The year was 1999. Pokemon fever had broken out across the United States and quickly got its hooks firmly in me, a third grader in suburban Buffalo, NY. My sibling and I would continuously explore the worlds of our Game Boy carts, trade pokemon, and try to discover the many secrets within the games. Then word spread around the schools of a trading card game version and we had to get in on it. We bought starter decks, theme decks, and booster packs.

One day, my sibling and I were playing it at my aunt and uncle's place during one of our many family get-togethers. Our cousin, several years older than us, noticed us playing the game and recognized similarities to the game he played called Magic: The Gathering. It wasn't the first time I'd heard of the game, as I had seen him and my other cousin playing on a family vacation a few years prior. My sibling and I picked up our decks that he gave us, shuffled up, and started playing. We were hooked immediately. I still remember those simple times of battling it out against cards like these that day:

As it happens, at this time in my life my parents had signed me up for a bowling league at the local bowling alley called Transit Lanes. We played on the far left side of the building from the entrance and when we weren't bowling we could frequently be found playing in the alley's tiny arcade instead. But at the opposite end of the alley where all the older folks played in adult leagues, there was a door to a small sports card shop called "B&L Sports Cards." There, we would go to try picking up Pokemon cards, and soon after my cousin would introduce my sibling and I to Magic, we began buying up from the supply of Magic packs they had to offer.

It was a small display with only a few small boxes in a glass case compared to the plethora of sports cards the old man behind the counter offered. There were boosters of Visions, Weatherlight, Tempest, Stronghold, Fifth Edition, and of course Urza's Saga and Urza's Legacy. One of the members of my bowling team had just bought a pack of Urza's Legacy and showed me the card Sick and Tired. I was wowed by it and quickly went to get some packs of my own. I still remember the first rares I opened:

I fell in love with the atmosphere of the set. The frames, the artwork, the style of the figures depicted, and the flavor. I didn't know anything about the deeper story, but I found myself wanting to know more about Jhoira, Barrin, Teferi, Serra, Gix, Radiant, and of course - Urza. Soon after came the release of Urza's Destiny and I once again was drawn in by the art and characters of the world. I became more exposed to Urza and the likes of Multani, Rayne, Yawgmoth, and so on.

Around this time, I also started picking up cards from my cousin, older boosters, and the bulk bins of a local game store called Dave and Adams that my uncle introduced me to. Here I discovered cards from Antiquities, Chronicles, and core sets from Fourth to Sixth Edition that showed me more of the likes of Urza, Mishra, Argoth, and The Brothers' War. This built for years and made me more and more invested in the game of Magic, its characters, and its stories as well as the wonderful gameplay it all brought as a collective whole.

This would continue for years. I bought books, falling in love with the lore of places like Otaria, Mirrodin, Kamigawa, Ravnica, Innistrad, Theros, Tarkir, and more. I became a heavily invested player, spending hundreds - even thousands - on the world's greatest game. I became a semi-professional player, a grinder, a Commander enthusiast, a Vorthos, and eventually earned a career working with the game and others similar to it.

Fast forward to Tuesday, August 24th. The Magic 2022 showcase is upon us and I'm exhausted and nervous. Power creep, the dismantling of organized play support, an overwhelming amount of products, and too many variants were bogging me down. It was making it difficult to enjoy the game to the degree I had. But still, I was intrigued and excited by the rumors of Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty. They not only announced that release to massive applause, but a return to Dominaria, a new Un-set, and numerous other tremendously exciting things. Then when they came to the end, Wizards announced the very last thing I would've ever expected: The Brothers War.

Let me tell you, I damn near fell out of my chair losing my mind with excitement. Wizards was finally doing it. They were releasing the set I'd wanted since my very earliest days as a Magic player. Antiquities and Urza's Saga only touched on the story in the card game sense in the slightest ways. It often felt like we never saw the overall war and only certain elements and usually the finale of it, but not the war itself. It also brings Magic's oldest story to a whole new group of players who may have never heard of characters like Urza, Mishra, Ashnod, Tawnos, Hurkyl, Gix, and so on.

We've only seen a little so far, and largely nothing more than a handful of concept art pieces, but the set got my hype levels suddenly up to maximum. It's going to be a long year to wait, but it's going to be one that's well worth it. To celebrate a little, I thought it fitting to put together a pair of decks for the brothers themselves. Let's start with the Lord High Artificer, Urza.

The Brother Urza | Commander | Kendra Smith

• Commander (1)
• 1 Urza, Lord High Artificer

• Creatures (20)
• 1 Aphetto Alchemist
• 1 Archaeomancer
• 1 Archivist
• 1 Beast of Burden
• 1 Emry, Lurker of the Loch
• 1 Etherium Sculptor
• 1 Foundry Inspector
• 1 Golem Artisan
• 1 Jhoira's Familiar
• 1 Karn, Silver Golem
• 1 Meteor Golem
• 1 Morphling
• 1 Mycosynth Golem
• 1 Myr Battlesphere
• 1 Sai, Master Thopterist
• 1 Solemn Simulacrum
• 1 Steel Hellkite
• 1 Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
• 1 Thieving Magpie
• 1 Thought Monitor

• Planeswalkers (5)
• 1 Karn Liberated
• 1 Karn, Scion of Urza
• 1 Teferi, Temporal Archmage
• 1 Tezzeret the Seeker
• 1 Tezzeret, Artifice Master

• Instants (10)
• 1 Brainstorm
• 1 Counterspell
• 1 Cryptic Command
• 1 Cyclonic Rift
• 1 Fact or Fiction
• 1 Forbid
• 1 Opportunity
• 1 Rewind
• 1 Stroke of Genius
• 1 Thirst for Knowledge

• Sorceries (4)
• 1 Karn's Temporal Sundering
• 1 Ponder
• 1 Rite of Replication
• 1 Thoughtcast

• Enchantments (4)
• 1 Attunement
• 1 Mind Over Matter
• 1 Opposition
• 1 Pemmin's Aura

• Artifacts (19)
• 1 Akroma's Memorial
• 1 Arcane Signet
• 1 Darksteel Forge
• 1 Everflowing Chalice
• 1 Gilded Lotus
• 1 Khalni Gem
• 1 Mightstone
• 1 Mycosynth Lattice
• 1 Nettlecyst
• 1 Nevinyrral's Disk
• 1 Sculpting Steel
• 1 Sensei's Divining Top
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Thran Dynamo
• 1 Urza's Armor
• 1 Urza's Bauble
• 1 Urza's Tome
• 1 Voltaic Key
• 1 Worn Powerstone

• Lands (37)
• 15 Island
• 1 Ancient Tomb
• 1 Academy Ruins
• 1 Buried Ruin
• 1 Castle Vantress
• 1 Faerie Conclave
• 1 Inventors' Fair
• 1 Lonely Sandbar
• 1 Memorial to Genius
• 1 Myriad Landscape
• 1 Mystic Sanctuary
• 1 Reliquary Tower
• 1 Remote Isle
• 1 Seat of the Synod
• 1 Strip Mine
• 1 Tolaria West
• 1 Treasure Vault
• 1 Urza's Factory
• 1 Urza's Mine
• 1 Urza's Power Plant
• 1 Urza's Saga
• 1 Urza's Tower
• 1 Vesuva

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Urza is a jerk. Many remember him as this wonderful character and a hero, but he was largely self-centered and nothing more than revenge-driven. He laid waste to entire civilizations, caused incredible damage that would be felt on Dominaria for ages, and engaged in deeply problematic practices. He was not a kind man, and though many remember him as a hero and an incredible character in the world of Magic, he should also be remembered for the monster he is.

Not just in the lore sense, either. Urza's card is flat-out busted and has torn up many formats, Commander included. It seemed easy to break him, and while he certainly was breakable, I thought to take him in a bit of a different route. Sure, this deck could've been loaded with mana rocks and endless combo engines, but I figured a simple and straight-forward artifact theme with a dash of combo and callbacks to Urza's cards of old would be better. It doesn't break things and can provide an interesting experience for those who want to play with Urza.

I then got to work with his brother, Mishra. While Urza took an eternity to finally get a proper card (the theory being how could one truly do someone like Urza justice in the form of a singular card?) Mishra got a card during the Time Spiral block where several classic characters finally got cards. He wasn't a crazy powerful card, but did interesting and flavorful things at the time. As time went on, however, Commander became a format, and Mishra, Artificer Prodigy became a card that left people scratching their heads. How do you make a deck from a Commander that wants you to have several copies of the same card in your list?

People have toyed with it and I ended up taking inspiration from them and my own love of artifact decks to make this deck:

The Brother Mishra | Commander | Kendra Smith

• Commander (1)
• 1 Mishra, Artificer Prodigy

• Creatures (21)
• 1 Aphetto Alchemist
• 1 Assembly-Worker
• 1 Baleful Strix
• 1 Cogwork Assembler
• 1 Emry, Lurker of the Loch
• 1 Etherium Sculptor
• 1 Foundry Inspector
• 1 Goblin Welder
• 1 Golem Artisan
• 1 Grand Architect
• 1 Master Transmuter
• 1 Memnarch
• 1 Meteor Golem
• 1 Mishra's Self-Replicator
• 1 Sai, Master Thopterist
• 1 Solemn Simulacrum
• 1 Thopter Assembly
• 1 Thought Monitor
• 1 Traxos, Scourge of Kroog
• 1 Vedalken Archmage
• 1 Wurmcoil Engine

• Planeswalkers (5)
• 1 Daretti, Ingenious Iconoclast
• 1 Tezzeret the Seeker
• 1 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
• 1 Tezzeret, Artifice Master
• 1 Tezzeret, Master of the Bridge

• Instants (4)
• 1 Artifact Blast
• 1 Brainstorm
• 1 Counterspell
• 1 Thirst for Knowledge

• Sorceries (4)
• 1 Damnation
• 1 Demonic Tutor
• 1 Fabricate
• 1 Urza's Guilt

• Enchantments (8)
• 1 Blood Funnel
• 1 Pemmin's Aura
• 1 Phyrexian Arena
• 1 Planar Chaos
• 1 Possibility Storm
• 1 Storm the Vault // Vault of Catlacan
• 1 The Antiquities War
• 1 Thopter Spy Network

• Artifacts (19)
• 1 Ankh of Mishra
• 1 Arcane Signet
• 1 Bolas's Citadel
• 1 Chromatic Lantern
• 1 Dimir Signet
• 1 Endoskeleton
• 1 Izzet Signet
• 1 Khalni Gem
• 1 Lightning Greaves
• 1 Mirrorworks
• 1 Mishra's Bauble
• 1 Mishra's Groundbreaker
• 1 Mycosynth Lattice
• 1 Nevinyrral's Disk
• 1 Sculpting Steel
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Spine of Ish Sah
• 1 Time Sieve
• 1 Weakstone

• Lands (36)
• 2 Mountain
• 3 Swamp
• 4 Island
• 1 Academy Ruins
• 1 Blightstep Pathway // Searstep Pathway
• 1 Blood Crypt
• 1 Bloodstained Mire
• 1 Clearwater Pathway // Murkwater Pathway
• 1 Darksteel Citadel
• 1 Drossforge Bridge
• 1 Great Furnace
• 1 Inventors' Fair
• 1 Luxury Suite
• 1 Mishra's Factory
• 1 Mistvault Bridge
• 1 Morphic Pool
• 1 Phyrexian Tower
• 1 Polluted Delta
• 1 Riverglide Pathway // Lavaglide Pathway
• 1 Scalding Tarn
• 1 Seat of the Synod
• 1 Silverbluff Bridge
• 1 Spire of Industry
• 1 Steam Vents
• 1 Strip Mine
• 1 Training Center
• 1 Treasure Vault
• 1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1 Vault of Whispers
• 1 Watery Grave

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It turns out that when you use Mishra in combination with cards like Possibility Storm, Blood Funnel, Planar Chaos, and more, you can make your cards uncounterable, cheaper, provide more value. This makes the standard fare of artifact decks much more interesting because of the unique play patterns the commander starts to provide with the right cards. Beyond that, though, it's your typical Grixis artifact good stuff deck with a handful of flavorful additions. Mishra has far fewer direct cards in Magic than Urza, largely thanks to him having a shorter life in the story, so we're left to tinker with a few cards like the awful Endoskeleton to add a bit of Vorthos love to an interesting deck.

I hope this little bit provides a healthy dose of excitement for The Brothers War. A year and change is going to be a long and dreadful wait, but I personally cannot wait. The next year is going to be one of Magic's greatest ever and I'm more than ready for the ride that comes with it. Try out these decks at your next Commander night and have a blast.

P.S. - Remember: URZA IS A JERK!

Kendra Smith

Twitter: @TheMaverickGal

Twitch: twitch.tv/themaverickgirl

YouTube: Kendra Smith