Golden Urn MTG Card

Mana cost
Converted mana cost	1
Rarity	Common
Type	Artifact
Released	2010-10-01
Set symbol
Set name	Scars of Mirrodin
Set code	SOM
Number	158
Frame	2003
Layout	Normal
Border	Black
Illustred by	Charles Urbach

Key Takeaways

Golden Urn offers life buffer potential, especially beneficial against aggressive MTG decks or strategies.
Mana requirements and discard cost can hinder its inclusion in multi-color or resource-tight decks.
Artifacts like Golden Urn accentuate combo possibilities and adaptation to various MTG formats.

Text of card

At the beginning of your upkeep, you may put a charge counter on Golden Urn. , Sacrifice Golden Urn: You gain life equal to the number of charge counters on Golden Urn.

Card Pros

Card Advantage: Golden Urn offers a cumulative advantage by amassing charge counters that can be cashed in for life, potentially giving you a crucial buffer against aggressive strategies.

Resource Acceleration: Though not a direct source of mana, the life gained from Golden Urn can enable strategies centered around life as a resource, indirectly accelerating your game plan.

Instant Speed: While Golden Urn itself doesn’t operate at instant speed, the life it provides can be crucial for surviving at low health, effectively giving you the means to respond to threats during critical moments.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Golden Urn requires you to exile a card from your hand, potentially depleting valuable resources or strategic options.

Specific Mana Cost: Casting Golden Urn depends on producing one colorless and one white mana, potentially challenging in multicolored or color-specific decks.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: While the mana cost isn’t exorbitant, there are cards at a lower cost that might better suit the needs of life-gaining strategies or artifact synergies.

Reasons to Include in Your Collection

Versatility: The Golden Urn offers a unique form of life-gain that can be integrated into a variety of MTG decks. It’s especially useful in formats where incremental life increases can provide a significant edge over the course of a game.

Combo Potential: With cards that synergize with artifacts or that convert life gain into other resources, Golden Urn can serve as a key piece in powerful combos, giving you the upper hand at crucial moments.

Meta-Relevance: In a game where aggressive strategies can dominate, having Golden Urn as a lifeline can tilt the balance, making it relevant in a meta where staying power against fast-paced decks is crucial.

How to beat

The Golden Urn card operates as a life buffer in MTG, providing a consistent way to accumulate life points. To effectively counter this artifact, one should consider strategies that target the existence of artifacts or the opponent’s ability to gain life. Naturalize and Shatter are prime examples of artifact removal, which can swiftly eliminate the Golden Urn from play. In addition, cards like Tormod’s Crypt can deal with graveyard synergies, intending to hamper the recycling of the Golden Urn for repeated usage.

Another approach revolves around utilizing cards that counteract life gain. Erebos, God of the Dead is a remarkable card that can prevent opponents from gaining life altogether, rendering the benefits of the Golden Urn null and void. To supplement this strategy, consistent damage output with cards such as Sulfuric Vortex ensures that the opponent’s life total is pressured, making the incremental life gain from Golden Urn less impactful over the course of the game.

When assessing what way to take down the resilience of the Golden Urn, incorporating artifact disruption and life gain prevention into your deck can be key to victory. By targeting an opponent’s strategic artifacts and mitigating life gain, you can curtail the advantages Golden Urn offers in a match.

Cards like Golden Urn

The Golden Urn is an intriguing artifact in the vast expanse of Magic: The Gathering’s inventory. Notably, it shares similarities with other life-gain artifacts such as Pristine Talisman, which also allows you to gain life. However, Golden Urn amps up the anticipation by accruing charge counters each turn, which later can be cashed in for a significant life boost all at once.

Another comparable card is Sun Droplet, which is a stalwart in the incremental life gain strategy, accumulating life points each time you’re dealt damage. Though Golden Urn requires a build-up over turns before its effect can be unleashed, Sun Droplet’s impact is more immediate and reactive. Conversely, Elixir of Immortality offers an immediate burst of lifegain along with the additional utility of reshuffling your graveyard into your library – a feature the Golden Urn lacks.

To wrap it up, in the context of life-gain artifacts in Magic: The Gathering, Golden Urn stands out for its potential for a larger, one-time life gain event. This aspect can be pivotal in turning the tides of a game, particularly in matchups where timing and resource management are key.

Elixir of Immortality - MTG Card versions

Cards similar to Golden Urn by color, type and mana cost

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Golden Urn MTG card by a specific set like Scars of Mirrodin, there are several reliable options to consider. One of the primary sources is your local game store, where you can often find booster packs, individual cards, and preconstructed decks from current and some past sets. They often offer the added benefit of a community where you can trade with other players.

For a broader inventory, particularly of older sets, online marketplaces like TCGPlayer, Card Kingdom and Card Market offer extensive selections and allow you to search for cards from specific sets. Larger e-commerce platforms like eBay and Amazon also have listings from various sellers, which can be a good place to look for sealed product and rare finds.

Additionally, Magic’s official site often has a store locator and retailer lists for finding Wizards of the Coast licensed products. Remember to check for authenticity and the condition of the cards when purchasing, especially from individual sellers on larger marketplaces.

Below is a list of some store websites where you can buy the Golden Urn and other MTG cards:

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Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Golden Urn has restrictions

Format	Legality
Commander	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Paupercommander	Legal
Modern	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Pauper	Legal
Vintage	Legal
Duel	Legal
Predh	Legal

Rules and information

The reference guide for Magic: The Gathering Golden Urn card rulings provides official rulings, any errata issued, as well as a record of all the functional modifications that have occurred.