You don't really need Umbra Mystic because all the auras on zur will trigger when he dies not just one. It may be helpful to add in Thassa, God of the Sea because the scry is really helpful and zur can get her when he attacks. Otherwise awesome deck +1s for days.

No way Umbra Mystic works that way. She's totally useless if you have to sac all auras attached to that permanent. I was always told, even when Totem Armor was in Standard, that the sacrifice ability doesn't stack. They always said if you had two auras on a guy, and both auras had Totem Armor, that you only choose and sacrifice one of them when that guy is destroyed. If that's not the case, the judges at my shop are morons and let me, and many others, get away with murder for a very long time.

I think the key is staring right at you, "and destroy an aura attached to it." I do not believe it gets any clearer than that, I've seen some jankily worded cards but Umbra Mystic is fairly straightforward. You choose and destroy one aura, not all auras attached to said creature. If it were all auras, umbra mystic would be nigh useless.

That's what I'm thinking, hoss.

@TheKingOfAllSirs

6/15/2010 If a permanent you control is enchanted with multiple Auras that have totem armor, and the enchanted permanent would be destroyed, one of those Auras is destroyed instead -- but only one of them. You choose which one because you control the enchanted permanent.

Straight from WoTC ruling for Umbra Mystic.

Why not Bitterblossom + Contamination ?

@DarkHamlet: as ive mentioned previosly: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/zurs-perfection/#c1372217

No Bruna?

@voodoomaster: I tried Bruna, Light of Alabaster when she first came out but she was pretty slow and was essentially just a glorified back-up so I took her out due to her high mana cost and lack of utillity/functionality in this extremely general dependent deck. Thanks for the suggestion!

Hey, I am sorry if i missed it elsewhere, but why run serra's sanctum? I did not notice any considerable mana sinks/ big casting spells involving white. Is it just to cast board wipes and follow it up with more spells?

I am wanting to buil a Zur deck and i really like yours, but this card threw me for a loop.

Any answers/advice would be greatly appreciated.

turn 1: Sol Ring, Lightning Greaves. turn 2: Thraben Doomsayer. turn 3: Zur the Enchanter, tutoring Intruder Alarm.

infinite creatures

@Dougie89: Thanks for the question. Serra's Sanctum is actually a remnant of one of the earliest versions of the deck where white was the primary color. In each revision I generally just overlooked swapping it out due to it's usefulness in the past but as I look at it now it's a dead draw early game and late game I won't really need a lot of white mana anyways so I've swapped it with Wasteland to help deal with pesky lands. Thanks again for directing my attention back to it! If you had specific questions regarding making a Zur build feel free to ask.

@my2cent5: An interesting combo but both Thraben Doomsayer and Intruder Alarm are nigh on useless by themselves. Having to black tutor for infinite combo pieces kind of breaks deck synergy so I'lll have to pass. Thanks for the suggestion though!

Ty so much for the reply. If you think I havent already seen your deck, your crazy. I studied this and many others thouroughly before crafting my own. I think you would enjoy the medalions, they are mostly to garuntee turn 3 zur. If they dont work for you, all good. +1 it truly is Zurfect.

@ravengamer93: If I had more room perhaps but I have trouble as it is finding space for anything... Thanks for the upvote and of course the pun!

Anyone have any ideas on any cards I could cut? I always have such a hard time with my biased opinion from when certain cards have "saved me" in the past so I tend to hang on to cards I should look more closely at. I'm wanting to add Runed Halo and/or Phyresis if it matters

For Phyresis I would look at cutting one of the following 3: Ethereal Armor, Empyrial Armor, Battle Mastery. The reasoning is that since you only need 10 poison counters, there is not as much need for damage output. Ultimately it comoes down to A) Battle Mastery offers no buff but helps you kill stuff before they kill Zur combat wise B) Ethereal Armor optimally makes Zur huge but when going for a rebuild is not as good C) Empyrial Armor doesn't need the support of other enchantments to make Zur big but the more cards you play the weaker he gets.

And for maths sake we have BM (Battle Mastery), EA1 (Ethereal Armor), EA2 (Empyrial Armor):

BM + EA1 ~= BM + EA2 ~= EA1 + EA2. (~= approx equals)

But when we add in that your deck also has Unquestioned Authority (UA) and Steel of the Godhead (SG) we can make the following statements:

BM + P (Phyresis) < EA1 + P AND ALSO BM + P < EA2 + P

Also, If you take P + Any buff + unblockable (SG XOR UA) the highest damage output will come from EA1 or EA2.

From all of this, Battle Mastery is the weakest with Zur and Phyresis. On top of that, it doesn't buff Zur meaning that damage spells (Comet Storm, etc.) and -X/-X spells (Toxic Deluge, etc.) have to work much harder to actually kill him.

So there's myreasoning for why Phyresis can replace Battle Mastery. Hope this helps :D

I could see cutting Empyrial Armor for Phyresis as I have it in my Zur deck as well (Empyrial Armor) and hardly even bring it out because it's usually a mediocre buff due to hand size.

@enpc: That actually makes quite a bit of sense; thanks for taking the time to respond! Battle Mastery will indeed be my cut choice and was definitely one of those overlooked cards I was talking about... it's won me numerous games and it took me over a year to find a lorwyn foil one (before the m15 reprint).

@MyUsernameWasTaken: I use Empyrial Armor with Necropotence fairly consistently to bring my hand back up to seven cards (or more with Reliquary Tower) so I'll keep it around. Thanks for the input!

As far as Runed Halo goes, I don't actually think it'll be that useful (and I could be completely wrong about that). It's really only good against big X spells. And even then you need to play it as an instant (and you're not running Leyline of Anticipation). So really its only good against other voltron generals. And considering your colours (because esper is so bad at control...), I think you have more than enough other ways of dealing with them. Not to mention against things like Sheoldred, Whispering One and Grave Pact, some of Zur the Enchanter's biggest enemies, it won't even help you there.