Urza's Saga is a 350-card Magic: The Gathering expansion set that debuted in October 1998. It is widely regarded as one of the most powerful sets ever released. The expansion symbol features a pair of gears from an Urza machine.
| File:Exp sym uz.gif Gears | ||||
| Released | October 1998 | |||
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| Size | 350 cards | |||
| Keywords | Echo, Cycling | |||
| Mechanics | "Free" spells, Sleeping and Growing Enchantments | |||
| Development code | Armadillo | |||
| Expansion code | USG | |||
| Third set in the Urza Block block | ||||
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Set history
Many people believed that the Urza block was another group of artifact sets like Antiquities because of Urza's association with artifacts and the fact that the block contained many powerful artifacts. This is also the official claim of Wizards of the Coast, even calling the Urza Block the Artifacts Cycle (much like how Tempest Block was called the Rath Cycle). However, it was much closer to being an "enchantment-driven" block (the same way that Mirrodin is an "artifact-driven" block) than anything else. The block was initially intended to be enchantment driven in the design stages, but thematically from a storyline point of view Wizards maintains that this block is centered around artifacts. This can be seen according to Wizards of the Coast's "Card of the Day" for June 30, 2005, and in artifacts like Fluctuator and other cards like the devastating Tolarian Academy.
The Urza block ushered in an a new era of combo decks. With Urza's Saga released in the fall, the period before many of the banning and restrictions of many of the overpowered cards in the set is referred to as Combo Winter by both players and Wizards staff. Standard (Type-2) and Saga Block constructed decks were so fast that they could often win by turn three if not by turn one. There are several articles on the Wizards of the Coast website MagicTheGathering.com that discuss various tournaments in which players would mulligan down to half their starting hand size just for the perfect initial hand. Many games were simply decided by the flip of the coin to see who would go first. In all, Urza's Saga has had more cards banned from it than any other Block in the history of the game, with cards banned or restricted across all game formats in which the set has been legal for play. Urza's Legacy (the second set in the block) contains the only card to be 'emergency banned' before it made it to print (Memory Jar). Mirrodin, which produced nine cards banned across the Block, Standard, Extended and Legacy formats, and two restricted in Vintage, is the only block that comes close to the sheer power and speed of Urza's Saga. Examination of the block shows, even with banned cards set aside, an astonishingly high number of constructed playable or near-degenerate cards.
Storyline
The story of Urza's Saga (and the later sets in the series) are essentially prequels to the former Tempest/Stronghold/Exodus sets, explaining the aftermath of the Brothers' War (as seen in the Antiquities expansion).
Whereas other sets have all five colors of cards referencing the same story, Urza's Saga has each of the five colors showing a different part of the storyline.
Green cards detail the conflict on Argoth (which would lead to the events of the Ice Age expansion). Black cards reveal Urza's failed attack on Phyrexia itself. White cards document Urza's period of recuperation in Serra's Realm. Blue cards explain Urza's founding of an academy on Tolaria and his temporal experiments. Red cards show Urza's alliance with Shiv.
Shiv, Phyrexia, Tolaria, and Serra's Realm are some of the most iconic settings in Magic. Most of the story of this set is written in the book Planeswalker, though the battle of Argoth is from the end of The Brothers' War and the founding of Tolaria and alliance with Shiv are found in Time Streams.
Mechanics
Cycling cards allow a player to pay a small cost to discard that card and to draw another to replace it. In this expansion set, the cost for cycling is always two colorless mana. When the mechanic appeared again in the Onslaught expansion, the costs varied to fit the card.
Cycling is the first block mechanic to be re-used in another expansion set.
Echo is a mechanic that requires the player to pay the casting cost for a permanent again on his/her next turn, or it must be sacrificed. Echo cards have lower mana costs (and may be played earlier) than comparable non-echo cards, in exchange for the double payment. All are creatures in Saga and almost all cards with echo are green.
Free Spells were a mechanic exclusively featured in blue cards. A powerful group of cards (and one Wizards of the Coast has often regretted printing) are the Free Spells from this block. These spells allow the player to untap the same number of lands as the card's converted mana cost upon resolution, freeing land for other use. This was abused by decks that use lands that produce more than one mana, and Sapphire Medallion from Tempest. Doing this can produce great quantities of mana and the ability to utilize cards from the Scourge expansion with the Storm mechanic.
Urza's Saga had several "Sleeping" Enchantments, enchantments that would change into a creature when an opponent triggers a condition, usually by playing a certain type of spell.
Saga also contained a cycle of Legendary Lands, three of which produced colored mana depending on the number of certain permanents controlled (white = enchantments, green = creatures, blue = artifacts). These would prove to be popular cards and so powerful that all are banned in the Urza's Saga Constructed format. The most powerful of the three, Tolarian Academy, is also banned in the Legacy format, and restricted in Vintage.
The Rancors, got their name from an enchantment that would be released in Urza's Legacy. They are auras that return to your hand if destroyed or sacrificed. The embraces were a cycle of auras that could turn a regular 2/2 creature into a huge threat.
As a side note, the rules for the Trample ability were simplified in Urza's Saga.
Notable cards
- Tolarian Academy — This is a land that, instead of producing one mana, produces blue mana equal to the number of artifacts you control—which turned out to be a very easy number to enlarge. Immediately upon the set's release, decks based around the land Tolarian Academy (and at least three powerful blue cards from Urza's Saga, Time Spiral, Windfall, and Stroke of Genius) dominated all formats of constructed tournament play. The decks combined artifacts and blue spells to draw cards to search the deck, produce an enormous amount of mana, and kill the opponent extremely early (typically the second or third turn, and sometimes as soon as the first turn). Tolarian Academy and other components of the deck were quickly banned or restricted in tournament play, and the Academy continues to make its presence felt in Vintage (Type I), the only format where even one copy of it may still be played in a deck. This card was especially deadly when the rules on legendary permanents favored the player who played the card first (pre-Kamigawa Block Legendary rules).
- Yawgmoth's Will — A black spell that allows its controller to reuse any cards in his or her graveyard for one turn, the Will turned out to be too powerful (especially in combination with mana producers like Dark Ritual, which could be played before the Will and replayed after it). It was abused in many all-black decks as well as Tolarian Academy decks. It is now one of the most powerful single cards in Vintage (Type I) play, and is sometimes referred to as "Yawgmoth's Win" for its ability to finish off an opponent.
- Morphling — Nicknamed "Superman" or "Cardboard Jesus" for its wide range of abilities, Morphling was for years considered the best creature ever printed (and some still claim it as the best). Although costly, Morphling's abilities combine to make it difficult to block or destroy, and only a few attacks with it are usually needed to win. On a flavor-related note, the right figure in the art is actually a woman (the iconic Morphling is on the left sporting a subtle tail-like appendage as well as tiny wings).
- Smokestack - This card slowly grinds away both players resources. The smokestack's controller usually has ways to make the permanent loss one-sided. Staple component of Type 1 Mishra's Workshop based prison decks.
- Argothian Enchantress — Its small cost, untargetability, and card-drawing talent made it a staple for green enchantment decks.
- Gaea's Cradle — The Cradle, a green, creature-friendly version of Tolarian Academy, was common in green decks that played a large army of creatures, such as Elf decks. Some non-green decks even use it for the amount of mana it can provide, but it never reached the heights of abuse that Tolarian Academy did.
- Serra Avatar — A white creature with power and toughness equal to its controller's life, and an ability that returns it to the library if sent to the graveyard, Serra Avatar was too costly to see much tournament play. However, it remains popular with casual players and retains a high secondary-market value.
- Exploration — A green enchantment with a casting cost of one that allows a player to drop an extra land every turn proved to be extremely valuable mana acceleration.
- Lifeline — The ability to constantly sacrifice creatures and have them come freely back into play allows for many possibilities.
- Sneak Attack — This red enchantment was often used to attack with very large creatures early in the game, and is especially useful when those creatures have abilities that trigger when they come into or leave play.
- Goblin Lackey — An unremarkable uncommon when it came out, it became quite valuable when later sets introduced more expensive Goblin creatures. Eventually banned in Extended, it had the power of putting a Goblin creature into play for free as soon as turn two. It is now a staple of the dominating Goblin deck in the Legacy format.
- Fluctuator - The ability to cycle cards for free proved to be too powerful leading to the banning of Fluctuator in extended and standard. This card is still used in some bottom tier Type 1 decks.