[MH1] Urza, Lord High Artificer
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https://scryfall.com/card/mh1/75/urza-lord-high-artificer
So I know this card seem kind of unexciting and expensive, but I think it could be a great card in PO. I think the ability to turn any of your artifacts into blue sources is very very valuable as that is often your choke point. Additionally his ability to act as a mana sink and potentially dig a few cards deeper (for a large mana investment) could prove to be valuable in certain tight situations. I think his biggest weakness is the fact that he is a creature, and a legendary one, making him weak to Karakas and other creature removal. If you manage to make him stick a turn or two then I think he can be extremely powerful at helping you chain POs and find you more action.
Edit: Just realized potentially the most important and broken aspect of him overall, he makes your artifacts tap for mana through Null Rod effects!
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Not impossible, but I find 4 CMC for that set of abilities to be quite a lot to get out from under a null rod or new Karn.
If he were a little cheaper I could see him being part of some sort of Affinity_Constructs.dec or something, but as it stands I think your 75 is going to be too crowded to find the time for this.
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Tapping Paradox Engine to add Blue while activating Urza is going to feel so great.
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All those years waiting for an Urza card...
Karakas is not really an answer to a card with an "Enters the battlefield" trigger and removal, in general, is also not great against him due to it.
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When I first saw this I thought there might be some wacky play where you scoop him up and replay him as you're going off creating a couple of big constructs (when you finally finish replaying your artifacts and winding down your POs) as a hedge against something going south with your plan A. But I tend to think that is probably just too cute and you'd want something else in that slot.
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@bandswithothers I mean, I did this with Karn, making multiple Karnstructs until you could time walk and swing with generally 15/15+ creatures (had a screenshot of an emrakul chump blocking). Was making a point at the time that you didn’t need to dedicate other cards like tendrils, time vault, etc when you were capable of drawing your deck. It’s definitely viable.
Edit: problem is that I’m not sure Urza attacks from a different angle. I was try to dodge pyroblast, rod, etc. maybe you dodge Lavinia?
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@chubbyrain The ability "Tap an untapped artifact you control: Add U" is attached to Urza, not to artifacts you tap.
This allow to completely dodge null rod effect and make construct tap the turn they came into play, two important improvements over Karn. -
I think Urza attacks from multiple angles is unaffected by Null Rod / Storm hate, and still provides value against removal. If it wasn't going to cost $9 million dollars, I'm sure it would find a home in some Outcome lists, at the very least as a singleton.
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@cuikui I am aware. It's literally in bold in the first post... I should have been more specific in that I was trying to dodge the answers from Rod Xerox (was on my phone). This is not a good card against those decks mainly because of the vulnerability to Pyroblast, the Construct being mandatory and Dack Faydenable, etc. To complete my thought, you might do better against UW Lavinia decks like the one Justin was playing on stream.
@vaughnbros It will certainly see play for that same reason you think the card will cost 9 million dollars (and the same reason I'm going to play it). Going to stink though when you can't cast your 4 mana null rod answer through Spheres, or it gets pyroblasted.
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Out of all of the Modern Horizons cards, this was the one that I was most excited about. There is a deck that is making some waves with guy. Is it any good? Can it win in this meta? Will London Mulligan make it better? @IamActuallyLvL1 has a sweet list. Maybe he can do a quick write on this guy?
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Blue Karn, Formerly Outcome shells, and other artifact heavy blue decks have been running him. Just getting overshadowed right now by stuff like Karn and Pitch Dredge.
