It's a 1/1 for 3 mana. And it turns your snow
lands into 2/2 fliers. A steady supply of 2/2
fliers is always difficult to stop, but
animating lands has always been a good way to
tie up your mana or get your lands destroyed.
And snow lands are hard to come by in Limited,
which is where a sky full of 2/2's has the most
impact. I'd say this is ninth pick in draft at
best, if you're going snow.
Some snow-based cards in Coldsnap are excellent
because they'll make use of whatever little snow
you have available and still be strong. Such a
card is Phyrexian Ironfoot. The Frostwaker
depends on you having a lot of snow lands and to
a lesser degree on your willingness to lose
those snow lands. I've seen these played in
draft, but seemingly only as a 23rd card. 1/1s
for 3 should be a bit stronger than this to have
any real consideration.
This guy could have a place in constructed, but
not right now. The format is so agro heavy that
a little guy like this will get crushed. I do
think that when Kamigawa cycles out, this will
be popping up in blue snow control decks as a
kind of replacement to Meloku. This is smaller
than Meloku, but he makes bigger lands. He also
doesn’t bounce the lands, which is a good
news/bad news scenario. You can still tap them
for mana, but you can’t save them from a LD
spell.
In casual, who cares? Living land decks in
casual are all green
In limited, this guy can be good or bad. If
you’re in blue, and you are picking up snow
lands, pick this highly. I wouldn’t splash blue
just for this, though. He makes evasive 2/2s,
which is great, but this guy is vulnerable to
every single removal spell in Coldsnap.
