#urza

[bace-jeleren]

Announcing the new democratic nominee for president:

[xantchaslegacy]

[werewolfweedart]

ref for my boy, formerly Urza, now Kodiak!

[diespider]

I need more inhuman characters that are ACTUALLY inhuman. Not even talking appearance. I need inhuman characters that don’t understand emotions. I need inhuman characters that see your tears and coo because it’s oh so human of you. Inhuman characters that wear humanity like an ill fitting skin. A poor mimic. Inhuman characters who touch you not because they need or want to but just to get a reaction. A shudder. Drawing you in just to pick you apart and find out what makes you You.

All so they can break you down and make you more like them.

[incorrect-mtg]

Urza: So you have met me in the future?

Teferi: Yes, you were a teacher to me, in a way.

Urza: So what is in my future, that you can share?

Teferi: You become worse.

Urza: Worse? In what ways?

Teferi: All of them.

[friendlydungeonmanager]

Not the usual for this page, but a conversation I have far to often. So, call it a "treat" or "side quest", whatever you called it just know:

Urza: The True Villain of Magic: The Gathering

Introduction

In the sprawling mythos of Magic: The Gathering, Urza is often portrayed as a brilliant but tragic hero—a visionary artificer who sacrificed everything to stop the Phyrexian menace. However, a closer examination of his actions reveals a far darker reality: Urza is, in many ways, the true villain of his own story. His unchecked ambition, ruthless disregard for life, and inhumane experimentation make him one of the most morally bankrupt figures in the game’s history. From his role in his brother Mishra’s fall to Phyrexia to his unethical treatment of his allies and creations, Urza proves time and again that his pursuit of victory justifies any atrocity in his mind.

The Brothers’ War: The Birth of a Monster

Urza’s descent into moral ambiguity began with his lifelong rivalry with his brother, Mishra. When the two discovered the Mightstone and Weakstone—powerful artifacts that would later become Urza’s eyes—they set off a chain of events that led to the devastating Brothers’ War. While Mishra is often cast as the war-hungry antagonist, it was Urza who escalated the conflict into a world-ending catastrophe.

Urza showed little concern for the costs of his war, employing increasingly destructive machines and tactics, laying waste to the land of Dominaria. His ultimate weapon, the Golgothian Sylex, annihilated Mishra and much of the world in a blinding explosion. However, rather than mourn the destruction he had wrought, Urza’s obsession with power only deepened. Instead of taking responsibility for his actions, he immediately turned his sights to the Phyrexians, blaming them for everything.

Even more damning is Urza’s complicity in Mishra’s downfall. While Mishra eventually succumbed to Phyrexian corruption, Urza’s single-minded aggression ensured there was no chance to save him. Rather than attempt to redeem his brother, Urza sought only to destroy him. His actions in the war reveal a man for whom victory was more important than humanity, even when it came to his own family.

Urza’s Experiments: A Legacy of Suffering

Urza’s ascent to planeswalker status only amplified his lack of ethical constraints. With immortality and near-infinite magical prowess, he pursued his war against Phyrexia with an obsessive fervor, but his methods were often indistinguishable from the horrors he sought to eradicate.

His creation of the Tolarian Academy stands as one of his most infamous projects. The academy was meant to be a beacon of knowledge and power to combat Phyrexia, but it became a place of suffering and reckless experimentation. Urza’s time-travel experiments—an attempt to weaponize temporal energy against Phyrexia—resulted in catastrophic time rifts that killed or mutated many of his students. Rather than learn from these failures, Urza simply viewed them as setbacks on his path to ultimate victory.

But perhaps his greatest crime was the way he treated his own creations. Karn, the silver golem, was meant to be a peaceful being, built to hold the Legacy Weapon. However, Urza never treated Karn as an individual, instead seeing him as a tool to be wielded. He programmed Karn with an artificial conscience, forcing upon him a morality that would ultimately lead to immense suffering. Karn’s later struggles with his identity and the responsibility Urza forced upon him—eventually leading to his own downfall as the creator of New Phyrexia—can all be traced back to Urza’s lack of care for anything beyond his own goals.

Likewise, Urza’s team, the Nine Titans, were little more than pawns in his game. He recruited them to invade Phyrexia, yet he showed no concern for their survival. His ruthless tactics included sacrificing teammates to maximize efficiency, even detonating one of them—Taysir—to unleash a devastating explosion. For Urza, people were never allies, only resources to be spent.

The Phyrexian Invasion: The Final Atrocity

During the Phyrexian Invasion, Urza’s moral compass was fully abandoned. While he undoubtedly played a key role in repelling Yawgmoth’s forces, his tactics were indistinguishable from the Phyrexians he sought to destroy. He activated the soul-powered Bloodlines Project, which involved centuries of selective breeding to create the perfect hero—Gerrard Capashen—regardless of the ethical implications. His manipulation of bloodlines, genetic engineering, and disregard for the agency of those involved make him eerily similar to the Phyrexians he opposed.

Even in the final confrontation with Phyrexia, Urza remained a self-serving egomaniac. When given the chance to activate the Legacy Weapon to destroy Yawgmoth, Urza hesitated—choosing instead to try and claim Yawgmoth’s power for himself. It was only through the intervention of Gerrard, who decapitated Urza and activated the weapon himself, that Phyrexia was finally defeated. In the end, Urza was not the savior of Dominaria—he was yet another tyrant brought low by his own hubris.

Conclusion

Urza is often remembered as a tragic hero, but a closer look reveals a man who was, in many ways, no better than the enemies he fought. He destroyed his own world, abandoned his brother, ruthlessly experimented on allies, and treated sentient beings as nothing more than tools. His war against Phyrexia may have ultimately saved Dominaria, but the suffering he caused along the way cannot be ignored. When viewed in full, Urza is not the legendary savior of the multiverse—he is its greatest monster.

[littjara-mirrorlake]

And just for fun Urza x The Guillotine

Makes sense, compels me ???????

Sure. lol

[incorrect-mtg-theories]

Urza didn't create Karn

Many people think Urza created Karn as a time probe for his experiments with changing the past. This is partially correct, he got Karn while researching his time machine, but he didn't actually create him. He retrieved him from another plane that he found that was already resilient to the stress of time travel... This whole time. Karn has actually been a Cyberman from the Doctor Who universe that Urza reprogrammed using Xantcha's heartstone.

The metallic human-ish shape matches, the time travel matches, and then when freed from Urza's commands Karn went to create an entirely metallic world filled with metal golem people like him. When that world got overrun by Phyrexian oil that seeped from him, instead of matching the original Phyrexian ideals of perfection being earned and fought for, those New Phyrexians were dead set on "compleating" and transforming flesh people into more of their own, by integrating more metal into them. This is just the typical Cyberman programming worming its way onto Karn's own Glistening Oil.

Oh, and some people in Karn's original plane haven't forgotten about him!

[variouspolltournaments]

Anti-Propaganda is not allowed. Please only give reasons to vote for something and not give reasons to vote against something.

[pulpsandcomics2]

Antiquities

[bace-jeleren]

Recent commissions for @electricgiga and @effervescenteloise

[xantchaslegacy]

[edspear]

A father-son moment with Urza and Karn.

Continuing my mission of making Urza better by making him much worse.

Just having fun trying out various animatic/animation things.

Audio from ATHF: Ezekiel

[phyrexianphamily]

Urza: I'm truly honored that we've built such a bond

Xantcha: Aww!

Urza: You're like the child that I wish that I had

Yawgmoth: Uh, what?

Urza: I care for you, just like a daughter I spawned

Yawgmoth: Hold on now!

Urza: It's a little funny, you could almost call me... DAAAD!

[incorrect-mtg]

Urza: I do not act in malice. All of my plans are simply a necessary evil in the fight against phyrexia.

Rayne: OK, but the problem is that usually when people talk about necessary evil, they at least tried to do things right beforehand. But you just went straight for the evil.

Urza: That is unfair. I tried multiple paths before this. I invaded Phyrexia directly, I created a time machine to try and destroy them before they became a threat…

Rayne: Ah, I see. Attempt 1: Suicide mission. Attempt 2: reiventing the laws of physics and magic. Attempt 3: pretty much just copy Phyrexia. Very reasonable chain of events

[hyralc]

my localization of mtgjp's comic

and a follow up to one last year

happy holiday season