Uro, Titan of Nature’s Wrath – Theros Beyond Death MTG Review

David
Fanany
Player
since
1995

As we’ve discussed in this space before, giants and titans are the primordial beings that represent the forces of nature in their purest form – and viewed in that light, Uro is exactly as overwhelming as you’d expect him to be. Running him out for his mana cost is just about as effective for the mana as a card like Explore, and once he can stay in play and do the effect repeatedly, he will very quickly ramp you into scary territory. 

It’s also worth noting that he doesn’t have any clauses about his various triggers. You can bounce him in response to one or both, or sacrifice him to Greater Good and use the discarded cards to fuel his escape later on. You could even ignore the whole thing altogether and take advantage of the low cost for getting him into your graveyard by using something like Sutured Ghoul. Uro has an enormous potential, regardless of which route you go with him.

Constructed: 4/5
Casual: 4/5
Limited: 4/5
Multiplayer: 4/5
EDH/Commander: 4/5 

As of writing this article, Uro, Titan of Nature’s Wrath has the title of being the most valuable card in Theros Beyond Death, clocking in at a hefty $40. It’s not too hard to see why, either; it’s a pretty absurd card with a lot of upsides, even if they aren’t immediately apparent.

The starting point of Uro is that it’s basically a souped-up Growth Spiral: you draw a card, can play an additional land, and also get 3 life, all for 3 mana (1 more than Growth Spiral). Simic colors are a massive boon for the Titan, since Simic is arguably one of the strongest color combinations in Standard and other formats at the present time. While it dies if it didn’t escape, you still get the trigger of its ability (and a death trigger), and it gets a chance to come back to play later.

Four mana and five other cards brings Uro back to the party, triggering its enters-the-battlefield effect once again and not killing it this time. A 6/6 is pretty good for slugging it out, especially since Uro’s ability triggers again with each swing, and the mountain of card draw and ramp can be a bit overwhelming. Also note that Uro’s converted mana cost is only 3, which means there are plenty of cards it synergizes with in formats that care about converted mana costs being low (like my standards).

Uro’s not a perfect card, but he gives Simic and Simic-adjacent decks a lot of absurd mid-game gas, with the threat of continuing to push your board beyond the point of answering. It’s deservedly the jewel of Theros Beyond Death at the present, and while he’s not going to be the reason to run Simic, he’s a pretty compelling argument in its favor!

Constructed: 4.75
Casual: 4.5
Limited: 5
Multiplayer: 4
Commander: 4.75

Phat
Pack
Magic
YouTube

Hello everyone and welcome to Pojo’s Card of the Day! Today we’re looking at the chase rare of the set.

Not Elspeth.

Not Ashiok.

It’s Uro, Titan of Nature’s Wrath!

This bad boy lands right after the tyrannical reign of Oko, the Broko and in Simic Colors no less! This guy has some amazing text so let’s break it down!

Now for 1GU this guy is basically Growth Sprial + Healing Salve, and casually adding Healing Salve for the cost of (1) has been quite a boon in the past i.e. Lightning Helix  and already Uro is proving his mettle in a variety of formats. Growth Spiral is a decent cantrip, drawing a card and being able to put a land in to play is nice, but being able to gain 3 life can prove to be a scab that prevents you from falling over dead.

Now those triplicate of abilities are nice on their own but hardly gamebreaking on their own. No what really pushes Uro over the line from ‘meh’ to Simic Overlord is his escape clause that pulls a 6/6 into play, oh and draws a card, puts a land into play, gains 3 life.

And it happens every time he attacks.

We’ve discussed how strong Card Advantage is in Limited, and Uro’s moderate escape cost of 5 means that you’ll be able to cast him a couple of times in a game where you’ll be trading 1 for 1 at least a couple of times. So this guy is an immediate bomb that is worth picking up at the very least for Value at FNM, but chances are if you’re doing Theros Draft you’ll want to make him work every way possible.

In Constructed this guy is already making waves in Pioneer with a brand new deck that takes advantage of cards like Satyr Wayfinder to self mill to get advantage with Delirium. In Standard almost any deck that is rocking UG is going mad over this card and jamming him in, and for good reason!

In Commander this guy is still pretty strong and he’ll fit into a good bevy of Blue Green decks that want to make use of that Growth Spiral Salve, but escape is a very uncanny mechanic since a lot of blue decks want to recur their graveyard over and over again with Timetwister. Even still this guy might be good to eat up the dead cards in the yard like fetchlands.

In Cube, this guy is an all-star and he’s going to be fighting for Simic Spots at almost every power level. Which is really funny given that for the longest time Simic has been one of the weakest color combinations of cards and in the past 6 months they’ve gotten two amazing bombshells (Oko and Uro).

Ratings:

Constructed 4/5 – This guy is amazing and enables midrange and control builds against an aggressive heavy meta.

Limited 5/5 – Card draw is great. Recurring threats is awesome. This guy is both. First pickable.

Commander 3/5 – Not as great here as in 1v1 formats but still strong.

Cube 5/5 – This guy is amazing in this format and a reason to start sliding into Simic or Bant Control decks.

Phat Pack Magic is a channel dedicated to Magic: the Gathering and creating awesome coverage of local events for formats like Cube, rare pack drafts, and now FNM Pioneer videos! Check it out at https://YouTube.com/PhatPackMagic