Magic: The Gathering

Magical Thinking: Urza’s Saga

Welcome back to Magical Thinking, a look back at the cards and art of Magic: the Gathering, through the eyes of a casual player. After a few weeks of looking at non-canon sets, we dive back into the main storyline with a new block, and the first set of that block: Urza’s Saga.

Released in October of 1998, Urza’s Saga is a prequel to the Weatherlight saga, featuring Urza as he travels through the planes and Dominaria, seeking the power he needs to destroy Phyrexia once and for all. If the Weatherlight block was Star Wars, this set is the Prequels kind of (Except, you know, not terrible, from a certain point of view, from some perspective this block was good, maybe too good, but I digress).

In any case, let’s see what Urza got up to in the days after The Brother’s War. I got a bad feeling about this.

Part of this expansion takes place in the realm of Serra (As in Serra’s Angel Serra, who we last heard anything from way back in Homelands), so White has a pretty big Angel theme in this set. Of course it seems like they added Angels to the list of things they can’t use along with demons, so it’s a “Spirit” instead. Still, who wouldn’t love getting mail from an Angel. I wonder if they deliver pizzas too?

It’s always rough on the kids when parents get divorced, if this flavor text is anything to go by. I think those people running have the right idea.

Sorry Xantcha, but I’m sure WOTC will tell you Serra is just into “Big Beefy men.” (No I’m still never going to get over that and neither should you). Also, is Xantcha supposed to be Xena, Warrior Princess? I just started rewatching this because it’s Xena’s 25th anniversary. Maybe I just have Xena on the brain.

Okay, so they ARE allowed to still use Angels. So why wasn’t Angelic Page an Angel? Are Spirits like the pre-evolution of Angels? Do you have to do three years of Angel community college as a Spirit before you get upgraded? I’m confused.

One thing I’ve been seeing in this set are these weird card duos which are the opposite of one another. Here we have the Monk Idealist, which gets you enchantments back, and the Monk Realist which destroys them. I kind of prefer the Realist; he has this “I don’t have time for your BS” look about him.

I’m not sure if this is the set that started the whole “Enchantments that turn into creatures under certain conditions” thing, but this is the first I remember seeing them. It’s kind of a neat effect. I always like the idea of “trap” like cards in Magic which trigger when your opponent does a thing, and White has several in this set.

Wow, Radiant sounds like a real creep. I think she might be our very first White Mana Antagonist in Magic. We’ve had examples of White being bad or at least questionable, but here we have a straight-up named White character being a jerk.

Basically the anti-Armageddon. If you had this and Tormod’s Crypt you could totally hose your opponent’s land and then get yours back fine (since you could destroy all land with Armageddon, then use Tormod’s crypt on the opponent’s graveyard, them use this to bring your land back).

I think this is one of the early prototypes for Count Chocula cereal. Sadly animal bones floating in chocolate syrup wasn’t going to get by the FDA I don’t think. Honestly, the Runes are pretty powerful from glance, I wonder why they were never reprinted.

That is one beefy dude (Chandra approved!). I think he should warrant more than just a 1/4. I guess he shouldn’t have skipped leg day.

I think Voice of Grace should change shampoo brands. She’s got some wicked split ends there. Also, I like the little tufts on her wings.

Blue in this set brings us to the Tolarian academy, the school of wizards and witchcraft in Dominaria, with its headmaster Barrin, seen here. Interestingly next year we will be getting a new Magic set located in another magical school located on another magical plane. We’ll get to see how they measure up to the original wizard school of Magic (Of course, Tolarian Academy has giant squids as students, so they win by default).

And we’re not just meeting Barrin for the first time in this set. We also meet a young, pre-planeswalker Terferi. It’s kind of amusing to see he was a troublemaker when he was in school. Remember, this is the guy who would go on to become the hero of Dominaria.

Heh, it’s funny because eventually he becomes the master of time and space.

Coming soon to theaters, The Fast and the Furious: Agrabah Drift. I do like how it looks like the Djinn is in fact drifting. I think he might fall over if he keeps on drifting.

Um, I think they should be wearing goggles while they are doing this, especially considering how big their eyes are here. Also it’s nice to see that Urza saw that Terferi would grow up to be a big deal.

…Why does a Horseshoe Crab have nearly identical stats to the huge buff temple guard from above? How big is this crab?

I think they made a horror movie about this, only the kid was imagining tigers. Ability wise it’s fairly powerful if you are in topdeck mode, and you can play out your hand before your upkeep (which Blue can do).

Me when they start playing Christmas music at the store I work at. The struggle is so very real.

You know how it goes, One kid brings their pet in for show and tell, then everyone starts doing it, and then some kid decides to bring in their beholder. I’ve seen it a million times.

I was looking up what happened to Tolaria because the impression I got was Terferi blew it up. It turns out it was Karn and Urza who accidentally blew it up with a time machine, which also stuck Terferi in a slow time bubble. Like ya do.

Huh, that would make a good name for a set in the future. Maybe not though.

Well that’s a creepy… and confusing… looking creature. Also, may I just say Horrors are probably one of my favorite Magic creature types alongside Thrulls.

When you’ve been soaking in the bath for six hours and you don’t want to come out because it’s too cold out.

Hey, remember when a 2/1 for 4 mana that made your opponents discard 1 card was a good card? Ah well, at least we can all laugh about it now.

Duress is one of those cards which has just become Iconic of Black, and has been reprinted a ton of times. This is the very first time it shows up, and it keeps showing up. In fact, it’s Standard legal right now.

I am guessing from the artwork that in fact, no, she did not die honorably. *Checks* Oh wow, Selenia is actually the dark angel which corrupted Crovax. Well, learn something new every day. Yeah, no, Selenia got done dirty.

Yeah, as it turns out Xantcha was a Phyrexian sleeper agent, but I guess she knew she was an agent and betrayed Phyrexia and became Urza’s partner. Honestly, this ability flavor is pretty neat, although it has the down side of giving your opponent a 3/3. I would combine with Pacifism or something.

One thing I wanted to talk about was how this set had several Chinese variant cards which edited out skeletons and other such stuff, presumably because China has strict laws against showing skeletons in media. I picked this one because it was the most significant change, turning the skeletons into really thin and bony looking guys. Weirdly, to my knowledge, this was never done with any other set.

And here we have another Hellion before Hellions were a thing. I gotta say, it’s a pretty good card for the price, although the Echo is annoying (I think Echo was a new mechanic in this set where you had to pay the mana for a card twice to keep it).

…Then how would they know Dromosaur are afraid of Dogs? Also, the Dromosaur kind of looks like a dinosaur dog, doesn’t it?

Um, you okay there dude? You seem to be on fire. You need some water or something? Okay, never mind, I guess you know what you’re doing.

Okay, we’ve had knights with guns, we’ve had ogres with flamethrowers, and now, we have goblins on buggies? SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY, WIZARDS.

On the plus side, if it hits a potato farm, instant french fries. Just need to cut em and cook em. Convenient, and horrifying.

Okay, this is the best image in the set, bar none. I presume that when you lose the flip they accidentally ram into a rock when diving. I mean, you’ll get that.

I like this one. It’s like one of those moles with the weird star shaped noses, only it’s a giant lizard. It’s like something from Avatar the Last Airbender.

Apparently the Planeswalker Garruk really likes this card. They show up in some of his constructed decks, especially when fighting Lilliana.

I love DiTerlizzi’s art, but that treefolk does not look like they’re going to war. They look a bit too whimsical for that. I don’t know, maybe it’s me.

Okay, but why does his mace have little plants growing out of it? Or is that like a giant seed bell or something?

WELL THEN IT’S NOT REALLY ENDLESS, IS IT? Talk about false advertising. If you have to keep feeding it enchantments than that’s kind of the opposite of endless. I do appreciate the flavor text though.

Okay now we’re talking: Tree mechs. Now that’s something you don’t see enough of in speculative fiction. Hey Solar punk writers, why not with the tree mechs? That’s a fresh take. In fact I may have to steal that for my DnD campaign.

Like White, Green has an entire cycle of enchantments that become a thing if your opponent does a thing, but rather than being animated statues, these are “hidden” creatures. I have to say this might be the best one of the lot, since its a 3/5 reacher for one mana (assuming your opponent has a flyer, which a lot of people do play).

Wait, wasn’t this the plot of Princess Mononoke? I mean, it was even a boar.

I love the facial expressions here of the elves being like “Um, not sure if want?” and the Pixies just being cute. Especially the one in the back. Make a plushie of that, Wizards. THIS I COMMAND.

I expected something called the “Hopping Automaton” to be a bit more whimsical. I mean, I want my Super Mario robot to be a bit goofier looking. Is it me? Am I the jerk here?

And here we have the man himself, Karn, the guy who would go on to become the first artifact planeswalker. Here he is not killing anyone and bringing artifacts to life. I do like how his pacifism is depicted in his abilities where he goes total defense mode in a fight, although this is a trait he would not keep in the future.

I wonder how long it took them to come up with this pun. I also love how this totally punishes discard decks by making four gnomes per discard. That’s some value.

Jeez, Mishra. Could you not for five minutes? I mean, you and Urza gotta calm down here.

I feel like there must have been a ton of decks in the day which were “gain a ton of life, spend some of it on Processor, then start churning out giant minions.”

Who makes a cat out of barbed wire? How am I supposed to pet and cuddle this cat? It would be way too painful. You’re just being mean.

And finally we come to the lands. I decided to cover this one because it showed up in Jumpstart It’s pretty indicative of a Black land, what with sacrificing creatures for Black mana.

Wow, this may be one of the longer articles I’ve done. I hope you all enjoyed reading it. Tune in next week for the next part of the Urza block, Urza’s Legacy. See you then, and stay Magical.