Coldsnap: Pre-Preview Review

By Chris Harrold (a.k.a Dr Chunk)

It is almost summer and boy, is it going to be getting chilly around here!

The Coldsnap is almost upon us, with the Ice Age block fi= nally complete without the travesty that was Homelands.

*aside*

I started playing Magic around the time that Ice Age was released. The times = when I bought 4^th Edition because, surely it’s better than Revi= sed because it is newer. I was there when Homelands was released, and I have to admit it was actually my favourite set at the time.

To start the boosters were cheaper for me to buy with my limited pocket money. Much to my parents dismay that I was spending al= l this money on pieces of cardboard. There was always the hope of opening that Bar= on Sengir that my friend wanted so badly to go in her va= mpire deck that she was already beating me with. There was this wonderful cycle of lands that let you change any mana into one of 3 types of mana (see Wizards School et al). I lik= ed it and I bought it and I get a little upset when people berate it.<= /span>

Though I do see where they are coming from.

*end aside*

Yes indeed, Wizards has “discovered” the last Ice Age expansion and= has ordained us with it’s presence. Even bette= r it is going to be standard legal which means I will actually have to buy some = too. Even better than that we might get to draft it at high end tournaments R= 11; now why didn’t we get to do that with Unhinged?

The rumours are creeping in as the magazine previews start, so I thought we mig= ht take a look at what is on offer so far. Remember that the Ice Age will retu= rn to us the joys of Cumulative Upkeep (fresh with Age Counters), pitch spells= and snow covered things, like Snowmen and Dandruff.

By the way all snow covered lands are now Snow Land – Forest/Mountain/Etc.. That seems a little lame a= nd presumably means they are not basic, as they do not have the basic supertype anymore. Allegedly any mana from a snow land or mana producing snow creatur= e (or MPSCs as I like to call them) is snow mana. So now you know.

All the below blatantly pilfered from = www.mtgsalvation.com - The best place for rumours!

Glacial Plating 2WW

Snow Enchantment - Aura

Enchant creature
Cumulative upkeep: S (that’s snow mana)
Enchanted creature gets +3/+3 for each age counter on Glacial Plating.=

On it’s own this does nothing for at least a turn. = So you are giving an initial investment of Wrath Of God= mana for +0/+0 and the potential for card disadvantag= e that comes with every aura. Turn 1 you will have +3/+3 for 5 mana with this incrementing as the turns go on.

I am not sold on this idea, but part of me wants to put t= his on something with evasion and chuckle. Purely in limited though, as this wi= ll not see constructed play, as I would much rather Wrath than waste my mana.

Jötun Grunt 1W

Creature - Giant Soldier

Cumulative Upkeep - Put Two cards in a single graveyard on the bottom of their owner's library ( At the beginning of your upkeep, put a= n age counter on this permanent, then sacrifice it unless you pay its upkeep cost= for each age counter on it.)

4/4

This reminds me somewhat of Loxodon Peacekeeper. The= stats are impressive, the cost is aggressive and the ability is astoundingly prohibitive. Not quite as bad as the peacekeeper this 2 drop is something t= hat will unlikely come down before turn 5 or 6 in or= der for a graveyard to be available to support his upkeep. Even then he is goin= g to hang around for two or three turns until he runs out of stuff to eat. Of co= urse this is really the realm of limited I’m talking about.

On the flip side he does do a good job of hosing decks that revolve around having = lots of cards in their graveyard:

Grunt vs. Ichorid à Grunt wins<= /span>

Grunt vs. Madness/Threshold à Grunt Wins<= /span>

Now don’t misread me and think this guy is going to make an impact, but i= t is a weapon that could be useful in the right circumstances, more for his abil= ity than his stats.

Jötun Owl-Keeper 2W

Creature - Giant

Cumulative Upkeep: W or U
When Jötun Owl-Keeper is put into a gravey= ard from play, put a 1/1 white bird token with flying into play for each age counter on Jötun Owl-Keeper. (At the begin= ning of your upkeep, put an age counter on this permanent, t= hen sacrifice this permanent unless you pay W or U for each age counter on it.)=

3/3

This, however, is more like it. 3/3 for three mana is a good start. 3/3 that makes a bunch of dudes when he dies is icing on t= he cake. You even get to control when the men appear to some extent. The upkeep cost also helps by, effectively, being guild mana and hence being flexible enough that you might be able to afford him for a the = few turns he’s useful then trade him in for evasion creatures to do the l= ast few points.

Although he seems solid I don’t anticipate him being particularly good in constructed as I’m sure W or UW weenie would rather drop creatures th= an pay upkeeps. What are the chances of WW playing this at the top of their cu= rve to only have mana to pay the upkeep for a coupl= e of turns?

Commandeer 5UU

Instant

You may remove two blue cards in your hand from the game instead of playing Commandeer's mana cost. Gain control of target non-creature spell. You may choose new targets for t= hat spell. (If that spell is an artefact or enchantment, the permanent comes in= to play under your control.)

Before we start jabbering on I would like to say this is NOT a limited card. Move along.

Now, in constructed, this is something I can (almost) get excited about. Some are heralding this as the Neo-FoW and you can see w= here they are coming from. A blue players hand should always be full of cards to pitch to this as well as getting the opportunity to control the spell yourself. This is especially important in those counte= r wars we see less often these days.

“Redirect your counterspell back at your other counterspell…”

But….

And it’s a big butt, and I like it, I cannot lie,

Seven Mana!

Two Cards!

Non-Creature!

It is unlikely this would get played without the pitch as sev= en mana is a lot to pay, even in Tron. Forget counter wars I’m just going to play Simic= Sky Swallower. Can you Comm= andeer him? I think not. Some people almost played Overwhelming Intellect and that= was purely because of the potential card advantage.

So we don’t like paying mana, then we shall just discard a third or so of my hand to pitch this for free. In any self respec= ting counter war I think Disrupting Shoal is always going to be better than this= .

Finally the non-creature clause just adds the injury to the insult. Keiga, Meloku, Sky Swallower? Sure, go ahead. Boros Signet – wait a sec= ond!

Chilling Shade 2B

Snow Creature – Shade

Flying
S: Chilling Shade gets +1/+1 until end of turn. (S can be paid with one mana from a Snow Permanent)<= /p>

1/1

Our first truly snowy creature – Isn’t he pretty. Just like many, m= any shades before him this man will leap out at the hearts of all those shade lovers everywhere (I was one once, but now I’m better). The one playable shade that has ex= isted until now, from a competitive view, is of course Nantu= ko Shade who starts as an efficient 2/1 for two and was the beats in Odyssey b= lock black decks.

This new man is a step up from old faithful Looming Shade by having evasion, whi= ch does tip him more into the playable limited creatures. Although 1/1 for thr= ee with flying is not mana best spent, he can conceivably be very be a very dangerous beater w= ith enough snow mana. Bear in mind you can use any = colour of snow mana for his pump, which makes him diff= erent from the other shades as they only ever used black.

Constructed – not going to happen, unless we get snow covered Urzatron pieces.

Feast of Flesh B

Sorcery

Feast of Flesh deals X damage to target creature, and you gain X life, where X eq= ual to 1 plus the number of cards called Feast of Flesh in all the graveyards.<= o:p>

"To starve an army that feeds on its enemies is an excellent strategy"
Garza Zol, Plague Queen

For B you get not at all a bad deal out of Feast. Dealing that point of damage is always useful, either as a tag on post combat or to take out a pesky one toughness man. The second one of these is a Vicious Hunger, which was playable removal in 888 draft,= and from then on it’s just gravy. With the draft format being 3 of a small set we have to hope this is common to make the chances of getting more than= one reasonable. The only thing that really lets this down is the sorcery speed.=

Again I don’t really see this having an impact on constructed tournaments a= ll over the country, unless we get invaded by n00bs – and I would like to welcome all of you new magic players to the game.

I left the flavour text on this one because it made chuckle. Not guffaw, just chuc= kle.

Martyr of Ashes R

Creature - Human Shaman

2, reveal X red cards from your hand, sacrifice Martyr of Ashes: Martyr of Ash= es deals X damage to each creature without flying.

1/1

This card reminds me a little of the scent and seer cycles from Urza’s Destiny. I think I would find it hard not to include this 1 drop into any sealed or draft when red is a main colour. It may well die quickly once it = hits the table, but that is a piece of removal wasted on a 1/1. If not you get an instant speed mini-Earthquake for 2 man= a. The only downside is that any self respecting red deck will not have a very full hand, unless you fill it with creatures to drop after you EoT board clearing.

In constructed I don’t imagine myself main decking this unless aggro dominates the metagame. In the realm of 2/3 and= 2/2 creatures the standard for 1 mana I cannot see = this guy making the cut.

Surging Flame 1R

Instant

Ripple 4 (When you play this spell, you may reveal the top four cards of your libr= ary. You may play any revealed cards with the same name as this spell without pa= ying their mana costs. Put the rest on the bottom of= your library)
Surging Flame deals 2 damage to target creature or player=

On it’s own this card is an over costed Shock, but 2 mana is the standard for 2 damage = with any other tacked on ability (see splice and scry). After all that though it is still cheap removal and should always be picked= up. I have heard removal is good in limited, but keep it to yourselves.

Ripple looks like an interesting ability and I want to see more of the cards befor= e I make a final judgment. In draft, with a 40 card deck and a few turns in, wi= th maybe 3 copies of this spell in the deck, you have around a 1/3 chance of hitting another for free. In a constructed deck probably less than 1/5 chan= ce. This is not much of a statistic to build a deck around but there is always a chance you might get more than you bargained for at 2 <= span class=3DSpellE>mana. For this reason I doubt this will get mu= ch constructed play.

2000 words and I have covered only 8 cards. They are all very interesting and undoubtedly worth the discussion. Come back soon when we muse over the gree= n, gold and artefacts.

Just remember, don’t eat the yellow snow covered lands.<= /p>