A 4/4 with no protection baked in isn’t the hardest thing to kill, and while red decks will adore that extra card each turn, I don’t think it constricts tightly enough to be as formidable a hate card as it could be. The body’s not so bad, of course, but it’ll have a hard time winning you games on its own unless you’re in a position to really tighten the screws. I feel like Urabrask is sort of weird in that it’s more “value” than it is an unbeatable ace. Drannith Magistrate comes to mind, but what cards does that annoying little human not work well with? You get one in addition to your turns, while you turn your opponents’ first draws each turn into an impulse draw, which can be quite potent if you have ways to constrict their hand otherwise or lock them out of casting spells. His ability is the new wrinkle, and it’s a bit of an interesting take on red’s impulse drawing mechanics. Urabrask 2.0 is interesting enough in that his body is nearly the same as it was the first time out: a 5-mana 4/4 with haste. Not only have they hinted that she’s the new Mother of Machines, her level of nastiness at least rivals that of Bolas (though it’s a close call between her and Jin-Gitaxias’ medical-based horrors). We’ve now seen three of the Praetors appear in recent sets – I’m anticipating and dreading what Elesh Norn is going to do when she shows up. For a format like Standard, his stats are good and the additive advantage is good it might, though, be hard for the rest of this year, while he shares the format with cards like Goldspan Dragon and Crackle with Power. I wouldn’t rely on that to disrupt an opponent, but it will certainly make them think, and you can mess with opponents in larger formats by combining him with something like Spirit of the Labyrinth. You’ll note that it in fact replaces their usual draw for the turn (or an cantrip they play in their upkeep, I guess), which will deny them a card completely a percentage of the time and be almost unnoticeable in some decks. Urabrask’s abilities are definitely an advantage for you, and sometimes a disadvantage for the opponent. Regardless, I’m sure there will be a lot of excitement at his return – the non-black Phyrexians were the most interesting element of the Scars of Mirrodin block. I use quotation marks because this was based on a throwaway line in a story about Elspeth, which could have been interpreted more than one way it also seemingly disregarded the fact that Wizards had recently demonstrated their penchant for retconning things that don’t fit with what they want to do in the current set. I remember a time, years ago, when I was assured by an “expert” on a forum that Urabrask was dead.
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