Coldsnap was a set that went back to MTG basics, because it was from the beginning of MTG! It was supposed to be the third installment in the Ice Age block, but Homelands (ugh) took its place. Coldsnap was instead released over ten years later and changed slightly to fit in with moder MTG. It was a great mix. People may have laughed at the idea of “snow permanents” being useful, but they were! Not only that, but this set had many amazing cards. This list will showcase them and reveal how powerful this set really is!

#30 Dark Depths

The only legendary snow land, this card is actually pretty famous. It generates a creature that has flying, is indestructible, and has enough power to kill a player in one turn! Also, this card also is responsible for the creation of the only rare token ever in MTG. Weird, but cool. This card takes some time to “warm” up. Essentially you melt the ice off of Marit Lage by using a grand total of thirty mana. It takes time, but this card can come out in a game. And when it does, you better be ready!

#29 Commandeer

Cards that can be played for zero mana are awesome. There are five such cards in this set. Three are on this list. Here’s the first one. It’s better than a counter spell. It’s a control spell! It only takes control of noncreature spells, but there are plenty that I’d like to turn around on their controller. Oh, if this were ever used on Plague Wind I would cry. This card is played by removing two blue cards from your hand almost 100% of the time. Seven is a little too expensive to play.

#28 Panglacial Wurm

Another really interesting card from this set, this card can be played while seraching your library! It’s a unique card and a pretty big one too! It can trample for nine damage. Seven isn’t much to pay for it either. It’s a little expensive, but the pure surprise of playing a creature when you’re searching your deck is worth it.

#27 Garza Zol, Plague Queen

An expensive card in Grixis colors, this card is a finisher. You get to draw cards when you hit your opponent and when you destroy a creature with this card you get to boost its power. It’s a nice strong creature that gets to the point.

#26 Balduvian Warlord

Yeah, a lot of text, right? This card basically makes a blocked creature unblocked. It also makes the creature previously blocking block something else. That’s still a little wordy, but not as bad as the card itself. It’s a cool ability. It’s like making a creature unblockable, but something else gets blocked instead. The old switcheroo.

#25 Jokulmorder

Everybody loves big leviathans! This is one of the biggest creature in MTG in fact.  You have to sacrifice five lands or it gets sacrificed. Also, it comes into play tapped and doesn’t untap until you play an island. Standard draw backs for leviathan creatures. Being able to swing for twelve damage means you’ll be swinging for a win (considering when you’ll be able to play this card).

#24 Martyr Of Ashses

Here’s a creature that can clear the board. You have to have two mana and a couple of red cards in your hand, but this can reset the board. Maybe build a deck with four of this card and a bunch of red flying creatures? Who knows? This is just a nice one drop that has use throughout the entire game.

#23 Jester’s Scepter

Here’s a card that I’m not fond of, but is actually good (or has the potential to be good). It gives you the chance to counter some of your opponent’s best spells, or do absolutely nothing. It’s hit and miss, but when it hits you’ve got quite a bit of control.

#22 Martyr Of Sands

Here’s a card to use at the very beginning of the game. On the second turn use its ability and gain around fifteen life. That should give you a nice cusion for a while. It’s useful at any point in the game, but the more cards in your hand the better! Three life for each card is quite a bit. This is one of the most powerful of the reveal X do something X times cards. A great common and a powerful one drop.

#21 Rite Of Flame

Kind of like a red Dark Ritual, this card has the potential to be more effective, though starts out being less. If there is more than one Rite Of Flame in the graveyards, then this spell will add at least four red mana to your mana pool. It’s just a red card that accelerates your mana and is a good way to start up the game.

#20 Field Marshal

Soldier decks, especially with Kithkins, are effective. This card boost all your soldiers and also gives them a nice offensive ability. It has a low casting cost and gives immediate results. Since that’s really all it does you can’t expect it to rank much higher, but it is still a good card!

#19 Thrumming Stone

Ripple is the keyword ability from this set. The idea is that you play a spell and then you get to reveal X cards and play cards that share a name with the spell you played for free. This card is pretty good in its orginal context, but if you combine it with cards that have cascade (from Alara Reborn) it gets out of control. You can start ridiculous chain reactions. Oh, and possibly you could play an infinite number of Relentless Rats. But’s that would be ridiculous. It’s just a cool card that might give you four spells for the price of one!

#18 Herlad Of Leshrac

Steal your opponents’ lands and boost your creature? That’s awesome. This card is both annoying and powerful. You make it so your opponent can’t cast spells as easily as they normally would be able too and your creature gets bigger and bigger. It’s nice that the lands you gain control of aren’t from a specific opponent, just lands you don’t control. In a big multiplayer game this card could stay in play a loooong time.

#17 Darien, King Of Kjeldor

This card makes you want to be dealt damage. You get 1/1 soldiers for each damage dealt to you! That’s pretty cool. Combine it with Field Marshal for some added fun. It’s a little too expensive. If it cost one less mana it would’ve ranked higher. However, it is a very strong card that makes your opponent usually try to destroy you in one turn rather than slowly over time. That change in offensive strategy can really change a game and give you the opportunity you need to win.

#16 Vexing Sphinx

The discarding and drawing are cool or whatever, but I feel the real power of this card is having a 4/4 flying creature for three mana! That’s awesome! Of course, you have to discard cards, but that’s no big deal. They get replaced later when this card goes to the graveyard anyway! It’s an way to hit your opponent for damage early in the game and then get a nice new hand to play with. It’s vexing why you don’t see this card used more often.

#15 Fury Of The Horde

Maybe this card should be ranked a little higher, but there are lot of other cards that do similar things. This one does have the added advantage of being free to play! Or rather, it’s the second of the cards on this list that you can play by removing two cards from your hand to play it (they have to be red). You untap all the creatures that attacked and then you have another combat phase and main phase. That’s pretty nice!

#14 Stromgald Crusader & White Shield Crusader

Once again, we have altered versions of Order Of Leitbur and Order Of The Ebon Hand (which are kind of like altered versions of White Knight and Black Knight). These gain flying instead of first strike. They’re valuable two drop creatures with a lot to offer at any point in the game because they can be pumped up.

#13 Hibernation’s End

As long as you can pay the cumulative cost you get a creature with converted mana cost equal to the number of age counters on this card from your library. Sounds good, right? It is! This is a great creature tutor spell. And it works well in most any deck. I like to use it in a multicolor deck so you can grab stuff that you might normally have difficulty playing. It’s just a little too expensive though.

#12 Arctic Flats, Boreal Shelf, Frost Marsh, Highland Weald, & Tresserhorn Sinks

Lands that tap for more than one color are awesome. These are snow lands too, meaning that they can tap for snow mana. Ice. I mean, nice. Anyway, these cards all provide good color combinations and work well within the set. They’re reminescent of the Invasion lands which worked the same way.

#11 Lightning Serpent

Like Ball Lightning, this card does… well, the same thing. However, it comes into play with X +1/+1 counters on it. This means that you can make this as big as you want and then trample through for a ton of damage. It’s cool because you can use it even if you have just one mana. That’s pretty cool. It’s a very powerful elemental, and one of the most powerful of those trample-haste-sacrifice creatures. You know the ones I’m talking about.

#10 Shape Of The Wiitigo

Heard of Wiitigo? This is it’s shape. Or whatever. Essentially, this card makes the enchanted creature into a big monster that gets stronger if it’s used in combat, but weaker if it just sits there. It’s a great card and it would be awesome to play Shape Of The Wiitigo on Wiitigo. This card actually looks more fearsome than the card it’s based off of! I’d fight a Wiitigo any day, but the Shape Of The Wiitigo? Oh man, you don’t want to mess with that! In case you can’t tell, I’m just screwing around now. Let’s go to the next card.

#9 Sunscour

This is Coldsnap’s version of Wrath Of God. Almost every set has a card that does something like this. This one is actually pretty good! This card can be played for seven mana, but you’re going to play it by removing two white cards from your hand instead. It’s just more economical! It’s the best of those remove two cards cards on this list.  You can use Wrath Of God for free! Potentially, you could use this card and then play some big creature you’ve been saving. However, usually you’ll just get to destroy all creatures, but there’s nothing wrong with that.

#8 Juniper Order Ranger

This is a card that when I got it, I was very surprised. This is an uncommon? It seems like it would be a rare! It boosts any creature that comes into play as well as itself. Permanently. This is just awesome. It a reasonable amount of mana and isn’t legendary. It’s just a good card.

#7 Adarkar Valkyrie

Ah, here’s a nice card from this set. It’s one that sells for about $5.00, which says a lot. You can bring any creature that’s on the way to the graveyard (besides itself) right back into pay under your control. It’s nice to have a white card that can gain control of your opponent’s creatures. You don’t see a lot of that, as it’s primarily a blue ability. What else is cool is that this card has vigilance, meaning you can attack with it and still be able to use its ability whenever you want.

#6 Zure The Enchanter

Here’s a pretty awesome card. When it attacks you can search your library for an enchantment and put it into play. It has to have a converted mana cost of three or less, but even so that ability is insane. Think of all the amazing enchantments that cost three or less. Contamination (to screw with your opponent), Convalescent Care, or some other stuff. Those are just general enchantments, though perhaps enchant this card with something like Edge Of Divinity to give it +3/+3 so it won’t get destroyed by a blocking creature. This card can have a deck built around it with ease. It’s a great card and I want one. Bad. This card just has that classic feel to it and is a lot of fun to play with.

#5 Ohran Viper

This card is pretty amazing. It’s a little creature that can kill whatever it deals combat damage to. This means that it probably won’t be blocked. However, if it deals combat damage to a player then you can draw a card. This gives your opponent two choices, neither of which is very appealing. This means that this card hurts your opponent no matter what, and that makes this a good card. Usually you’ll destroy a few creatures, but for the most part you’ll get to draw a bunch of cards.

#4 Phyrexian Soulgorger

This card has got to be related to Phyrexian Dreadnought. They’re very similar in their flavor. Phyrexian Dreadnought requires you to sacrifice a bunch of creatures at once, while this one requires you to sacrifice them over time. Phyrexian Dreadnought is a 12/12 for one mana, this is an 8/8 for three mana. Phyrexian Dreadnought is stronger, but harder to use. This card is weaker, but easier to use. It’s all what you want. This is also a snow creature for some reason. Why? Cause they felt like it. Not really. To be honest, I don’t know. I assume that in the storyline this creature was frozen and is then awakened somehow.

Anyway, this card is pretty cool. It’s a huge creature for only three mana and you can use it a few turns before the cumulative upkeep is too much to pay. Ah, whatever. Just play Eon Hub and use it forever. This card is just a strong and interesting card from this set and I’m really glad they made it. Can you believe it seels for less than a buck?

#3 Counterbalance

Arguably the best card from this set, this card can potentially allows you to counter every spell your opponent attempts to play. The only downside is your opponent will know what you’re about to draw, but the chance to counter a spell is so valuable that it is completly worth it. This card is an uncommon, which is very surprising. It sells for around $4.00. Quite a bit for an uncommon, but with an ability like this, you can’t be surprised.

#2 Braid Of Fire

Yeah, this card was of limited use at the time of its creation and was a weird card. It could really give you some mana burn. But wait, mana burn doesn’t exist anymore! This means this card gives you free mana. Tons of it. Play this at the beginning of a game and then have a loooot of mana for later. This card is amazing today. You better buy them now because this card is going to sky rocket in price. You can now have free mana for some quick instants or to throw into a card with firebreathing. You’ll be able to do a lot with this card and I can see no downside. It’s a card that has become radically more powerful with the 2010 rule changes.

#1 Arcum Dagsson

A controversial pick, but this card is ridiculous. You can cast it for only four mana and then sacrifice an artifact and search your library for any noncreature artifact and put it into play. ANY artifact! That means you can pull out something like Akroma’s Memorial or various other awesome card (and there are a lot). You can build a deck around this card. It’s amazing and has a lot of potential. Take a look at those expensive noncreature artifacts and you’ll see why this card is so good.

As you can see, this set has a lot to offer. A lot more than many people realized, as you can buy a booster box of this set for very little (sometimes below $70). Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a better appreciation for this set now. It’s amazing!