LogFAQs > #881061706

Yeah, normally I would just link to the MTGSalvation wiki page and call it a day, but it's a huge case of tl;dr and assumes a lot of knowledge of MTG lore. (it might still be worth checking out: http://mtg.gamepedia.com/Urza)

Super short version is that Urza was a terrifyingly powerful artificer in a universe where artifacts are not to be messed with. In his war with his brother Mishra, he activated the Golgothian Sylex and basically nuked an entire continent, messing with the plane so long that it began a millennia-long ice age.

This was before he became a Planeswalker back when Planeswalkers were basically gods. (Current 'walkers were turbo-nerfed in lore by an event called The Mending, but that's another story) Now ageless, capable of dimension-hopping at a whim and still with unparalleled mastery of artifice to supplement with his now incredible magic, he muddled in time travel, created the Titan Engines and a spellbomb that obliterated an artificial plane of existence... yeah. There's no separating Urza from his artifacts. He's also one hell of a chessmaster, lying intricate plans centuries in advance to bear fruit when the time was right.

Hilariously, he's not even the most powerful entity in MtG. That goes to Urza's nemesis and Magic's original big bad, Yawgmoth. Ruling as a god of his own artificial plane of Phyrexia (this is what the aforementioned spellbomb nuked), he's capable of driving enemies to willing servitude by his mere presence, and when he actually shows up, he can shapeshift into a bunch of forms including a flying plague of basically "anti-life" (not what it's officially called thankfully!). He only went down due to Urza's final set of inventions, the Legacy Weapon, which united Dominaria's mana to purge his very essence from existence. Urza was basically dead at that point due to Yawgmoth's corruption as well as, uh, getting decapitated, which still didn't actually kill Urza until he transferred his Planeswalker Spark into his sentient golem Karn...

And yes, this IS the short version. This story played out over the course of 7+ years.

I don't know much about MPFC, but MtG's more modern entrants would include Emrakul: an Eldrazi Titan, MtG's Cthulhu, basically capable of driving entire planes to madness and then warping all life to conglomerate in its own eldritch image, plus some harder-to-define reality fuckery.

Also Nicol Bolas, MtG's current Big Bad, an immortal chessmaster dragon always behind the scenes but with very few feats. Apparently he had more during the Time Spiral novel series but like hell am I reading that. He's the focus of the next set, so hopefully he gets more showings!
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