Urza's Saga
From MTG Salvation Wiki
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|---|---|---|
| Symbol | 
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| Design Team | Mike Elliott (lead) Richard Garfield Bill Rose Mark Rosewater | |
| Development Team | Mike Elliott (lead) William Jockusch Bill Rose Mark Rosewater Henry Stern with contributions from Beth Moursund | |
| Release Date | October, 1998 | |
| Mechanics | Free spells, Sleeper and Growing permanents | |
| Keywords/ Ability words | Cycling, Echo | |
| Size | 350 (110 Common 110 Uncommon 110 Rare 20 Land) | |
| Expansion Code | USG | |
| Development Codename | Armadillo | |
| Sets in Urza block | ||
| Urza's Saga | Urza's Legacy | Urza's Destiny |
| Magic: The Gathering Chronology | ||
| Unglued | Urza's Saga | Anthologies |
Urza's Saga is the sixteenth Magic expansion and was released in 1998 as the first set in the Urza block.
Contents |
[edit] Set details
Tournament packs changed from 60 cards to 75 cards. This design was used to make it easier to run Sealed-Deck tournaments.
The prerelease for Urza's Saga gave away foil copies of the card Lightning Dragon as a promotion. This was the first release of a foil card in Magic although the next set in the block, Urza's Legacy, had them inserted randomly into booster packs.
[edit] Mechanics and themes
Like many earlier blocks, Urza's Saga did not have an overarching theme, though it did have an emphasis on enchantments and artifacts. The popular cycling keyword, which allowed players to discard unwanted cards to draw new ones, was introduced in this set. Echo, a keyword requiring a second mana payment on a permanent in exchange for higher than usual stats, also debuted in Urza's Saga.
Non-keyworded abilities appearing in Urza's Saga include free spells, sleeper and growing enchantments.
[edit] Cycles
Urza's Saga has eight cycles:
- Cycling lands: These common lands come into play tapped and add one mana of the appropriate color to one's mana pool, but can also be cycled — Drifting Meadow, Remote Isle, Polluted Mire, Slippery Karst, and Smoldering Crater. The related uncommon cycling land Blasted Landscape adds only colorless mana to one's mana pool, but comes into play untapped.
- Embraces: In an effort to get more people to play enchant creature Auras, this cycle was made which combined several abilities onto one card which cost
plus 2 mana of the appropriate color — Gaea's Embrace, Serra's Embrace, Shiv's Embrace, Vampiric Embrace and Zephid's Embrace. Each card referres to a rare creature from either Alpha or Urza's Saga: Child of Gaea, Serra Angel, Shivan Dragon, Sengir Vampire, and Zephid, respectively. Verdant Embrace in Time Spiral referenced this cycle, mimicking Verdant Force.
- Legendary lands: Rare legendary lands, that when tapped provide mana for each card type you control — Gaea's Cradle creatures, Serra's Sanctum enchantments, and Tolarian Academy artifacts. The cycle was rounded out with Shivan Gorge and Phyrexian Tower, which did not share the others' mana abilities, and despite being legendary did not refer to a specific location.
- "Perpetual" enchantments: When these common Aura enchantments, each with a converted mana cost of 2, go to the graveyard, they are returned to their owner's hand — Brilliant Halo, Launch, Despondency, Fiery Mantle, and Fortitude.
- Rare growing enchantments: Each of these rare growing enchantments has a mana cost of
CC except for the white one that costs 
. Each can be sacrificed by paying one mana of the apropriate color for an effect that grows with the number of verse counter on it — Serra's Liturgy, Recantation, Discordant Dirge, Rumbling Crescendo, and Midsummer Revel.
- Runes of protection: These common enchantments are similar to the Circles of Protection from Alpha, but their activation cost requires rather than
, unlike the Circles which allowed for merely splashing white. Their cycling ability, however, gives them extra utility — Rune of Protection: White, Rune of Protection: Blue, Rune of Protection: Black, Rune of Protection: Red, and Rune of Protection: Green. Two other runes exist complementing the cycle: Rune of Protection: Artifacts (uncommon) costs only one mana to activate, as opposed to Circle of Protection: Artifacts, which costs to activate. Finally, Rune of Protection: Lands, is a rare which prevented damage from lands. All 7 of the runes were illustrated by Scott M. Fischer and featured the same woman in the art.[1]
- Uncommon growing enchantments: Each of these uncommon growing enchantments can be sacrificed for an effect that grows with the number of verse counter on it — Serra's Hymn, Lilting Refrain, Vile Requiem, Torch Song, and War Dance.
- Uncommon "twos" mega cycle: Each card in this cycle has two targets — Rain of Salt, Redeem and Symbiosis (the lattermost being common instead of uncommon). Although a small cycle, the idea was continued in Urza's Legacy with the cards Peace and Quiet, Rack and Ruin, and Sick and Tired (the lattermost being common instead of uncommon).
[edit] Theme decks
Urza's Saga was the first expansion set to have a three-color theme deck. The pre-constructed theme decks are:
| Theme deck name | |||||
| White | Blue | Black | Red | Green | |
| The Plague | □ | ■ | |||
| Sleeper | □ | ||||
| Special Delivery | ■ | ■ | |||
| Tombstone | □ | ■ | ■ | ||
[edit] Notable cards
- Congregate — Strong in multiplayer-games.
- Corrupt — Finisher and life-gainer for mono-black decks who used Yawgmoth's Bargain.
- Duress — For a long time this was the best discard card, now often replaced by Thoughtseize.
- Fluctuator — A card to take advantage of cycling by reducing cycling costs to nothing.
- Gaea's Cradle — The green land accelerating elf decks like crazy. Often used in combination with Priest of Titania.
- Gamble — A strong but risky red tutor.
- Great Whale — Together with Recurring Nightmare made a strong infinite mana combo-deck.
- Goblin Lackey — One of the most sought after Goblins.
- Karn, Silver Golem — The first legendary artifact creature.
- Morphling — Nicknamed Superman.
- Phyrexian Processor — Often saw play in artifact-decks. Players would ocasionally pay 19 lives when it came into play.
- Priest of Titania — Made big mana in block green control decks.
- Serra's Sanctum — The white land still being played in the Legacy deck Turbo Enchantress.
- Sneak Attack — An enchantment that had entire decks build around it. Often used in combination with Serra Avatar and Crater Hellion.
- Smokestack — Still is the basis of many "Stax"-decks, like the old vintage UbaStax, or Legacy's RedStax(MoonStax), WhiteStax (AngelStax, ArmageddonStax).
- Stroke of Genius — The finisher of choice for most infinite mana decks.
- Time Spiral — A strong variation on Timetwister.
- Tolarian Academy — Decks were built around the Academy with zero cost artifacts to produce huge amounts of blue mana.
- Voltaic Key — One-card engine together with mana creating artifacts.
- Windfall — Very strong draw-spell, restricted in Vintage.
- Yawgmoth's Will — A staple in many decks, considered by some to be the strongest card ever.
[edit] Reprinted cards
The following cards have been reprinted from previous sets and included in Urza's Saga.
- Anaconda — was last seen in Portal.
- Bog Raiders — was last seen in Portal.
- Bull Hippo — was last seen in Portal.
- Dark Ritual — was last seen in Tempest.
- Disenchant — was last seen in Tempest.
- Enchantment Alteration — was last seen in Chronicles.
- Exhaustion — was last seen in Portal Second Age.
- Goblin Matron — was last seen in Portal Second Age.
- Goblin Raider — was last seen in Portal Second Age.
- Gorilla Warrior — was last seen in Portal.
- Healing Salve — was last seen in 5th Edition.
- Jagged Lightning — was last seen in Portal Second Age.
- Pacifism — was last seen in Tempest.
- Path of Peace — was last seen in Portal Second Age.
- Pestilence — was last seen in 5th Edition.
- Pit Trap — was last seen in Ice Age.
- Power Sink — was last seen in Tempest.
- Presence of the Master — was last seen in Legends.
- Rain of Salt — was last seen in Portal.
- Seasoned Marshal — was last seen in Portal.
- Wildfire — was last seen in Portal Second Age.
[edit] Functional reprints
Urza's Saga has six functional reprints:
- Argothian Swine is a functional reprint of War Mammoth from 5th Edition and Wild Elephant from Mirage, save for creature type.
- Blanchwood Treefolk is a functional reprint of Plated Wurm from Portal Second Age, save for creature type.
- Hollow Dogs is a functional reprint of Charging Bandits from Portal, save for creature type.
- Serra Zealot is a functional reprint of Tundra Wolves from 5th Edition, save for creature type.
- Spire Owl is a functional reprint of Sage Owl from Weatherlight, save for creature type.
- Unworthy Dead is a functional reprint of Drudge Skeletons from 5th Edition, Walking Dead from Legends and Restless Dead from Mirage.
[edit] Misprints
Phyrexian Colossus was printed with a collector number of 306/350 when it should be 305/350. 306 is the number for Phyrexian Processor which is printed correctly.
[edit] External links
- Official Urza's Saga Information Product Page — Magic: The Gathering (old)
- Official Urza's Saga Information Product Page — Magic: The Gathering (new)
[edit] References
- ↑ "Cycling art mystery", by "Magic Arcana", MTG.com, Monday, March 22, 2004.
