Urza's Mitre (Original Art)

Urza’s Miter comes from Antiquities (1994), Magic’s first fully themed expansion, centered around artifacts and the war between Urza and Mishra. The “miter” is a ceremonial headpiece symbolizing Urza’s wisdom and power, and the card’s effect reflects that – gaining knowledge (card draw) when his creations fall in battle. It was Magic’s experiment with artifact recursion and card advantage. Drawing cards when artifacts died was unusual at the time, especially since Antiquities had so many artifacts that were meant to be destroyed or self-sacrificing (e.g. Feldon’s Cane, Su-Chi). Urza’s Miter is a slow, conditional draw engine – paying three mana each time an artifact dies is quite a big cost, but in 1994, any repeatable source of card advantage was noteworthy. While it’s never really been a competitive card, it has an important historical value. It’s part of Antiquities “Urza’s” artifact suite, which included Urza’s Tower, Urza’s Power Plant, Urza’s Mine, Urza’s Chalice, and others. It reflects early Magic’s fascination with artifacts as storytelling devices. In Old School (93/94), Urza’s Miter is sometimes included in casual artifact control decks or Urza’s Tower “Big Artifact” builds – playing card like Mishra’s Factory, Su-Chi, Juggernaut and Triskelion. This card is on the Reserved List.