Eh. With the release out now, confirming what was in the Facebook gallery and -kinda- in these patch notes, looking like a two-part set. And on top of that, with what we have so far, may be one that might (not trying to jinx y’all, Oktagon) might not be able to make much money on outside VIP subs. There aren’t any BftAges exclusives (yet) - but there also aren’t any paid exclusive cards yet either. All the exclusives you can find for it in the in-game gallery are just the full-art cards to get from Fblthp.
On the lack of new mechanics, what’s in the received cards is kinda an un-named one here. What we have with the cards that can pass a buff to either itself, or another creature for a turn, is called Backup in paper. All that we did receive for the double-faced non-token cards is the Phyrexian Praetors, where in paper they have a Saga on their back, and here they create a Saga token. In both cases, the Praetors return to the battlefield at the end of the Saga. Paper has a number of other double-sided cards that get turned into phyrexians on their flip sides permanently, but it isn’t exactly a keyworded mechanic. So pretty much all that is new keyword-wise for the full set was Backup and Battles, and I guess here Backup might have translated a little wordy if named, and at worst would maybe have drawn attention to making another keyword-mechanic objective in events.
Not sure that it is required of Oktagon, or what other demands they may get from Wizards of the Coast to follow, but it does seem lately that our Puzzle Quest premier(?) sets either released - or at least get spoilers or notes or galleries - around when paper MtG is finishing spoilers or releasing the next set after that. This weekend is the prerelease for the Lord of the Rings set. While we probably won’t get that one ourselves - it not being a Standard set, and being a third-part IP as well - it is a new release, so Okty may have felt they need to submit a start to the previous one.
I am kinda wondering, if/when we get the second part of March of the Machine, if the added cards will go into the same packs, or if there is an option to pull for them from something separate. There may be some precedent for what they might do, from the earlier sets of the game, but I don’t really know that stuff firsthand.
TLDR: March of the Machine may likely be a two-part set, which Oktagon will probably want to get out sooner than later financially, but probably more when mechanics get translated and ironed out. Without Battles added yet, as well as MOM’s other flip/transform cards there isn’t really, there isn’t very much they could write on new mechanics for this part of the release (as Backup is added without it being an icon+keyword). We may have gotten what we got as a start because paper MtG is aleady getting a new set soon, though it isn’t one that is part of Standard.
