Urza's Destiny
Urza's Destiny is the eighteenth Magic expansion and was released in 1999 as the last set in the Urza block.
Set Details
Urza's Destiny was the first tournament legal set to use the word "Creature" on the type line as opposed to "Summon", following the footsteps of Portal Second Age.
Themes
The "reveal" cards come in two types: creatures (Seers) and spells (Scents). When you use a Seer ability or a Scent spell, you show your opponents any number of cards of the specified color that are currently in your hand. The number of cards revealed determines the power of the effect.
Urza's Destiny also has a strong theme of graveyard effects. Many creatures and a few enchantments have special abilities that trigger when the permanent is put into a graveyard (e.g. When Aura Thief goes to the graveyard, you gain control of all enchantments).
The set also further develops the cycling theme introduced in the previous two sets with "cycling from play" creatures. These creatures, such as Brass Secretary and Yavimaya Elder, do not have cycling as a keyword, but instead have the activated ability "
, sacrifice this creature: Draw a card." This ability is similar to cycling, but is used while the creature is in play rather than in your hand.
Cycles
Urza's Destiny has five cycles:
- Enchanted bonus creatures vertical cycle: These creatures gain an ability as long as they are enchanted: (in order of rarity)— Fledgling Osprey, Metathran Elite and Thran Golem. This cycle is represented in the preconstructed theme deck Enchanter.
- Growing creature enchantments: Each of these uncommon Aura enchantments gains a counter at the beginning of each of your upkeeps, making it more powerful the longer it stays in play — Archery Training, Private Research, Festering Wound, Incendiary, and Momentum. These cards were inspired by the Tempest card Legacy's Allure.[1]
- Lobotomy spells: Each of these uncommon instants or sorceries removes a permanent of a certain type from the game, then also removes all other copies of the card in its controller's graveyard, hand, and library from the game — Scour, Quash, Eradicate, Sowing Salt, and Splinter. This cycle was based on the Tempest card Lobotomy. Each of these cards were reprinted in Betrayers of Kamigawa.
- Scents: Each of these common instants or sorceries have effects that are proportional to the number of cards of their color you reveal from your hand — Scent of Jasmine, Scent of Brine, Scent of Nightshade, Scent of Cinder, and Scent of Ivy.
- Seers: Each of these uncommon 1/1 Wizard creatures have an activated ability costing C that mimics the Scent cycle — Jasmine Seer, Brine Seer, Nightshade Seer, Cinder Seer, and Ivy Seer.
Famous cards
- Donate — This card and Illusions of Grandeur were integral pieces of the Trix decks.
- Masticore — A 4/4 artifact creature for
with a drawback of discarding a card each upkeep is a very strong creature, especially with the ": Masticore deals 1 damage to target creature" ability. - Opalescence
- Plow Under — Used in green control decks.
Reprinted cards
The following cards have been reprinted from previous sets and included in Urza's Destiny.
- Ravenous Rats — was last seen in Portal Second Age.
Functional reprints
Urza's Destiny has one functional reprint:
- Wild Colos is a functional reprint of Raging Cougar from Portal.
Theme decks
The pre-constructed theme decks are: Template:Theme decks