User:Rohrecall/Saga

Notable cards

• Tolarian Academy — This is a land that, instead of producing one mana, produces blue mana equal to the number of artifacts you control—which turned out to be a very easy number to enlarge. Immediately upon the set's release, decks based around the land Tolarian Academy (and at least three powerful blue cards from Urza's Saga, Time Spiral, Windfall, and Stroke of Genius) dominated all formats of constructed tournament play. The decks combined artifacts and blue spells to draw cards to search the deck, produce an enormous amount of mana, and kill the opponent extremely early (typically the second or third turn, and sometimes as soon as the first turn). Tolarian Academy and other components of the deck were quickly banned or restricted in tournament play, and the Academy continues to make its presence felt in Vintage (Type I), the only format where even one copy of it may still be played in a deck. This card was especially deadly when the rules on legendary permanents favored the player who played the card first (pre-Kamigawa Block Legendary rules).

• Yawgmoth's Will — A black spell that allows its controller to reuse any cards in his or her graveyard for one turn, the Will turned out to be too powerful (especially in combination with mana producers like Dark Ritual, which could be played before the Will and replayed after it). It was abused in many all-black decks as well as Tolarian Academy decks. It is now one of the most powerful single cards in Vintage (Type I) play, and is sometimes referred to as "Yawgmoth's Win" for its ability to finish off an opponent.

• Morphling — Nicknamed "Superman" or "Cardboard Jesus" for its wide range of abilities, Morphling was for years considered the best creature ever printed (and some still claim it as the best). Although costly, Morphling's abilities combine to make it difficult to block or destroy, and only a few attacks with it are usually needed to win. On a flavor-related note, the right figure in the art is actually a woman (the iconic Morphling is on the left sporting a subtle tail-like appendage as well as tiny wings).

• Smokestack - This card slowly grinds away both players resources. The smokestack's controller usually has ways to make the permanent loss one-sided. Staple component of Type 1 Mishra's Workshop based prison decks.

• Argothian Enchantress — Its small cost, untargetability, and card-drawing talent made it a staple for green enchantment decks.

• Gaea's Cradle — The Cradle, a green, creature-friendly version of Tolarian Academy, was common in green decks that played a large army of creatures, such as Elf decks. Some non-green decks even use it for the amount of mana it can provide, but it never reached the heights of abuse that Tolarian Academy did.

• Serra Avatar — A white creature with power and toughness equal to its controller's life, and an ability that returns it to the library if sent to the graveyard, Serra Avatar was too costly to see much tournament play. However, it remains popular with casual players and retains a high secondary-market value.

• Exploration — A green enchantment with a casting cost of one that allows a player to drop an extra land every turn proved to be extremely valuable mana acceleration.

• Lifeline — The ability to constantly sacrifice creatures and have them come freely back into play allows for many possibilities.

• Sneak Attack — This red enchantment was often used to attack with very large creatures early in the game, and is especially useful when those creatures have abilities that trigger when they come into or leave play.

• Goblin Lackey — An unremarkable uncommon when it came out, it became quite valuable when later sets introduced more expensive Goblin creatures. Eventually banned in Extended, it had the power of putting a Goblin creature into play for free as soon as turn two. It is now a staple of the dominating Goblin deck in the Legacy format.

• Fluctuator - The ability to cycle cards for free proved to be too powerful leading to the banning of Fluctuator in extended and standard. This card is still used in some bottom tier Type 1 decks.