Over the last two weeks (Part 1 and Part 2), I went over many of the cards that made it to print from my Urza's Destiny design hand-off. Today's article covers many of the cards I designed that didn't end up in the set, although some did find homes later.

CW07
Saving Grace
1W
Instant
White
Cycling: Tap two white creatures.
Prevent 4 damage to target creature.

CU07
Flick
1U
Instant
Blue
Cycling: Return two islands you control to your hand.
Tap or untap target artifact, creature, or land.

CB09
Lotta Diggin'
1B
Sorcery
Black
Cycling: Pay 2 life.
Return target creature in card in your graveyard to your hand.

CR08
Land Be-Gone
3R
Sorcery
Red
Cycling: Sacrifice a land.
Destroy target land.

CG11
Splendor in the Grass
1G
Instant
Cycling: Return a creature you control to your hand.
Prevent all combat damage to creatures you control.

Urza's Destiny was the third set in the Urza's Saga block. As was the rule at the time, it could only expand upon the two named mechanics from the block's first set. One of those mechanics was cycling. All the cards with cycling in Urza's Saga and Urza's Legacy have cycling . I asked if I could try other mana costs for cycling but was told no. Instead, I experimented with non-mana cycling costs.

These cards consisted of a common cycle, each with different costs. This was cut during development, as it was a little too much of a departure from the rest of the block. Alternate cycling costs wouldn't show up until a couple future-shifted cards in Future Sight, and not too much after that. We did use a bunch of these costs on some alternate casting costs in Mercadian Masques, and bounce lands went on to be the main theme of the Moonfolk in Champions of Kamigawa.

RW02
Free Angel
4WW
Summon Angel
White
3/3
When CARDNAME comes into play, untap six lands.
Flying, does not tap when attacking

CU06
Free Ray
4UU
Instant
Blue
When CARDNAME successfully resolves, untap six target lands.
Untap target creature an opponent controls and gain control of it until end of turn. The creature is unaffected by summoning sickness this turn.

UU01
Free Spirit
3U
Summon Spirit
Blue
1/2
When CARDNAME comes into play, untap four target lands.
Flying
Whenever CARDNAME damages a player, draw a card.

In Urza's Saga, I was told not to include any cantrips (card-drawing spells). Sporadic use of cantrips was the common ideology of the time to build excitement for their return. We would later realize it was more of a useful tool than something splashy and just made them an evergreen mechanic.

Trying to come up with something like cantrips but different, I thought about spells that could give you mana instead of card draw. This would become known as "free spells." Part of these spells' effects involves untapping a number of lands equal to their mana value, making them effectively cost no mana.

As I was mostly just building upon the mechanics from earlier in the block, I played around with making some new free spells. I made an Angel, a temporary theft effect, and a creature with a Curiosity effect. Those cards were cut, as the free spells we did print were too powerful. The one free spell from Urza's Destiny that saw print was Treachery, which also caused problems in competitive formats.

CW09
Life Boon
1W
Enchant Creature
White
Enchanted creature gains +2/+2 for each other enchantment in play.

0213_MTGFDN_MainRep: Blanchwood Armor

As part of the set's enchantment theme, I made an enchant creature card that made the enchanted creature bigger for each enchantment in play. I was inspired by a card I'd made for Urza's Saga called Blanchwood Armor, which cared about Forests. Since you'll have less enchantments than lands, the effect pumped the creature by +2/+2 instead of +1/+1.

In Urza's Destiny, this card became a creature, Yavimaya Enchantress, and got +1/+1 for each enchantment. I would go on to include Life Boon as a green card in Mercadian Masques as Ancestral Mask.

RW01
Master Blaster
3W
Summon Soldier
White
1/1
When CARDNAME is put into any graveyard, all players must sacrifice permanents to equalize the number of permanents all players control. The player who controls the fewest permanents cannot sacrifice any permanents in this way.

RU02
Mage of Fortune
3U
Summon Wizard
Blue
1/1
When CARDNAME is put into any graveyard from play, all players discard their hand and draw seven cards.

RB01
Zoologist Mortician
4B
Summon Minion
Black
2/2
When CARDNAME is put into any graveyard, return all black creatures in all graveyards to play.

RR02
Nuke Boy
3R
Summon Solider
Red
1/1
When CARDNAME is put into any graveyard, each player sacrifices all creatures, artifacts, and nonbasic lands they own.

RG02
Flighty Enchantress
2G
Summon Enchantress
Green
1/1
When CARDNAME is put into any graveyard, draw a card for each enchantment in play.

As part of my death trigger theme, I created a rare cycle of splashy creatures, none of which saw print. The white card was a callback to Balance, except it cared about the total number of permanents. The effect was too easy to abuse, so it became False Prophet, a creature with a Wrath effect when it died.

Blue's and red's cards were callbacks. The blue card's effect mirrored Timetwister, but since Urza's Saga had Time Spiral, we didn't want to repeat the gag here. The red card was similar to Ice Age's Jokulhaups, but Development nixed that.

The black card was a mass-reanimation spell, which was an effect that wouldn't see print until Judgement's Balthor the Defiled. The green card was an enchantress, which Development also decided against.

The finished set did have a number of rare creatures with death triggers, but not in a cycle. Instead, there were two white cards and an artifact.

CU09
Spell Pluck
1U
Interrupt
Blue
Cycling
Counter target spell with a casting cost of 2 or less.

I liked the idea of a slightly cheaper spell that stopped small spells, but Spell Pluck ended up being a bit weak. We would eventually print Prohibit in Invasion but with a kicker cost that allowed it to counter spells with a mana value of 4 or less.

UU03
Slick Wizard
1U
Summon Wizard
Blue
While CARDNAME is in play, all cards in your hand gain cycling. (2, Discard a card: Draw a card.)

One of the things we usually explore when making a spell mechanic is creating a spell that grants that mechanic to all your spells. Cycling was one of the two named keywords in the block. I realized that was equivalent to having an activation that allowed you to loot for . We ended up deciding that the juice wasn't worth the squeeze.

RU04
Alterer of the Ages
3U
Summon Wizard
Blue
1/2
U, T: Move target creature enchantment from one creature to another. The new creature must be a legal target for the creature enchantment.

As a Johnny deck builder, I was a huge fan of Enchantment Alteration from Legends. I used it a lot in my Magic puzzles for The Duelist. When I got to Wizards, I was determined to make a bunch more of those effects, especially on a creature that could do it as an activated ability. I wasn't successful in Urza's Destiny, but the card did finally see the light of day in Dissension with Simic Guildmage.

RU05
Control Magic
4UU
Sorcery
Blue
Look through target opponent's deck. Select a creature and put it into play under your control.

0077_MTGCMM_Main: Bribery

Urza's Destiny ended up making a creature-stealing free spell, so this card was pushed out. This would appear in Mercadian Masques as Bribery. In hindsight, this design was a big mistake. It punishes players for including exciting creatures in their deck, something we generally want to encourage.

RU06
Mystery Magic
3UU
Sorcery
Blue
Discard your hand. For each card you discard, return target card in your graveyard to your hand.

I assume that I was trying to make a Timetwister variant, except you got cards back from your graveyard instead of drawing them. But blue can't get back every card type from the graveyard, only instants, sorceries, and sometimes artifacts. I don't believe we've ever made this exact effect in any color or combination of colors.

CB07
Double Coercion
4B
Sorcery
Black
Look at target player's hands. Choose two cards and make that player discard them.

This is another spell that was cut from Urza's Destiny but printed in Mercadian Masques. It was tweaked to cost and became a rare.

CB08
Sewage Leak
2B
Sorcery
Black
Destroy target tapped land.

This is the time period where R&D was still trying to get a handle on the power level of land destruction. The fact that I not only put this in the file but handed it off to Development meant we were still quite a way from figuring it out.

UB02
Hell's Belles
2B
Summon Minion
Black
1/1
B: Regenerate
During each opponent's upkeep, CARDNAME deals 1 damage to that player for each card less than four that they hold in their hand.

For some reason, I decided to turn The Rack from Antiquities into a creature. I even gave it the ability to regenerate. We would eventually print this as an artifact creature without regeneration in Nemesis.

RB04
Life for Rats
XB
Sorcery
Black
Pay X life and put X Rat tokens into play. Treat these as 1/1 black creatures.

In Exodus, I made the card Hatred. Life for Rats was the same concept, but for Rat tokens. I'd learned my lesson from Hatred and put in the mana cost.

RB05
Decimate
3BB
Sorcery
Black
Destroy all non-black creatures.

Black had destroyed subsets of creatures, but never all creatures. I like to think of this card as a precursor to Damnation from Planar Chaos.

UR05
Mystic Shock
1RR
Instant
Red
For each enchantment you control, CARDNAME deals 1 damage to target creature or player.

This was my attempt at an enchantment-related red card. Red couldn't destroy enchantments, but it could care about how many there were in play.

RR07
Landquake
2RR
Sorcery
Red
Select a basic land type. Destroy all lands of selected land type.

One of the hardest parts about looking back at this handoff file was how much land destruction I had in it. It's hard to see your work prior to learning important lessons.

CG05
Mini Tracker
2G
Summon Beast
Green
2/2
T: CARDNAME deals damage to target creature equal to its power and that creature does damage back equal to its power.

UG04
Creature Brawl
2G
Instant
Green
Tap target creature you control. That creature deals damage equal to its power to another target creature which also deals damage equal to its power back to target creature.

UG07
Medium Tracker
2GG
Summon Soldier
Green
3/3
T: Deal damage equal to CARDNAME's power to target creature and that creature deals damage to CARDNAME equal to its power.

RG01
Big Tracker
4GGG
Summon Beast
Green
7/7
T: Deal damage equal to CARDNAME's power to target creature and that creature deals damage to CARDNAME equal to its power.

Green's inability to destroy creatures was causing issues in Limited, and we were looking for ways to help solve the problem. This vertical cycle in green was based off the card Tracker from The Dark where the creature had an ability to "fight" with other creatures outside of combat. We wouldn't find the solution to this problem, the keyword action fight, until Innistrad, but you can see me getting close here.

UG01
Martyr to the Squirrels
3G
Summon Elf
Green
2/2
When CARDNAME is put into any graveyard, put three Squirrel tokens into play. Treat these as 1/1 green creatures.
2, Sacrifice CARDNAME: Draw a card.

In the early days, one of my major quests was to get Squirrels (and then more Squirrels) into Magic. While I didn't succeed in Urza's Destiny, I tried. I did manage to get Deranged Hermit into Urza's Legacy.

UG03
Echo Scragnoth
3G
Summon Beast
Green
4/5
Cannot be countered.
Echo, protection from blue
When CARDNAME is put into any graveyard from play, put a green creature card from your hand into play.

Scragnoth was one of the earliest cards I ever designed, and the earliest of my designs to ever see print, in Tempest. This was me trying to make a tweaked Scragnoth. Development wasn't as big a fan of Scragnoth as I was.

UG05
Transformation
G
Sorcery
Green
Sacrifice target creature. Get any creature out of your library with a casting cost no more than one mana greater than the sacrificed creature. Put that new creature into play. Afterward, shuffle your library.

I wasn't the person who designed New Phyrexia's Birthing Pod, but I was on a similar wavelength with Transformation.

RG06
Berserker Rage
GG
Enchant Creature
Green
Enchanted creature's power and toughness are doubled.

For those who might not be aware, I adore doubling things. I was the sole designer for Urza's Destiny, so I had to try and get in a doubling effect.

RL01
Yavimaya Forest
Legendary Land
CARDNAME does not count as a land played this turn.
T: Add G to your mana pool.

In Mirage, we made a legendary land called Teferi's Isle, which was the only legendary land in the set. We decided to make it part of a five-year mega-mega cycle, meaning it would span multiple blocks. The lands showed up in the first set of the first year, the second set of the second year, the third set of the third year, the second set of the fourth year, and the first set of the fifth year.

Urza's Destiny had the third land in the cycle. This was my bold attempt at a splashy card for the slot. The card was Moxen levels of broken, so the card was completely redesigned in development.

UA05
Staff of Celerity
2
Artifact
Cycling
All creatures ignore summoning sickness.

Concordant Crossroads is one of my all-time favorite cards. It was one of the key cards in the deck I played at the 1994 World Championships. I tried making an artifact version for Urza's Destiny. The Development team said, "Nope." I'd later go on to design a red version in Mirrodin.

UA07
Tolarian Compass
4
Artifact
4, T: Return target enchantment from your graveyard to your hand.

Another old favorite of mine is Skull of Orm from The Dark. The set had an enchantment theme, so I was trying to tweak this. Development, again, was not as fond of the idea as I was.

RA05
Orb of Flashcasting
3
Artifact
All permanents without echo gain echo.

I talked about granting all your spells cycling. Well, echo was the other named mechanic, so why not grant everything echo? The idea was that it affected all players, so if all your creatures already had echo …

Playtesting showed this was quite unfun, and it was removed from the set.

Rank and (Card)File

And with that, we come to the end of another installment of "Design Files." I hope you enjoyed a look back at the design of Urza's Destiny. As always, I'm eager for any feedback, be it on today's article, any of the cards I talked about, or on Urza's Destiny itself. You can email me or contact me through social media accounts (X, Tumblr, Instagram, Bluesky, and TikTok) with any feedback.

Join me next week when I talk about the design of Magic: The Gathering®—FINAL FANTASY™.

Until then, may you enjoy seeing cards that never came to be … yet.