Hey! Remember last year? Remember Affinity being dominant? Then Wizards banned some cards that made that deck suck? And how it was never going to be played again?

Yeah... that didn't happen. Wizards made the deck faster for us (Yay! Cranial Plating!). But around Worlds, a couple of people were playing a deck that has this little nasty nack for smashing Affinity and beating other decks in the process. That deck was March of the Indestructibles. Now this deck beat Affinity for one reason - it ran March of the Machines main. Affinity doesn't like March. Combine that with a card that would wipe the board clean (Obliterate), and you have yourself a deck. Kai played it at Worlds. Here was his listing:

4 Condescend
4 Darksteel Ingot
3 Echoing Truth
4 Electrostatic Bolt
2 Future Sight
3 Mana Leak
4 March of the Machines
2 Obliterate
4 Pyroclasm
4 Serum Visions
2 Thirst for Knowledge

14 Island
10 Mountain

Sideboard
4 Annul
3 Arc-Slogger
4 Dwarven Blastminer
1 Future Sight
3 Shatter

Ahh, memories. This deck would basically sit back and counter stuff, cast March, then Obliterate. Seems like a sound plan. It also played spells like Future Sight to give it a better game against the control deck of the time, U/W control. In the process, it would crush Affinity. Affinity cries when March hits play. It cries harder when you Electrostatic Bolt their Disciple to prevent them for dealing damage to you anyway. Then when they are being "smart" and sacrifice all their lands to Arcbound Ravager (if it resolved... stupid Aether Vial) I blocked until I Obliterated the board away and chunked their life away three at a time.

What does that have to do with now? Well, let's take the deck and see what the rotation took away from the deck.

3 Future Sight, 4 Dwarven Blastminer
Losing these didn't really hurt the deck at all did it? Future Sight is easily replaced in this format and Dwarven Blastminer was not really that good in the deck to begin with. So what does my build look like then? Here you go:

2 Obliterate
3 Mana Leak
4 Condescend
4 March of the Machines
4 Darksteel Ingot
4 Pyroclasm
3 Serum Visions
3 Sensei's Divining Top
4 Electrostatic Bolt
2 Honden of Seeing Winds
3 Echoing Truth

14 Island
10 Mountain

Sideboard
4 Annul
3 Blood Moon
3 Arc-Slogger
3 Echoing Ruin
2 Bribery

Doesn't look much different from the original if you ask me. Shall I bore you with the card choices? I think it would take up a lot of space, but I instead decided to go over the "controversial" choices instead.

Only two Obliterate?
Well, the deck tries to cast March with an Ingot out and then Obliterate. It only wants to do this once, because it should win then. The Obliterate isn't as crucial as March or Ingot, it's just really nice to have in every game when you hit eight mana. Not before, not after, right when you hit eight mana. Before that, it sort of sits there and laughs going "Ha ha, you play spells to win! I'm gonna clog your hand!" Two has been working out for me overall, three can be added in extreme circumstances.

Sensei's Divining Top?
If you haven't played this card in a deck with cards, then you haven't played Magic recently or you are playing Affinity. The only deck that shouldn't be using Top is Affinity. Top does things like... make your deck not random, and draws cards. It also survives Obliterate. If you can think of a better reason not to run this, please tell me. I would love to hear it.

Honden of Seeing Winds?
You know what it's like to have Howling Mine only on yourself? It's a good feeling. This card is basically the Future Sight replacement in that it does basically the same things:

1) It survives Obliterate to allow you to build faster.

2) It gives you more cards to work with.

3) It is easily splashed (okay you got me, Future Sight sucked at the "splashing department".)

Also, Honden with Top is great. Stack TWO draws instead of one? Pinch me! I must be dreaming!

Okay, now the metagame can be broken down into this:

Affinity, Affinity, Affinity, Affinity, some crap*, Affinity, Tooth, more crap**, Affinity, B/G, Affinity, U/G, more crap***, Mono-U, some more crap****, Ponza, and Affinity.

Catch any subtle nuances there? Didn't think so, so I'm going to go out on a limb here and state that Affinity dominates this metagame. AGAIN. Why? Too many articles explain that already. I'm not one of those. No Affinity diagnosis for me, so onto the matchup analysis.

Affinity
Before sideboarding, you are in favor. I don't give percentages because nobody ever believes the numbers people publish anyway. Basically here's what happens. You play lands, while they play spells. Counter relevant spells (Ravager, Disciple of the Vault, and Cranial Plating mainly) then cast March. Block things with your Ingot until you can Obliterate. Win. Easy enough?

Sideboard Out: -4 Pyroclasm, -3 Serum Visions
Sideboard In: +4 Annul, +3 Echoing Ruin

Guess what? You're still in favor. You want to save your first-turn Blue source to counter Vial instead of Visioning, so they are out. And Echoing Ruin is much better against affinity than Pyroclasm. After sideboarding, you have better tools for beating them. You don't really need them, but more early counters before March didn't really hurt anyone.

U/G
This matchup is easier than it looks. You have the advantage again though. They have to do this thing called play cards. You don't have to worry about this. Most of your stuff gets done on your opponent's turn, so your counters are much more useful than theirs. Basically, the only spells you need to worry about resolving are March and Ingot. Without that, you can't win. So, as soon as you can March and/or Ingot, blow up the world. You are much better at recovering than they are.

Sideboard Out: -4 March of the Machines, -1 Electrostatic Bolt
Sideboard In: 3 Arc-Slogger, 2 Bribery

This matchup becomes a little trickier but you have the edge in making their Naturalizes they side in useless. Arc-Slogger is better at beating U/G than March/Ingot, since you only have to resolve one spell instead of two to win. You resolve Arc-Slogger, you win. Because you have the counters to save it. Bribery comes in to either a) get a Meloku to kill their Meloku, b) to get a Meloku because you would much rather have a Meloku than them, or c) get an Eternal Witness to get something back, like a Bribery.

Quick note: There are some "cool" UG players out there that run Cranial Extraction in the board. Keep the Marches in and take out 1 more Bolt and 3 Echoing Truths. This allows more resilience to Extraction.

Tooth
Tooth is a little bit harder than most. But it's easier in some aspects. It's easier in the fact that you have counterspells for the Tooth. It's harder in the fact that if they can resolve a Tooth, Kiki-Jiki/Sundering Titan hurts real bad. Man... I still feel it.

Anyway, you have to try and sit back and counter their Tooth. By the time that happens, you should be in a better position to Obliterate, which should basically wrap up the game for you.

Sideboard Out: -4 Electrostatic Bolt, -4 Pyroclasm
Sideboard In: 2 Bribery, 3 Blood Moon, 3 Arc-Slogger

You keep Marches in because Ingot is hard to deal with. Bribery allows you to say "I like your Titan better, and I want your lands dead" or "I'd much rather have copies of Arc-Slogger than you have copies of Titan, so I'll take your Kiki-Jiki." Or you can just take a Colossus and be done with it, but being tricky is fun! Blood Moon makes Tooth hate their mana base of Tron or Posts, and Arc-Slogger is solid beats against them.

B/G
This deck keeps getting hype, but you beat it. A lot. The only thing that really hurts you is discard coming out of this deck. Meaning Distress is a counter and Shortfang gets bolted as soon as his little mousy feet make contact with the table. Other than that, you have the usual plan of countering relevant threats and blowing up the world.

Sideboard Out: -3 Echoing Truth, -2 March of the Machines
Sideboard In: +3 Arc-Slogger, +2 Bribery

These Briberies are getting a workout aren't they? You want to make their Extractions worthless, while stealing a Kokusho, the Evening Star or two. Witnesses are fun to steal as well, because if you do it right, you can just steal all their Witnesses and Bribe out something like Kokusho or Horobi (depending on build). Pyroclasm is still good because some run Beacon as Death Cloud fodder, and this sweeps those away, forcing them to sacrifice real creatures. It also deals with most of the creatures in their deck. All and all, this matchup is relatively easy, don't sweat it.

Mono-U
I haven't actually been able to test this matchup, but it doesn't seem too hard. I have a feeling they won't like their lands disappearing. The only thing I can say is don't cast March until after you Obliterate. You don't want their Vedalken Shackles stealing your Ingots, that would be mean. This also stops Keiga, the Tide Star from stealing your Ingots. Be slow and steady, and blow up the world when it gets painful to play.

Sideboard Out: -4 Electrostatic Bolt, -4 Pyroclasm
Sideboard In: 3 Arc-Slogger, 2 Bribery, 3 Echoing Ruin

As I said, I'm not sure about this matchup, but here's what I think you should do. You try to Obliterate and steal their Keiga with Bribery. If not Keiga, then take Meloku. Echoing Ruin are good at taking down Shackles, though I'm not sure they keep them in against you. Arc-Slogger seems like a good card to beat down with, as most control decks have trouble with him. [Honestly, the only thing the Mono-U deck cares about after sideboarding is big Slogs, which likely won't resolve, Bribery, and Obliterate. Time Stop and Last Word help Mono-U in that department. Also, if you board out all your Bolts, you will flat out lose to Temporal Adept. - Knut, who knows Mono-U better than most]

Ponza
Well now, we've hit quite possibly the hardest matchup out of all the decks I've mentioned thus far. And it's still not a complete loss. Basically, you have to try and counter all the LD they throw at you, while containing Arc-Slogger and Slith Firewalkers. Sounds easy? Try again. They run enough threats that you don't have enough counters to deal with it all. However, there's two things on your side. Stalling and Ingot. Ingot allows you "turbo" an Obliterate out on turn 5 the earliest, meanwhile you can stall with counters, bounce, and burn. It's a rough matchup, but proper playtesting against it will show you the right decisions.

Sideboard Out: -4 March of the Machines, -1 Honden of Seeing Winds
Sideboard In: 3 Arc-Slogger, 2 Bribery

March is too slow a kill against them. The best case scenario is that it takes out the Chrome Moxes, which is not enough to run it. Honden isn't that good, because your fifth turn you want to be dropping Arc-Slogger or Bribery. However, a fifth turn Honden isn't always bad. It allows you to keep drawing land against their LD in hopes of the stall. On the fifth turn they've probably hit you with a lot of LD, but you can still catch up with Ingot and Scry.

I won't lie to you - this matchup is rough. It's really hard and you need to test this matchup to see what I'm talking about. Going first increases your odds dramatically, because it allows you to stay one step ahead of them, making sure you get a chance to counter their early LD and Bolt the Firewalkers..

In conclusion, I would like to state that this deck has game against the entire field, and is a viable contender, quite possibly of the tier 1 variety. The only real bad match you have is Ponza, and that is bearable. Enjoy it.

Steven Dickinson
CoPRed on most message boards
RoPLands on AIM

* thru *** If your metagame involves the dominant deck involving "Hikari, Go", which smashes this deck, then this covers that crap. It also covers that WW pile I've been seeing.

**** Actually, if your metagame does involve "Hikari Go" as the best deck... don't play this deck. It's sad.