MTG Salvation

I was planning on putting together Conley's Pitch Blue deck, but after seeing some of these spoilers it might be time to bust out the ol' artifacts. Although we might have to name change Grixis Urza Control.

I have a strong feeling Force of Negation will be a sideboard card due to non-creature.

I haven't followed the thread for a while, any reason Pentad Prism dropped out of favor?

Urza is crazy for us, I am going to start brewing now! On a side note, how much is this card realistically worth? I see it going for 70-80 now, which feels insane, but could it be worth that much?

Nah, the card is super niche, the demand will drop within time. If ever Urza pushes a deck into Tier 1 status, there will be a high demand, but for now, I would guess the price spikes because of Commander.

I'm like SirPsychoMantis, I dropped the thread and deck a while ago, but this set awakens my curiosity for some decks again.

The spoilers are so monumental for us, I'm finding it hard to justify playing my current build online. I'm just super impatient to start testing. Plus, there's easily a half dozen other decks I want to brew and tweak with the new cards.

I'm definitely going to play the hell out of Horizons sealed just to try to get some of the expensive cards like Urza. I know essentially cracking packs isn't really the way to get staples, but if you're like me and don't want to wait for prices to lower, the EV of sealed with its prize structure is pretty good. Besides, sealed is fun and who doesn't want a chance to lay bear tribal?

Quote from DegenerateEE »

Urza is crazy for us, I am going to start brewing now! On a side note, how much is this card realistically worth? I see it going for 70-80 now, which feels insane, but could it be worth that much?

60 bucks for a card, which does not see play in standard (cause not a standard legal set) is pretty far fetched. The only reason, why the price is rather balooned is (besides that this is Urza), cause of Commander/EDH. That guy is bonkers, so there is a reason, why it may remain rather high.

I expect, that he will drop below 20 bucks rather fast, here in Europe you can buy him currently for 25€, which is still to high.

Greetings,
Kathal

Keep in mind Horizons boosters have an msrp of double or almost double a standard set, so that'll help inflate prices

Cool Deck list with urza I am theary crafting, would love some feedback!

https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/1934153#paper

Looks pretty sweet, DegenerateEE! I would recommend go down 1-2 Ensnaring Bridge and find some room for 4 Baubles, as they are almost more useful than Serum Visions between Sai and Saheeli triggers, mana for whir, and mana from Urza. Bridge is less relevant in today's meta than you might think, and your deck is going to have a LOT more bodies to block with than a typical build between Sai and Urza and Saheeli. Also, I would find room for a spellskite, as I expect Infect to be heavily played with their new insane pump spell.


Another possible new toy for us out of the sideboard against stuff like Tron or Control - Fallen Shinobi. He's a solid beater that can sneak in off of a thopter attack and have a chance to steal some sweet tech from the opponent.

Thanks nobodys,I like those ideas.

As far as fallen shinobi, I feel like 4 cmc is still a lot to get in for a good beater, but I could see it as sweet sideboard tech for say control. (Edit, I didn't read the second text, that card is super cool if we can get it to go off!)

What do people think about going red for faithless looting and the new goblin that can entomb sword? Could be a new interesting take on the deck.

I will for sure be playing at least 3 Goblin Engineer. I posted my theory craft decklist at the end of last page. I would not recommend looting, however, especially because its main purpose would be putting a sword in the yard, something that 1) isn't really relevant turn one, and 2) Engineer does so much better. Distorting your mana base to get turn 1 red, which is when looting wants to be cast, is too painful. Getting a reliable turn-2 red, however, is easier.

One thing I just considered about engineer is how, after his initial tutoring usefulness, he can help blank oposing artifact removal if you have a virtual copy of your important artifact in the yard. If they try to abrade your, say, needle or bridge, you can switch the copies in response with his ability. Or if you have a spellskite in play, you can redirect, and then swap an unimportant artifact for the spellskite after skite dies. He seems very useful, although he does make us more graveyard dependent.

Im not sold on engineer. If we're splashing red for him do we still need the 4 copies of whir? Maybe just 2?

Pentad prism could be more useful since we have additional ways to abuse it now with urza. Ill be trying urza with a walking ballista as my finisher of choice. Infinite mana and infinite ballista pings!

The more i think about force of negation i dont think i want more than 2 copies, if any.

Super excited about urzathoptersword though. Just want to play some copies of tezz in the maim as he was what drew me to this deck in the first place

Is there a point to stick to black since new Urza way better than Tezz in 4drop slot?
I was brewing UWR version before, and with Urza and new goblin it becomes more and more attractive. White provide good sideboard options to remove problematic permanents like Stony Silence.

Sorry for bad English

How do we beat tron now they have 4 karn great creators main board?

Needle, spark harvest, the elderspell. And we need a non thoptersword wincon. If the meta becomes more planeswalker dominant i think it would be useful to play our own planeswalkers to try and win through other lines of play. Sai and saheeli creating a ton of small beaters seems like a good way to go. Especially as sai gives us flyers and we have a bunch of 0cmc spells that dont care about lattice.

Beating Tron is hard, but you still have Unmoored Ego and Damping sphere. If you have attackers on board, Karn is less dangerous if he's off tron. If you don't, then you might want to Ego Karn if you have relevant plays in the next few turns you don't want disrupted. If you really want to beat Karn, maybe try some number of Commandeer in the sidebaord.

Is urza really worth building our deck around? If we're jamming thoptersword and trying to go infinite time sieve does the same except we can whir for it or grab it with a karn from our board, and even then it was seen as winmore.

Urza is cool sure but karnstruct doesnt further the bridge plan, Tapping artifacts for u is the only ability worth playing him for since we can drop him and still maybe whir for something, potentially play a bridge or sword.

I can see him in a more planeswalker heavy build but if we're playing whir id rather play a toolbox/prison deck. Tezz can win the turn after he comes down evem if we dont have the combo. Urza being a creature makes him more vulnerable too. Im gonna test him because maybe im wrong but i still think tezzeret is better.

I think he's gonna be nuts. He's both a combo engine and a value engine, and puts 2 big butts on the board immediately. Oh yeah, and he could also come down for an effective net of 1 or 2 mana. And, unlike Tezz, he dodges stubborn denial, dovin's veto, negate, and force of negation. He can't be attacked into, and any 1 for 1 removal will be at a negative card value for opponents, especially if he gets pathed.

With only a few reps, I can say I already love Engineer. The more tutors, the more power. Urza I have trouble drawing it in a deck that doesn't really draw anything, unless we play some Narsets to dig (same role as Tezz AoB, but better). With a black splash only and more blue cards, Force of Negation might be useful to protect our permanents.

Modern has its first 1 cmc cantripping artifact, Arcum's Astrolabe. Not sure it's totally relevant for us, but it's a cantrip that keeps a "body" on the field for us, unlike Chromatic Star, so you can draw your card and then cast a whir more easily, or sac to foundry, or ramp with Urza, or sac with Engineer, or with Time Sieve, or Sai, or just mana fix. That actually sounds pretty decent. Does require snow basics, though, which means it's not as reliable for turn 1.

This is an interesting take from Sam Black. Obviously very different from what we usually play and very combo focused. I do like the Sai, and the Stoic Rebuttals. Rebuttal seems like it could be the best way to protect Urza. I also really like the idea of baby Teferi as extra protection. I've been playing him in UW Control lately and really liking him, and even playing him a bit in thopter sword too. His bounce can also deal with pesky hate cards like RiP, Stony, leyline etc, while also doing a great job of protecting our thing fairly well.

I don't think I like the Tamiyo, the Mox Amber, or the Ancient Stirrings. Tamiyo's ability I just don't think is relevant enough at 4 mana, kinda late to be protecting us from those effects. Mox Amber seems really slow, and Ancient Stirrings I feel just doesn't hit enough of the deck.

Possibly welding jars could replace Ambers, Whir could replace stirrings, or even just Serum Visions. I'm not super sold on Saheeli, but she could be good here with Urza around. We could also replace stirrings or something else with Goblin Engineers or something.

Anyway, it's obviously a rough theorycrafting list, but I thought it had some interesting ideas that might spark some new ideas in people's brewing