Frozen Domain of the Ice Barrier – #BLTR-EN008
Your opponent cannot activate cards or effects in response to the activation of your “Ice Barrier” monster effects. If a monster(s) is Special Summoned from the Extra Deck (except during the Damage Step): You can return to the hand or shuffle into the Deck, 1 “Ice Barrier” monster you control, then you can place 1 card from the field or either GY on the bottom of the Deck. You can only use this effect of “Frozen Domain of the Ice Barrier” once per turn. Once per turn, during your End Phase: Reveal 3 “Ice Barrier” monsters with different names in your Extra Deck or destroy this card.
Date Reviewed: July 24th, 2024
Rating: 3.00
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is awful. 3 is average. 5 is excellent.
Reviews Below:
King of
Lullaby
Hello Pojo Fans,
Frozen Domain of the Ice Barrier is a new Continuous Trap for Ice Barriers to counter their opponent.
Prevents your opponent from responding to Ice Barrier monster effects is a big deal. Special Summoning and searching to get your Synchro Summons going is the main goal of this archetype and they don’t have too much power behind them to keep playing through negation. Preventing your opponent from responding, especially for free in the form of this card makes up for it being a Continuous Trap and not a Continuous Spell.
Placing a card from the field or grave to the bottom of the Deck that belongs to either player in response to an Extra Deck summon on either side of the field is a balanced way of stopping your opponent while still being fair to them because of the lack of negation or destruction this card has. You can trigger this with your own Extra Deck summons and you need to pop back or shuffle back an Ice Barrier monster of your own to use this card’s effect, but that can be a benefit. You can rescue your Synchro Monster from an effect while also dealing with that Extra Deck monster you are responding to, or, you can pop back to the hand something like Mirror Mage to use again while getting rid of something on the field that belongs to your opponent. The catch is that you have to have three or more Ice Barrier monsters with different names in the Extra Deck during your End Phase. You are likely to run multiple copies of the ones that allow for such a thing, but that also means keeping a count to make sure Frozen Domain is always online.
The card lacks internal protection, but grants protection against Ice Barrier monster negation. It grants you the ability to counter opponent Extra Deck summon(s) while also being offensive with your own Extra Deck summons. It is balanced, requiring you to bounce an Ice Barrier monster to get rid of something, and it has a restriction that you need three different Ice Barrier monsters in your Extra Deck during your End Phase to keep it going…sounds like a balanced card through and through.
Advanced- 3.5/5 Art- 3.5/5
Until Next Time,
KingofLullaby
Crunch$G
Ice Barriers finally have their own Trap (since Ice Barrier itself was an Alexis card from the GX manga): Frozen Domain of the Ice Barrier.
Frozen Domain is a Continuous Trap that prevents the opponent from using cards or effects in response to the activation of your Ice Barrier monster effects. It helps guarantee your effects resolve, which is nice, but this also means it doesn’t give the new Synchro this protection since it isn’t an Ice Barrier by name. At least you should be able to get to it with no real hassle. If a monster(s) is Special Summoned from the Extra Deck, you can return to the hand or shuffle into the Deck an Ice Barrier monster you control to place a card on the field or in either graveyard to the bottom of the Deck. It sounds like nice removal, though the trigger is pretty specific and you do have to get rid of a body on board, which will most likely go back to the hand unless you want to summon it from Deck with Lancea. Hard once per turn on that effect as the last one is a soft once per turn during the End Phase, being the cost of having to reveal 3 Ice Barrier monsters with different names in the Extra Deck, otherwise this is destroyed. Honestly, I don’t see Ice Barriers playing much of their own Synchros anymore besides both Trishulas. If Lancea was an Ice Barrier, that’d be your third name, otherwise you got to go with Brionac, Gungnir, or Dewloren for your third name, which I guess Brio and Gungnir aren’t that bad. Frozen Domain’s protection effect isn’t too great on a Trap since you can’t get it Turn 1 without running some weird cards, the removal does sound nice, but specific to trigger, and the cost to keep it on board is what kills the card when most players are only using 2 different Ice Barrier names for Synchros. Honestly, it feels like a pass, though I guess you can get away with it if you do choose to run the 3rd name needed.
Advanced Rating: 2.25/5
Art: 5/5 Man, that artwork is something else.
Mighty
Vee
Frozen Domain of the Ice Barrier continues our lineup, a Continuous Trap you can search with Mirror Mage of the Ice Barrier or General Wayne of the Ice Barrier if you can field it somehow. While it’s active, Frozen Domain will prevent your opponent from responding to your Ice Barrier monster effect activations. While this is classically an amazing effect, it’s much less useful on a Continuous Trap you can’t activate immediately, so you can’t insulate your combos from Hand Traps– arguably the best perk of this kind of effect. Still, it fortunately isn’t Frozen Domain’s only effect, as it also has a hard once per turn effect that triggers when any monster is Special Summoned from the Extra Deck. It’ll let you return one of your Ice Barrier monsters to your hand or shuffle it into the deck to place any card on the field or in the Graveyard on the bottom of its owner’s deck. Non-targeting removal is always fantastic, and placing anything in the deck is one step removed from face-down banishing in terms of permanence. Notably, Ice Barrier endboards are quite weak to boardbreakers like Dark Ruler No More and Forbidden Droplet, so Frozen Domain is excellent for letting you have at least one disruption, though you’ll have to wait for your opponent to trigger it instead of activating it yourself (hint hint). Frozen Domain’s last effect is an upkeep restriction, forcing you to reveal three Ice Barrier monsters with different names in your Extra Deck during the End Phase or destroy it. This restriction is pretty weird since I don’t think the card is broken enough to justify it, though it’s a simple matter of just running a few Ice Barrier jobbers in the Extra Deck if you want to play this card. In a vacuum, Frozen Domain is a good card, though its main issue is being stuck as a Continuous Trap, so you can’t fully reap the benefits of its protection. Additionally, many of your Ice Barrier combo lines would rather use their search on extenders as backup plans for being disrupted, and Frozen Domain won’t help much if your board is pitiful anyway. I couldn’t find any topping decks that played it at all, though if you find yourself in a meta where DRNM and Droplet are plentiful, it’s a decent tech.
+Strong disruption that helps shore up the deck’s weakness to monster-based boardbreakers
+Activation protection can cheese decks that rely on reactive disruption
-Odd upkeep cost makes you run a large number of Ice Barriers in the Extra Deck
-Low priority to search compared to extenders
Advanced: 3.25/5
Art: 3/5 Prior is…alone!
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