Okay, so we all know that Urza died while fighting Gerrard, who was fighting for his love Hanna. Now none of this would have happened had it not been for Yawgmoth pitting the two against each other. But whatever. In the end, Urza’s spirit ending up living within the body of Karn. Not a bad end, even if Urza DID end up decapitated.
Well, here we are umpteen years later and Urza’s body, what’s left of it, is turning over in his grave, wherever it is. Why? Oh, I don’t know. Maybe it’s because he’s taken a look at where Magic the Gathering has gone and isn’t all too happy with its direction.
See, back in the good old days, spells reigned supreme. Creatures were pretty much, um, pathetic? No, pathetic is too kind. Let’s call them virtually unplayable by today’s standards. Except we DID have to play them. There really weren’t a lot of ways to win with just spells. Oh sure, you had the old Illusions of Grandeur/Donate combo.
What’s that you say? Never heard of it? My, you ARE new to this game. The combo was simple. You cast Illusions, which had a pretty steep upkeep cost, and then gave it to your opponent with Donate. When he was no longer able to pay the upkeep, he lost 20 life, which was usually enough to kill him. This was a pretty nasty deck back in its day.
But still, for the most part, you DID need a creature to eventually win the game, even if it was just a lone Morphling. Still, spells dominated the game. They allowed a lone Morphling to emerge victorious.
Today, it’s a whole new ball park Magic geeks. Spells have been nerfed to hell and back. Yeah, you still have a few good ones, but nothing like what we had back in the day when men were men and women were glad. Wait, that’s another subject. Never mind.
Point is, the stuff that Urza wielded like a true sorcerer is now a shell of its former self. Card draw, which used to be a healthy 3 for 1 blue is now 2 for a blue and 3 colorless. I mean I can understand inflation, but THIS is ridiculous. Urza would NOT approve.
And enchantments? Most of them aren’t even playable anymore. What happened to the days of Land Tax and Necropotence? What happened to Oath of Druids? Hell, we can’t even get a decent anthem anymore. Intangible Virtue is great for tokens but what about the rest of the critters?
Don’t even get me started on burn spells. Lightning Bolt is now too powerful? I remember the first time they removed that card from the core set. Everybody was up in arms. How do you remove a staple like that? And even Incinerate is gone. Now we have some piece of crap called Searing Spear.
I want my money back!
Okay, I’ll admit … Bonfire of the Damned is pretty cool. But it’s also very inconsistent. If you don’t miracle it, it’s pretty lackluster. But as burn spells go, it’s decent.
Of course we didn’t have Planeswalker cards back then. Maybe if we did, Urza wouldn’t have died in the first place.
But he did. And right now, looking at where Magic has gone, he is turning over in his grave.
Can Jace and Tamiyo be too far behind?
To YOUR Magic the Gathering Enjoyment,
Steve “Land Boy” Wagenheim
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