Image courtesy of Scryfall.com
Towashi’s Board-State Mastery: Controls, Chaos, and the Art of Letting Your Modifications Shine
In the sprawling multiverse of Magic: The Gathering, there are few moments as satisfying as turning a plan into a booming board state. Towashi—the planar entry from March of the Machine Commander—pulls a neat trick: it makes every modification in your army a menace. For players who like to tilt the board in their favor with clever interactions, Towashi is a wheels-within-wheels kind of card that rewards patience, positioning, and a little bit of chaos. And yes, it looks cool doing it 🧙♂️🔥💎.
At first glance, Towashi is a Plane from Kamigawa with no traditional mana cost attached: a zero-mana trigger-happy stage that sits in the command zone of your deck. The plane’s core mechanic centers on two intertwined concepts: modifications and chaos. Modifications are a broad umbrella for any Equipment, Auras, or counters that attach to creatures to grant new abilities or stat boosts. When you control modified creatures, they gain trample, and more importantly, you’ll unlock a card-draw engine every time those modified creatures deal combat damage to a player or a planeswalker. It’s a built-in win-con via resource generation—repeatable, reliable, and very flavorful for Kamigawa’s aesthetic. The second piece, chaos, enables a simultaneous push of power by distributing three +1/+1 counters among one, two, or three target creatures you control when “chaos ensues.” It’s a little chaotic, but that’s the point—the plane encourages dynamic, board-swinging plays.
Understanding the two-pronged mechanic
- Modifications: Not every permanent you control needs to be a legendary artifact to qualify. Equipment, Auras, and even counters you place on creatures are treated as modifications. Once your board state starts to tilt toward modified creatures, your entire squad becomes a threat, not just your big beater. Trample on these creatures means every hit counts, and the card-draw trigger turns every combat step into a potential reloading of your hand 🧙♂️.
- Chaos and counters: When chaos ensues, you get to distribute three +1/+1 counters across up to three targets you control. This is pure tempo and value: you can pump a single threat to a lethal state or spread the love to create a clutchwave of midrange threats. The flexibility is key in Commander games where your opponent’s removal suite tends to swing back and forth—the counters help you survive and then pivot into a decisive attack.
Kamigawa’s signature flavor shows up here in spades: the plane’s love for artifacts, enchantments, and quirky spell-crafting reveals itself in Towashi’s text. The card’s art by Kamila Szutenberg captures a shifting, neon-lit aura around a world where even the rules feel like they’ve been rearranged by a playful, slightly chaotic omnipotence. The planar setting is more than just a backdrop; it becomes a strategic palette for how you plan your turns and protect your board.
Strategies to reign over the board
Towashi rewards a careful, tempo-friendly build that values board presence and resilience. Here are a few practical angles you can explore in a Commander pod:
- Grow the modified army: Prioritize Equipment and Auras that you can reliably attach to creatures you own. A single well-placed weapon or supportive aura can turn a mediocre body into a trampling threat that draws a card on every combat damage event. The key is consistency—avoid overloading with temporary buffs that force you to replay creatures. Towashi’s strength is the long game, where incremental gains compound into a formidable board state.
- Maximize the chaos counters: When chaos ensues, you’re not just pumping a creature or two—you’re turning on a resource engine that fuels your next two or three turns. Use creatures you don’t mind buffing up or sacrificing to produce resilient threats that help you leverage the three +1/+1 counters most effectively. The counters can be spread to shore up mana-efficient blockers or to push a lone champion into the lethal range with trample behind it.
- Card draw as currency: The draw-on-damage mechanic is an immense advantage in multiplayer formats. Every time your modified creature lands damage on a player or planeswalker, you gain more cards to fuel the plan. Build a deck that can sustain multiple successful trades—your hand becomes a resource generator as much as a toolkit for threats.
- Protect the plan with resilience: Because Towashi’s power is largely strategic rather than a single heavy-hitting finisher, you’ll want ways to protect your modifications and ensure your board keeps growing. Anthems that slightly strengthen your modified creatures, or recursion to reuse Auras and Equipment, can keep the engine humming even as removal answers your board state.
In practice, you might start with a few dependable modified bodies, blend in some equipment that’s easy to re-train onto new targets, and then lean into chaos counters to kick your engine into high gear. The result is a dynamic, ever-evolving battlefield where your opponents are left counting bodies and blessings rather than mere threats on a board.
Lore, art, and the feel of Kamigawa on the table
Towashi is a product of March of the Machine Commander, a set designed to celebrate big Commander moments with a planar twist. The Kamigawa lineage—reimagined through Towashi’s planar lens—gives this card a sense of theatricality. The art by Kamila Szutenberg captures the sense of an ever-shifting battlefield, where modifications and chaos aren’t just mechanical terms but a way of life for the creatures under Towashi’s watch. It’s the kind of card you want to slot into a deck not just for its numeric power but for the stories it invites: the clang of equipment, the whisper of Auras, the moment a creature becomes the threat because it wears a little more power on its back 🔥🎨⚔️.
Price and accessibility reflect its status as a common card from Commander sets, offering a reliable entry point for players exploring the larger themes of the format. The card’s presence on Scryfall and its listings across major retailers show it’s approachable enough for casual brewmasters while still offering a surprising amount of depth for seasoned strategists looking to test new angles in multiplayer games.
“When you can draw a card after every successful trampling attack, every combat step becomes a mini-game of tempo and value. Towashi gives you both the tools and the stage.” 🧙♂️
As you start to pilot this plane, you’ll notice a natural synergy with the broader Commander ecosystem—the kind that makes you grin at your playgroup when a well-timed chaos counter flips the status quo in your favor. And if you’re curious about more ways to round out your deck or want to dive into the broader lore and community discussions, there are plenty of resources (including EDH recommendations on EDHREC and discussion threads in your favorite MTG communities) that celebrate the same spirit Towashi embodies: build a better board, then let the board build you a victory 🧙♂️🔥💎.
Speaking of crafting a plan that scales, you can keep your devices protected while you plan your next turn. If you’re in the market for reliable protection while you brainstorm your next combo, consider a rugged companion for your everyday carry—Rugged Tough Phone Case, designed to withstand the chaos of real life as deftly as Towashi handles chaos on the battlefield.