Urza's Legacy
Encyclopedia
Urza's Legacy is a Magic: The Gathering
set, second in the Urza Block. Urza's Legacy was released in February 1999.
and taking the place of a card in the common slot.
, following Urza's quest to fight Phyrexia's godlike master, Yawgmoth, and his plans to conquer his home world, Dominaria. After an attempt to manipulate time goes catastrophically wrong, Urza searches for more allies as he builds a skyship to lead the war against Phyrexia. While he is away, the people of his Tolarian Academy have to battle a Phyrexian infestation on the island itself. The story of this set is recounted in the book Time Streams.
Numerous cards with Echo had additional effects when they came into play, making it often useful to cast the cards without having to pay the echo cost on the next turn. Also, three non-creature artifacts were printed with Echo.
More "Sleeping" enchantments were introduced, including four that turned into creatures, and one of each color that produced various powerful effects when triggered.
Magic: The Gathering
Magic: The Gathering , also known as Magic, is the first collectible trading card game created by mathematics professor Richard Garfield and introduced in 1993 by Wizards of the Coast. Magic continues to thrive, with approximately twelve million players as of 2011...
set, second in the Urza Block. Urza's Legacy was released in February 1999.
Set history
This set is the first set to feature premium cards also known as foil cards, inserted randomly into boostersBooster pack
In collectible card games and collectible miniature wargames, a booster pack is a sealed package of cards or figurines, designed to add to a player's collection....
and taking the place of a card in the common slot.
Storyline
Urza's Legacy continues the prequel storyline started in Urza's SagaUrza's Saga
Urza's Saga is the 15th expert level set, a 350-card Magic: The Gathering expansion set that debuted in October 1998. Some employees of Wizards consider it one of the most powerful sets ever released, with many cards now banned in tournament formats...
, following Urza's quest to fight Phyrexia's godlike master, Yawgmoth, and his plans to conquer his home world, Dominaria. After an attempt to manipulate time goes catastrophically wrong, Urza searches for more allies as he builds a skyship to lead the war against Phyrexia. While he is away, the people of his Tolarian Academy have to battle a Phyrexian infestation on the island itself. The story of this set is recounted in the book Time Streams.
Mechanics
Urza's Legacy expanded on some of Urza's Sagas mechanics.Numerous cards with Echo had additional effects when they came into play, making it often useful to cast the cards without having to pay the echo cost on the next turn. Also, three non-creature artifacts were printed with Echo.
More "Sleeping" enchantments were introduced, including four that turned into creatures, and one of each color that produced various powerful effects when triggered.
Notable cards
- — After many powerful cards from Urza's Saga and a few preceding sets were banned, the DCI was wary of more such combo cards. As Randy BuehlerRandy BuehlerRandolph E. Buehler, Jr. was the Vice President of Digital Gaming at Wizards of the Coast, Inc., a subsidiary of Hasbro, Inc., as well as the commentator for the Magic Pro Tour...
states in an article about the banning "players began leaving the game in droves" due to the dominating presence of combo decks at the time (nicknamed "Combo Winter"). Memory Jar was expected to herald new combo decks and mere days after Urza's Legacy became tournament legal an extremely fast combo deck built around Jar was showing up. The DCI decided that another three months of combo decks dominating the tournament scene wouldn't do and banned the card outside the usual schedule in what has been the only "emergency banning" in the history of the game.