Remembering Ice Age

Today I reflect on Ice Age.

Ice Age was released in June 1995—right around the time I started playing Magic. It was the eleventh set released for the game, but the first non-core set to have its own basic lands (and thus be "stand-alone playable"). 

There was a plan to give this set unique card backs (indeed, the plan was to do so every so often for certain Magic releases), but thankfully that idea was scrapped—in an era before players sleeved cards, taking that step would have minimized the ability to mix cards from different sets when constructing decks.

Ice Age was the first non-core set to have reprints. Of the set's 383 cards, 27 (22 non-basic-land) were reprints (26 of which appeared in the immediately-preceding core set, 4th Edition), giving people an idea that some cards were so basic to the game that they would be featured for years to come. (They got new art, though, in keeping with Ice Age's theme.)

Swords to Plowshares, a reprint with new art

Ice Age introduced basic snow lands. These were functionally identical to basic lands; their value came in being referenced/leveraged by other cards.

Ice Age's mechanics were underwhelming. Cumulative upkeep (making it increasingly expensive to keep such cards on the board), banding (which was never fun or intuitive), and abilities like "draw a card at the beginning of next turn's upkeep" were clunky and could be complicated. Other cards were overly wordy. 

Today, most cards are still affordable. The top in value (as of this writing):

- Necropotence ($49)

- Unique lands (Underground River, Karplusan Forest, Glacial Chasm, Adarkar Wastes, Sulfuous Springs, Brushland) ($18-33)

- Dance of the Dead ($17)

- Illusions of Grandeur ($16)

- Jester's Cap ($14)

My main memories of this set:

- The theme. I enjoyed the concept of a land experiencing an ice age; the theme and story helped lure me in to the game.

- The art. Tied to theme, the packaging and artwork were excellent and evoked a soft fantasy style I found (and find) highly appealing.

- Select cards. Some shown below. They may or may not have been powerful, but they were fun. Some still feature in my casual or Commander decks.

Today, Ice Age is still underwhelming . . . but nostalgic.

Until next time, keep exploring.