Urza's Legacy
From MTG Salvation Wiki
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|---|---|---|
| Symbol | 
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| Design Team | Mike Elliott (lead) Bill Rose Mark Rosewater | |
| Development Team | Henry Stern (lead) Mike Elliott William Jockusch Bill Rose Mark Rosewater | |
| Release Date | February, 1999 | |
| Mechanics | Free spells, Sleeping and Growing Enchantments | |
| Keywords/ Ability words | Cycling, Echo | |
| Size | 143 (55 Common 44 Uncommon 44 Rare) | |
| Expansion Code | ULG | |
| Development Codename | Guacamole | |
| Sets in Urza block | ||
| Urza's Saga | Urza's Legacy | Urza's Destiny |
| Magic: The Gathering Chronology | ||
| Anthologies | Urza's Legacy | 6th Edition |
Urza's Legacy is the seventeenth Magic expansion and was released in 1999 as the second set in the Urza block. Prerelease events were held February 6, 1999.
Contents |
[edit] Set details
Urza's Legacy was the first expansion to feature randomly inserted foil cards.
[edit] Mechanics & themes
The two Urza's Saga mechanics echo and cycling are both present in Urza's Legacy as well. In the earlier set, echo was solely a creature ability, but Urza's Legacy expanded this by including artifacts with echo. Additionally, while in Urza's Saga echo was used mainly to get larger-than-usual creatures out at a discount, in Urza's Legacy most creatures with echo had average power and toughness for their cost but came with a comes-into-play ability, effectively making them two spells for the price of one.
This expansion also continued the themes of "sleeping" and "eternal" enchantments, adding a handful of new cards of each type. It also included a set of enchantments that function like the sleepers but sacrifice themselves to produce some effect when the condition is met rather than turning into a creature (i.e. Brink of Madness). They're essentially "sleeping instants." This was not an entirely new concept, since a few isolated cards like this had appeared in the past, but here it's a significant subtheme.
The other significant Urza's Legacy card cycle was its lands (aka "Manlands") . For each color, there was a land that could tap for that color of mana or temporarily turn itself into a creature.
[edit] Cycles
Urza's Legacy has four cycles:
- Manlands: Each of these uncommon lands comes into play tapped, can be tapped for one mana of a given color, and has an activated ability that can turn it into a creature until end of turn — Forbidding Watchtower, Faerie Conclave, Spawning Pool, Ghitu Encampment, and Treetop Village. This cycle was reprinted in 10th Edition.
- Phyrexian Carriers vertical cycle: Each of these black Carrier creatures can be sacrificed to give another creature -X/-X until end of turn, where X is its power and toughness — Phyrexian Denouncer, Phyrexian Debaser, Phyrexian Defiler, and Phyrexian Plaguelord.
- Recurring Auras: Each of these common Aura enchantments returns to its owner's hand when put into a graveyard from play — Cessation, Slow Motion, Sleeper's Guile, Sluggishness and Rancor.
- Sleeping enchantments: Each of these rare enchantments sacrifices itself for a big effect if a certain requirement is met during your upkeep — Planar Collapse, Second Chance, Brink of Madness, Impending Disaster, and Defense of the Heart.
[edit] Mirrored pairs
- Defenders: These knights, one red and one white, both have flash and protection from the mirrored color — Defender of Chaos, Defender of Law.
[edit] Notable cards
- Avalanche Riders — The first card designed by a Magic Invitational winner, Darwin Kastle.
- Crop Rotation — Also restricted in Vintage for being able to get any land.
- Deranged Hermit — A great creature and part of the "Squirel-prison" deck.
- Goblin Welder — Became a staple in Vintage and Legacy.
- Grim Monolith — A variation on Basalt Monolith. Together with Voltaic Key an important mana-accelerator
- Memory Jar — The first card to be banned from tournament play by the DCI players' organization before it had been proven to be broken in tournament use. Many players contacted the DCI after the set was released, showing how Memory Jar made first-turn wins possible and second to third-turn wins common in the standard environment.
- Mother of Runes — Famous one-drop and one a bomb in limited.
- Palinchron — Essential part of the High Tide combo decks.
- Rancor — One of the best Enchant Creature spells ever printed.
- Tinker — Being able to get any artifact in your deck ensured its restriction in Vintage.
[edit] Reprinted cards
The following cards have been reprinted from previous sets and included in Urza's Legacy.
- Blessed Reversal — was last seen in Portal.
- Lava Axe — was last seen in Portal Second Age.
- Lone Wolf — was last seen in Portal Second Age.
[edit] Theme decks
Radiant's Revenge is the only theme deck with both rares being artifacts. The pre-constructed theme decks are:
| Theme deck name | |||||
| White | Blue | Black | Red | Green | |
| Crusher | □ | ■ | |||
| Phyrexian Assault | ■ | ■ | |||
| Radiant's Revenge | □ | ■ | |||
| Time Drain | ■ | ■ | |||
[edit] External links
- Official Urza's Legacy Information Product Page — Magic: The Gathering (old)
- Official Urza's Legacy Information Product Page — Magic: The Gathering (new)
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