The Best Commander Cards From... Urza's Legacy
Welcome back to The Best Commander Cards From..., a series focusing on the most powerful EDH cards from across Magic: The Gathering's rich thirty-year-long history. Today we're looking at Urza's Legacy, the sixteenth expansion set, which was released in February of 1999 and is the second set in the Urza's block.
Combo Winter Continues
Urza's Saga started Combo Winter, and Urza's Legacy prolonged it. Free spells, premier tutors, and more busted artifacts were printed, and we'll be looking at quite a few of those! Even though this is a small set, we've got a pretty big list to get through. I'm pretty eager to get right into it, so let's skip to the cards.
No Mercy
Go-wide, creature-dense strategies tend to point in other directions if you have a No Mercy on board. Unlike Dictate of Erebos and Grave Pact, you don't need expendable creatures or a sacrifice outlet to make this do work. You're gonna eat that damage before the trigger goes off, though, so be careful.
Aura Flux
The enchantment counterpart to Energy Flux, which was featured in my review of Antiquities! While Aura of Silence taxes enchantments that haven't been played yet, Aura Flux does the opposite, and in the right matchup it hits a lot harder. Perhaps there's a power-crept version of this card, but I'm not aware of it. Aura Flux is criminally underplayed.
Cloud of Faeries
It turns out that a virtually free creature with applications in Faerie-kindred, cycling-matters, and cloning strategies does enough to see a ton of play. From Edric, Spymaster of Trest and Obyra, Dreaming Duelist to Donal, Herald of Wings and Yorion, Sky Nomad, there's just a ton of room for Cloud of Faeries.
Tinker (Banned)
The artifact tutor to rival all others, Tinker excels at putting massive value engines into play for a laughable upfront cost. Too bad it's only legal in Vintage, where it's restricted to one copy. There's no doubt in my mind that this would be an omnipresent format staple if it wasn't banned. Without any digging, The One Ring, Bolas's Citadel, Portal to Phyrexia, and Mycosynth Lattice immediately come to mind.
Unearth
You can play Unearth in a variety of decks, although it tends to fit best in decks with a commander that costs three or less. Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger, Skullbriar, the Walking Grave, and Braids, Arisen Nightmare are pretty notable commanders for it.
Crop Rotation
It shouldn't be a surprise that Crop Rotation fits best in decks that want to sacrifice lands for value. In fact, two of the best lands to fetch out were covered in review of Urza's Saga: Gaea's Cradle and Tolarian Academy, the latter of which is banned in Commander, and both make a ton of mana.
Defense Grid
Drop a Defense Grid in your next game and watch the control player. They'll either slam down a Counterspell variant faster than you've ever seen or shrug their shoulders and sigh. Be warned, though, this is a symmetrical effect, so other players at the table will have ample opportunity to combo off.
Rancor
More than just a Voltron card, Rancor excels in a variety of decks. Whether you're sacrificing it to Baba Lysaga, Night Witch for value, enchanting your Uril, the Miststalker, or getting recursive value in an enchantments-matter (Enchantress) deck, Rancor often fills a role.
Frantic Search
Free spells rarely disappoint, and looting is a pretty strong ability, which makes Frantic Search appealing by its very nature. While it may technically be card disadvantage on paper, it's usually played in decks where discarding or drawing extra cards is beneficial. Rielle, the Everwise in particular gets a free Prying Eyes. This was also restricted in Vintage in 1999, and wouldn't get unrestricted until 2010!
Goblin Welder
If you want cheap, powerful, and fun engine cards, Goblin Welder will do the trick. While it's great for pulling a switcheroo on your own stuff, it also excels at messing with opposing strategies at times. Did your opponent mill an Izzet Signet? Oops, looks like their Pyromancer's Goggles isn't long for this world.
Grim Monolith
This competitive EDH staple offers you a lot of mana for a pretty low upfront cost. Fast mana is at a huge premium in cEDH, so the prohibitive real-life price tag of this Monolith lives up to its Grim name. Grim Monolith is yet another card that ended up banned or restricted for years in several formats following its printing.
Impending Disaster
I'm a huge fan of artifact decks, and as someone who regularly packs anywhere between ten and fifteen mana rocks in my deck, I love Impending Disaster. While it has to survive for a turn cycle, it'll certainly put everyone at the table into panic mode if it isn't quickly removed. If there are exactly six lands in play, everyone at the table is essentially holding the detonator. It may not be especially competitive, but it makes for wild play experiences.
Angel's Trumpet
What Angel's Trumpet lacks in raw power it makes up for in effect. If this is on the battlefield, you will attack, or you will be punished severely for it. Best of all, not attacking on your turn leaves you wide open for everyone else.
Karmic Guide
This white Reanimate on a stick doesn't penalize your life total at all, unlike its enemy-color creature contemporary, Phyrexian Delver. That minor change makes all the difference, as looping Karmic Guide is the name of the game. Saffi Eriksdotter is the standout, although plenty of other decks can make use of it.
Memory Jar
One of the few "wheel" effects that's not in blue or red, Memory Jar especially excels in several mono-black decks. Back during Combo Winter, Memory Jar was extremely overpowered, and quickly got the ban hammer in every non-Commander format besides Vintage, where it remains restricted to this day.
Mother of Runes
There's not much I want to see less than a turn-one Mother of Runes in Vintage Cube. Make no mistake that this is a fantastic Commander card, however. It does a ton, from enabling attacks that you'd otherwise never make, to protecting your commander from removal, to setting up free blocks, and more.
Defense of the Heart
The more palatable version of Oath of Druids, in Commander at least, Defense of the Heart quickly turns into a subgame between the other players. If your opponents don't have enchantment removal, they'll spend multiple turns ramming their creatures into each other to avoid letting you get that trigger. Of course, you want the trigger, but watching the other players micro-manage their boards to carefully avoid giving it to you is quite entertaining.
Palinchron
Mana-doublers turn Palinchron into infinite storm count, cast triggers, and mana. After you have all of those things, you can hopefully find a way to win the game. I've assembled this combo in Commander and Cube on multiple occasions, and it's always fun... for me, at least.
Phyrexian Reclamation
All you need is some spare life and a bit of time to turn Phyrexian Reclamation into a serious value engine. Whether you're getting back Gray Merchant of Asphodel or just a Ravenous Chupacabra, it does the job.
Crawlspace
Just like spending a removal spell on Propaganda feels bad, so does spending one on Crawlspace. Thankfully, this restriction only applies to your opponents attacking you, leaving you free to swing with whatever armies you have laying around. It won't help against one or two huge threats, however, so watch out for the occasional Blightsteel Colossus.
Snap
There's a lot of creature-based combo decks in the format, and Snap is a free-ish way to interact with them without losing tempo. From cEDH to casual, you can find a ton of uses for it, including saving your own creature from a removal spell.
That's all I've got for you today. Unlike my review of Urza's Saga, I didn't have to cut anything here. If I missed your pet card, feel free to let me know the error of my ways in the comments. For a small set, though, I think this certainly delivered on the ominous promise implied by the term Combo Winter.
I'm Luka "Robot" Sharaska, and be sure to join me next time when we take on Urza's Destiny.
Further Reading:
Eternal Weekend Tournament Report - By Sam Black
