Urza’s Iron Alliance
A wise artificer once said, “Those who know only one path to victory can never hope to triumph.” Today we take a look at the latest iteration of that wise artificer and his menacing army of artifacts.
Meet the New Commanders:
Urza, Chief Artificer
While there are several Urza legendaries, lore-wise the version at the helm of the Iron Alliance Precon is Urza during his tenure in the Kingdom of Yotia in Dominaria after marrying Kayla bin-Kroog and becoming the Chief Artificer. This is where Urza would muster all manner of artifice in defense against his brother, Mishra’s dragon engines. Though, at his core Urza is centered in blue mana, he has been capable of utilizing all colours of mana. This is however the very first Esper Urza card and it showcases his dark side beautifully, not only introducing the black colour pip but also granting artifact creatures Menace.
Tawnos, Solemn Survivor
Tawnos was Urza’s apprentice and an incredible artificer and engineer. He was present when the Sylex was activated but managed to encase himself in The Stasis Coffin where he would stay in stasis for five years until he was inevitably released by Urza. He went on to help Kayla bin-Kroog, Urza’s wife, attempt to rebuild the city of Penregon where she rules. He eventually marries Ashnod and they establish a school of mages together.
Theme
Artifacts, artifacts, artifacts!
Our face commander is Urza, Chief Artificer whose abilities really want us to focus on artifact creatures and having artifacts on the battlefield. There’s a good chunk of cards in the deck that will help us with this strategy; even our secondary commander, Tawnos, Solemn Survivor, will put in some work when it comes to copying our artifact creatures.
R350 Upgrade Guide
In my time playing the deck there were no obvious lacking areas or duds, so no major reworking or restoration is needed. With that said, we will take a look at polishing the existing framework, refining the deck’s mission and solidifying ourselves as the superior Brother in The Brothers War.
With any additions there must be cuts so we will be removing cards that don’t quite offer as much power or utility as the ones that we’ll be adding. Our goal is to add cards that will fortify our strategy of aggressive artifact creatures. Let’s take a peek at the cuts and additions!
Cuts:
Path of Ancestry – I’m not a big fan of lands that enter tapped, as you’ll see in my Unlimited Upgrade Decklist below
Ethersworn Adjudicator – Very expensive for what it does
Marionette Master – This is a bit clunky, as we have no sac outlets this will be a bit incidental
Darksteel Juggernaut – Costs a lot of mana to be tapped every turn, it’s great that it’s indestructible but that’s not terribly useful if it’s tapped
Hexavus – Not very synergistic with our game plan
Kayla’s Music Box – Also very flavourful, but painfully slow card draw
Urza’s Ruinous Blast – Very flavourful, but is more suited to a Legendaries Matter deck
Phyrexian Rebirth – Again, very flavourful but it’s an expensive boardwipe with very little return on our side as we’d like to keep as much of it as possible
Chrome Courier – This is a great card in the right deck, unfortunately I don’t think this is the right spot for it
Upgrades:
Drafna, Founder of Lat Nam – Fairly flexible in that it copies Artifact spells you cast and can also bounce something back to your hand if it becomes threatened or if you’d simply like to cast it again, Noxious Gearhulk perhaps?
Mystic Forge – Able to cast your cards from the top of your library
Foundry Inspector – Nifty Cost Reduction to all of our artifacts
Buried Ruin – A nice flexible land that has some recursion should the need for it arise
Antiquities War – Bit of card advantage and a potential game finisher
Dispatch – Removal without a downside
Dance of the Manse – Card advantage and recursion
Etherium Spinner – Creates Thopters quite smoothly, just over 30% of the deck will trigger this
Mirrodin Besieged – Produces Myr whenever you cast artifacts, can also be a win con if drawn late game
Conclusion:
The Brother’s War brought us quite a few incredible legendary creatures from the history of Dominaria, so there are amazing decks to build and upgrade with this new arsenal of cards. This set includes four different Urzas, all of which can be your commander or included in this brilliant precon. Urza’s Iron Alliance is a very flavourful, strong out of the box, easily upgradable precon that I would recommend to anyone who loves the Urza character, the Esper colours, Artifacts or even just Precons.
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