Urza wants a deck that fills the table with artifacts that make mana and draw cards. It also suits a deck that casts extra spells for free off the top of its deck.
Mana cost
Blue ()
Power / toughness1 / 4
RarityMythic
When Urza enters, create a 0/0 colorless Construct artifact creature token with "This token gets +1/+1 for each artifact you control."
Tap an untapped artifact you control: Add .
: Shuffle your library, then exile the top card. Until end of turn, you may play that card without paying its mana cost.
Picked for what they do in Urza's deck. When two cards do the same job, the one with the lower comes first. All of them fit Urza's color identity.Mana ValueThe total amount of mana a card costs, all added up. A card costing two generic and one green has a mana value of three. Wizards renamed this from "converted mana cost" in 2021, so older cards and articles may still use the old name.Open the full glossary
explain how Urza works in tricky situations. They come from Wizards of the Coast, the company that makes Magic.RulingThe official answer to how a card works in a tricky situation. Most rulings are written by Wizards of the Coast, the company that makes Magic, and a few are notes from Scryfall, the card database Magic players use. A ruling explains a card. It does not change what the card says.Open the full glossary
Wizards of the Coast8 Dec 2022
If a spell has {X} in its mana cost, you must choose 0 as the value of X when casting it without paying its mana cost.
Wizards of the Coast8 Dec 2022
If you cast a card "without paying its mana cost," you can't choose to cast it for any alternative costs. You can, however, pay additional costs. If the card has any mandatory additional costs, you must pay those to cast the card.
Wizards of the Coast8 Dec 2022
If you don't play the card exiled with Urza's last ability, it remains in exile.
Wizards of the Coast8 Dec 2022
The token created by Urza's first ability will count itself, so it'll be at least 1/1.
Wizards of the Coast8 Dec 2022
Urza's last ability doesn't change when you can play the exiled card. For example, if you exile a sorcery card, you can cast it only during your main phase when the stack is empty. If you exile a land card, you can play it only during your main phase and only if you have an available land play remaining.
Wizards of the Coast8 Dec 2022
You can tap any untapped artifact you control to pay the cost of the mana ability, including an artifact creature you haven't controlled continuously since the beginning of your most recent turn. Tapping an Equipment this way won't affect its abilities or the equipped creature.
Color identityEvery color of mana symbol on a card, in its cost and in its rules text. Your commander's color identity sets the limit for your whole deck: every other card has to fit inside it. A deck led by a green and white commander cannot play a card with any blue in its color identity.Open the full glossaryUPlayers write colors as letters: U for blue. Blue is U because B was already taken by black.ArtifactsAn artifacts deck fills the battlefield with artifacts, cards like Sol Ring that stay in play and keep working turn after turn. Played together, they give you extra mana and extra cards. A handful of keywords turn up on artifacts again and again. Equip means you pay a cost to attach an Equipment such as Swiftfoot Boots to one of your creatures. If that creature dies, the Equipment does not go to your graveyard with it. It stays on the battlefield, and you can pay the cost again to attach it to another creature. Crew means you tap your own creatures with enough total power between them to turn a Vehicle such as Smuggler's Copter into a creature until the end of the turn. A Treasure is a token you can sacrifice (put into your graveyard on purpose) for one mana of any color. A token is a game piece that a card makes, not a card from your deck, and Pitiless Plunderer is one card that makes Treasures. Affinity makes a spell like Frogmite cheaper for each artifact you control. Unearth brings a card like Combat Courier back from your graveyard for one turn, and then it is exiled. Modular creatures like Arcbound Ravager enter with +1/+1 counters and pass them to another artifact creature when they die.Open the Artifacts pageArtifact PayoffRewards you for having artifacts: counting them, triggering off them, or getting cheaper as you play more. Urza's Saga, Mox OpalOpen the Artifact Payoff pageStat ScalingA creature whose power and toughness count something, so it grows as the game goes on. It might count lands you control or cards in your graveyard. Craterhoof Behemoth, Psychosis CrawlerOpen the Stat Scaling pageETB ValueDoes something useful the moment it arrives: an enter the battlefield ability, which players shorten to ETB. You keep that effect even if the card is removed straight afterwards, which is why these pair so well with flicker cards that make them enter again. Solemn Simulacrum, The One RingOpen the ETB Value pageToken EngineMakes tokens again and again rather than once. A token is a creature or other permanent created by a card, with no card of its own. Something that makes one token gives you a body; something that makes them every turn gives you a board you can keep rebuilding after it is cleared. Grave Titan, Bitterblossom, OphiomancerOpen the Token Engine pageCascade/Free CastCascade decks cast extra spells for free, straight from the top of their deck, every time they cast the right card. Cascade turns over cards from the top of your library until it hits a cheaper spell, which you may cast without paying for it.Open the Cascade/Free Cast pageImpulse DrawExiles cards from the top of your library and lets you play them for a short time, usually only that turn. You have to use them or lose them. Act on Impulse Prosper, Tome-BoundOpen the Impulse Draw pageFree CastCan be cast without paying its mana cost when a condition is met, often "if you control your commander". Because it costs nothing, you can still answer something after your mana is already spent. Fierce Guardianship, Deflecting SwatOpen the Free Cast pageCard SelectionImproves what you draw rather than how much: you look at the top few cards of your library and decide what stays on top. Ponder lets you rearrange the top three, Serum Visions lets you scry, and Consider lets you surveil. It makes your draws more reliable without giving you extra cards.Open the Card Selection pageMana SinkGives you somewhere useful to spend spare mana, usually through an ability you can activate again and again. Rogue's Passage, Mind StoneOpen the Mana Sink pageTokensToken decks fill the battlefield with small creatures made by their cards, then attack with all of them or make them all bigger at once. A token is a creature (or other object) that a card creates, not a card from your deck.Open the Tokens pageToken MakerCreates one or more tokens. Different cards make very different ones: creatures Grave Titan, Treasures Smothering Tithe, Clues Tireless Tracker or Food Gilded Goose. This is one of our largest tags, so pair it with an archetype or theme when you are hunting a specific kind.Open the Token Maker pageDrawDraws you extra cards. More cards means more choices every turn, and in a 100-card deck it is the main way to find the pieces you need. Rhystic Study, SkullclampOpen the Draw page
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: Shuffle your library, then exile the top card. Until end of turn, you may play that card without paying its mana cost.
Open the full glossary
