When I first saw the preview for Urtet, Remnant of Memnarch, a cool Phyrexia: All Will Be One Commander card that’s separate from the Commander precon decks and can be found in booster packs, I thought it was awesome that Myr tribal finally had a five-color commander to pull together all the various Myrs into one deck, particularly the mana Myrs that tap for a specific color mana. I built a Myr tribal deck many years back and used Jor Kadeen, the Prevailer as the Myr “lord” since its metalcraft ability did a good job boosting the typically small Myr into real threats. I always felt bad that I had to leave Silver Myr, Leaden Myr, and Copper Myr on the sidelines, and Urtet made me think that I might revisit Myr tribal again.
But the previewed Urtet was a mythic rare and was preordering for upwards of $30, which seemed pricey to me for such a specialized niche card. The price has come down some since release, but thankfully, the extended art version is just a rare and it is much, much cheaper, so my dream of true Myr tribal can become a reality. I mean, just take a look at this cute fellow:
What Urtet Does for You
Whenever you cast a Myr spell, Urtet creates a Myr friend—the more the myrrier, right? At the beginning of combat on your turn, untap each Myr you control—this means that any Myr that taps for some effect, you get to do it pre-combat and then have it available to attack, or it can skip the attack and tap again. This is particularly exciting with all the mana Myrs, providing a lot of mana ramp broken up between your pre- and postcombat main phases.
Urtet has an exciting activated ability itself; for one mana of each color, it can tap to put three +1/+1 counters on each Myr you control. You can only do it on your own turn, so you can’t tap it pre-combat, untap all your Myr, and then keep them up untapped to block and then activate Urtet on defense.
The Five-Color Tribal Trap
I do want to point out that it can be a bit challenging to build a five-color tribal Commander deck that’s not just a pile of the very best tribal creatures and tribal support across all five colors. Your list could end up being similar to what everyone else is building, and that sameness could make playing it or playing against it rather stale.
One thing I’ve found effective in shaking up the play experience for either five-color commanders or multicolor commanders that are overpowered is restricting the color of cards you put in the deck. Urtet is particularly well-suited for this strategy since nearly all the Myr creatures and Myr support cards are colorless, so you could pick any one color of spells to support the tribal strategy and just adjust your manabase to be able to generate the five different colors for Urtet’s activated ability.
For me personally, I’m going to build a “Monocolor Urtet” deck, where all the spells in the deck can only be the chosen color. I haven’t yet decided which color I’m going to choose yet, so I’m going to present the card options available for each choice below, and maybe you can help me choose.
Okay, let’s dig in!
Mana Myrs
The mana Myr gang is all here! Plague Myr is a particularly sneaky addition to the deck, since it’s possible you could pump it up with Urtet activations, Equipment, or other means and kill someone with poison counters. Alloy Myr and Myr Convert help to plug any colored mana gaps you may have with Urtet’s activation by tapping for any color of mana.
More Myrs
Urtet makes Myr tokens, but why stop there when you can make mo’ Myrs! Myr Battlesphere is the big play here, a sizeable 4/7 body that makes four 1/1 Myr when it enters the battlefield. Normally you’d tap the Myr tokens to pump up Myr Battlesphere when it attacks, but having those four extra bodies when you have Urtet available to activate means you could just make them four 4/4s and attack with them in addition to the 7/10 Myr Battlesphere! We even now have the new Myr Kinsmith to go tutor up our Myr Battlesphere.
I’ve always thought Myr Propagator is a bit too slow for what it does – spend three mana to make another 1/1 Myr that does the same thing – but in this deck, extra bodies pick up Urtet +1/+1 counters, and Myr Propagator also benefits from Urtet’s untap ability.
Myr Incubator is another Myr support card that I’ve never felt was worth it until Urtet hit the scene. If you can afford to cast it, and then keep six mana open until an opponent’s end step, activate it and exile something like ten artifacts from your deck to create ten 1/1 Myr tokens. With Urtet on the battlefield, that represents a whopping 40 points of damage spread across ten bodies!
Artifacts-Matter Myrs
Since Myrs are artifacts, nearly all of these Myrs are going to be slam-dunks for the deck. Myr Welder is quite good here since it has an activated ability that can be potentially powerful and becomes doubly good with Urtet untapping it.
Brass Squire wants you to play Equipment cards, especially powerful ones that might have costly equip costs – think Helm of the Host or Blade of Selves – so if your deck has a fair number of Equipment cards, then go for it.
Specialty Myrs
These Myr cards have special abilities that aren’t just slam-dunk inclusions in a Myr tribal deck. Unless we add a bunch of infect or toxic cards to the deck, Ichorclaw Myr works at cross-purposes to the regular damage the rest of the deck is going to be dishing out. Coretapper does fun stuff if we’re including artifacts with charge counters; think Door of Destinies, Coalition Relic, Umezawa’s Jitte, or even Reckoner Bankbuster. Myr Mindservant might be considered if we’re playing Sensei’s Divining Top, Scroll Rack, or Sylvan Library. Myr Landshaper could combine with artifact kill effects like Shattering Pulse to take out a problematic land like Gaea’s Cradle or Cabal Coffers.
Other Myrs
These are other Myr creatures we can fill out the decklist with; all of them are individually at least decent, and with tribal synergies and Urtet activations, they can rumble into the red zone. We can even make use of changeling creatures like Bloodline Pretender and Universal Automaton.
Myr Support
These four cards are the backbone of a Myr tribal deck. Myr Galvanizer in particular works great with all the other Myr that tap to do something, including Urtet. I love that Myr Turbine’s ability to tap five untapped Myr to tutor up a Myr from your deck onto the battlefield can be used pre-combat, and then Urtet will untap those five Myr at the beginning of your combat step.
Mono-Blue Urtet
Making our Urtet deck mono-blue is probably the most powerful of the mono-color options. First, you have access to counterspells, card-draw spells, and the blowout card Cyclonic Rift. But you also get some of the best tribal card drawing engines of Kindred Discovery and Distant Melody.
Mirrodin Besieged is a great enchantment; if drawn early, you can choose Mirran and crank out 1/1 Myr tokens each time you cast an artifact spell, and if you’ve drawn it late-game and you’ve got fifteen or more artifact cards in your graveyard, you can start picking off opponents during your end steps. And I really love Reflections of Littjara to make a copy of each Myr spell you cast.
Mono-White Urtet
Mono-white is another strong choice for Urtet, unlocking powerful changeling creatures like Mirror Entity, Irregular Cohort, and Valiant Changeling, and even a changeling removal spell in Crib Swap. Folk Hero is a sweet enchantment that gives Urtet some card draw ability. And Organic Extinction is a potential blowout battlefield sweeper that leaves all of your artifact creature Myrs alone. White also unlocks a lot of utility spells like Swords to Plowshares, Austere Command, Teferi’s Protection, and Akroma’s Will.
Mono-Black Urtet
Black is the color of many quality removal spells like Feed the Swarm, Infernal Grasp, and Damnation, and big mana producers like Cabal Coffers and Black Market. I love access to Cranial Plating in an artifact tribal deck, and getting back all the dead Myr with Patriarch’s Bidding and Haunting Voyage, or a one-sided battlefield sweeper with Kindred Dominance.
Mono-Red Urtet
Mono-red makes a bold choice for Urtet, giving the deck a much more aggressive bent with Shared Animosity and Kindred Charge. While it breaks the tribal rule by not being a Myr, I’d strongly consider running Blast-Furnace Hellkite as a potent combat trick, given how many artifacts I’d have available with all the Myr in the deck; sacrifice Myr Battlesphere, and you’d only need to pay two red mana for this tricksy, hard-hitting Dragon.
Mono-Green Urtet
Mono-green would be another bold choice for Urtet, but it does unlock key changeling creatures like Realmwalker, Masked Vandal, and Chameleon Colossus. Green also provides excellent land search effects that let you find specific nonbasic lands that can help unlock Urtet’s activated ability, such as Crop Rotation and Titania’s Command. Cryptolith Rite is another key card here, given how many random 1/1 Myr tokens you’ll likely have available.
Lastly, Kindred Summons acts like another Myr Incubator but even better, doubling the number of Myr creatures you have on the battlefield by finding that many Myr cards from the top of your deck, all at instant speed. This can turn your moderately concerning battlefield into something that’s immediately terrifying for your opponents to deal with.
Five-Color Manabase
It’s quite easy to support a five-color activation in a mono-color deck even outside of green, starting with the obvious inclusions like Command Tower and Path of Ancestry. Some number of cards like Gateway Plaza or Rupture Spire are perfectly reasonable without hurting your early-game too much thanks to the mana Myrs. Chromatic Lantern is awesome here, and might be worth keeping in your hand until you’re ready to do wild things with Urtet.
What other cards would you want in an Urtet, Remnant of Memnarch deck? Would you build it truly five-color, or would you restrict the colors or even go mono-color like I’ve proposed here? Tell me, which mono-color version of Urtet do you think should I build?
Talk to Me
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And lastly, I just want to say: let us love each other and stay healthy and happy.
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