#Urza Lord High Artificer

[mtg-smash-or-pass]

[mtg-cards-hourly]

Urza, Lord High Artificer

Artist: Grzegorz Rutkowski TCG Player Link Scryfall Link EDHREC Link

[haaaaaaaaaaaave-you-met-ted]

Urza, Lord High Artificer (Profile Ver) by Grant Griffin

[sexhaver]

i think i just experienced the most archetypical game of Commander ever. a middle schooler piloting an Urza deck pitched Whirr of Invention to Force of Will to stop someone else from winning, then cast Expropriation, then he got two extra turns because someone had never seen the card before and voted for "time", then everyone scooped due to time constraints. also he was running Command Tower. in his Urza, Lord High Artificer deck.

[danco110]

The farmer shuddered. He hastily scanned the room, and to his horror, saw blood dripping from the wall. Thirteen lines of crimson trailed down the wood surface, pooling around the thirteen small logs stacked in the fireplace.

This sent the man into a panic. He stumbled through the front door and fled in haste, leaving the ill-omened house behind.

—

“Johnny! Where are you going? Which mode are you…picking.”

Spike scowled at the other player, who was busy storming outside the LGS in a huff. The sitting player then looked down at her opponent’s own Triskaidekaphobia that had just caused him to lose.

“I think that’s the first time I’ve ever seen that card kill someone!”

Spike looked up and to her side, at the other two people in the pod. She gave the player sitting in the opposite corner a nod of agreement, her expression softening slightly.

“Well, Timmy, I think that’s the first time I’ve ever seen that card played.”

While Timmy bit back a laugh, the player sitting beside Spike pointed to the card in question. The motion jostled the Nicol Bolas-shaped hat atop their head as they studied the art.

“I’ve always wondered what actually does the killing in-universe here, you know? I was going to say maybe it was symbolic, just superstition. But the number thirteen does seem cursed, on Innistrad at least.”

“You’ve got that right, Vorthos!” Timmy laughed, as he played two cards from his hand. “Case in point: I’m going to cast Quicken, drawing a card and giving my next sorcery flash-”

“It doesn’t actually have flash, though.”

Timmy rolled his eyes at Spike’s correction. “And cast Into the Maw of Hell, targeting both your Cabal Coffers and your Urza, Lord High Artificer. And yes, Triskaidekaphobia trigger still on the stack, before you untap.”

Spike frowned at the two targets, both under her control. Her forehead met her playmat in frustration, shaking the cards off the table and earning a lighthearted laugh from Vorthos.

“Hey, I guess the cards really did go into the…heh.”

[markrosewater]

To explain, the miter is one of the ceremonial garments of the Lord High Artificer of Argive and Urza does indeed don it in the novel. It doesn't last long, however, as the jewels sewn into it are powerstones. It's implied that it is disassembled to aid the war effort.

FYI

[dimestoretajic]

elon would netdeck stax and have a zero percent win rate cuz he can't politick for shit

bezos would play aristocrats and drown the board in value

gates would not understand why everyone hates his urza, lord high artificer build

and zuck plays act of treason effects like, ALL the time

and all of them run land destruction

change my mind

[vorthosjay]

Hi Jay! I was just looking at the artwork of Urza, High Lord Artificer and it got me thinking…he has a artifact looking right arm, white hair, mustache and goatee…just like Tezzeret does! Their artifact summoning blue magic also seems incredibly similar…Is there any way to rule out Tezzeret isn’t a completed, post execution Urza?

Tezzeret is NOT Urza, but you’re not the first one to draw the parallels between him and Urza

[aflo]

urza, lord high artificer 2!!

the nontoken rider here helps reign in the power a little bit, plus being in the totally random colors of red and green, but this can certainly still power out some ridiculous turns. in pioneer, this easily crosses the finish line with a paradox engine and some cheap artifacts.

[token-doodles]

I managed to put the Helm Of The Host on Urza, Lord High Artificer. So I needed extra tokens for him and his constructs.

Anyway all our boards got wiped immediately after I did that.

[commander-deck-ideas]

Can't wait to pick up Urza Lord high artificer and a displacer kitten this Monday. My jhoira deck is gonna be sick.

[thecommandertable]

What is the Token Tax?

I'm a big advocate for having all the tokens your deck needs when you play. When I cast Adeline, Resplendent Cathar and attack, I want to be at the ready with that Human token.

I'll generally keep two copies of any given creature token with my deck, so that I can easily differentiate between my tapped and untapped ones. You could also have an additional token in case you want to keep track which of the untapped creatures have summoning sickness or not. If we're talking treasures or clues, one copy is usually sufficient (unless your commander is Urza, Lord High Artificer, or you have a lot of cards with improvise, or Ghirapur Aether Grid- stuff that causes you to tap these tokens without sacrificing them).

The point being, for most cards that make tokens, one or two tokens are usually all you need. They have a low "token tax". Other cards require more from you if you want to represent the board state as accurately as possible.

Consider Curse of Disturbance:

You'll want two zombie tokens for yourself, but also zombie tokens for your opponents should they attack the enchanted player- that's four more (the cursed player can't attack themself). It's unlikely the game state will require six separate zombie tokens from just this card, but it is possible. Thus Curse of Disturbance has a higher token tax. I might hesitate to include it in a deck because of this, especially one that doesn't have any other cards that make zombie tokens.

Sometimes an increased token tax isn't due to a large number of pieces needed on hand, but how difficult it is to get them in the first place. The 6/6 dragon tokens created by Utvara Hellkite, for instance, will run you anywhere from 2-6 dollars apiece, depending on the printing.

Some tokens don't exist at all -- usually ones created by older cards like Spawning Pit.

Some cards create multiple kinds of tokens:

This concept can be extended to cards that don't make tokens per say, but still require other materials to help keep track of the board state. This could be dice for +1/+1 counters--

-- or for keyword counters--

Some cards, particularly from the two D&D sets, require non-standard dice.

The Unfinity set brought us some Commander-legal cards that I don't touch because I don't want to muck about with attractions or stickers.

And there are a handful of mechanics that, again, don't make tokens, but use another game piece to track some sort of status - the monarch, the city's blessing, night/day, the ring tempts you, and of course, dungeons. I mean, just look at Undercellar Sweep:

You need Soldier tokens, the Undercity card (2 actually, so you can turn one over to track who has the initiative), a Treasure token, a 4/1 menace Skeleton token, dice or counters for both tracking your position (and possibly your opponents') in the dungeon and for +1/+1 counters.

What if an opponent takes the initiative from you after you've already gone through the Stash room and the Catacombs, and reaches those rooms themselves? Yeah, someone else probably has a Treasure token, but a 4/1 black Skeleton token with menace? You'd better have a second one just to be safe. It's just too much! The token tax is too high!

[mtg-cards-hourly]

Urza, Lord High Artificer

Artist: Grzegorz Rutkowski TCG Player Link Scryfall Link EDHREC Link

[jeskaim]

The Brothers’ War Spoilers Part 1: Urza and Mishra

Previews for The Brothers’ War are here and so far it’s looking like a solid set. I wasn’t playing in the early years of Magic so I’m not familiar with the full story of the feud between Urza and Mishra but all I know is that it pretty much destroyed the plane of Dominaria and pretty much everyone who lived on the plane at the time had to choose a side. With the set revolving around Urza and Mishra I was expecting to see them in this set but I wasn’t expecting to see three versions of each at different rarities. It’s interesting to see the meld mechanic make a return because we haven’t seen it since Eldritch Moon. Back then GIsela was a force to be reckoned with and this time around it looks like Urza will take that spot (assuming you can get him out). That ultimate is insane.

Mishra isn’t looking too bad either. Like I said earlier I don’t know much about The Brothers’ War from a lore standpoint but I like Mishra and his transformation into a Phyrexian machine. Once Mishra, Lost to Phyrexia hits the battlefield your opponent might as well scoop because there’s no way to beat something that powerful without instant removal.

Since we’re getting three versions of both Urza and Mishra it’s fitting we get younger versions of them as young adults. With both Urza and Mishra being artificers it’s expected that this set would have a strong artifact theme which goes well with rare Urza. Urza, Lord High Artificer from Modern Horizons is already a strong commander for artifacts but this one is a much cheaper alternative. I actually considered making Urza my next commander just to use cards like Mox Opal and Tolarian Academy (which I didn’t know was banned in commander) but decided it would be much too expensive. Plus I have too many blue commander decks and don’t need another one.

And finally the youngest version of both brothers. I couldn’t help but notice how both of these are mono-colored which means this was before they chose their destined path and gained their secondary colors: white for Urza and black for Mishra. I like how they both have the ability where you can pay one and tap to discard and draw which to me symbolizes their brotherhood but each having different effects when you discard artifacts.

That’s all for part one. Next time I’ll talk about Green cards in this set because there’s always been a lot of green on Dominaria.

[mtgdays]

Much Abrew: Mono-Blue Upheaval (Modern)

Much Abrew: Mono-Blue Upheaval (Modern)

Can we pick up some flawless victories in Modern with the help of Upheaval and Urza, Lord High Artificer to make absurd amounts of mana? Let’s find out! Source: MTG GOLD FISH

[demondramonx]

Urza, Lord High Artificer Alter sleeve! Available at my altersleeves profile.