Magic the Gathering Card Analysis: Uba Mask

The rare artifact Uba Mask, from the Champions of Kamigawa expansion set of Magic: The Gathering, is a very unusual card. It causes players to exile any card they would have drawn instead of putting it in their hand. The exiled cards can be played during the turn in which they were removed, but not afterward.

Uba Mask can really mess with many spells such as Aphotic Wisps, which have drawing a card as a secondary effect. In order to play these kind of spells, your opponents will have to risk losing out on a beneficial card which they may have been able to play the following turn. It will also make your opponents think twice about casting blue spells such as Reach Through Mists, which allows the caster to draw a card, because it will harm rather than help them.

This artifact can also cause problems with the cards normally drawn each turn during the draw step. Unless a spell can be cast immediately during a player's turn, it must remain exiled. This is better than requiring players to discard spells into their graveyards, because it is more difficult to return cards from the exile zone. Powerful spells may be lost to your opponents because they do not have the proper mana to cast them in the turn when they are first exiled.

Like all such abilities, however, Uba Mask's ability can backfire on you as well. Now that the new rules for exile mean that the cards Ring of Ma'rûf and Research no longer give you access to cards that have been exiled ("removed from the game"), there is no way to return cards exiled with Uba Mask to your hand or your deck. If you do not have the proper mana to play spells, you can also miss out on powerful spells which could help you or hurt your opponents. You can also be negatively affected by instants such as Call to Heel or creature abilities such as that of Cephalid Broker, which your opponents can use to force you to draw cards.

Uba Mask is a good card to screw with your opponents and their ability to cast spells. This artifact should only be cast, however, if you are sure that it would not interfere with your ability to cast the spells that you need so much that it would cause you to lose. It would be best to include spells in your deck such as Deconstruct so you can destroy Uba Mask if it gets out of hand.

Sources

• Magic 2010 Rule Changes from Daily MTG
• MagicCards.info