March of Otherworldly Light – Kamigawa: Neon Destiny
Date Reviewed: March 1, 2022
Ratings:
Constructed: 3.58
Casual: 3.00
Limited: 4.17
Multiplayer: 2.83
Commander [EDH]: 3.00
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is bad. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
I’m pretty sure at least one of those parade participants was in a Studio Ghibli movie. I’m also pretty sure that this card’s versatility will at least be considered in constructed, and perhaps even in some of the bigger formats. In Modern, Legacy, and Vintage, you sometimes have to momentarily give up card advantage in favor of speed (see also: Force of Negation). If there’s something very threatening that you have to get off the table on your first turn (or even earlier), you have an option to accelerate the March without any other colors. It’s not quite a catch-all – using that option to make it able to target things like typical reanimator targets would cost your entire hand, and it requires a critical mass of white cards. But that extra flexibility is nice, as is the range of targets it can hit; you usually need to use a Banishing Light variant to have that range in just one card.
Constructed: 3/5
Casual: 3/5
Limited: 4/5
Multiplayer: 3/5
Commander [EDH]: 3/5
March of Otherworldly Light has certainly been turning heads, and not just for the whimsical artwork. It’s an extremely powerful removal spell with a lot of flexibility, sort of partially calling back to the Shoal cycle from Betrayers of Kamigawa. While the point of comparison is Modern Horizon II‘s Prismatic Ending, the upsides of this spell are a bit distinct. Prismatic Ending always hits cards with mana value 1 or less for 1 mana…but at sorcery speed, and it blanks on lands entirely, while this can obliterate Urza’s Saga for 1 mana but blanks against planeswalkers. The pitch condition gives this a bit of flexibility to take out something ahead of curve, and while most Constructed decks don’t need to hit something that’d exile more than one card, bear in mind that you can mix and match to get X to the value you need. I might be rather bullish, but March of Otherworldly Light may well be the set’s most-played card in the years to come, a potent removal spell that offers distinct upsides over its competition.
Constructed: 4.25
Casual: 4
Limited: 4.5 (any removal is good, and while this can be resource-intensive, this also exiles)
Multiplayer: 3.5
Commander [EDH]: 4 (it only needs one white mana to go live, and the ability to surprise a kill on a commander out of nearly nowhere is a good deal)
A pretty creative removal card that has a wide array of removal possibilities not siloed into just creatures, just artifacts, etc. I like that they added the addition of removing white cards from your hand to make X cost 2 less, this can help add things to your graveyard for other strategies or to help you out in a pinch if you’re mana screwed. It is not as good as Path or Swords but for the current standard environment it is pretty good, not a four of but maybe one or two in the main board. Definitely in the side board if you’re heavy in white.
Constructed: 3.5/5
Casual: 2/5
Limited: 4/5
Multiplayer: 2/5
Commander [EDH]: 2/5
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