Reviewing Magic: The Gathering #15 - Urza's Saga

So back last year I did reviews of Magic: The Gathering cards and sort of... fell off. And a huge reason about it is because of the Urza block. Urza's Saga, Urza's Destiny and Urza's Legacy all vaguely have a theme that surrounds the story of a master wizard, but honestly a huge reason why I did M:TG card reviews was to talk about the monsters and while the Phyrexians were cool there really weren't much to talk about in the Urza trilogy. Other things sort of got in the way, and... M:TG reviews sort of fell by the wayside.

Since 2019, though, I've had this huge draft that's just "The Urza Block" where I would take a crack and talk about just the monsters and whatnot, to eventually publish my monster review of all three sets in a single page before moving on to the next couple of expansions... but the Mercadian Masques, Nemesis and Prophecy trilogy doesn't have that much of a theme that tickle my fancy either. No wonder M:TG would later move on to far more heavily thematic sets later on!

But since we suddenly have a lot of... well, shall we say free time thanks to the whole global pandemic thing, I ended up having some time to write through some of my longer articles. And maybe it can help alleviate some of your boredom too when you read through these. I plan to at least churn out a fair bit of my longer 'reviewing monsters' articles this month and the next.

Do take note that while I try my best to edit these, the Urza block articles were initially written as a single entity, so if there are some inconsistencies in how I refer to the article, well... yeah.
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So the Urza Block, as usual in Magic: The Gathering, is comprised of three expansions: Urza's Saga; Urza's Legacy and Urza's Destiny. And it tells us all about Urza, one of the two great planeswalkers that caused a whole lot of events in the very first expansion with the very first Magic-original story, Antiquities. Urza showed up in the final moments of the Rath block, alerted to the incoming Phyrexian invasion. These three expansions essentially give a backstory to the Legacy artifacts, as well as the fact that apparently Urza is behind everything. He fought the Phyrexians for the many, many years between Antiquities and the Rath block, he created the Skyship Weatherlight, he created Karn, and he's basically been fighting sort of an unseen battle as he uses his newfound Planeswalker ability to move from plane to plane. The full story of Urza's storyline is told in four novels: The Brohters' War; Planeswalker; Time Streams and Bloodlines. Most importantly, I think this was the block that really hammered home the theme of Planeswalkers.

Also, apparently according to the M:TG Wiki, this is one of the most 'broken' of the sets, with such a huge power-creep among the cards here? Figures it's the expansions with a theme I don't particularly care about that ends up being one of the most relevant.

• Click here for the previous part, Exodus.
• Click here for the next part, Urza's Legacy.
• Click here for the index.

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We're going to start off with the 350-card expansion, Urza's Saga... and honestly, the only vaguely interesting card in White from this set is Serra Avatar. A representation of the great angel Serra (whose name has been a recurring adjective for angelic beings), Serra Avatar presumably shows off the form that Serra takes to interact with mortals or something. Serra and her plane is one of the major locales seen in the storyline, so... yep! Her avatar looks a lot less angelic, though, and looks more like an extra a samurai or a ninja or something. I do like that Serra Avatar really makes playing her feel like you are playing as Serra, since the Avatar is as powerful as you are at the moment, and being a representation of your soul or something, it can't be sent to the graveyard.

We've got Barrin, Master Wizard, a legendary creature and someone whose name has popped up every now and then in previous past cards. Barrin is the headmaster of the Tolarian mage academy (one that has definitely shown up a lot before), and he and Urza ended up basically trying to time-travel to the past and try to prevent the proto-Phyrexian civilization from, well, becoming the Phyrexians. He sure is a wizard dude! I really don't have much to say here. We've seen so many wizard dudes that I really kinda wished they had gone for somewhat unique designs, y'know? Not even in a "give me more non-human fantasy races" way, give him... I dunno, more interesting clothing or a funky staff or something.


Oh, shit, I really do like these two merfolks. Taking a page out of the Rath cycle's block, we get another series of monstrous Merfolk, in a completely different way compared to Rath's more tentacle-y, deep-see-anglerfish aesthetic. The Coral Merfolk and Sandbar Merfolk are ganglier, have these elongated heads, very long eel-like tails, a pretty majestic tail, and a very cool set of fins that look like arm-blades. Not the most unique water monster for sure, but definitely a neat variation of the merfolk!

I really do like the Coral Merfolk's artwork showing a parent merfolk basically carrying her young, showing that despite their more monstrous appearance, they're not particularly evil folk! The Sandbar Merfolk, meanwhile, has a pretty neat-looking set of squiggly swords and a generally dynamic pose of bursting out of underwater sand.


I'm not sure why I like the fact that they included a Horseshoe Crab as a Blue monster. I'm also not sure why I find the Horseshoe Crab, which is just a single Horseshoe Crab, so much more funny than the other 300+ cards in Urza's Saga. I do really like the flavour text, too, and apparently, being a 1/3 creature, it's canon in Magic: The Gathering that a single, mundane Horseshoe Crab it at least three times more durable than a legendary wizard called Barrin.

Great Whale is pretty interesting in that it's not considered a 'leviathan' or a 'sea serpent' or anything fantastical, and is just straight-up a whale... but ook at that massive head with a fuck-ton of mean-looking teeth. It genuinely looks majestic and threatening, and I wonder if it's just an art of a cool sea monster that they slapped the moniker 'great whale' on, or if it's actually specifically meant to refer to prehistoric cetaeans like the Basilosaurus, which actually do have a dinosaur-like maw of teeth.


Imaginary Pet is a pretty interesting concept! Illusions are nothing new for Blue mana, but the fact that this is a cute little child imagining a giant, ghostly bear with weird teeth that apparently "followed me home".... it's really curious, yeah? What is the Imaginary Pet? It's certainly real enough to have 4/4 stats, so is the child, like, subconsciously creating a ghost bear buddy with the power of imagination? Is it like a JoJo Stand? Is it some random wild Illusion that actually did follow the kid home?

Somnophore is another one of those weird-ass one-off creatures with no flavour text and no real indication as to what this creature is. It's an 'illusion', and it's this weird floating four-armed green thing with a vaguely pig-like fact and a stick. The 'somno' bit seems to imply that it's related to sleep, but I'm not sure if it's created by the sleeping red-haired lady, or if it's created by someone else and it's causing the red-haired lady to fall asleep. Pretty bizarre!


Zephid is such a bizarre-looking creature, and, well, is another one of those things that is right up my alley as such a weird-looking and fascinating creature. It's another 'illusion', and I absolutely adore the flavour text for this one. "Once you've seen one, you'll understand why spells won't go near them." Unlike other 'hexproof' creatures, the Zephid isn't just simply immune to spells, but rather it's look that's so alien that spells somehow actively avoid it. And just look at this Zephid! It looks so bizarre, having two pairs of weird-ass wings, a head that's a combination of insect and dragon, multiple sets of legs, and a somewhat metallic-looking sheen to all of it. Pretty wacky design!

Show and Tell is here because I really do like the artwork. One of the themes for Blue in Urza's Saga is the Tolarian wizard academy, but "Show and Tell" is probably one of the few academy-related cards that has any personality beyond a sterile "a wizard is teaching spells while pointing at a blackboard". From the main wizard who's overwhelmed with whatever eyeball-tentacle-slug creature that's bursting out of his backpack, to the bloody mass of flesh on the desk to the left of the picture, to all the other students in the background holding their own grisly, bizarre packages... I mean, this is a world with Zephids in it, small wonder that the show-and-tell at a mage's school would be so wacky.


Blood Vassal is another Thrull, and the last one we'll see for a while. What a positively wretched looking thing, with exposed, disorderly ribcages, a deformed, tiny arm, and a skully face tucked under that massive hunchback. Throw in a bunch of ropes that seem to be the only thing holding the Blood Vassal's arms in place, and you really get the feeling that this hideous creature is quite literally created and bred to be a disposable mana source. Poor thrulls!

Mana Leech is more like a slug, honestly, but I do really like the concept that this is a creature that apparently leeches out the mana from a certain area. The concept of the Land cards is that each turn, the lands generate mana for the wizard to draw upon, but the Mana Leeches just shut down a segment of the lands your enemy controls. I do really like just how icky it looks, like, there's so many random blobs, greebles and tentacles on this thing's body.


And here we throw ourselves wholeheartedly into the horror of Phryexia. We did see Volrath, who is a Phyrexian agent, and his plane of Rath, but most of Volrath's minions tend to be goblins and shapeshifters, and there's a distinct lack of hideous cyborg abominations. Well, we've got Hollow Dogs, which look both mechanized but also clearly has the anatomy of a dog skeleton. It's relatively mundane, as far as Phyrexian critters go, but I do like a lot of the details on this thing. Those weird yellow anemone-like growths, the weird tubes, and the dog skulls are pretty neat.

Abyssal Horror is... it's got a lot of things going on. The more I look at this picture, the more fun it becomes. The thing that draws you the most to it is the fact that that white thing at the center of its chest-head is actually the stretched apart face that it collects from its victim, stretched into a grin because it doesn't have a face of its own. So does that mean that the weird set of spiky growths are its true 'face'? Then you look even closer and it's holding a mask, its shoulders hvae a bird's head and a crocodile head, it's got a weird little ring-fetish with what I think is an eyeball, and it's got a beetle hanging off of a string like a keychain. There's a lot of things going on here!


Spined Fluke is such an interestingly large creature for a fluke, which tends to be parasitic in nature. And here it looms and goops over the skeleton of what I think is meant to be a Hollow Dog (we'll meet those below) as it snarls with its massive, giant lamprey mouth and showing off its porcupine spikes. Shit, you even have to sacrifice a creature to get the fluke to come to play, implying that the Spined Fluke probably does a chestburster-style "kill the host" as it enters combat. Pretty neat, and it's classified not as a worm, but a 'horror'. Y'know, the tribe associated with the monstrous, reason-defying eldritch abominations? Yet apparently, its main purpose is apparently to have its spines harvested for writing quills.

Dark Hatchling seems to be another sort of parasite, although it doesn't always destroy one of your creatures. Sometimes it bursts out of your opponent's creatures! And it's a far more elaborate 'horror' than the fluke, with a grosser-looking maw that wouldn't be out of place with the Zerg, and with massive bat wings and a spooky green aura as it flies out of that poor dude's mouth like some sort of ghost.


And here we have the Skirges, Phyrexia's answer to Imps. They're going to be a bit of a running theme, and I absolutely love just how nasty they look. They have a humanoid body with wings, and random cyborg parts and metal claws, but most distinct is the unique shape of their heads, with the creepy completely-white eyes placed on the extreme sides of their elongated heads, and their fanged mouths opening vertically. Crazed Skirge and Skirge Familiar are the ones that give us the best look at these creatures as a whole, and, man, they look nasty, huh? Apparently, just for an extra bit of hilarious over-the-top gore, the Phyrexians use Skirges as couriers and inscribe the messages on these little critter's sides.


Ravenous Skirge and Skiterring Skirge both show off Skirges in more dynamic postures, and I do like Ravenous's "I'm going to eat your FUCKING FACE" pose. I kinda wished that there is a bit more variation in the Skirge sub-types, though, in the same way that we got with the Slivers... but eh, I don't mind it. Pretty neat and creepy imp creature for sure.


And here we go to even more nasty-looking techno-organic monstrosities, and I honestly really do love the genuinely over-the-top gore that these artists utilize in these creatures. They look like they had fun! The Flesh Reaver makes me think like it's perhaps a 'basic' infantry unit of sorts, looking kind of like an AT-ST Chicken-Walker from Star Wars, with an anatomy that's basically just a cephalothorax with two chicken feet. Of course, this thing is flayed and all its anatomy is just bone and flesh. Its flavour text tells us that those weird smokestack like structures on its but "spit a highly corrosive cloud of filth". Not only is this a horrifying flesh-and-bones chicken with tooth like a lion, it also shoots your face with a cloud of shit!

Witch Engine is one of the weirdest horrors from this expansion, and apparently this weird thing shows up a lot in the backgrounds of a fair amount of Urza's Saga Black cards, making me think that the Witch Engine might be some sort of mass-produced Phyrexian model. And what a bizarre looking creature! It's got a bizarre plague mask bird head going on, a whole lot of spiky hair, and insanely gangly bony limbs. The way those legs and spine are bent really make this creature look even more unnatural, even if the end result does look like kind of a chicken with gangly skeletal limbs. I like this one. It looks so bizarre.


The Order of Yawgmoth, at first glance, just looks like a generic metal-man with a scythe. But the more I look at it, the weirder it looks. It's got what reminds me of a gothic graveyard spiky wall on its back, its robotic limbs are so bizarrely skeletal, and I'm not sure if its "face" is the yawning hole at the center of its chest, or whatever that bizarre, robotic little beady-eye on top of it. Pretty neat!

Phyrexian Ghoul sort of reminds me of the Carnophage, but clearly a lot more fucked up and a lot less wacky with more anatomically-plausible teeth. I do love the details on the weird vein/wires on its lower arms and trailing down its skull from its eyes. Apparently, Phyrexia's "food chain" exists. And, well, the Phryexian Ghoul really sort of exemplifies the whole "body horror, but with machines" flavour of Phyrexia as a whole, huh?


Sanguine Guard is... it's a thing. What is this thing? It is just a massive blob with two giant arms made up of knives, with a mask of a screaming baby acting as its face? The more I look at the Sanguine Guard, the less I understand what's going on, but it sure looks neat!

Vebuild is perhaps one of the creatures in this expansion that really sell the idea of a techno-organic horror. It's just a mass of cysts and tumours that sort of resemble a giant, mutated liver, with a string of entrails (the gall bladder equivalent?) hanging down its bottom, all the while supported with three spindly robotic legs that really shouldn't be able to logically support such a gigantic mass of tumours. Apparently, the Vebuild just grows and grows every turn, but dies at the end of combat, so presumably it just... explodes after growing and growing? Like some sort of hideous suicide bomb? Well, that dude in the foreground sure is trying to whack it with his mace.


Crater Hellion is another Hellion, which I think we briefly see in the Rath block. It still doesn't have the Hellion 'type' and is still considered a generic beast, but it's still pretty dang cool! Sure, it's another giant worm monster, but the combination of the Sarlacc mouth and the artwork of the magma solidifying into the rocky exterior of the Crater Hellion really ends up making this creature look so dang cool.

Electryte sounds like a bad Pokemon name, and I'm not sure what it's even doing. Apparently it's this weird isopod-like bug that latches on to people and, uh... electrocutes them? I do really like the little description of how the creatures of Shivan are apparently resistant to fire, so the creatures living there have evolved to adapt different weaponry. Like lightning. Death by lightning cockroach has to be pretty undignified.


We get a lot of goblins, and while they have all became a bit more serious thanks to the influence of the Rath block, we at least get a couple that's somewhat comical. Goblin Matron just has such a fun artwork of this old granny goblin holding a little goblin baby, and I really do hope that she's wondering whether to make 'one more' goblin baby (as the tutoring effect would imply), and not to make room in that stew pot for the baby she's holding.

Goblin War Buggy is so hilariously dumb looking that it looks like something out of Wacky Races or something. From that goblin that's 90% chin with a smug expressoin, with teeny-tiny stick arms and legs, and the sheer hilarity of how mismatched his war buggy is... hell, even his stupid lance is snapped in half! I love this thing. It's so bizarrely wacky and stupid.


Okk is apparently a very impressionable goblin. I assume Okk's the bigger, hulking goblin that's being scolded by his handler? Whatever the case, despite being a pretty large creature for his mana cost, Okk will only attack or defend if another more powerful creature also does so. RElatable.

Lightning Dragon is cool. It's just a very nasty-looking rabid dragon with an almost cluttered metallic texture to its scales, and it controls lightning! I guess this is where I make note of one of the themes of this set as far as card mechanics go, which is Echo -- you have to keep paying an 'echo' cost every turn to maintain this creature.


Scoria Wurm isn't our first wurm, but what a pretty artwork! From the neat shade of lava red reflected in the wurm's scales, to the fact that it apparently weaves around a bunch of metallic pipes, and that set of horrifying multi-layered gums and teeth... and apparently the Scoria Wurms "sing of times older than humanity", which is pretty spooky and haunting!

Vug Lizard is what you get when you cross-breed a giant lizard with a star-nosed mole. I like just how absurd this is, and how this wacky creature just sort of hangs around, burrowing through your enemy's mountains.


Green has a lot of Treefolk in this expansion, and they really gave us a lot of fun expressions and designs! I absolutely love Blanchwood Treefolk's serene expression as it essentially uproots itself and just crawls along like a bizarre crab creature on its roots. Meanwhile, Cradle Guard is a treefolk that remains rooted to the spot, whipping around its trunks and branches in unnatural ways as their tips sprout out into finger-like claws. I really do like it when artists take a bit more of a naturalistic look to tree monsters instead of just making them a human, but wooden.


Treefolk Seedlings look particularly tall for 'seedlings', yeah? I really love just how unfinished they seem to be, with those mismatched, vertical squinty eyes, a facial expression that looks a bit more confused and tortured, and the sheer lack of leaves. Hell, those 'hair' and 'arm' branches even look like weird newly-sprouted plants more than actual ancient trees, which I suppose is what they're going for.

The rest of the Green minions tended to veer more towards boring elves, but holy shit their mounts are awesome. The Acridian is this bizarre combination of a stick insect and some sort of gecko, with massive, bent legs that clasp onto giant trees, and they're massive creatures that just scuttle across the massive treetops of Yavimaya while the elven warriors ride them. I really do like they're not just straight-up a giant insect, either. They have a weird, almost fleshy texture to their arms, and their head looks particularly weird, like some sort of grazing creature.


Hawkeater Moth shouldn't be this interesting, but I do like just the fact that it's literally a giant moth that goes around eating hawks.

Sporogenesis is a boar being consumed alive by a bunch of mushrooms sprouting out of its head. Which is interesting enough, but this is also one of the first cards that finally re-introduced the Saproling mechanic, basically retconning the Saprolings from being a Thallid-specific mechanic from Fallen Empires into something that generic Green plant-or-fungus flavoured minion creation can do. In this case, when Sporogenesis is active, your creatures end up constantly being the target of a Saproling infestation.


Karn, Silver Golem! He's a legendary golem and the huge plot device character for much of the Urza and Weatherlight saga. Design-wise, he's... he's pretty simple, although I've always enjoyed how his face is portrayed. This is far from our last Karn card, and I do love that since the dude is pretty much a pacifist, even his effect involves him not dealing damage to anyone attacking him in exchange for better defenses. Also, it's able to basically bring other artifacts to life, which is neat!

Hopping Automaton is a chunky, 50's-B-sci-fi-movie robot monster, that apparently just chonk-chonk-chonk hops around with those weird-ass legs. Somehow, these things were "designed to carry equipment across rivers", because crafting a bouncing robot is what you do to transport things across rivers, instead of making a waterproof robot, or a bridge-making robot, or literally anything else.


And hey, a bunch of Phyrexian artifacts! Phyrexian Colossus is yet another one of the monstrous, techno-organic monster-creatures from Phyrexia, and I know I probably sound like a broken record at this point, but I do really like their aesthetic even if it sort of blends together a bit. I love the huge background that looks like a giant brain, I love the weird formless face in the middle of that 'mask', and I love the cute little T-rex arms and the huge chicken legs. A pretty cool giant metal monstrosity!

Phyrexian Processor is presumably the sci-fi capsules with which the Phyrexians transform flesh-and-blood people into the half-robotic monstrosities. It straight-up 'processes' the life you give to it in order to create Phyrexian minions. From the artwork, I assume that the poor lady on the left is being tortured and essentially broken apart to create the Phyrexian 'clone' on the right side of the pod. The Phyrexians also have a Terminator-esque line of sleeper agents that look identical to humans, so this might be the creation of one.

As usual, the rest of the set will be after a break. This includes the story segment, and thanks to M:TG wiki for helping me out in that regard.

URZA'S SAGA STORYLINE

And here's the storyline told across the three expansions in Urza's Block. The chronology of these events, as mentioned, takes place between the Brothers' War in Antiquities (which led to Ice Age and all that fun stuff) and takes place in the background of the long, long time-skip between Antiquities and the whole storyline involving the Weatherlight.




So a chunk of the first expansion, Urza's Saga, actually gives in detail the actual Brothers' War, which took place in Antiquities. Urza's son Harbin landed on a massive island called Argoth, with plentiful lumber, when his thopter was pulled there by a massive storm (Crosswinds), and led Urza and his men there (Exploration). Ships are soon deployed to harvest the massive amount of lumber from the fertile ground to help create Urza's war machines. However, the Hidden Ancients of Argoth aren't particularly pleased at the massive amount of treecutting these intruders are doing.

(Hidden Ancients has a very neat card art)


This eventually led into a three-way-war. The massive war machines of Urza and Mishra competed for the lumber (Mobile Fort, Greater Good), and they are in turn opposed by the hidden guerrillas made up by the forest's elves as well as their Treefolk allies. The elves soon ended up gaining aid from other denizens of the forest, like pixies (Symbiosis) and centaurs (Titania's Boon).


The amount of resistance grew more and more. Elvish Herders unleashed their creatures to stampede upon the invaders. Gaea's Embrace allowed elves to combine with nature itself to fight against the unnatural machines of the two brothers. Even nature itself fought back, using the rapid growth of trees to suspend the war-machiens in air (Gaea's Bounty), and using whirlwinds to knock Urza's air force out of the air.


Mishra grew more and more violent in his methods, creating a massive drill called Mishra's Helix, intent on denying Argoth from the elves and from his brother if he couldn't have it. (Treetop Rangers).

Unbeknownst to everyone else, a portal of tainted aether is opened in the forest, from which a representative of the horrific machine hell-plane of Phyrexia arrived -- the Phyrexian Praetor known as Gix. Gix quickly slew any who witnessed his arrival to this plane (Bereavement). Not shown in the cards, Gix arrived at Mishra's camp and caused Mishra's machines to become sentient and violent, and generally causes chaos between the two parties.


Meanwhile, Gix's followers formed the Brotherhood of Gix, who rallied themselves around the Claws of Gix, a hand that Gix apparently lost in battle years ago.

As shown in No Rest for the Wicked and Priest of Gix, this Brotherhood are basically replacing their organs with machinery, slowly becoming more like the Phyrexian they worship. Outwardly, however, they still look human and some even retain human memories (like Mishra), making them perfect sleeper agents.


Eventually, Mishra attacks Urza in retaliation, but a massive fireball spell revealed that under Mishra's skin was not flesh and bone, but rather an endoskeleton of cold machinery. Later, Urza learns that Mishra had been either killed and replaced with a Phyrexian clone, or had willingly allowed himself to be converted by Gix into a Phyrexian construct. Due to the memory-modification from the Phyrexian methods, it's left murky.

Whatever the case, this revelation disgusted and enraged Urza so much that he activated the Golgothian Sylex, killing everyone present and causing the land for miles to be transformed into a blasted landscape. More importantly, however, this event of great emotional tragedy awakened something within Urza -- his Planeswalker's Spark, transforming him into an immortal, powerful mage that is able to travel to other planes.


Not shown in the cards is the massive time-skip. Urza told his trusted student Tawnos to tell everyone (including his wife Kayla) that he's dead, and then departed Dominaria to wander the planes. Tawnos did end up telling Kayla, however, who ended up chronicling the antiquities war.

Years later, as Urza wanered the planes, he came upon a 'defective' Phyrexian sleeper agent called Xantcha, who was cast out by her masters (Victimize). Befriending her, Urza learned of the way to enter Phyrexia itself. With a powerful set of armor (Urza's Armor) to protect himself from the environment of Phyrexia, he transported himself and Xantcha there. As he beheld the rain of filth in Phyrexia, Urza unleashed all the might he has, attempting to destroy the plane. However, even with all his might, the sheer amount of numbers are weighed against him. Xantcha, meanwhile, went off to regain her 'heart' (Ill-Gotten Gains).


As mighty as Urza is, the Phyrexians are many, and their dread god-like master, Yawgmoth, ended up overpowering Urza (Wall of Junk; Corrupt). Urza and Xantcha ended up being spirited away by the mighty planeswalker Serra (Planar Birth), and was taken to Serra's Sanctum, an artificial plane that Serra created using holy White Mana.


Urza and Xantcha was cared for in Serra's realm for five years (Healing Salve, Sanctum Custodian), but slowly, Urza's mind was sickened by the madness he felt when Yawgmoth 'touched' him. Eventually, though, Phyrexia caught up with Urza and his allies, as their arrival befouled the land.


A mighty battle happened between the Phyrexians and Serra's army of angels. Despite suffering initial losses (Expunge, Remembrance), Serra and her forces managed to beat back the Phyrexians, although their plane was tainted by the Phyrexians' arrival. (Disenchant, Absolute Grace).


Urza, meanwhile, showed pacifism, refusing to fight and participate in the battle. A subsequent argument between Serra and her right-hand woman, the archangel Radiant, caused Serra to leave the realm (Catastrophe, Humble, Crystal Chimes). Serra herself was forced to leave, because the taint of black mana was way too much for her to bear, while Radiant was disgusted at this abandonment.


Radiant also banished Urza and Xantcha, setting them off for their own Path of Peace. Also, lost in battle was the mighty angelic warrior Selenia, taken prisoner and persecuted by the Phyrexians. As you might've noticed, Selenia would eventually be corrupted by the Phyrexians and be highly relevant in the backstory of Crovax, one of the Weatrherlight crew.

Eventually, Urza and Xantcha, both immortals, settled down for centuries in Dominaria... until the Darkest Hour seemed at hand when the two detected sleeper agents disguised as humans hiding everywhere. The Praetor Gix also appears before Xantcha, unnerving the turncoat Phyrexian.


In the ensuing battle, Urza and Xantcha pursue Gix, and while Urza managed to slay Gix, it came at the cost of Xantcha's life (Oppression). Eventually, and not shown in cards, Urza became obsessed with time travel, wishing to travel back in time to prevent the deaths of his loved ones from happening. To this end, he recruited Barrin and founded the Tolarian Academy. In a stroke of genius, Urza figured out that silver was able to pass through portals undamaged.

With the aid of the heart-stone recovered from Xantcha, Urza eventually constructed a unique silver golem, and branded him as his work. This golem was Karn.


The obsessed Urza then created a massive Temporal Aperture, intent on sending Karn back in time to fix his mistakes...

But then the Temporal Aperture exploded, causing a massive sunder through reality, and Tolaria was engulfed with massive pockets where time moved strangely, with some mages experiencing faster times, and some experiencing slower ones (Douse; Pendrell Flux). Half of the wizards on the academy died, and many more were trapped within different pockets of time. (Tolarian Winds; Exhaustion)


Barrin attempted to fix their mistake and reconstruct the academy, but Urza, still obsessed with the Phyrexians above all else, abandons Tolaria and travels to Shiv, a land rich in red mana. Despite the Acidic Soil of the land, he ended up discovering a massive mana generator in the lands. Urza befriended the native Viashino (Bravado), allowing Urza access to the quarry.


Within the Thran Quarry, Urza found a mighty engine, the Thran Turbine, that the Viashino did not have any idea about. Through some trial and error, Urza figured out that this turbine might be the key to defeating the Phyrexians, and set out to create a collection of mighty artifacts -- the Legacy. (Shower of Sparks).
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THE REST OF THE CARDS:


The rest of the cards of Urza's Saga. Since this page's freaking long as it is, and I clearly don't have much to say about it... yeah, I'm going to really blaze through this.


A bunch of White clerics!


A bunch of White people and a pegasus!


A bunch of angels! ...except for Angelic Page, she's a spirit for some goddamn reason. She's apparently a poser.


A bunch of holy people. Sanctum Guardian is a 90% muscle by mass.


Even more holy people.


A bunch of White spells. I'm going to use spells as a generic catch-all term for "enhancements, interrupts and instants". Because it's going to be a lot faster for me to say.


More spells.


Somewhat interesting is the "Opal" set of cards. We've got an Opal Aerolith, Opal Archangel, Opal Gargoyle, Opal Titan and Opal Caryatid. They're sort of born out of the same concept as artifact creatures, except they're not artifacts and are I guess a bit more holy and sentient than regular old artifacts? These are kinda interestin, I guess.


More spells.


A whole load of Rune of Protections, one for each colour, plus lands and artifacts, but unlike previous "Protection from X", these all at least look relatively neat, y'know? The Black protection is a bunch of tiny bones, and the Blue protection is a weird hourglass, and the Green one is something hammered onto a tree. Pretty thematic.


More Runes of Protection.


More White spells and a bunch of regular wizards.


Moprhling has a neat-looking artwork, too, for a shapeshifter. We also have an obligatory djinni and sea serpent, which is sort of, well, one of those "at least once every expansion" dealies.


A bunch of drakes and Fog Bank, which is a pretty neat Wall but also something we've sort of seen in Blue before. The dragons look neat, though, and the Peregrine Drake looks like something out of a dinosaur book.


Wizard Mentor's showing off how to summon a Beeble. Clearly a very important class. Apparently, his students summon blackboards instead, which is weird but funny. Stern Proctor also plays with the theme of a wizard school, with funny paper airplanes in the background. There's a whole Tolarian academy thing going on in the background, but we don't quite get too much Hogwarts-esque cards.


Blue spells. Blue wizards are studious folk. Enchantment Alteration has the most perfect artwork of Tinker Bell looking disgruntled as this wacky kooky wizard-man literally ripped off her wings to attach them to a dead-eye looking frog. See, this is why the faeries are out for our blood.


More Blue spells. Less studious spells.


Even more Blue spells. Launch looks disturbing, actually. I imagine the mermaid in Lilting Refrain is going "boogaboogabooga."


More Blue spells. Time Spiral's going to be the name of an expansion in the future.


More Blue spells. Wait... Zephid's Embrace? What... what is going on there? Did that dude just fuse with a Zephid or something? Those wings are hardly horrific enough to really look like they come from the goddang Zephid.


More Blue spells. None of these are bad, I just don't have a whole ton to say about these, especially after going through way too many cards. Veil of Birds and Telepathy have particularly neat artworks, too.


A series of "Veiled" cards! Veiled Crocodile is pretty hilarious. I mean, like, sure, magicians can hide a Veiled Apparition pretty easily, and Veiled Serpent's hiding in the sea. But the Veiled Crocodile is just a big-ass crocodile in some random corridor. Okay!


Bog Raiders just shows a bunch of skulls in the swamp. I guess they're skeletons hiding underwater? Cackling Fiend has an insanely creepy grinning face. I'm not sure why those two very ghoulish-looking creatures with spiky back-spikes are called the Eastern & Western Paladin, but okay, yeah, I guess they're paladins sworn to Yawgmoth.


Love the random eyeball on Carrion Beetles. That's pretty grisly, but that one beetle looks so pleased and triumphant. "I gots the juicy bits, lads!" Unworthy Dead are supposedly, well, shitty skeleton monsters based on the name, but look at those claws, they'll fuck you up! Looming Shade has a pretty neat artwork.


More Black spells! I like those Phyrexian chicken-headed things on the artwork of Breach. 


Diabolic Servitude has a pretty creepy looking torturer dude in the background. On quick glance he's just a generic dude with an executioner's hood, but look closer and the hood's part of his flesh, and he's got a mouth built into that hood-like thing. Ew!


Lurking Evil very nearly made it into the main article, but we've had too many Black cards from Urza's Saga. It's a pretty cool looking gangly bony thing with bird wings and a massive mosquito-like stabber for a face, and I really like just how the upper legs are literally just two sticks. Pestilence has the Witch Engines in the background moving around like weird chickens.


Meanwhile, Reprocess, ina ddition to having Witch Engines, also has Hollow Hounds. I like the continuity that some Phyrexian constructs are just like, models that show up every now and then.

Yawgmoth's Edict is kinda hilarious. "I AM THE SUPREME EVIL OVERLORD OF THE MULTIVERSE AND MY EDICT IS THAT THIS DOVE WILL DIE SCREAMING"


Dromesaur is such a lumpy, awkward dinosaur boy. I like him. Apparently he's afraid of dogs. Poor thing! I thought "Guma" was a specific type of real-life large cat, but apparently it's original to Magic.


A bunch of goblins! Goblin Spelunker brings back some of the whimsical charm of pre-Rath goblins, but for the most part, unfortunately we're sort of stuck with most of the comedy being in the flavour text. Like the very obvious one in Goblin Offensive. They certainly are indeed.


I actually kinda like the design of Goblin Raider. For an M:TG goblin, he sure looks pretty cool.


Eyyy the Viashino are back! The Viashino Outrider rides a Dromesaur and it looks so fucking goofy. I like the Viashino. These ones don't really show off anything super-neat or whatever, but I do like that we're getting these lizard boys back just on principle.


A dinosaur, a giant, and now... red spells!


More Red spells.


Even more Red spells. Lots of boom boom.


Okay, Jagged Lightning's artwork is hilarious. As is the flavour text.Heat Ray is a bit brutal, that poor goblin.



Wait, are those little dots on the giant weird vagina-mouthed worm in Outmaneuver supposed to be goblins? Holy shit, they aren't incompetent for once! Heh, you go, little goblins, kill Wormzilla!


A bunch more Red spells...


And even more Red spells. I guess attacking a dragon while it's asleep counts as a 'sneak attack'?


We've got an Albino Troll and a centaur.


And "Argothian" seems to be the locale and adjective we slap on anything. We've seen way too many random elves in the past, and the Argothian Wurm is honestly kind of the standard, kinda-boring default Wurm design.


A bunch of regular giant animals!


A bunch of elves and a big rock-man.


Two more regular animals, and two Wurms.


Green spells! These are friendly.


Like the 'veiled' White cards, Green apparently has "hidden" cards. Hidden Predators and Hidden Spider sure sounds terrifying, but Hidden Stag? Okay? The elves can't find a more threatening creature than a stag to hide?


More green spells. Fecundity is the ability to produce lots of offspring, so, uh, it shows a skeleton of some creature? I don't really understand. I guess it means the plant can grow? Eh.

I didn't think much of Lull until a commenter pointed out that it's basically a mask placed on top of a mass of pretty vines, flowers and leaves that vaguely resembles an approximation of a humanoid figure. Whether it's actually a dryad creature or some sort of living plant or nature spirit that's just trying to pretend to be a human, it's pretty cool! 


Spreading Algae is such a non-threatening name for a card. I love it.


More green spells, and the Copper Gnomes are apparently the clockwork gnome equivalent of the Tribbles, because they keep making and making and making.


Even more artifacts! Wirecat is a fun name, and I'm not even sure what the hell's going on in the Cathodion's artwork.


More artifacts.


Even more artifacts. Lotus Blossom is yet another Black Lotus homage.


Oh, okay, I do like the wacky artwork and the pun in Metrognome. Smokestack is also a very weird-looking magic-punk version of a normal factory's smokestacks.


Even more artifacts. Umbilicus is pretty creepy looking, but apparently it's just something to give oxygen to explorers or something. Okay!


A bunch of lands. Presumably Remote Isle is that one island that Teferi hung out in and caused loads of phasing-related problems in the Jamuraan block.


Even more lands. I kinda feel the Phyrexian Tower could've looked cooler, there are so many Black artwork showing Phyrexian buildings that looked cooler. Its flavour text basically encapsulates the Phyrexian modus operandi, though.


Basic lands!


More basic lands!


Even more basic lands. These almost-but-not-quite make a picture.


Even more basic lands...


And even more basic lands. The artwork's pretty damn cool for all these, though.