March Of The Machine Aftermath was meant to be one of the most importantMagic: The Gatheringsets ever released. The bookend to the Phyrexian invasion arc shows how the multiverse coped in the wake of a war spread across every reality. It might not be a big set – only 50 cards compared to the usual 200 or so we’re used to – but it is poised to include story elements that will change MTG forever.
Thena YouTuber with a Collector’s box of Aftermath came alongand spoiled it all in the least interesting way possible. While I’ll be avoiding discussing any specifics here, having one guy blunder in and show over 90 percent of the set weeks before schedule isn’t just a bit disappointing, it’s outright selfish.
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In terms of sheer number of cards, this obviously isn’t the biggest leak Magic has ever had. Just this year,Phyrexia: All Will Be One had almost all its rares and mythics leakedin packs of Dominaria Remastered. Last year, Commander Legends: Battle For Baldurs’ Gate had much the same happen. And, of course, the New Phyrexia setwas entirely leaked ahead of launch, thanks to a few French pro players sharing the ‘God book’ between themselves.
But none of those sets had the magnitude of March of the Machine Aftermath. This was the final chapter of a years-long arc, and was hyped up by Wizards as being a change on the same level as ‘The Mending’, the event that gave us modern Planeswalkers and serves as the dividing epoch of MTG’s canon. On a smaller scale, it’s meant to give us closure after March of the Machine, and reveal what became of characters like Karn, who gave up his Planeswalker spark to save Nissa and Ajani.
It’s important to note that, as far as we know, the YouTuber involved hasn’t done anything illegal. Somewhere down the line someone has cocked up enough to put dozens of boxes of Aftermath out into the wild, and all this guy did was buy them and open them on YouTube. He could’ve just sat on them, or opened them in private, but why do that when there’s a billion-dollar corporation to stick it to!
It’s tempting to see this in the same way we look at video game leaks, where posting embargoed details of Lego 2K Drive is sometimes considered the ‘real journalism’ of games media. Who cares about a PR team’s schedule when we could know that a thing might exist eventually? Fourth Estate and all that.
Except this isn’t journalism, it’s running into the theatre to shout that Darth Vader is Luke’s father or that Bruce Willis was dead all along. There’s no journalistic rigour or integrity; he plays ignorant the whole time, claiming he doesn’t know whether or not the set has been revealed yet, and mispronounces basic words like “Dead”. There’s no injustice to shed light on, they’re just cards. He’s not doing anything worthwhile here, he’s just showing us stuff we were going to see in two weeks anyway.
The people this really fucks over isn’t Hasbro, it’s the creators who were scheduled to reveal cards in the preview season, who’ve now had their one moment of getting the community’s eyes on their work snatched away. Preview seasons have always varied up who reveals things – big sites and major streamers, but also smaller sites, independent creators, local game stores, and Magic outlets outside of the Anglosphere that never get a look in in the wider MTG discourse. It’s a community event as much as it is a reveal.
Though people move on quickly, those previews can be a huge boost and put you in the limelight for a hot second.Our March of the Machine revealwas one of our best-performing articles from the set, and we’re a big site sharing a draft-centric uncommon. Nobody would have cared if Johnny YouTuber had already opened it. Who knows when that small hobby store, or that independent Croatian site will get a chance to reveal a card again?
In the grand scheme of things, none of this matters. By May 3, we’ll have the official reveals of the cards we’ve already seen, and we’ll be discussing the story or wondering what comes next in Wilds of Eldraine. But it is a shame to see one of the biggest story arcs in Magic’s history come to an end in the mitts of a random YouTuber.
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