Budget cEDH urza

Commander / EDH Budget Competitive Mono-Blue Primer

Shmekles

Instant (23)

• 1x Blue Sun's Zenith
• 1x Brainstorm
• 1x Chain of Vapor
• 1x Counterspell
• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Delay
• 1x Dig Through Time
• 1x Dispel
• 1x Dramatic Reversal
• 1x Flusterstorm
• 1x Impulse
• 1x Mana Leak
• 1x Mental Misstep
• 1x Misdirection
• 1x Muddle the Mixture
• 1x Mystical Dispute
• 1x Mystical Tutor
• 1x Narset's Reversal
• 1x Negate
• 1x Pongify
• 1x Rapid Hybridization
• 1x Swan Song
• 1x Whir of Invention

Sorcery (8)

• 1x Fabricate
• 1x Gitaxian Probe
• 1x Merchant Scroll
• 1x Ponder
• 1x Preordain
• 1x Recurring Insight
• 1x Reshape
• 1x Windfall

Artifact (22)

• 1x Aether Spellbomb
• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Codex Shredder
• 1x Conjurer's Bauble
• 1x Everflowing Chalice
• 1x Fellwar Stone
• 1x Grafdigger's Cage
• 1x Isochron Scepter
• 1x Jeweled Amulet
• 1x Lotus Petal
• 1x Midnight Clock
• 1x Mishra's Bauble
• 1x Pithing Needle
• 1x Sapphire Medallion
• 1x Sensei's Divining Top
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Static Orb
• 1x Urza's Bauble
• 1x Vedalken Shackles
• 1x Welding Jar
• 1x Winter Orb
• 1x Witching Well

Creature (6)

• 1x Etherium Sculptor
• 1x Sai, Master Thopterist
• 1x Spellseeker
• 1x Spellskite
• 1x Tribute Mage
• 1x Trinket Mage

Planeswalker (2)

• 1x Narset, Parter of Veils
• 1x Tezzeret the Seeker

Commander (1)

Enchantment (9)

• 1x Back to Basics
• 1x Future Sight
• 1x Legacy's Allure
• 1x Mirrormade
• 1x Mystic Remora
• 1x Rhystic Study
• 1x Steal Enchantment
• 1x Trail of Evidence
• 1x Verity Circle

Land (29)

• 1x Academy Ruins
• 1x Blast Zone
• 1x Buried Ruin
• 1x Castle Vantress
• 1x Emergence Zone
• 1x Homeward Path
• 1x Inventors' Fair
• 22x Island

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Introduction

500$ budget urza

Hello all, here is a budget Urza list that ive come up with. I'm open to all suggestions, so comments are very welcomed. I tried to keep the budget at 500$ as per a request from an individual that I was putting this list together for. This is a budget list comparable to the Stock Urza List. Soon i will include a link to a budget list comparable to the polymorph list as well.

Card Choices

Mana Leak, Mystical Dispute and Misdirection- with the lack of free countermagic due to budget these counters are great for protecting your lines/boardstate and when your trying to combo off. Not to mention i run misdirection and mana leak in my non-budget list.

Aether Spellbomb - This is a phenomenal tech piece. With the meta having a high concentration of creatures, this can bounce a linvala when your rdy to win the game or bounce a lab man to prevent another player from winning the game. Since I've added this piece in my main deck i"ve not ever been disappointed with it. It forces people to have to play around it.

Counterbalance - I will call this a flex spot in the deck, a lot of people don't like running this card in a deck that cannot easily manipulate the top of the deck. I personally love this card. I'ts almost never failed me, and with the mana curve this card is bound to counter almost any relevant spell. At 2 mana if it counters just a single relevant spell like a tutor or wincon its already paid for itself and anything it counters after is just a profit. I also like using this as bait, as much as people dont like to play this card, they hate playing with it on the board, so ill play it just to get some interaction out of the tables hand. I'm happy whether it sticks or not.

Why no Laboratory Maniac or Jace, Wielder of Mysteries - Simply put the deck just doesn't need it to win games. They become win more cards at that point, and also drawing a lab man/jace when you are not set up to actually win does nothing to actually advance your board state. Blue Sun's Zenith, as much as i don't actually like the card, is less of a dead draw, and Mirrormade provides an alternative wincon should the other become exiled or unusable, as well has a number of uses outside of winning the game.

Combos/Unbounded Mana

Isochron Scepter/Dramatic Reversal - Requires 3 Mana generated from non-land permanents to create unbounded amount of mana.

Isochron Scepter/Dramatic Reversal and Trail of Evidence - Creates unbounded mana and allows user to draw entire deck.

Sensei's Divining Top + Future Sight + Etherium Sculptor - Allows user to draw entire deck for no mana.

Isochron Scepter/Dramatic Reversal + Sensei's Divining Top - Draws Entire Library

How to Win

There are a number of ways this deck can win. One way is to simply generate an unbounded amount of mana and Blue Sun's Zenith your opponents. You can always use it to draw your own library first so that u can have all of your countermagic in hand. Another way is to simply have unbounded mana, Mirrormade your own Isochron Scepter, imprinting Swan Song. You will then cast any spell from hand, holding priority, activate Isochron Scepter with Swan Song, targeting the first spell cast, holding priority, activate Isochron Scepter with dramatic reversal. Allow Dramatic Reversal to resolve untapping all non-land permanents; holding priority once again on the Swan song on the stack that is targeting the first spell that was cast you will now activate isochron scepter with swan song targeting the first swan song. Allow that to resolve. Then once again activate Isochron Scepter with dramatic Reversal. Repeat this process any number of times to create an unbounded amount of 2/2 birds, with which you can use to kill your opponents with after a turnaround.

Mulligans

One of the hardest yet most important things to learn when playing a new deck is knowing what hands to keep. There are a few different scenarios you could be in which will determine what kind of hand your actually gonna want to have when starting a game. I will do my best to generalize these scenarios and give tips on what to keep and what not to keep. Keep in mind that everyone's play group is different and games can lead in so many directions. Urza is a deck that likes to take it's time with winning games by gaining an advantage through a boardstate and adapting to threats being presented. Being a mono blue deck it can be extremely difficult to pilot especially for beginners because a player must have an extremely acute sense of threat assessment in order to draw games out long enough for Urza to achieve a victory. The decks strength is limited by card advantage and the ability to tutor in comparison to most other cedh decks so it is extremely important to use your interaction carefully, and know when you can successfully assemble a win.

I recommend 100% having interaction in opening hand and always threatening to be able to cast your interaction at all times throughout the game. If you are the only control deck in a pod against fast decks, then you will have your work cut out for u. Having mana ramp is always a good thing but is not something u want to prioritize over interaction against these decks. You can take your time in advancing your boardstate in a mannner that allows u to always be able to interact with the board. Any sort of card draw engine or card advantage against these decks are awesome, this will help u to continue to draw into more interaction to halt those fast decks from winning or gaining too much ground against you. Typically with no ramp in hand having 3 lands is kind of what you would like to see in your hand, with some form of ramp then 2 lands would be acceptable. Here are some examples of hands i would keep or throw away :

Hand 1 - Island, counterspell, dispel, trail of evidence, preordain, island, sol ring - I would say this is an excellent hand to keep, it comes with everything we would ever want in an opening hand; it has ramp, lands, interaction, card draw/more ramp, and even has a cantrip.

Hand 2 - Island, sol ring, idland, chrome mox, pongify, counterspell, dig thorugh time - At first glance this hand would appear to be just as good as the first hand, and while it is still a great opening hand, it can be a bit deceiving. It has lots of ramp, some decent interaction, but it lacks any way to gain card advantage. With this said i would probably still keep but I would be very cautious about how i use my interaction.

Hand 3 - Island, sol ring, dig through time, preordain, island, welding jar, vedalken shackles - I would throw this hand away for the simple fact that there is zero interaction.

Some exceptions and things to think about when facing an opponent with a fast deck. Ask yourself "Is there another control player at the table and how many fast decks are at the table. If your opening hand lacks interaction but includes some card draw and ramp, and there is a second control player at the table, then it may be acceptable to keep that hand; for example:

Island, sol ring, chrome mox, rhystic study, dig through time, sensei's top, preordain

How to Improve Upon this Budget List

The first thing I would acquire to improve upon this build is a Time Spiral. This would allow the deck to perform what is called twister loops. More to come to this section in the future. Open to all on suggestions and prioritizing what cards to acquire over others.

Chrome mox Mana vault

Afterthoughts

This is my first budget build, and my first build with a primer attached to it. Feel free to post comments and suggestions. Anyone that is currently using this list i would love to hear some feedback from you about what works/doesn't work and what kind of situation you were in. I'd also love to hear about situations that prevented you from winning a game that you should've won so that the deck can be tweaked to prevent those games from happening. Thank you in advance to all that have helped with this endeavor. Also a thanks to TimmyT1000 for helping me get this list posted and rolling.

Updates

windfall out for time reversal - enables twister loops with narsets reversal 12/23/19

Top Ranked	Achieved #19 position overall 4 years ago Achieved #13 position in Commander / EDH 4 years ago Achieved #1 position in Commander / EDH Primer 4 years ago
Date added	4 years
Last updated	4 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	2 - 0 Mythic Rares 34 - 0 Rares 24 - 0 Uncommons 18 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.08
Tokens	Ape 3/3 G, Bird 2/2 U, Clue, Construct 0/0 C, Frog Lizard 3/3 G, Thopter 1/1 C
Folders	cEDH, urza, cEDH, CEDH Decks, Favourites, cEDH, Urza, Decks I want