Zur the Enchanter

Zur's Design Journey

New • 17 Mar 2017 • Asked by furbyfubar • 30 Comments

Just a heads up: In your article Looking Back, part 2 you talk about making Zur the Enchanter during Time Spiral. It was printed in Coldsnap, so unless the part of the story about how the card got into a temporal shift to somehow end up in the set before, you might have mixed things up a bit?

Zur was designed for Time Spiral and then moved to Coldsnap. (That’s the part I accidentally left out.)Small sets take less time to make than large sets so design for Time Spiral started before design for Coldsnap even though Coldsnap came out first.
Card Printing Coldsnap Making Magic Story / Lore Time Spiral Zur the Enchanter

Zur's Design Journey

New • 14 Mar 2017 • Asked by cautrell • 20 Comments

Time Spiral came out in the fall of 2006, Coldsnap during the summer before (northern hemisphere), so I assume you mean that Zur the Enchanter was already in the TSP design file and then "stolen" for CSP when R&D realized it was going to do a 3rd set for the Ice Age block. IIRC, Coldsnap design was done in an extremely short period of time. Thanks as always!

Coldsnap took it from Time Spiral, with permission, of course.
Coldsnap Game Design Ice Age Time Spiral Zur the Enchanter

Zur's Initial Design

New • 13 Mar 2017 • Asked by piogre • 42 Comments

In today's article, when discussing the story behind Zur the Enchanter, you specifically mention Time Spiral design, but Zur was printed in Coldsnap. Was Zur originally designed as part of Time Spiral and moved to Coldsnap later?

Yes. It was originally designed for Time Spiral and moved to Cokdsnap. I forgot to mention that part in the column. Oops.
Card Printing Coldsnap Story / Lore Time Spiral Zur the Enchanter

Zur Birthday Trivia

New • 03 Dec 2015 • Asked by kavics • 28 Comments

Hi Marko! Today is my birthday, I would like to ask a birthday tiriva about my commander Zur the Enchanter. Thanks Kavics

Zur was made as a nostalgic throwback to a card from Ice Age called Zur’s Weirding that was a tournament card back in the day. Happy Birthday!
Birthday Card Backs Commander Ice Age Zur the Enchanter

Zur and Atogatog Trivia

New • 28 Nov 2015 • Asked by cobrakmmndr • 36 Comments

It was my birthday Thursday can I get trivia on zur the enchanter or the atogatog?

Atogatog, art and all, was designed for Unglued 2, the Un-set that never got made. In Odyssey, Randy Buehler, the set’s lead developer wanted to add a cycle of multicolor atogs. I designed the cycle and informed him I had a bonus sixth card, art included. Happy Birthday!
Art Atog Atogatog Birthday Cycles Odyssey Unglued Un-Magic / Silver Border / Acorn Un-sets Zur the Enchanter

Zur and Occupation Clarified

New • 16 Feb 2015 • Asked by upstartgiant • 24 Comments

Someone asked if you made zur the enchanter. I think they meant the card from coldsnap not the character itself. Did you make the card? Also, were you aware that your Wikipedia page has "silver border rules manager" as an entry under occupation?

It’s one of my many jobs. : )
Coldsnap Rules Un-Magic / Silver Border / Acorn Un-sets You Make The Card Zur the Enchanter

Zur's Design Timeline

New • 16 Feb 2015 • Asked by cobrakmmndr • 19 Comments

Did you design Zur the enchanter?

Before my time.
Zur the Enchanter

Hybrid Card Issues

New • 17 Jan 2015 • Asked by backtrek • 94 Comments

Why does Commander forbid playing cards with colors that aren't a subset of your commander's color identity (903.5c), when there's already a rule that any colored mana outside your commander's color identity turns colorless (903.9)? This means that, for example, you can't play Privileged Position in a Zur the Enchanter deck, even though you can cast it with only white mana. Doesn't that defeat the purpose of hybrid cards?

The Commander format currently is not very nice to hybrid cards. It is probably my single greatest issue with the format.
Cast Color Identity Colorless Colors Commander Hybrid Mana Privileged Position Rules White Zur the Enchanter

Zur Trivia Gift

New • 03 Dec 2014 • Asked by ancient-chaos • 24 Comments

It's finally my birthday, so can I get some trivia on my favorite commander, Zur the Enchanter?

Ice Age had Zuran cards and so we were making a throwback to the mage who made things like the Zuran Orb. Happy Birthday!
Birthday Commander Ice Age Orb Zur the Enchanter Zuran Orb

Bestow Design Constraints

New • 25 Oct 2013 • Asked by victorsantmaker • 15 Comments

Considering that bestow is "locked" with this desing of giving the Creature P/T bonus on the aura, then all bestow will have cost higher than the creature cost, right? So why not make bestow a replacement effect upon the creature ETB? "As [CARDNAME] ETB, you may pay [cost], if you do, it ETB as a aura [rest of the bestow effect]. This would allow you to make the bestow creature an aura even if put directly on the field (like with Zur the Enchanter)

I believe that wouldn’t trigger heroic which was an important part of the design.
Auras Bestow Creatures Enter The Battlefield Heroic Zur the Enchanter

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