodies already. The ability to untap creatures even plays quite well with this, since you can use it to fuel a convoke spell, untap them, and then represent blockers or another spell on an opponent’s turn Dying to Lightning Bolt/Strike isn’t great in deeper formats, but this can still make for some havoc if you have the tools to protect it.
Invasion of Segovia’s attraction is the back side; it’s fairly fast to flip and chains well with each part of the whole. I think this might make a splash in Standard, but Caetus’s relative fragility makes this more effort in deeper formats than it will usually be worth. This isn’t to say it’ll be completely useless there, though; if you can cast the back side of this in a timely fashion, things promise t get ugly. And, in a pinch, this is three mana for two chump blockers, and that’s acceptable enough a rate.
Constructed: 3.5
Casual: 4
Limited: 4
Multiplayer: 3.75
Commander [EDH]: 4
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