15 Most Valuable Urza’s Saga Cards
Chris Guest • January 27, 2025
One of the Most Powerful Sets of All Time Also Features Some Supremely High-Dollar Cards
Hello all, and welcome to Revel in Riches, a new series on Cardsphere that focuses on Magic: The Gathering finances. In particular, this series aims to provide detailed lists of the most valuable cards from specific Magic sets, of various types and sub-types and other, more esoteric criteria. We're kicking off with a legendary set from Magic’s past: 1998’s Urza’s Saga.
This set has gone down in Magic history as one of the most powerful sets of all time, littered with thunderously strong cards that had to be immediately banned in Standard and remain banned in various high-powered formats to this day.
Urza’s Saga also saw the debut of the beloved cycling keyword, which will soon be returning with Aetherdrift and allows players to pay mana and discard a card from their hand in order to draw a card. Magic players love drawing cards, so it’s no wonder this keyword hailing from this set has stood the test of time.
But enough durdling, let’s take a look at the 15 priciest cards from Urza’s Saga.
15. Karn, Silver Golem
Market Price: $13.53
The very first printing of Karn occurred here as a legendary artifact creature instead of the famed planeswalker from later sets. The price point of this card being so high is likely due to the novelty factor of this being the first Karn card in Magic’s history, which features stupendous artwork from all-star artist Mark Zug.
In terms of gameplay, Karn’s one colorless mana activated ability can be quite useful if you’re looking to turn your mana rocks into attackers out of nowhere, but this card’s value is tied more to its rarity and Karn’s lore significance.
14. Back to Basics
Market Price: $14.08
A blue enchantment that punishes nonbasic lands isn’t the spiciest card from Urza’s Saga, but the utility of its ability – as well as its relative scarcity – means that it retains a fairly high price point over 25 years after it was released.
Only being reprinted in Ultimate Masters, the hard-to-find Mystery Booster 2 and a 2024 Secret Lair Drop means that the Urza’s Saga version of this card is the only one with the beloved “retro” frame. As someone who began playing the game when the retro frame was the sole option, I can confirm that it is still the best-looking card frame in Magic history (and I will brook no argument on the matter).
13. Goblin Lackey
Market Price: $16.81
Whether you’re playing with the best Goblin cards for Commander decks or simply having a fun typal battle with your pals, this one-mana uncommon Goblin will aid you in your quest to toss as many Goblins onto the table as fast as possible.
This card has only seen one printing from an “official” set in Magic history, and that’s this Urza’s Saga version. Other printings of the card hail from a couple of Secret Lair Drops, Mystery Booster 2, as well as the rarest printing – from the now-defunct From the Vault series – which featured a double foiling method and thicker card stock.
12. Great Whale
Market Price: $18.28
From a series of cards in Urza’s Saga that represented Magic’s first “free” spells, this seven-mana 5/5 allowed you to untap up to seven lands when it entered, which is still quite an impactful ability close to 30 years on from its original release.
Of course, this card paired beautifully with high-powered lands – which Urza’s Saga is no stranger to – as well as mana rocks and counterspells, such as this card’s instant-speed brother Rewind, which untaps up to four lands upon resolving. Seeing as this card has never been reprinted and is a major combo piece in Commander, it’s no surprise to see its price point above $18.
11. Lifeline
Market Price: $21.81
There are a number of cards that “save” your creatures from dying, but most of them are in white. Cards like Enduring Renewal, Sigil of the New Dawn, Angelic Renewal, and Valkyrie’s Call provide either one-time recursion or permanent recursion with drawbacks for a dearly departed creature.
Lifeline is a colorless card with such an effect, with the drawback being that it's symmetrical and affects all players’ creatures – not just yours. Much like Great Whale, this card is part of the Reserved List and has never been reprinted, meaning that it's quite hard to come by, leading to its above-$20 price point for collectors and completionists.
10. Show and Tell
Market Price: $29.41
A recent reprint of this card, which first debuted in Urza’s Saga, hails from Murders at Karlov Manor’s Special Guest bonus sheet with brand-new, striking artwork from legendary artist Donato Giancola, but the original version of the card will set you back close to $30 on the secondary market.
With great artwork and flavor text on the original Urza’s Saga printing, it’s no surprise that it’s a sought-after card that anchors a strong archetype in the ultra-powerful Legacy format that allows you to cheat massive threats into play way ahead of schedule.
9. Exploration
Market Price: $38.68
A Commander staple, this one-mana green enchantment made its debut in Urza’s Saga and then didn’t see another reprint for over 15 years, first returning for the Conspiracy set in 2014. Beyond that, this card has seen relatively few reprints – only returning in the original Double Masters and Dominaria Remastered.
Being able to play one additional land per turn for the low, low price of one green mana is absolutely absurd value, especially when put into a deck that employs landfall triggers and other silly shenanigans of that ilk. This enchantment pairs beautifully with Tatyova, Benthic Druid or – more recently – Bristly Bill, Spine Sower and Mossborn Hydra.
8. Argothian Enchantress
Market Price: $44.23
Enchantress decks received their name from the original Enchantress, Verduran Enchantress, which debuted all the way back in Magic’s first-ever set, Alpha, in 1993. An Enchantress card is synonymous with drawing cards whenever you cast an enchantment spell, and this subset of cards even got its own commander with the printing of Sythis, Harvest’s Hand in Modern Horizons 2.
However, Urza’s Saga provided its own spin on this rare subgroup of cards with a 0/1 creature that can’t be targeted by spells or abilities (from any player, even its owner) due to containing the increasingly hard-to-find shroud keyword. This card has only been reprinted once, in Eternal Masters, so a near-$45 market price is expected for the only version of this card with its original retro frame.
7. Phyrexian Tower
Market Price: $53.11
The first card on this list that’s part of a series of nonbasic legendary lands from Urza’s Saga that each have an ability that’s tied to a specific spoke of Magic’s color wheel. Black’s entrant into this series is focused on that color’s penchant for necromantic explorations (i.e. sacrificing one of your creatures for a specific boon).
In this case, sacrificing a creature nets you two black mana, which is a useful ability in a wide variety of decks, and it represents the color black perfectly. While the original Urza’s Saga printing of this card will set you back over $50, it has actually seen a number of notable reprints over the years, including in Jumpstart, Ultimate Masters, and Modern Horizons 3, which has driven this card’s price down considerably overall.
6. Time Spiral
Market Price: $101.05
The first of a whopping six cards found herein that have a median market price over $100, Time Spiral is an iconic card that was meant to be a watered-down version of one of the Power Nine, Timetwister. However, what actually happened is that this card’s “free” caveat (a la Great Whale) made it an utterly busted combo piece in the Standard format.
Combining this card with various mana-accelerating artifacts and lands plus milling spells meant that a combo win was never far away after it was played. Like many other problematic cards from this set, Time Spiral was never reprinted, but it did provide the name for the beloved 2006 set, Time Spiral, which was inspired by Magic’s past.
5. Yawgmoth’s Will
Market Price: $169.75
One of the best black sorceries of all time, Yawgmoth’s Will is an atrociously powerful card that remains banned in the uber-powerful Legacy format and even restricted in the more-or-less “anything goes” Vintage format. Being able to cast spells and play lands from your graveyard is normally a game-ending play, especially in those powerful formats that feature older cards.
Notably, the card is still legal in Commander, which means if you can nab a copy of this massively rare card that’s never been reprinted, you can employ some truly chaotic shenanigans with any number of commanders that care about graveyard stuff.
4. Tolarian Academy
Market Price: $209.45
Urza’s Saga is home to three of the most overpowered lands ever printed, and kicking them off is this utterly broken blue mana-producing legendary land that gives you one blue mana for every artifact you have in play.
When combined with zero-cost artifacts and cards that untap lands – such as the two cards on this list that do that simply upon being cast – it was rather trivial to produce massive amounts of mana to fuel a huge Stroke of Genius aimed at your opponent, winning you the game on the spot. Due to the relative ease with which one can abuse this card, it remains banned in all formats save for Vintage, where it's still restricted.
3. Gilded Drake
Market Price: $218.92
A rather surprisingly pricey card is this two-mana 3/3 flyer that has never been reprinted and is also part of the Reserved List. Unlike other cards in the top five, this card is legal in all formats, including in Commander where it can truly wreak havoc.
Being able to steal a player’s commander is often one of the most impactful plays in the format, and being able to do it for a measly two mana makes it clear that this card surely deserves its over-$200 price point on the secondary market.
2. Serra’s Sanctum
Market Price: $260.22
While nowhere near as overpowered as Yawgmoth’s Will or Tolarian Academy, this enchantment-focused, white mana-producing legendary land delivers tremendously gorgeous artwork from Ciruelo (who only illustrated a relatively few 27 cards in his work with Magic) and represents the only printing of this card in the game’s history.
Again, it’s not as broken as Tolarian Academy (how could it be?), but being able to produce white mana based on the number of enchantments you control can still lead to some truly bonkers turns, especially for Enchantress players.
1. Gaea’s Cradle
Market Price: $812.10
And here it is. Unsurprisingly, Gaea’s Cradle is the most valuable card from Urza’s Saga with a price point tipping the scales at over $800. As you can see, the legendary land cycle in Urza’s Saga is one of the most impactful series of cards in Magic’s history, with only red’s version, Shivan Gorge, not making this list.
Seeing as this card is legal in all formats where it could appear, the demand for it is quite high – especially as a one-of in CEDH decks that can thoroughly abuse it in concert with token-producing cards, untapping-land shenanigans, and much more. This card is so desirable and scarce that even the non-legal, gold-bordered World Championship Decks 1999 version is worth $145!
Please note: Card prices listed in this article are accurate at the time of writing, but prices can vary over time and between locations.