favorite coldsnap card

[arcane]

we already had the prereleases. we can talk about coldsnap.
u've seen the cards, what's ur favorite?

[demon238]

Either Ohran Viper or Mouth of Ronom

[Kird_Ape]

the flying, pumping crusaders

[Trogdor!]

Rimescale Dragon, so cool

[DarkAngel1979]

For Constructed: Ohran Viper
In Limited: Ronom Hulk. 5/6 with pro-snow, in a set where pro-snow might as well be evasion? GG.

Honorable mention: Skred. {R} Instant. Destroy target creature.

[Card Slinger J]

Although I couldn't make it to the pre-release, I think my favorite card from Coldsnap would probably be Simian Brawler because he combos well with Crucible of Worlds, Fastbond, Exploration, and Zuran Orb. Oh look, I get 2,3, or more +1/+1 pumps every turn with Simian Brawler! :D

Soul Spike I liked, however I think Mouth of Ronom is gonna be one of the chase cards in the set and I think it could have some synergy in a U/R or G/R Land Destruction deck given that you run some Snow-Covered Basic Lands in your deck to pull it off.

Skred is gonna see alot of play in Constructed, and I think Thermokarst from Ice Age is gonna become a little bit popular in Casual Vintage, with the Snow-Covered Basic Lands becoming popular once more from Coldsnap. I gain 1 life for destroying one? whoop-de-doo! :rolleyes:

[Haemoglobin]

Ohran Viper has got to be my favourite and probably the best card in the set. Mentions go to the Crusaders, Rune Snag (an excellent card imo) and Mouth of Ronom. I got 10 boosters from my prerelease in 3 drafts!

Also, aren't snow covered lands on the same level as Unhinged lands, ie. they're common and you can only get them in boosters? If so will they be about a pound each? I hope not.

[mikey g]

i'd like the pump knights to have first strike, they die too easy now.

[InsanityInc]

Haakon, Stromgald Scourge

Undeniably the best card in the set.

[Haemoglobin]

I don't see how Haakon is so good. Please can you explain it to me.

[InsanityInc]

Playing things from your graveyard has historically (magic-ly speaking) been one of the most powerful strategies in the game. Consider why entomb is restricted in vintage. Ichorid is one of the most dominant decks in extended right now. The most amazing advantage of any sort of graveyard-playing strategies is that they completely circumvent control. What good does removal do you when I have infinite creatures? What good are counterspells when you can't counterspell anything I play out of my graveyard? (this is something unique to ichorid and haakon, though since most recursion relies on spells).

Besides that, Haakon has some unique properties that make him extremely powerful:

1) It's recursion that keeps coming. This makes him almost like some sort of insane card advantage engine. You effectively have infinite creatures to play at all times.
2) He pretty much single-handedly breaks the symmetry of delirium skeins, which is crazy.
3) Breaks the symmetry of wrath of god, which is also crazy.

Basically, Haakon is an ultra card advantage engine.

[Pilloku]

Ohran Viper is the best card in the entire set.

[GenericKen]

I did not list Haakon in my top 15 for a reason, though in retrospect, I suppose he deserved a spot in the low honorable mentions.

Haakon's got a lot of power behind him, there's no denying that, but a lot of problems as well.

By himself, you cannot cast him from your hand, making him a blank in the vanilla case. That's a bigger strike than it sounds like, particularly in a topdecking war.

Haakon's a vanilla 3/3 in combat. While that's pretty good for a knight, that's just average (or below average nowadays) than most 3 drops. He will be facing down a lot of 4/4s in standard.

Against removal, 1BB every turn is not cheap, and neither is the life loss. Ichorid is free, and has freaking haste, on top of being uncounterable. What's more, the most common countermagic in standard, remand, absolutely hoses Haakon. Hinder is amazingly hurtful as well.

The best knights are white, (the best ones probably being skyknight legionaire/en-Vec), which makes it extremely difficult to run blue to get him into the graveyard. The touch of red makes it extremely difficult to run Moldervine cloak (the best dredge spell which will also make the knights relevant in combat), and dredging him into the grave is very inconsistant, while pushing deeper into green would make the control elements weaker.

The best bet would be to try to run him with Drekavec and Avatar of Discord, but those aren't exactly good cards, and he's still a terrible topdeck.


But really, ultimately, I just can't really see a deck that runs him that wouldn't just be better running Ghost Dad in his place.

He's a savage game-breaker in sealed, I'm sure, but I can't see him breaking into standard.

[priestblack]

well there are a few cards that i like but the card that really struck me when i saw it was vexing sphinx. cool abilities, not bad art, and overall decent card made him a creature i instantly wanted to find slots for in my decks. runner up would have to be jester's scepter, just because the concept of what it does is really interesting, and lightning serpent because of the AWESOME artwork and great addition to sligh.

[GenericKen]

You know what fascinates me about jester's scepter? The fact that it's actually a pseud-win condition: 5 cards is a lot to mill an opponent, especially for colorless.

[InsanityInc]

By himself, you cannot cast him from your hand, making him a blank in the vanilla case. That's a bigger strike than it sounds like, particularly in a topdecking war.

If you're playing haakon, you're never IN a topdecking war, because you can play your already dead stuff.


Haakon's a vanilla 3/3 in combat. While that's pretty good for a knight, that's just average (or below average nowadays) than most 3 drops. He will be facing down a lot of 4/4s in standard.

He doesn't really need to be in combat. You should be able to play enough supporting, immortal knights that he really doesn't need to do much by himself.


Against removal, 1BB every turn is not cheap, and neither is the life loss. Ichorid is free, and has freaking haste, on top of being uncounterable. What's more, the most common countermagic in standard, remand, absolutely hoses Haakon. Hinder is amazingly hurtful as well.

Hinder is going away, so that's irrelevant. I was forgetting that you play him, so he actually can be countered.


The best knights are white, (the best ones probably being skyknight legionaire/en-Vec), which makes it extremely difficult to run blue to get him into the graveyard. The touch of red makes it extremely difficult to run Moldervine cloak (the best dredge spell which will also make the knights relevant in combat), and dredging him into the grave is very inconsistant, while pushing deeper into green would make the control elements weaker.

Why would you use red or blue? Black has enough ways for you to discard him.


The best bet would be to try to run him with Drekavec and Avatar of Discord, but those aren't exactly good cards, and he's still a terrible topdeck.

Both Drekavac and Avatar of Discord become a whole lot better when they effectively have no drawback.

He's a savage game-breaker in sealed, I'm sure, but I can't see him breaking into standard.

Huh? He's completely unplayable in CS sealed; there's no way to get him into your graveyard.

[aeonz]

For Drekavac you have to discard a Non-Creature card. He doesn't work with Haakon.

[InsanityInc]

Heh, well, I guess that shows how well I know drekavac. I probably wouldn't play with it anyway.

Too bad black doesn't have many knights, or you could probably make it mono black.