The Man, The Myth, The Legend: Urza, Planeswalker

Posted on January 4, 2023

I've been playing Magic for a long, long time. Twenty-four years it's been, and through it all I've seen numerous characters, stories, and pieces of lore come and go. Few have been as epic to me as Urza. I started in 1999, right in the midst of the Urza Block. I remember playing with cards featuring the classic character, and even using the original Alpha classic Glasses of Urza frequently in my first games to spy on what my sibling was playing when we sat across the table from one another. But there was one thing missing. In a time where so many major characters were getting legendary creature cards, Urza didn't get one.

We wouldn't see an Urza card until Unstable when we got Urza, Academy Headmaster. It was an awesome card and a really cool and fun design, but it felt wrong. It was just a morsel - a tease of what was yet to come. Then in Modern Horizons we finally got a true representation of the character in card form. But, alas, it was his pre-planeswalker form at the end of the Brothers' War. The idea presented at the time was how could you do an Urza planeswalker and do him justice? Well, in The Brothers' War, Wizards did the unthinkable and gave us an Urza planeswalker.

Seeing this card previewed was a revelation. At the end of November, I wrote about Gix, Yawgmoth Praetor and how amazing it was to see him get a card. By this point, Urza had gotten a card. Gix, however, had not. As a result, I was a bit more excited about Gix in the moment, but make no mistake: my jaw was on the floor when Wizards finally showed off Urza, Planeswalker in all his glory.

Everything about this card is just jaw-dropping perfection. The front side of Urza, Lord Protector is flavorful in its own right. He makes casting various spells relevant to his character that much easier and his activation invokes the classic Tron lands effectively. The fact that he then melds with The Mightstone and Weakstone - the artifacts that become his eyes following the blast of the Sylex - is just such an absolute chef's kiss moment. It's flawless lore and storytelling being built into a card and it does it so amazingly well - and it only gets better once you flip him over.

The big thing everyone always asked was, simply: how do you do an Urza planeswalker justice? Just how? Urza was one of the most powerful beings to ever have existed in the entire multiverse. He was, for all intents and purposes, an omnipotent god. A handful of abilities wouldn't feel right, and there were concerns over his colors as well given that he essentially ends up with mastery of all five colors. Here, thanks to meld, we get to see him utilized to perfection with five abilities and the ability to utilize them twice a turn. The color issue is even worked out as him being represented immediately after his spark ignited.

For long-time players like myself, seeing Urza finally get a black bordered planeswalker was just everything. I was seeing cards featuring the fabled planeswalker from the day I started playing the game. My very first booster packs were Urza's Legacy and he was featured on a number of cards. It felt like such a long time coming and I'm so extremely happy to have it around. Even more exciting, thanks to the Urza, Lord Protector front side, you can even run him as your commander. Naturally, I couldn't resist writing about him and went straight to work on a list.

Urza, Planeswalker | Commander | Paige Smith

Commander (1)
1 Urza, Lord Protector

Working on this list felt like one of the most natural and cleanest decks I've ever worked on. It was almost refreshing how clear it was to me what I wanted and needed to do with it. As I'm building most decks, I often find myself with around 150 nonland cards needing to be cut down. This time I only cut around 15 cards, and many were simply due to power level reasons that I had to go back and fill the holes with something else instead.

There were two things I wanted with this deck. The first was to, naturally, be able to ensure you could get The Mightstone and Weakstone. You already have Urza, Lord Protector in the command zone after all, so now you just need to find a way to get the other half. This primarily includes a handful of tutor effects. Fabricate and Enlightened Tutor are the most obvious ones, easily finding whatever artifacts you need at a moment's notice. Whir of Invention and Tezzeret the Seeker both find you the card easily as well, and there's plenty of card draw if you can't get there. Then there's a handful of ways to get it back if it's blown up, such as Argivian Restoration and Academy Ruins, as well as Pull from Eternity in the event that it gets exiled.

The second aspect I wanted to touch on was to put as much focus on the flavor of Urza himself as I could. I first searched for every White, Blue, and Colorless card related to Urza I could find. From there, I searched sets like Antiquities, the Urza and Invasion blocks, and of course The Brothers' War for cards that felt relevant from a story perspective. Yes, new hotness like Urza's Sylex, Loran of the Third Path, and One with the Multiverse make for some great options, but so do the likes of Opportunity, Stroke of Genius, and Junk Diver - each from the original Urza Block. Sneaking in Dismantling Blow to represent his time as the Blind Seer also feels extremely fitting.

There's a number of other light nods in the mix too. The lands feature heavily off of Urza, including the original Tron lands, a pair of cycling lands from Urza's Saga, Faerie Conclave of the same block, and the obvious Academy Ruins of the Tolarian Academy. Putting Karn, Scion of Urza into the mix also feels fitting, given that he was made by Urza himself and eventually acquired his spark for a time. There's also Hanna, Ship's Navigator, who has deep ties to many of Urza's relationships with Barrin, Rayne, and of course Gerrard himself. You could even argue that some of the nods to Mirrodin through the myr, the artifact lands, and so on are also a nod to Urza in a roundabout way, given how his creation - Karn - crafted that world.

It's almost more interesting to talk about some of the cards I ended up cutting. Every single one, with the possible exception of Grand Architect, was flavorful in one way or another. Urza's Armor and Urza's Blueprints were both super flavorful, but both felt to overcosted for what this deck was going for. I even tried to add in the Tolarian Academy flavored Archivist, but just felt it was too weak. Similarly, I wanted cards like Urza's Command, Kayla's Command, and Urza's Tome, but deemed each to be a bit too weak when it comes to Commander. Even good cards like Catastrophe and Liberator, Urza's Battlethopter just felt like they weren't quite a good fit in this list.

The result of this deck is a loving tribute to one of Magic's greatest characters of all time. Love him or hate him, as he's arguably as much a villain as Yawgmoth himself, Urza represents a lot about what makes the game so awesome for so many. I've wanted to see him get presented properly in card form for so long myself. Seeing him in Modern Horizons as Urza, Lord High Artificer was mind blowing that we could actually get a real Urza card. Seeing him finally show up in all his planeswalker glory was just perfection.

Now you too can bring home the ferocious might of Urza in Commander. Getting to flip him will always be a great moment, and feel like a story that you tell among friends. "Yeah, that's right, I got to play Urza, Planeswalker and it felt so awesome." It's the kind of thing that makes this game so great to me. No matter who you are, Urza will absolutely be sure to make your next Commander night an absolute blast. Just make sure you bring a Stasis Coffin along with you for the ride.

Paige Smith

Twitter: @TheMaverickGal

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TAGS articles, casual, edh, commander, decklist, azorius, blue-white, paige smith, commander hq, bro, the brothers' war, urza lord protector, 01042023, the mightstone and weakstone