In the game of Magic there are five colors.

Green is rich on mana fixers and it’s almost a mandatory choice if we want to play with four or five colors. We have the expression “5-color green”, and Birds of Paradise is a real evergreen card.

On the other end of the spectrum, black has always been a color that wants to be alone. Some of the strongest black spells are stronger if we control more Swamps or if we invest more black mana, which means that we want to play monoblack. At the beginning of the game we had Nightmare and Drain Life, and in the history of the game we had Mutilate, Mind Sludge, Corrupt and several other similar cards.

Then, among all the possible monocolored decks based on the devotion mechanic, monoblack has been the strongest.

Taking into account this information, playing Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth looks unfair to the other colors. All lands immediately become Swamps and make some of our spells more powerful. Mutavault can produce black mana, painlands give black mana without dealing any damage, Nightveil Specter can be cast with Urborg and any two other lands. All these advantages with Urborg that has no drawback: it doesn’t enter the battlefield tapped, the mana it produces isn’t colorless.

Urborg is also an interesting card for Melvin (rules addicted), for a few reasons. Let’s take a look at the most interesting ones.

 The “legend rule”

Let’s start by reviewing the legend rule. Urborg has the legendary supertype; each player can control one, but if there is a moment in the game when he controls two or more copies, he has to put all except one in the graveyard.

The legend rule applies to legendary permanents with the same name. There is also a legendary land called just “Urborg”: if we control this old land and our current Urborg, they aren’t the same card and we can keep both on the battlefield. The legend rule doesn’t apply in this case.

“Legendary” is a supertype and is kept even if Urborg changes type or subtype.

Spreading Seas modifies the subtype of the enchanted land: Urborg enchanted by Spreading Seas is a “Legendary Land – Island”.

For the same reason, Blood Moon makes Urborg a “Legendary Land – Mountain”.

If we control Urborg and we play Vesuva copying Urborg, Vesuva gets from the land it copies the supertype Legendary and also the name. We end up with two copies of Urborg on the battlefield and we have to put one into the graveyard.

Urborg has no color identity

If a land has a basic land type (technically called “subtype”), it also implicitly has the ability to produce the appropriate color of mana.

Urborg turns all lands into Swamps, and all lands can produce black mana. The fact that all lands become Swamps “in addition to other land types” is very important: if Urborg didn’t say this, all the lands would be just Swamps. It means that they would gain the ability to produce black mana but would lose any other abilities! (Blood Moon/Magus of the Moon do exactly this: non basic lands become just Mountains).

It’s interesting to note that Urborg, technically, has no mana ability. Urborg turns itself into a Swamp and therefore gives to itself the ability to produce black mana, but has no ability printed on it that allows it to produce black mana or that contains black mana symbols.

If we think about the Commander format, Urborg’s color identity is colorless! If our commander is white, we can still add Urborg to our deck. If we play Urborg, all our lands will become Swamps too. Can we use them to produce black mana? Let’s see. The rules of the Commander format say that, if our commander isn’t black, all of our Swamps haven’t got the ability “TAP: add {B} to your mana pool”, but instead they have “TAP: add {1} to your mana pool”.

What about our opponents’ lands? If their commander is black, their lands will have the ability “TAP: add {B} to your mana pool”, otherwise they will have the ability “TAP: add {1} to your mana pool”.

Other than this, all the lands will be Swamps.

If our commander is white, we can still add Urborg to our deck, so that our creatures with swampwalk will be unblockable. Another option is to play the Urborg + Karma combo. It’s technically legal, (though it might be against the gentlemen rules of your playing group).

Urborg and layers

Let’s take a look at a couple of counter-intuitive situations with Urborg.

Scenario 1:

We turned Urborg into a creature, for example with the first ability of Nissa, Worldwaker and there is Humility on the battlefield.

The ability of Urborg creates a “type-changing effect”, which is applied in layer 4.

Humility creates an “adding-removing abilities effect”, which is applied in layer 6, and a “power-toughness setting effect”, which is applied in layer 7b.

We need to apply all effects in layer order:

1. In layer 4, all lands become also swamps and gain the ability “TAP: add {B} to your mana pool”.
2. In layer 6, all creatures lose their abilities. Urborg loses trample, loses “TAP: add {B} to your mana pool”, and loses the ability to turn all lands into Swamps.

Though, the ability to turn all lands into Swamps has already been applied (layer 4) before being removed (layer 6), and its effect still exists! Conclusion:

• All lands except Urborg are Swamps and have the ability “TAP: add {B} to your mana pool”.
• Urborg is a Swamp, but hasn’t got the ability “TAP: add {B} to your mana pool”.

Scenario 2:

We control Urborg and there is Blood Moon on the battlefield. What happens?

As we mentioned earlier, the ability of Urborg is applied in layer 4.

The ability of Blood Moon is applied in layer 4 too.

When two effects are applied in the same layer, we need to determine if there is dependency.

Let’s read the definition of dependency:

[CR613.7a] An effect is said to “depend on” another if (a) it’s applied in the same layer (and, if applicable, sublayer) as the other effect (see rules 613.1 and 613.3); (b) applying the other would change the text or the existence of the first effect, what it applies to, or what it does to any of the things it applies to; and (c) neither effect is from a characteristic-defining ability or both effects are from characteristic-defining abilities. Otherwise, the effect is considered to be independent of the other effect.

Is Blood Moon dependent on Urborg? Let’s see:

• a) is checked, as we are in the same layer
• b) isn’t checked. Urborg doesn’t change the text or the existence of Blood Moon, it doesn’t change what it applies to and it doesn’t change what it does.

   Blood Moon doesn’t depend on Urborg.

   Is Urborg dependent on Blood Moon? Let’s see:

• a) is checked, as we are in the same layer
• b) is checked. If we apply Blood Moon, Urborg loses its ability (and gains the ability to produce red mana). It means that applying Blood Moon changes the existence of the ability of Urborg.
• c) is checked. None of the two abilities is a characteristic-defining ability.

Urborg depends on Blood Moon.

Now that we determined that there is dependency, we know that we have to first apply the independent effect and then the dependent effect.

We apply Blood Moon. All non-basic lands, including Urborg, lose their abilities and gain the ability to produce red mana. Urborg loses the ability “Each land is a Swamp …”

We should now apply the ability of Urborg, but there is no more ability to apply! We won’t apply any other ability.

Final result: Blood Moon is applied, Urborg is like it didn’t exist. All non-basic lands, including Urborg, are Mountains, aren’t Swamps, and can only produce red mana.

I hope you enjoyed this article, and I’m looking forward to see you in the next one.

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