Thing in the Ice

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Awoken Horror  Flip

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Legality

Format Legality
1v1 Commander Legal
Archenemy Legal
Arena Legal
Block Constructed Legal
Canadian Highlander Legal
Casual Legal
Commander / EDH Legal
Commander: Rule 0 Legal
Custom Legal
Duel Commander Legal
Gladiator Legal
Highlander Legal
Historic Legal
Historic Brawl Legal
Legacy Legal
Leviathan Legal
Limited Legal
Modern Legal
Modern Beyond Horizons Legal
Oathbreaker Legal
Pioneer Legal
Planar Constructed Legal
Planechase Legal
Quest Magic Legal
Tiny Leaders Legal
Vanguard Legal
Vintage Legal

Thing in the Ice

Creature — Horror

Defender

This enters with four ice counters.

Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell, remove an ice counter from this. Then if there are no ice counters on this, transform this.

Andramalech on Heart of Darkness Challenge - The Horror

2 months ago

Balaam__

  1. EDH traditionally has no sideboard, and any card that references searching outside of the deck fizzles upon resolution, so my playgroup rule zero's that.

  2. I think you make an excellent point about lands like Ancient Ziggurat and Unclaimed Territory, and my favorite.. Three Tree City. That last candidate is awful for flavor purposes, and I intentionally walk that line like a madman above New York on High-Wire.

  3. When it comes down to the Commander I chose, my process for these challenges typically starts with a quick search through Gatherer for potential candidates. I like to filter who I think is most viable based on applicable abilities, synergies, etc. and of course- color identity. Atraxa was pretty much an obvious choice, but I'm disappointed I didn't lean into the "do it for the vine" of it all by choosing a harder candidate. So kamarupa, what do you think? Build a follow-up list with Umbris, Fear Manifest or Yarok, the Desecrated? Both are excellent candidates but I think the less colors we provide access to, the less effective and functional the list stands to be. This considered, my deck is so awful. It could be a lot better, and I want to demonstrate that from a flavor standpoint, and separately a mechanical standpoint. Might be able to demonstrate both within the same build, but I digress.

  4. I want to comment about the MDFCs and the erroneous cards that Balaam__ mentioned. I think that those cards that demonstrate evolution operate on an entendre front, where they represent both change as an evolution as mechanical cards, and both as lore-wise changes. Atraxa is like a Scion of Corruption- so she effectively ruins all that she comes into contact with, it's kind of a beautiful and terrifying tragedy. I found a home for cards like Cloistered Youth  Flip. Showing someone horrified and actually from the realm of Innistrad but thematically fitting that Horrors are encroaching upon the living in these dastardly ways.. it's a chef's kiss kind of alignment. I hope it delivers satisfaction to you as it does to me, because I think that's a thematic win.

  5. I refrained from defending my deck in the slightest because I wanted honest, unbiased feedback and I think that succeeded for you two! Lastly, Thing in the Ice  Flip is the perfect inclusion as it's name is Awoken Horror  Flip, and it effectively acts as a type-focused Cyclonic Rift that would more than likely win me the game on the spot, and that my friends kamarupa and Balaam__, is what we call a Three-Pointer.

Balaam__ on Heart of Darkness Challenge - The Horror

2 months ago

Disclaimer:

I have never played a single game of EDH and am woefully, eminently under qualified to weigh in on whether this is ‘good’ or ‘bad’ from a format playability perspective—but that doesn’t stop me from forcing my opinion into the comment section anyhow.


kamarupa put quite succinctly what my initial thoughts about the challenge were; Horror type creatures really don’t play well together. At least not in traditional 60 card formats, and not in ‘tribal’ type builds. I’ve tinkered with a couple different variations over the years and nothing ever became of them, so I wasn’t quite sure what to expect here in this strange and wondrous format. I think by selecting the specific commander you did, you set yourself up for the best possible start. Atraxa is half an engine in and of itself, and with that one decision you’ve effectively solved the ‘doesn’t play well with others’ dilemma Horror subtype creatures are prone to. I’m curious if that was an obvious choice from the beginning, or if it was one of those delightful ‘Aha!’ moments when you suddenly come across the perfect card. I love those moments.

After that I imagine it was simply a matter of finding the most suitable creatures with the best, most useable/abusable perks and complimenting their strengths/weaknesses with the rest of the supporting spells. The mana base is mostly mathematics and it looks quite nice from the outside. A couple lands I expected to see didn’t make your list—I have no way of knowing if it’s due to them being outclassed in the format, a ban, or if they were simply overlooked, but I was surprised to find Ancient Ziggurat and Unclaimed Territory absent given the fact they can both pay for any creature no matter the color. They’re less useful when it comes to extraneous spells, true, but the deck is creature heavy. Just a thought; if they’re terrible in EDH for some reason do let me know why.

As an aside—no sideboard? Is that even a thing in Commander? I’m so used to building in 60card formats, when I don’t see the little demarcation line at the bottom of the card list separating the mainboard from the sideboard it looks unfinished to me, ha.

Final thoughts: As I said, I have no clue what’s ‘good’ in the format and what isn’t. I have no idea how well this holds up to typical EDH decks (is there a ‘typical’?) or even what a path to improvement might look like. There is no point in me giving a numerical or letter grade to this, but I will say it is pretty much exactly what I so desperately wanted to build in Legacy/Modern but never even came close to assembling. It looks like a blast to play, with no two games ever playing out similar enough to become boring or routine. I think the only thing I don’t like is that you have a number of ‘flip’ cards, like Thing in the Ice  Flip—those are such a pain to play with when one sleeves their cards XD

Brecche on $5 Izzet Drakes

1 year ago

5dollarMTG I'm having a blast playing this deck, super fun. i put Delver of Secrets  Flip instead of Pteramander for a little bit more early pressure, and Thing in the Ice  Flip as a side.

UltimateRoxas40 on Endless Evil and Transforming Cards …

1 year ago

I think this works, but I wanted to get a more general consensus.

Step one would be to have Thing in the Ice  Flip in play, and enchant it with Endless Evil.

Step two would be to wait for my next upkeep, where I create a 1/1 token copy of Thing in the Ice  Flip. It would enter with the four Ice counters, since the 'create a token' is technically ETB (?).

Step three would be to play enough instances/sorceries to remove the Ice counters, causing them to transform. Since the rules changed with March of the Machine, tokens can transform if they are able/copying a permanent that can transform.

Step four would be to have a growing number of Thing in the Ice  Flip/Awoken Horror  Flip's? And they would 'regain' their proper power/toughness, since only the one side was designated as a 1/1?

Is my reasoning correct for this? I think it is, but I'm not a judge haha.

Balaam__ on Oh, the HORROR! - Fling in the Ice

1 year ago

This is true. Maybe the answer was right in front of us the whole time: Spellskite. Upping it to 4x puts a decent linebacker on the field, which won’t be bolted, which will redirect the majority of pivotal mid- to late game plays to itself, and most importantly it won’t be returned to your hand when Thing in the Ice  Flip is flipped. The only play that might realistically sidestep it would be a boardwipe. It’d be a magnet for removal though so I’d definitely hang onto it until just before I felt confident in trying to go for the win.

Balaam__ on Oh, the HORROR! - Fling in the Ice

1 year ago

Great list. I wonder though, would something simpler like Mana Leak be a better Counterspell than Force of Negation? It’s not as good, true, but there are 16 blue cards, less than a third of your total count—less still when you consider that you don’t want to be exiling Thing in the Ice  Flip if at all possible. It would also drastically reduce the total cost if it were replaced.

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