Urza's Saga

Enchantment Land — Urza's Saga

(As this Saga enters the battlefield and after your draw step, add a lore counter. Sacrifice after III.)

: Urza's Saga gains "{T}: Add {C}."

: Urza's Saga gains "{2}, {T}: Create a 0/0 colourless Construct artifact creature token with "this creature gets +1/+1 for each artifact you control.""

: Search your library for an artifact card with mana cost {0} or {1}, put it onto the battlefield, then shuffle. (Lands do not have a mana cost, not a mana cost of {0}, thus it cannot be searched for this way.)

Tokens

• Construct 0/0 C

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Arena	Legal
Block Constructed	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Gladiator	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Historic	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Modern	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (48)

Magic_Aids on ▷ This Budget Deck is Actually BUSTED! ◁ 【OTJ】

3 days ago

Also, there are options to make this deck cheaper! I built the deck without a budget in mind, and it can easily get down to $250ish for the maindeck. The new cards are really expensive at the moment, so I would definitely wait for prices to come down before buying any cards! I hope this helps, even though it's a bummer how expensive Urza's Saga is!

SufferFromEDHD on Avoiding Consequences

1 week ago

Really like this shell. Corpse Dance and Sneak Attack are pet cards of mine and this is a great home for both!

Urza's Saga get dreadnought or your ring.

Hall of the Bandit Lord and/or Flamekin Village haste is useful in a pinch.

Riptide Laboratory commander protection.

Demonic Collusion neat discard outlet.

Prismari Command and/or Kolaghan's Command really neat swiss army knives.

Jaxis, the Troublemaker and/or Saheeli, the Sun's Brilliance on theme.

Ersatz_Mageta on Modern 8 rack/ control

2 weeks ago

Love the idea of Flagstones of Trokair. That can certainly be an addition to the manabase, especially now that I've converted it to a creatureless deck with Smallpox.

I know Fatal Push is a great card, but I just don't know about it in this deck. Besides the fetchlands, I don't know what permanents I'll have leaving the field at instant speed. Honestly, I'd be more inclined for something like Cut Down, but I love the slower, more universal approach of Vindicate and Anguished Unmaking. Vindicate is never a dead draw because in the late game you can always just nuke a land and cut off more resources.

My big question once the cards come in will be how many "rack like effects" will be needed to truly achieve the sweet spot. Urza's Saga just feels like a tutor for a rack, which is nice, but also feels out of place for the lack of artifacts.

Ultarian on Modern 8 rack/ control

3 weeks ago

Shrieking Affliction is unnecessary with Urza's Saga (got up to the full 4). Anguished Unmaking is probably better in the side. Also, needs cheap removal like Fatal Push, maybe even Solitude. Damn is a nice touch, I'd add a second to the main or board. Flagstones of Trokair + Smallpox + Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth is a major draw to Orzhov Pox, that you're already like 60% there on.

9-lives on Azorius Aggro-Control deck

2 months ago

What I'm saying about Assemble the Players is that since it is automatically casting on my turn a creature spell of, say 2 mana, it is not a loss at all even if I only spend 1 turn with it on the field. Thus, it is no loss at all, and if it stays on the field for 2 turns, then it gives an advantage.

Ahh. I agree that Spell Pierce is better! Thank you for recommending it, because I'll be running it!

Oppressive Rays is good considering that I want to tie up as much mana as possible. 3 mana per creature is really nice, considering that oppressive rays is 1 mana cost. I have played this card whenever I was running my Azorius Defender-Damage deck, and it worked really well. Can you recommend any mana-tying up cards that are like Oppressive Rays but better?! I'm thinking Lawmage's Binding is nice, but I really want a mana-intensive card that ties up mana.

Ahh, you're right about Urza's Saga. I was thinking that it would allow me to search for 1 white mana cards, but yeah. So, I'll just use it to tutor out Mishra's Bauble, I guess.

Mishra's Bauble is amazing. I really don't know why you're arguing against it, considering that it is a staple in a lot of competitive decks. And, yes, they may shuffle, but I'm counting on that they don't, and looking at the top card is great for predicting what will happen. Do you think this hand-knowledge is good? I think it will give me the heads-up for using counterspells on the opponent's turn.

Defiant Strike is just a suboptimal draw card, and adds +1 power. Nothing too bad or too good about it. I don't mind running it, considering that I need to increase the power of my creatures as a support for my aggro-control archetype.

I have a question for you! What is a good card for granting haste in Azorius colors?? I don't even know if they have this type of card available.

wallisface on Azorius Aggro-Control deck

2 months ago

9-lives

For Defiant Strike you yourself even admit that Opt and Preordain are better - and that's the exact reason why this card is bad.

I have no idea what you mean by "And, no, I don't have to cast two creatures for it to be worthwhile, as whenever i cast it I would lose nothing if I didn't keep it for over 2 turns.". Assemble the Players does effectively nothing on its own. You play it, and now you have 1-less resource in-hand, for no inherent board-state advantage. Once you play the first creature from the top of your deck with it, now you've at-least "broken even" - that is, the cards you've invested into it have equaled the gain in boardstate you have acquired (albeit, costing 2 additional mana and having to wait an undetermined number of turns, so still being more hassle-than-value). Only once you've cast your second creature from the topdeck, has the card made any kind of net-advantage. The problem is that the sheer amount of time it would take to achieve that is ridiculous.

You are saying "Oppressive Rays is far underrated" but this is just your unfounded opinion. There's good reason why it sees no play at all, even in budget decks or in Pauper (where you can only play commons... if it's not even seeing play there then alarm bells should be ringing!).

Spell Pierce is infinitely better than Miscast, simply because it hits a much, much wider berth of spells. The difference between an opponent paying {2} or {3} is far less-wide of a gap than the one between only being able to target instants and sorceries, versus being able to target instants, sorceries, planeswalkers, enchantments, artifacts, and battles.

Mishra's Bauble doesn't let you look at the opponents hand at all, just their topdeck (which may get shuffled away before they draw anyway). Urza's Saga can only specifically search for artifacts costing exactly {0} or {1}, which none of your artifact creatures are, so you cannot grab them with this card.

I am looking at the whole deck. Some of the cards I have said are bad here can conceivably work in different shells. Just not remotely this one.

---

I have asked you twice now already what your budget is for this deck, so that people giving you card suggestions can cater this for what you are wanting to spend. If you want people to be able to help you, you need to include this information!

The biggest problem holding your decks back at the moment, as far as I can see, is that their constructor is too stubborn and not-open enough to feedback. By getting super-combative with every suggestion/response people give you, these decks are not going to be able to improve, and instead cycle around in a rut indefinitely. The best thing you can do to help strengthen your deckbuilding is learning to be more open to healthy non-combative discussion, and being more open to listening to others ideas. Coming to a pre-determined decision that everything you've done is correct from the start only serves to leave you exactly where you began.

9-lives on Azorius Aggro-Control deck

2 months ago

What is so bad about Defiant Strike if it's simply a addition to having the ability to draw a card? It's no Opt or even Preordain, but it's good for my purposes.

And, no, I don't have to cast two creatures for it to be worthwhile, as whenever i cast it I would lose nothing if I didn't keep it for over 2 turns.

Oppressive Rays is far underrated for its power.

I have 13 counterspells out of around 70 cards. Miscast is not better nor worse than Spell Pierce. Spell Pierce is targeting other things, and also has a different mana cost to the opponent.

Urza's Saga and Mishra's Bauble are great. The latter lets me look at the opponent's hand. The former is good for artifacts, and can search for artifact creatures as well as Mishra's Bauble.

wallisface on Azorius Aggro-Control deck

2 months ago

To counter your points:

• You've changed the list since first read as Defiant Strike wasn't initially there - but this should never be in any deck aside from maybe some super-janky prowess build. But my point on Assemble the Players is that you need at least 2 creatures to make it worthwhile (which was the 5 turn estimate, re-read my post because I think you've misunderstood). Furthermore, you can only cast this card reasonably once you also have the mana to control your opponents turn as-well, so it's a super late game tool which won't really give you the value you're wanting. Mishra's Bauble doesn't help Assemble the Players at all because you have no flash-creatures, so there's no interval where you can make use of Assemble the Players with it.

• Your argument for keeping Oppressive Rays isn't a valid one, and shows a clear misunderstanding of how games typically play out. I feel like you're just digging-your-heels-in as opposed to taking-in actual advice and well-meaning criticism.

• With 11 counterspells, 16% of your cards are countermagic, which is a low-enough density that you can't assume to be reliably countering magic for long.

I've just noticed you're at 68 cards. Get down to 60. I remember having this discussion before with you - but if you're even remotely trying to take deck-building seriously, this is the first thing you need to do.

I see you've added Miscast to the deck... this is just a worse Spell Pierce.

I think Sorcerous Spyglass was in the deck initially but I should call out this is a sideboard-card at best. The vast majority of decks won't care at all about this card - a lot of cards don't have activated abilities.

Urza's Saga can only grab Mishra's Bauble so seems unideal to have here, but it's no biggie either way.

You still haven't let anyone know what your budget is!!