MTG: Coldsnap

[Tha_Gunslinga]

i just wanted to chime in on this. releasing coldsnap is a very cool idea, but i think wizards missed out on a great oppurtunity to release a product with some of the "old" magic feel to it. if they would have gone back to the old template (and maybe even rules including going so far as to make interrupts), and used old magic artists (even crappy ones), i think they could have made something special. this was literally the only chance they will ever have to make an old-fashioned (good or bad) magic set and they seem to have blown it. i like the magic being made today but its so playtested and streamlined that it doesnt always contain the "soul" that drew me into the game. if i started playing today with the new cards, i probably wouldnt get into it. hopefully coldsnap will somehow contain some nostalgic charm of ice age-era magic. id love to hear anybody else's opinion on this.

I fully agree, but unfortunately the old card face is dead and buried for WotC, and I wouldn't expect it back ever again, except possibly resurfacing occasionally for random things like the Crystalline Sliver or UN-set cards.

[flatmatt]

I can understand wanting the old cardface back, but why in the world would anyone want 4th Edition rules back? Ugh. Second in insanity only to 5th Edition rules...

[phyconaut]

hey the 4th edition rules were fine no need to go bashing them my play group and I often go retro with 4th eddition rules and 4th on back sets so the rules reversal would be awsome.

[dgstranz]

Q. Will there be theme decks?
A. Yes. Boosters, theme decks, a Fat Pack – we're pulling out all the stops. And as this is the third set in the Ice Age block (you know, the “lostâ€￾ one), the theme decks will include a few cards from the first two sets of the block. For those cards we will be updating them to the new card frames (since Coldsnap uses the new card frames), but we will be keeping their original art.

Does that mean... foil cards from Ice Age and Alliances!!? Even if it's only because of some rare misprint... it's some possibility that I wouldn't want to exclude!!

There will certainly be cards from Ice Age and Alliances in Russian, I suppose ;) And... with collector numbers ;)

[jeb]

Does that mean... foil cards from Ice Age and Alliances!!?

That's what has me, plastered_dragon, flatmatt, and other global set collectors wondering. Ice Age Stone Rain with new put-up? Can cards in Pre-Cons be foil? The languages are: English, French, German, Italian, Russian, Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, and Chinese (S, I'm sure). So, for someone like me, it could be:
00 -- No Stone Rains.
09 -- It's in a Pre-Con, but never foil.
18 -- It's in a Pre-Con, and foily mcfoilerson.

[flatmatt]

Does that mean... foil cards from Ice Age and Alliances!!?

That's what has me, plastered_dragon, flatmatt, and other global set collectors wondering. Ice Age Stone Rain with new put-up? Can cards in Pre-Cons be foil? The languages are: English, French, German, Italian, Russian, Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, and Chinese (S, I'm sure). So, for someone like me, it could be:
00 -- No Stone Rains.
09 -- It's in a Pre-Con, but never foil.
18 -- It's in a Pre-Con, and foily mcfoilerson.

Well, they've only ever done foil basic lands in precons. Still, if the cards make it into the precons there will be a new nonfoil version for us to get in each language. So I'm counting on either 0 new cards or 9 new Balduvian Bears (the rares will be from Coldsnap, so no Pale Bears).

Of course, depending on how they decide to do the basic lands in the set, we might see the original Ice Age lands art in foil. I think snow-covered lands are less likely as they're going to have to reprint them as an actual part of Coldsnap to make them Standard/Extended legal, and they might end up doing new non-snowy basics for the set as well.

Of course it's all speculation at the moment. They've never done anything quite like this of course, so who knows what exactly Wizards is planning?

[dgstranz]

I suppose there will be a complete foil land set because of the theme decks (which always include a foil card from the first expansion of the block). As well as the almost-obvious complete non-foil land set with the new design. Foil snow-covered lands?

Misprinted all-foil theme decks? Oh, this wait is killing me...

[Plastered_Dragon]

Bust out your Rime Dryads fellas... Ice Age is coming back to the hizzy!

I'm very excited about this set. This represents a terrific opportunity for WOTC to give the Ice Age block more cohesion, to make Snow-covered Lands not-suck, and of course to (possibly) reprint Kaja's gorgeous Stone Rain for nutjobs like me! (Though I suspect they might not, as there appears to be at least some level of disagreement between the Foglios and WOTC.) But then maybe it could be Stone Rain with some new artwork--which would also be cool.

On the matter of art, while I agree that the quality of the art over all has increased since the early days of Magic, there is a certain type of art that I don't see anymore that I really miss, and Ice Age had a lot of it (and no, I don't mean Amy Weber)... stuff with a little less polish, that looks a little more like a painting to my uneducated eye... like oh, I dunno. Folk of the Pines? Ashen Ghoul? Giant Trap Door Spider? Adarkar Unicorn? Foxfire? Arctic Foxes? Dire Wolves? Hyalopterous Lemure? Flooded Woodlands? Hallowed Ground? Incinerate? I've never met anyone who didn't think the Ice Age incinerate was cool looking.

Lots of stuff like that.

[jeb]

On the matter of art, while I agree that the quality of the art over all has increased since the early days of Magic, there is a certain type of art that I don't see anymore that I really miss, and Ice Age had a lot of it (and no, I don't mean Amy Weber)... stuff with a little less polish, that looks a little more like a painting to my uneducated eye... like oh, I dunno. Folk of the Pines? Ashen Ghoul? Giant Trap Door Spider? Adarkar Unicorn? Foxfire? Arctic Foxes? Dire Wolves? Hyalopterous Lemure? Flooded Woodlands? Hallowed Ground? Incinerate? I've never met anyone who didn't think the Ice Age incinerate was cool looking.

Lots of stuff like that.

I think what's occured is the Art Director has gotten a lot more specific about what's supposed to be in the art. Time was, the direction would be: "Fire burns something." The artist could take that and go for it. Now that direction would be: "Fire, from Gorgonax's Nostrils (see Style Guide p18) burns the left hoof of Walmesya's goat familiar Noofus (see Style Guide p848, appendix III)." They have extended the brand into books, figurines, ad infinitum and they need to maintain a look across all those products through characters and narrative. As a result, the art looks prettier, but is a lot more throttled.

I've recently had some email conversations with Adam Rex. He said his direction for Mind Stone was "A rock with veins of another material in it, resembling a brain." You can see what he did with that. Nowadays they'd want to name the third guy from the left and make him a legend in the next expansion.

In a way, I'm sad they've attached Coldsnap to the Ice Age block. Who cares about blocks? Make some sweet cards with cool mechanics.

[psrex]

From Ask Wizards today:

We like The Gathering Dark so much, we're even including it in the Coldsnap Fat Pack where it can live right next to the new pitch cards and snow-covered lands!

I'm not sure if this is red herring or true information that snow-covered lands are re-emerging (and may be somewhat more relevant).

[ende73]

Homelands will have to be slotted in with Fallen Empires and The Dark: Nowhere.

Squt.

I was re-reading this story about Coldsnap and noticed that actually Wizards certified the Ice Age Block as containing Ice Age, Homelands and Alliances on their own website:

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgcom/arcana/173

They do appear pretty confused sometimes... since they already found 100 ways of making big money, I don't understand the point in using these stupid tricks which just annoy me.

[macone]

Preview card comes.

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgcom/daily/mr234

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgcom/feature/343

Æther Snap --> Dark Depths. :-)