|
|
 |
|
Pojo's Magic The Gathering
Card of the Day
|
Image from Wizards.com |
|
Thawing Glaciers
Alliances Rare
Reviewed June 28, 2004
Constructed: 4.1
Casual: 3.4
Limited: 3.8
Ratings are
based on a 1 to 5 scale
1 being the worst. 3 ...
average.
5 is the highest rating
Click here to see all
our
Card of the Day Reviews
|
|
Chris
Gerhardt
*
game store owner in CA,
ShuffleAndCut |
Thawing Glaciers is great because it gets you the
land and color you need, plus it thins your deck.
For those of you that are unsure of why thinning
your deck is a good thing, let me explain.
As you pull lands out of your deck with Glaciers,
you are left with a higher percentage of quality
(non-land) draws. So each time you pull out
a land, you have a greater chance that the next
card you draw will be a spell you can use.
All of us have been in a critical situation where
the next card we draw MUST be a creature or spell
to save us, only to draw a useless land. Bleh.
So now ya know.
Glaciers was great
back in the day, and it would be an amazing card
today, especially considering the Sunburst factor.
You would find it in any limited deck I could put
it into, and it's actually a great casual play
too.
Constructed:
4
Casual: 3.5
Limited: 4
Current Price:
Thawing
Glaciers -
Alliances - $7
Combos
Well With:
High Tide -
Fallen Empires - $0.79
|
|
Judge
Bill
*Level 2
MTG Judge
*game store employee
|
Thawing Glaciers
Welcome to land
week. Today we start off with a land that has
seen much play in its life. This was probably
one of the inspirations for Wayfarer's Bauble.
Note the new Oracle
wording (changed several years ago, due to the
"new" Sixth Edition rules):
Thawing Glaciers
Land
Thawing Glaciers comes into play tapped.
{1}, {T}: Search your library for a basic land
card and put that card into play tapped. Then
shuffle your library. If it's the end phase,
return Thawing Glaciers to its owner's hand.
Otherwise, return Thawing Glaciers to its
owner's hand at end of turn.
Before the wording
was changed, you could activate it in your
opponent's end step, and since the time for "at
end of turn" effects had already passed, you
could untap and use it again before you had to
return it to your hand.
(The change was made
right before an Extended PT [right before
meaning within a week or two] [Extended at that
time included everything from The Dark forward],
and it made a lot of pros mad, as it completely
changed their decks, since the loophole was no
longer valid.)
Enough of the story
time.
This card is still
very good in type 1.5 control decks, as it helps
thin your deck of lands, ensuring you draw
spells instead (read: Counterspells).
Type 1 is probably
too fast for this card.
It is banned in
block constructed.
I'd love to have
this in an ALIce (Ice Age/Alliances) sealed
deck. It'd help me get to my spells faster, and
lessen dead draws.
This probably isn't
"flashy enough" for most casual players, but it
would still go good in their decks, to
accelerate to their big spells, and to provide
color smoothing.
Constructed: 3.5
Casual: 3.5
Limited: 4
|
Jonathan
Pechon
2 Grand
Prix Top 8's
Multiple Pro Tour
appearances |
Thawing Glaciers
Whether you were
abusing this card with all the “Untap X land”
cards from Saga-block or just using this to thin
out your deck while you built an army up with
Kjeldoran Outpost, this represents one of the most
powerful cards in Magic that has simply fallen by
the wayside due to the increased level of power of
the game in general. The two decks I listed
above, High Tide and Counterpost, probably
represent the peaks of power in which this card
was best represented.
I’d really
recommend this card to any casual gamers who wants
to be able to make sure his five-color fun deck is
going to have the right land at the right time.
While this isn’t playable in Mental, it’s still
something that most people should have for their
decks.
Alliances drafts seem
so long ago…and yet, this is still a ridiculously
powerful card in a format that doesn’t seem to
have been terribly fast. I’d probably have
first-picked this both for the rare-value as well
as for the playability.
Constructed: 4.0
Casual: 3.0
Limited: 4.5
|
Ray
"Monk"
Powers
* Level 3 DCI Judge
*DCI Tournament Organizer |
Thawing Glaciers:
This is one of those
long-term cards. If your deck is in it for the
long game, this card is the card for you. If you
plan on wining or losing by turn five, this card
is not very useful. But over the course of many
turns, this deck effectively draws you cards while
simultaneously reducing the land count in your
deck. While its true that every card you “draw” is
a land, in a long game deck, this is great. You
never want to miss a land drop, and with this card
you won’t.
Constructed:
4
Casual:
3
Limited:
3
|
|
DeQuan
Watson
* game store owner (The Game Closet - Waco,TX) |
This is one of the
all time greats that most of the new players
don't get to here about. Just being able to get
land after land out of your deck was simply
amazing. You didn't miss land drops hardly
ever. Control decks loved this card.
I think that most
casual players will stay away from this card,
regardless of how good it is. There are so many
more cards for getting land into play, that this
may prove too slow for most casual games.
However, it's still worth a look. In limited
play, I would imagine that it would still be
useful. However, I couldn't see myself wasting
one of my top three picks on it.
Constructed: 4.5
Casual: 2.5
Limited: 2.5
|
|
Andy
Van Zandt |
Thawing Glaciers
A staple control card for a long time, it thins
the deck and fixes mana, is
cheap and virtually uncounterable... very solid.
would probably still see
play today in extended/t2/block if it was legal.
constructed 4.5
casual 4
limited 4
|
|
Chase
Secret Squirrel
on the
Pojo.com
Message
Boards |
Thawing Glaciers
This week must be lands that do strange things...
errr... maybe just somethings you don’t see
everyday.You
are no longer mana screwed. An all around good
card. Accelerates your mana base eventually, a
little slow at first, but it all adds up. Enough
to get banned I suppose. Combos with anything
else that can accelerate your mana for the turn,
High Tide.
I suppose good in
limited too.. If you ever get the chance to play
IA limited.
Constructed: 4
Casual: 4
Limited: 4
|
w00t |
Thawing Glaciers -
Constructed - A sort
of Onslaught Sac land, that can get you any
color land you want. Plus it keeps coming back,
for more opportunitys to get land. Combo this
with Urzas free spells, and you can untap it,
for multiple lands each turn. Think of the mana
you can have! I wasn't around in the times of
this, but I've heard the horror stories ;).
Casual - Lets see.
In later/Mid game, you can combine this with
Early Harvest to pull off a Mind's Desire kill.
Or just use it to hardcast a Darksteel Collossus.
Use it with Krosan Restorer to get twice the new
mana, to finish off with later. Lots of uses of
untapping, to make this land a beast.
Constructed - 4.0
Casual 3.5
Limited - N/A
|
|
