Urza's Legacy
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| Urza's Legacy | ||
|---|---|---|
| Expansion symbol |  |
|
| Release date | February 1999 | |
| Mechanics | "Free" spells, Sleeping and Growing Enchantments | |
| Keywords | Echo, Cycling | |
| Cycles | Emperors, Man-Lands | |
| Size | 143 cards | |
| 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 (Classic) |
Contents |
[edit] Set history
This set is noteworthy as the first set to feature premium (foil) cards inserted randomly into boosters.
[edit] Storyline
Urza's Legacy continues the flashback begun with Urza's Saga. Urza's Legacy continues Urza's quest to fight Phyrexia's godlike master, Yawgmoth's plans to conquer his home world, Dominaria. After an attempt to manipulate time goes catastrophically wrong, Urza searches for more allies as he builds a skyship to lead the war against Phyrexia. While he is away, the people of his Tolarian Academy have to battle a Phyrexian infestation on the island itself. The story of this set is recounted in the book Time Streams.
[edit] Mechanics
Urza's Legacy expanded on some of Urza's Saga's mechanics.
Numerous cards with Echo had additional effects when they came into play, making it often useful to cast the cards without having to pay the echo cost on the next turn. Also, three non-creature artifacts were printed with Echo.
The Emperor were a cycle of rare big creatures that depended on you having the right permanent type.
More "Sleeping" enchantments were introduced, including four that turned into creatures, and one of each color that produced various powerful effects when triggered.
[edit] Notable cards
- Memory Jar -- After many powerful cards from Urza's Saga and a few preceding sets were banned, the DCI was wary of more such combo cards. After the release of Urza's Legacy, Memory Jar was performing so well that it was banned before it even became tournament legal. Some decks combined it with Megrim to deal an easy 14 damage.
- Rack and Ruin - Very efficient artifact destruction that is a necessity in Vintage, at least for sideboarding, to combat over powered artifact prison decks.
- Avalanche Riders -- The first card designed by a Magic Invitational winner (in this case, Darwin Kastle) to be printed and the only one among them that is not a rare, Avalanche Riders is a rather popular card that is useful even if a player decides not to pay the Echo cost.
- Goblin Welder -- This incredibly cheap card allows the exchange of an artifact in play for one in its controller's graveyard, regardless of the cost of either. Numerous tricks with this card were developed, from simply exchanging a tapped artifact for an untapped copy of itself, to exchanging a cheap or unnecessary artifact for an expensive powerhouse from your graveyard. The power of Goblin Welder, like many of this block's artifacts and artifact-related cards, increased greatly with the release of the Mirrodin block.
- Rancor-- Considered by many players to be the best Aura of all time as well as one of the best common cards ever printed. It enjoys a good secondary market value and still sees play in Type 1 "Stompy" decks. A Friday Night Magic reprint was issued in 2004.
- Tinker -- For a cheap cost, and the sacrifice of an (usually cheap) artifact, this card brings any artifact from the player's library into play. With the release of Mirrodin and its horde of powerful artifacts, this card dominated the Extended format, from which it was eventually banned. In Vintage, only one copy of this card is allowed, yet many decks use it as their central strategy.
- Deranged Hermit -- Both powerful and popular, Deranged Hermit creates a small army of Squirrels when it comes into play, and makes them larger while it is in play as well. Though expensive, especially with the Echo, the utility--and novelty--of the Hermit's four rodent friends was well utilized in Squirrel-Opposition decks and Recurring Nightmare decks.
- Radiant, Archangel -- In the right setting, she can be even more powerful than the greatly admired Serra Angel.
- Multani, Maro-Sorcerer -- An elemental wizard who serves as Gaea's ambassador. Due to his untargetability and strength derived from the number of cards in all player's hands, this legendary version of Maro is popular in multiplayer games.
- The Man-Lands -- A 5-card group of lands, one for each color, that can be made into creatures for a cost each turn. They are often useful with or against massive creature (or nonland permanent) destruction.
