Dack Fayden

Legendary Planeswalker — Dack

+1: Target player draws two cards, then discards two cards.

-2: Gain control of target artifact.

-6: You get an emblem with "Whenever you cast a spell that targets one or more permanents, gain control of those permanents."

Discussion (51)

Vlasiax on The Ur-Dragon

6 days ago

Hello, have you seen the newest spoilers of Throne of Eldraine? There's a Dragon that caught my attention:

Since people like to play Dack Fayden just for the -2 ability to steal artifacts then why don't we try to play a 3 CMC (in our case) Dragon that can do the same thing, while being 4/3 with Flying?

SideBae on Nicole Broke Ass needs help

1 week ago

Hey man! Grixis is fun. I've got some thoughts... feel free to ignore any/all of them.

1. Your mana base is better than most, but it can still use some work. Consider City of Brass and Mana Confluence . Paying one life for an ETB untapped, chromatic land to generate mana is a great rate, and these two are functionally a second and third command tower. Generally, the one life cost-to-activate is irrelevant.

2. Similar to your land-base, mana rocks are a great way to hit your colors and ramp yourself faster than your opponents. Since you don't have access to dorks, you need to consider more two-mana mana-rocks; these are, in my experience, vastly superior to three-mana rocks. Consider running a few of the following: Talisman of Indulgence , Talisman of Dominance , Talisman of Creativity , Fellwar Stone , Arcane Signet , Mind Stone , Prismatic Lens and/or Coldsteel Heart . The diamonds ( Sky Diamond , Charcoal Diamond and Fire Diamond ) are really just worse Coldsteel Heart s. If you wanna go and bust the bank, Grixis decks often have the critical mass of artifacts necessary to make Mox Opal good; Mox Diamond and Chrome Mox are also great. Also Mana Crypt .

3. In general, one-for-ones like Hero's Downfall and Dreadbore are not going to be powerful enough in a format like EDH. You have three times as many opponents, meaning you're facing approximately three times the number of cards you yourself have available. So you're probably going to want to be able to remove multiple threats with one card -- this is part of the reason Wrath effects are so good. I like that you're running Damnation ; consider Toxic Deluge as another, similar effect that dodges Gaddock Teeg 's restrictions. I've always been a big fan of By Force as mass artifact removal, and Cyclonic Rift is always worth including. Finally, Fire Covenant is a great piece of mass spot removal.

4. One card especially good with Cyclonic Rift is Windfall . Pairing Windfall with a Narset, Parter of Veils (which I think you should definitely run) leads to instant fun. More generally, mass, repeatable card-draw and/or selection is a great thing in EDH and decides most games. Phyrexian Arena is probably the most common way to generate card-advantage in black, but also consider Graveborn Muse , Treasure Cruise or Dig Through Time (I don't recommend both, as delve can get in its own way), Fact or Fiction , Painful Truths (which is quickly becoming one of my favorite cards), Faithless Looting , Dack Fayden and the like.

5. Adding more cards to your counter package seems like a plausible route for improvement. If budget is no object, Mana Drain and Force of Will are the two best counters available. Also consider Force of Negation , which is excellent against combo decks, Dispel , which is great against Ad Nauseam decks, Pyroblast , which is good usually against at least one or two of your opponents and (on the off chance you run Dack Fayden and ult him) can steal a permanent, Flusterstorm , Spell Snare , Spell Pierce and other such cheap 'n efficient counter spells. If you want to go REALLY deep, I've found Counterbalance to be a high variance EDH card that tends to be good more often than not; you're already running Sensei's Divining Top , which is what really makes Counterbalance busted.

6. Lore-wise, Nicol Bolas is good at enrapturing and manipulating other, lesser creatures. Consider a Mr. Steal-yo-Gurl package, which is both flavorful and powerful. Sower of Temptation and Control Magic can both make opposing Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre s into your own threats; Bribery is similarly busted, and does not risk getting removed by a Toxic Deluge or (more likely) Nature's Claim . Also consider Treachery and Corrupted Conscience .

7. Since you're in blue, you have access to the best cantrips in magic. I highly, highly recommend running Ponder and Preordain -- These two don't look like much, but they'll dig you to what you need and past what you don't more efficiently than any other card. Brainstorm is also good, but I'd suggest holding off adding it until you get some more fetch lands in your deck. (Fetch lands' shuffle effect will make sure you don't get stuck with two dead cards on top of your deck.) Prismatic Vista and the off-color fetches like Flooded Strand or Verdant Catacombs are good ways to fill this role.

8. Your general has built-in discard. Another package to consider, therefore, is a Waste Not package. This is a relatively unique package in that it actually does not need the namesake card in order to be good; Raven's Crime , Words of Waste and Syphon Mind are all good in their own right, and made busted when Waste Not is on the field. Stick a Geth's Grimoire in the mix, and you can really go to town (especially with Words of Waste ).

9. Finally, as a kinda fun-z last suggestion, there's a 'Words' combo I've always liked that you may find interesting -- remember, though, it's really not the best. If you pair Words of Wind with Baleful Strix and a lot of mana, you can repeatedly return Baleful Strix to your hand with Words of Wind 's ability and make your opponents keep returning permanents. This would likely work best if your Omniscience was on the field, as it would end up effectively reading: ': Each opponent returns X permanents they control to their owners' hands.' However, this is likely a win-more type of thing.

There're some cards I think you should consider cutting in order to make room for my above suggestions. Wasp of the Bitter End strikes me as likely too weak in a format with three opponents; similarly, since Toll of the Invasion only hits one opponent, this should likely be considered on the chopping block. I think a boardwipe like Toxic Deluge is probably a lot better than Tyrant's Scorn . Lazotep Plating is probably worse than a regular hard counter. Finally, if you like the idea of artifact-based ramp in (2), thirty-eight lands is too many. I recommend cutting three to five, depending on how aggressively ramp-heavy you want your deck to play.

Right. That's all I got. Good luck!

SideBae on Holy Swarm

4 weeks ago

1. I highly suggest Preordain to accompany your Ponder and Brainstorm . One-mana cantrips are great: They'll dig you to lands if you need them, or past them if you don't. Note that these Xerox-style cards allow you to run fewer lands, as it becomes easier to find the lands when you really need them. I suggest you run around thirty-three or thirty-four lands, at most. Similarly, Faithless Looting is great.

2. Windfall deserves to come out of the Maybeboard into the main. I think it's better than Skyscribing , as you can cast it after an opponent tutors and make them discard whatever they got; additionally, if an opponent has more cards than you, Windfall becomes card-positive. Additionally, pairing Windfall with your Narset, Parter of Veils is... good.

3. Mass-draw is always good. Treasure Cruise and Dig Through Time are great, though running both is slightly questionable (delving one makes the other tougher to cast). If you run Dack Fayden out of the Maybeboard (I suggest doing that), then delving becomes easier. I see Distant Melody in your Maybeboard; I think the effect is powerful, but Slate of Ancestry is better.

4. One-for-ones like Outnumber are alright in one-on-one games, but in a usual EDH game you typically have three opponents. I think boardwipes, in addition to your Cyclonic Rift , are probably the way to go. Rolling Earthquake is a great red boardwipe in most decks, but I think straight Earthquake is better in this one (it lets your bug-things live). Similarly, By Force is great as artifact-hate.

5. Coat of Arms is an interesting include. I think Shared Animosity is probably better deserving of that slot, if only because it is asymmetric and more affordable mana-wise. Typically you'll have a lot of bug-duders, so not pumping toughness isn't a big deal (they're disposable). However, this may be a meta-call.

6. In colors outside green, ramp is difficult to find but still important. I suggest reexamining your rock-package; there're a lot of good rocks out there. Talisman of Creativity , Mind Stone , Fellwar Stone , the soon-to-release Arcane Signet , Coldsteel Heart , Fire Diamond and Sky Diamond are all good. In general, two-mana ramp is better than three-mana ramp, since by turn three you want to be casting more powerful cards and/or landing a threat. If you have access, Mana Vault and Mana Crypt are excellent ways to turbo-out your general.

7. Depending on your budget, your mana-base can be improved. Prismatic Vista seems really good, especially since fetches massively improve your Brainstorm . Steam Vents is around $11 these days, and is also a good include.

8. If you don't want to run a lot of non-basics, you can craft a sort of blue-moon package into this deck; in my experience, this can shut down a lot of opponents. Back to Basics , Magus of the Moon and Blood Moon are all good ways to take advantage of a basic-based land-base, and punish suckers like me for playing more complicated mana-bases. Cutting a bunch of your colorless lands, like Ghost Quarter or Tectonic Edge , for Snow-Covered Island can end up allowing you access to your colors while still running non-basic hate.

9. Stranglehold is a good way to shut down opponents, similar to Ashiok, Dream Render in UB decks.

10. I don't think Arcanis the Omnipotent is very good. Six-mana is a lot to pay, and having to wait a turn-cycle before you can start drawing cards is a big drawback that gives your opponents a long time to kill him. For six-mana, you want a bigger punch; I suggest bringing out your Consecrated Sphinx or Niv-Mizzet, Parun from your Maybeboard instead.

11. If you pair Battle Hymn or your maybe-boarded Ashnod's Altar with an x-spell, you can get a lot of value. Expansion / Explosion is good, as is Blue Sun's Zenith .

12. Finally, Mr. Steal-yo-Gurl cards are great as a form of spot removal. Vedalken Shackles , Control Magic , Sower of Temptation and Treachery are all great ways to make opposing threats into your threats.

Good luck! Love this general.

SideBae on CEDH - "Budget" Kess

1 month ago

Yo! Always nice to see a new Kess list... it's my go-to cEDH deck.

If you're digging for specific combo pieces, Plunge into Darkness is really good -- the problem is that it is often competing with Ad Nauseam for your life total. My Kess list runs Impulse over Plunge into Darkness because in Storm, I often don't need a specific card, but rather a specific kind of card; in Doomsday-style decks, in my experience your digging for exactly Demonic Consultation , Jace, Wielder of Mysteries or Laboratory Maniac . I think it's probably a good card to run, if only because it is very good as a top ten-twenty tutor.

Consider Doomsday . I don't have the concentration and/or the brainpower to make it work, but I understand that with enough of each it can be a one-card win.

Depending on your meta, I'd cut Stranglehold before Ashiok, Dream Render . Being three mana means Ashiok is not going to compete with Kess to be cast, and the graveyard exile effect is not a small plus.

I'm not sure Go for the Throat is good enough to merit inclusion in a cEDH deck. It's a limited one-for-one at best, and there are other cards you may want to consider running over it. Except against fat elf decks, you're not likely to face down a creature at a cEDH table with CMC more than four or five. (Note that this is my experience; if it isn't yours, feel free to ignore me). This means you're not going to be getting much of a mana-spent advantage. Also, in any EDH game you're facing down two or, more often, three opponents, meaning you're facing roughly two to three times the number of cards you have. So one-for-one's aren't usually going to be good enough; counterspells are different, in that they can break up combos and thus become effectively a 'several-for-one.' I love that you're running Fire Covenant , as it is a paragon of the x-for-one idea. Consider Ashes to Ashes , Pyroclasm , Rolling Earthquake , or even just Fact or Fiction to replace it.

I highly suggest bringing Dack Fayden out of the Maybeboard to the Mainboard. Strictly speaking, cEDH is more similar to Vintage than it is similar to any other magic format, and being able to nab someone else's Mana Crypt , Sol Ring or similar is a huge play. Also, the Faithless Looting every turn isn't exactly insignificant either.

Spell Snare is a hard-counter I've grown to like recently. I'd consider running it over Spell Pierce , as it can still counter a late-game Demonic Tutor when a Spell Pierce wouldn't.

Consider running Baral, Chief of Compliance . His discount effect is good with Intuition , Frantic Search or (if you choose to un-Maybeboard it) Remand , but more importantly his looting effect is useful for finding combo-pieces. Your list strikes me as being rather counter-heavy, and Baral makes your counterspells not only stop opponents, but actively help you as well.

Your deck's mana curve is very consistent and low. Consider including Sensei's Divining Top from the Maybeboard and then adding Counterbalance to the mix. I've obviously never played your specific list, but it looks like control is a significant element in what you're trying to do. Getting the counter-top combo going is a good way to control the game without worrying about losing the card-advantage war.

Good luck man! The list looks good overall!

patronmacabre on Divergent Consultation Thrasios and Vial Smasher

1 month ago

w3ncy Artifact Mutation is a really interesting bit of tech that I hadn't considered before. If I were to run it, I'd probably cut Dack Fayden , but that card is a bit of a pet card for me.

Ad Nauseam used to be in the list, but I eventually cut it, mostly when Paradox Engine got banned and a number of cards like Cabal Ritual became much weaker. The deck runs a LOT of win cons and a very high number of powerful tutors. Part of the reason I like running the Laboratory Maniac and Spellseeker combination is because it makes it much safer to cast Demonic Consultation as an extremely powerful (albeit risky) tutor than if I were just running Jace, Wielder of Mysteries alone. With that in mind, Ad Nauseam is more overkill in this deck than it is in other decks. As a meta note: because of the recent printing of several powerful counterspells (and Narset's Reversal ) and because much of the meta surrounds powerful, game ending instants ( Flash , Demonic Consultation , Ad Nauseam , and to a lesser extent Divergent Transformations ), most metas are going to shift to include more low-cost instant hate. Ad Nauseam without Angel's Grace is only strong between turns 3 and 4 and gets noticeably weaker as the game grinds on, unlike Demonic Consultation or Divergent Transformations . So you can't really wait for the perfect moment to cast Ad Nauseam . That said, I would still recommend testing Ad Nauseam in a Notion Thief and Whirlpool Warrior based version, because of the cute synergy between Whirlpool Warrior and Ad Nauseam .

Still, if Whirlpool Warrior and Notion Thief isn't up your ally, you could try Godo, Bandit Warlord and Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir . Godo would search for Helm of the Host . The problem with this combination is that you're devoting three slots of your deck to largely worthless cards. Not to mention the high cost to equip the helm.

A much better alternative is Tidespout Tyrant and Trinket Mage . Have the tyrant search for Mana Crypt , bounce Trinket Mage and go to town.

JaceNordark on Consult Scepter Thrasios

1 month ago

So I understand the power of using your dorks as card draw with Tymna the Weaver , but I'm only seeing 4 white cards in the current list (6 if you count Noble Hierarch and Avacyn's Pilgrim ), so why are we still running Tymna the Weaver as our partner instead of Vial Smasher the Fierce . Wouldn't red give us additional interaction with Red Elemental Blast , Pyroblast , By Force , or maybe additional dig with Faithless Looting , Wheel of Fortune , or even Dack Fayden ? All of those seem higher impact than Silence , Smothering Tithe , and Dovin's Veto .

TypicalTimmy on Kykar, wind's fury?

1 month ago

Planeswalkers that you'd want to run would be the following;

• Dack Fayden : Serious card advantage and allows you to maximize on cards which have Madness / Jump-Start / Retrace / Flashback / Aftermath / Rebound

• Daretti, Scrap Savant : Just as good as Dack, but he also allows you to recur artifacts you may have blown up, such as The Chain Veil

• Jace, Arcane Strategist : He empowers your boardstate and gives you card advantage. Also gives you a free combat wincon if you have enough power and life totals are low enough

• Jaya Ballard : She gives you the mana you need to cast the spells you are going to be casting

• Chandra, Torch of Defiance : Same thing

• Kasmina, Enigmatic Mentor : Planeswalker protection

• Nahiri, the Harbinger : Card advantage with potential wincon if you choose correctly

• Narset, Parter of Veils : Oppression

• Ral, Izzet Viceroy : Card advantage and wincon emblem

• Teferi, Hero of Dominaria : Any self-respecting deck would run him in those colors

• Teferi, Time Raveler : EDH lock

• Tezzeret, Artifice Master : Immense card advantage

• Venser, the Sojourner : An all-around powerful card that should honestly see more play

That's 13x Planeswalkers which should be plenty. If you'd like to add Karn Liberated you can do so but I wouldn't stretch it any further than this. You still need room for your Instants, Sorceries, Lands and Creatures. You mentioned you also want Enchantments? Well, I'd cut down on those except for the basic prisons. Notably:

• Ghostly Prison

• Propaganda

• Norn's Annex

• Monastery Siege

• Leyline of Sanctity

• Stony Silence

• Land Tax

• Etc.

I'd also focus on making it a soft Flying Tribal, to empower your tokens

• Drogskol Captain

• Supreme Phantom

• Twilight Drover

• Favorable Winds

• Thunderclap Wyvern

• Sprite Noble

• Windstorm Drake

• Soulblade Djinn

• Empyrean Eagle

• Gravitational Shift

• Spirit of the Spires

• Archetype of Imagination

• Magus of the Moat

• Moat

All in all, this is 34 cards. If you figure you'll be running the recommended 37 lands + 8 stones, you have a total card base of 79 cards. This leaves you 20 Instant / Sorcery spells.

Given that, you may want to trim down so you have more chances to use your Commander. I'm noticing a general lack of red power in here, so you may want to actually make this an Azorius deck that happens to splash red just to get your Commander out.

Focus on replayable Instants and Sorceries, such as the ones mentioned above. Also, Charmbreaker Devils will be of great asset in this deck.

Hope that helps! :D

jaymc1130 on Looper

2 months ago

@ jeacaveo Hey, thanks for dropping by. I've certainly been finding that high quality card advantage sources are tough to come by for this deck and that this seems to be perhaps the most necessary addition for the deck to be as competitive as possible against the top tier decks in the format. I'm not finding that Urza is a deck that has too much trouble against tier 2 and 3 cEDH decks, but as with most decks in the format the tier 1 are pretty troublesome and they seem to simply out grind in a meta that has become very grind oriented.

Power Artifact is in as one more means of redundancy and resiliency. It's relatively easy to fetch with a handful of tutors, and can be used on either Isochron Scepter or Grim Monolith to good effect. In a meta where every last single U/B deck in competitive play is now running Ashiok, Dream Render it's vitally important to have redundant engine pieces in the event that some are exiled. The very printing of that card is perhaps the most fundamentally format warping aspect of this new set in cEDH. Long gone are the days where decks could feel comfortable running one primary win condition and one secondary win condition. Multiple layers of redundancy are a must to be competitive at this point. Until testing demonstrably proves an acceptable degree of redundancy Power Artifact is in to provide it.

Karn, the Great Creator does indeed have a hefty price tag, but this is perfectly acceptable in the new meta we find ourselves in. Also long gone are the days where Turn 3 was the all encompassing turn and cards with higher converted mana costs didn't have a role. In this new, long, grindy as all hell meta, Karn shines as a way to asymmetrically disrupt the best opposing PS decks in the format as a passive hate piece (as well as destroying any 0 cmc artifacts opponents have in play while ticking up), and a way to actively recover important required combo pieces that might be exiled with Ashiok or even Praetor's Grasp (as Karn does not differentiate between face up or face down exile). He is deceptively tough to remove from the board as being at 4 cmc means Abrupt Decay can't hit him, has a rather high loyalty count making removing him via combat also difficult. Meanwhile the best decks in the format will find he is a piece that typically needs to be removed in order for them to effectively combo off as he completely shuts down all Isochron related lines, SDT related lines, etc. If the format meta at the top levels was still as fast as it was a year and a half ago he probably would not have a place, but the fastest decks in the format have long since been supplanted by superior decks in the intervening time that are better at controlling pace of the game and the best grinding deck in the meta is the deck most likely to win these days. Karn can help in that regard, and he has performed admirably in testing in a surprisingly wide range of match ups.

Mishra's Workshop is actually a card I'm a bit on the fence over. I do not, by any means, consider this card to be a requirement for this deck. There are even some situations as you so astutely recognize where it's drawback can be significant (there are times where you cannot cast a turn 2 Urza if Workshop is one of the lands in an opening hand). I will say that the situations in testing where it has been effective have been terrific, however. Turn 1 Astral Cornucopia , Mox Opal , Mana Crypt into Turn 1 Urza is extremely powerful. Turn 1 Trinisphere is extremely powerful. And it certainly never hurts to cast Paradox Engine off Workshop mana. I'll need more testing with it in before I determine whether it's use cases are too narrow for play, or if they are flexible enough to warrant an inclusion. It seemed like an interesting thought so for now it's in to be tested.

Howling Mine does indeed need Urza in play, but since the deck sort of revolves around having him in play and protecting him to keep him active it's not usually a case where the symmetrical effect is a drawback. I've been much more concerned with it's level of performance overall as a card advantage piece for Urza than I have with the rare moments it acts as a card advantage piece for opponents. I did try some other pieces that could turn it off ( Merchant's Dockhand for example), but ultimately found them lackluster and the times where they would be needed quite rare overall. Quite frankly, I'd prefer better card advantage sources, but in mono blue the options are rather limited in terms of quality.

Genesis Chamber is a new addition, it's being used with Skullclamp and other token pieces to see how that package performs in terms of providing a grinding advantage. I don't think I honestly expect it to perform at the level I'm looking for, but I also don't want to overlook any potential options in the quest to optimize Urza against the top tier decks, so it's going to get a fair shake in testing.

Elixir of Immortality is important for a few reasons. Ultimately, it's a layer of redundancy (recall the issue present at the moment in the meta with Ashiok) that enables looping, and it is a card that can be retrieved with Karn (even if all spells, every single one, are exiled from this list as long as the deck has Karn it has the ability to retrieve every required piece of at least one engine to combo win). Mostly it was included at first as a way to circumvent a particular looping issue however. Consider: in a deck where looping is the way to finish off opponents that only one real option can win on the turn where Urza combos off without having to wait a turn cycle to attack with Swans, Apes, or Constructs; Windfall. Only the deck could not actually perform this function as the only viable way to loop is Narset's Reversal + Timetwister . Using that loop enabler would restore the graveyards of opponents and the Windfall win line would not be possible. This means we would need to run an alternate immediate win con, but Lab Man, Jace, and Aetherflux Reservoir are all REALLY bad cards in cEDH being completely dead outside of comboing off. The better, more efficient option, is to simply run a mana efficient loop enabler that at worst is a 1 cmc mana rock. Urza doesn't mind cheap mana rocks, in fact, Urza likes those, and on occasion Elixir can also directly protect the graveyard from an Ashiok activation. It's inclusion was a natural progression of this line of thinking. The Elixir might ultimately be cut if I decide the deck is redundant and resilient enough without it, but I'm betting against that being the case with the way the meta has changed post Ashiok's printing.

Cryptic Command and Archmage's Charm are certainly on the expensive side, but again, as the format has slowed down significantly and grindier, more interactive decks are the prohibitive favorites in any given pod, these cards have a warranted slot in testing and testing has so far proven them to be very solid inclusions. I don't know about you, but I LIKE stealing an opponents Mystic Remora . It's far better than just destroying it. I LIKE stealing an opponents Sol Ring . Dack Fayden is still run in some cEDH lists and primarily is used to steal away mana rocks outside of being a win on a loop. The Charm is an even more flexible version of what he does and the mana cost isn't going to be tough for a mono blue deck based around a commander that turns all artifacts into blue moxen. Cryptic Command is also ideal on a loop to return all opposing permanents to hand in the event the deck must wait a turn cycle to attack with an infinite army as the risk of having that army destroyed or disrupted is much less if opponents have no board state at all the turn they need to disrupt it. A year or more ago, these are likely not cards I would have expected to perform well in the meta, but in the current meta these are cards with significant value.

Academy Ruins is the all important tutor land. I initially had Tabernacle in here in the original iteration before discovering that including that hate piece at all was extremely counterproductive and not an ideal direction for a deck that ideally wants Urza in play on turn 2 as often as possible. But when I cut the Tabernacle I didn't cut the land tutors because I noticed a particularly nifty interaction with, at first, Aether Spellbomb . Urza is not a deck that can operate like other PS decks where it tries to stutter start it's engine by using it's commanders ability to chug along on a slim mana margin until it eventually hits the pieces required for critical mass to begin generating infinite mana in a deterministic fashion. The process simply isn't as efficient as Thrasios and Tasigur and most often results in a fizzle and tapped out board state. This means Urza MUST already be able to generate infinite mana in a deterministic fashion using resources already available to it rather than relying on top deck RNG to find the proper resources. One good way I found to do this was to simply recast spells the deck already had access to (Crystal Shard being the most important method of doing so) and reliably being able to get Academy Ruins into play with Candelabra of Tawnos and Paradox Engine allows the deck to repeatedly cast Mind Stone or Aether Spellbomb and generate infinite mana from a deterministic line. The same 6 or so mana that might be used to blindly activate Urza's ability and hope and pray the deck hits (which the math proves, undeniably, is a lower percentage chance than a misfire) could instead simply be used to sacrifice a known quantity, hold priority on it's draw trigger, replace it on top of the library, draw it, and replay it to untap everything and proceed with the loop indefinitely. As long as the loop produces 1 net positive mana the loop succeeds in winning the game. The land tutors are in as ways to reliably enable this back up plan in the event it is required, which hasn't been too common in testing but it has happened a significant number of times.

High Tide and Extraplanar Lens were actually both in my original iteration of the deck and it was only after about 10 games of testing that I realized these cards don't actually do anything for this deck. Urza doesn't care about land mana generation, it runs off artifact mana generation. Dramatically more often than not these cards wound up simply being dead spells that didn't provide any value at all and the times where they did provide value it was of a negligible amount. Ultimately I realized neither of these cards was important to the way the deck wanted to operate and so I cut them. I do not expect I will return either to the list at any point, Urza, at least as constructed, isn't a Storm style deck that regularly makes use of untapping lands to generate extra mana and in the situations where this can be done it means the deck has already untapped a half dozen or dozen artifacts that are providing the mana needed. Essentially, these cards were identified as "win more" in function and summarily cut. Unwinding Clock was another cut in the same vein, dead out side of winning and only helped win harder as opposed to just helping win.

Back to Basics is a worthwhile consideration, but I've never felt like this was a particularly difficult hate piece to navigate when playing against it. Urza already has more universal means of locking down opponents resources that aren't limited to just lands and these means also don't care about land type, and are also able to be tutored for and more reliably employed where Back to Basics cannot. Rhystic Study is a card I am less and less and less enthused about in the current meta. It's a card that is essentially dead outside of playing it on Turn 1 or Turn 2, and Urza has things it already wants to be doing on those turns. If I get desperate for card draw sources this is a card that could make it's way back onto my list, but I'm going to have to be very desperate indeed as this card is no longer cEDH worthy. If you want to understand why just watch the most recent Lab Maniacs S3 gameplay video on YouTube. Sigi's Rhystic Study legitimately generated no value at all and sucked up 3 mana to play. Not a position I want to be in and yet that is the type of position this card puts players in given the state of the meta at the moment. Verity Circle has significantly out performed it in testing, dramatically so the longer a game goes on. Trail of Evidence is out for the time being while I test some other card draw sources. It performed acceptably well, it just didn't stand out and I was curious if I could do better. I think this is a card that could very likely make it's way back into the list, but I want to give every other potential option a try as well in testing so for the time being it's relegated to the bench.

Well, that was a lot of words! Thanks for dropping by though, it's always worthwhile to vocalize and consider the reasons for various inclusions and go over the reasons behind the choices. I expect a number of ridiculous seeming ideas will be tried in my attempts to make this list as competitive as possible and I fully expect most of these ridiculous ideas to prove unworthy in testing, but anything that has some degree of potential should be looked at and verified in practice or else I'd still be running cards like Rhystic Study blindly believing they would improve the overall deck performance. I'll certainly keep you posted on what worked out well and what silly ideas proved to be rather too silly as testing continues and I hope you'll return the favor with the things you test.