Looper
Commander / EDH
SCORE: 13 | 25 COMMENTS | 2348 VIEWS | IN 1 FOLDER
June 20, 2019
Neither Baral or Etherium Sculptor are performing in testing so far. Baral offers card selection at times, but not out right card advantage and to be honest the cost reduction doesn't matter all that much in most games. Etherium Sculptor I'm finding to be essentially a 2 cmc mana rock that is a creature and thus easier to remove from the board while also not being large enough on the back end to block Tymna. I've had a couple more games with Sai as well, and this card is also seeming to perform at a mediocre level at best. More useful than the other two thus far, but still pretty meh in games.
One thing I have noticed in testing is that Urza is a deck that relies on Urza being out to do it's thing. I knew this going in and assumed we'd need some way to protect him at times but Lightning Greaves wasn't really performing optimally so I subbed it out and went sans protection for a while and the deck didn't really perform any differently. It clearly seems like the deck needs some way of keeping Urza from being repeated killed by spot removal until there is enough mana that we don't mind just recasting him and making another huge construct for opponents to deal with. I'm giving some instant speed options a try that can also combo with Isochron Scepter as non-looped deck win conditions in the form of Essence Flux, Curfew, and Siren's Ruse. The one game I tried with them in so far I did draw Curfew and play it to some moderate success.
Testing with Unwinding Clock has been awkward. It's a card we definitely don't want to see in opening hands as either we have a fast enough hand to play it and then nothing to do with any of the untap triggers, making it a dead card we spent 4 mana on until we draw into something that can leverage the triggers. Or we don't have a fast enough start to play it and it sits in hand wasting a slot of hand space until we draw into the circumstances to use it. Overall I feel like this is a card that makes the deck less consistent in early game situations, but I will say that in the games where it gets out with Urza in a quality position and advanced board state it can become degenerate very quickly. Honestly feels a bit "win more" at the moment, but the times where it generates value from synergy with Merchant's Dockhand or Verity Circle and especially Trinisphere (which enjoys performance that dramatically increases with Unwinding Clock out) have been rewarding for certain. Could go either way on this card at the moment as it seems fine in longer matches but bad into fast paced matchups.
Whir of Invention has been performing acceptably well, although it is a card that can rarely be used to grab our primary target in Paradox Engine. It's terrific at grabbing our smaller pieces and less mana intensive combo pieces (Isochron Scepter and Grim Monolith). People rarely bat an eye at the moment when you cast it for X=2 and grab a Monolith when they fear the Engine or Scepter more.
Verity Circle has been much, much better performance wise than Rhystic Study later in the game and right on par with it in the early stages. I like this inclusion at the moment except perhaps in matchups like Chain Veil Teferi where it won't generate much value (if any).
Artificer's Intuition seemed like a good way to find small pieces, but ultimately I feel that it just doesn't perform the way Urza wants it to and I'm inclined to say it might not really fit in this deck.
With the deck starting to accumulate more non looped deck win conditions Elixir of Immortality is feeling like less of a necessity for resilience. More impactful in the average game so far than a Grafdigger's Cage, but a bit less impactful in the average match than Pithing Needle, which could all slot in as anothe 1 cmc psuedo mana rock. Be testing each of these 3 some more.
More updates as the data piles up, happy brewing to all you Urza builders out there!