New set coming in Summer 2006

[TheStu]

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgcom/arcana/933

Straight from MTG.com itself.

I am super excited for this, will they continue with the mechanics found in that block, like the pitch cards? Will we see snow covered lands once again? Could any of this break Type 1 if it has cards comprable to the power level of IA and AL?

[Machinus]

Yeah, this is pretty incredible (too bad it won't be on the old card face). Time to scour Ice Age and Alliances for unfinished cycles.

[Matt]

I had no idea such a "lost" set was ever even planned.

[Moxlotus]

I am interested in the flavor behind it.  Alliances ended with Jaya Ballard becoming a Planeswalker.  Jodah, Archmage Eternal of the School of the Unseen (which is getting flooded) just found Urza who is making his spiders (the novel Planeswalker) and told him the story of his life.  Lim-dul/Marsail is gone.

The next set in the timeline is Mirage, which is much later.

I really have no idea what the storyline will be.  Maybe that crazy guy Zur might show up.

Sorry, no actual game-related stuff in this post.

[Tha Gunslinga]

I had no idea such a "lost" set was ever even planned.

I've never heard anything of it, though it makes a bit of sense, seeing as Homelands has nothing at all to do with Ice Age, whereas Alliances obviously does.  I really hope they don't make it an MTGO-only release.

[BigMac]

Perhaps the set is set between IA and AL in the timeline of magic. That way it can have all the snowy goodies of a normal Ice Age.

I am excited though.

[Necrologia]

I really have no idea what the storyline will be.  Maybe that crazy guy Zur might show up.

I'm fairly certain that Zur had already been killed before before Alliances. He is featured on no flavor text past Ice Age. To the best of my memory, Zur led a revolt against Kjeldor with his pseudo-cultist followers, which was quickly and harshly put down by the Kjeldor military. I can't find any flavor text on this, so it's possible it's simply from one of the books.

Interestingly enough, Cold Snap is already a card, so at the least we get another card/set pair for random Magic Trivia. I'm liking this set already. 

[jcb193]

I'm guessing this is a set they are using to help bolster Legacy/Vintage without messing up standard.

- When Ice Age was created, they didnt do cycles.
- They can give cards to Legacy (dual lands, FoW, STP, etc) without having to give them to standard and draft
- They said it was tournament legal, but not what tournaments
- Rosewater always talks about how many keywords, cards, cycles, mechanics they never do use
- I doubt they had a file sitting around of a lost set.  

I think it will be readily apparent how true this is, as the flavor of the cards will quickly tell how old this set is.  Ice Age was not very powerful (prepare to cry fans of Green).

That said, I'm excited if this really does have an old feel to it (though Coldcast doesn't seem to fit with old style names)

[xrizzo]

I'm guessing this is a set they are using to help bolster Legacy/Vintage without messing up standard.

I don't want to get ahead of myself, so I will wait until Wednesday's article, but holy crap!  This could be amazing!  They haven't ever been able to explicitly design for vintage or legacy so I bet they will be rusty, but this could be one of the coolest ways to inject new cards into T1 in forever!

I hope this set turns out to be what I envision it could be...

[Hi-Val]

This can be one of two things:

-They buried the set after Homelands sucked up the planet Earth because they were afraid of this one sucking as well. They released Alliances to pull back fans of the game.

-They are pulling all of this out of their ass and trying to use this as a way of designing other cards while pulling wool over people's eyes.

I lean towards the second. Will this set be governed by the Reserved List?

[Bardo]

Wow, this is really amazing news. I know the set is pretty sucky, but I loved Ice Ages. I remember walking through the mall after buying some booster packs and pulling out a Jester's Cap and thinking: "Holy shit! What is this?!" These were the days before MTGNews/Salvation and there were a lot more surprises, which the Internet has made obsolete.

- When Ice Age was created, they didnt do cycles.

Cycles go all the way back to the 'boon cycle' in Alpha (Giant Growth, Dark Ritual, Lightning Bolt, Healing Salve, and the worst of them all, Ancestral Recall ) And you can find them, in one form or another, in every set since. Design and set continuity demand them.

- They can give cards to Legacy (dual lands, FoW, STP, etc) without having to give them to standard and draft

Dual Lands, Force and StP were already printed in the first two sets of that blocks: the duals (Adarkar Wastes, Sulfurous Springs, etc.) and StP in Ice Age and Force of Will in Alliances; and I can't imagine they'll reprint cards within the same block.

- Rosewater always talks about how many keywords, cards, cycles, mechanics they never do use

Rosewater just says there's a surplus (and there no doubt is), so people will get off his case that MtG is out of ideas.   And a lot of their "unused" mechanics are crap.

- I doubt they had a file sitting around of a lost set. 

Stranger things have been known to happen, but I agree. Fishy indeed.

[Dozer]

Here are my guesses, posted on the MTG.com boards, trying to find some logic in "Coldsnap":

From the frozen vaults deep below Wizards of the Coast, Coldsnap, the legendary Lost Third Set of the Ice Age Block is coming out at last.

This sounds much like the third set was almost readily made, but not released. What I expect is the following:

- Coldsnap will be legal in the same sets Ice Age Block is legal (Vintage, Legacy, Ice Age Block). No Standard, no Extended. Why? Because it would break the Standard routine too much. The "extra" set last year (Unhinged) wasn't Standard-legal either, was it? But mostly, adding an expansion from the past to Standard would also be at cross-purposes with Rosewater's proclaimed concept that blocks should interlock to form a more cohesive Standard.

- Coldsnap will have the old cardface. I expect it to fit seamlessly into the old block, except for the templating, which will be modern. The old cardface will be the big selling point of this expansion, I guess. It's only logical to have a product that appeals to Legacy players if WotC wants to further push the format. If you have new cards but can only play it in old formats, it's a big incentive to actually play that format.

- Coldsnap is not the real name. "Snap" is the codename for the next set after Ravnica Block, and "Cold" points to Ice Age. The set will come out after Ravnica block is finished, before Snap, so it is the "cold (Ice Age oriented) Snap". Also, "Coldsnap" does not fit with "Ice Age" and "Alliances". Ice Age, Alliances, Coldsnap? No way. If Coldsnap was the real name, we'd have seen a rendered logo in the Arcana that announced it, not just the italicized "Coldsnap".

- Reprints of Force of Will, Swords to Plowshares or any other card from Ice Age or Alliances will not happen. No third block has ever reprinted cards from the first two preceding expansions.

- Reprints from Arabian Nights, Antiquities or Legends are possible. I am in particular thinking about Legacy/ Vintage cards like Old Man of the Sea, staples that are rare but are often used. The Legend enchantments (Moat/ Abyss) might be candidates as well, but I am not sure if WotC would actually do this. But if they can fit the flavor in, it's possible. I don't think Coldsnap will be "Chronicles II", though.

- Release events are likely to feature an Ice Age tournament pack (those were 60 cards) and a couple of Coldsnap boosters. My guess is four to make up for the 15 less cards in IA tournament packs. Also, this mixes more new cards into the event.

- Coldsnap will not be an MTGO-only expansion, but probably come to MTGO before Ice Age itself, Visions and Weatherlight do.

These are my guesses.

Dozer

[Bardo]

The Legend enchantments (Moat/ Abyss) might be candidates as well, but I am not sure if WotC would actually do this. But if they can fit the flavor in, it's possible.

The Reserved List will keep Moat and friends from being reprinted. Also, wasn't the Reserved List in place when IA was in print? (I think so, but I'm not positive.) That would have precluded the inclusion of the rare Legends cards even if the set was printed in 1996.

But I think your other points are spot on Dozer.

[Revvik]

now for one of the more important questions: foils or no? 

[Smmenen]

yuas!

[sampling_percus]

Would an ice age block prerelease nessecitate, the release of more alliance boosters and therefore more force of wills?

[Bardo]

Would an ice age block prerelease nessecitate, the release of more alliance boosters and therefore more force of wills?

It seems really awkward, but that would be a clever way to get more Forces into circulation.

If only WotC could find some "lost Revised 'expansion'" (like Summer magic) to reprint the original duals. 

[PacmanXSA]

I see this as an attempt to boost the Legacy format and really nothing else.  Obviously, there could be some spill off for us good ol' Vintage players, however I'm still very much skeptical. 

I guess we'll see tomorrow baby

*Prays for a new Stax card*

Pac

[Moxlotus]

I bet it will still have the new cardface.  Why would they change their software and templating equipment or whatever they need back just for one set?

[neppy]

I agree it will be on the new cardface.  Printing it on the old cardface is just way too much trouble.  I also think it will be legal in standard because thats too much of a market to skip, routines be damned. 

They will also probably look at sales as a way to gauge whether they want to change from 3 sets/year to 4/year.

[Magi]

I hope they advance the Ice Age storyline even more.

I wanna see Jaya kick some ass as a planeswalker!

It would be nice to hear what happened to Jodah as well, after his meeting with Urza.

Regarding Zur: I think he wasn't even mentioned in the novels. He might be one of those generic legends made for card purposes. If he was mentioned, it must have been for some really small "cameo".

[Necrologia]

Regarding Zur: I think he wasn't even mentioned in the novels. He might be one of those generic legends made for card purposes. If he was mentioned, it must have been for some really small "cameo".

Like I said, Zur was stopped extremely quickly. I think in one of the books a few random Sky Knights are talking, and one of them says how they'll put down Lim-Dul even faster than Zur and his pathetic excuse for a revolt. It was no more than that, so I guess that would fall under the category of "cameo."

When writting the books, they treated the Dark as the first book in the Ice Age cycle which seemed to work rather well. Both the Dark and Ice Age focus on rough times to be alive. The internal conflict, rather than worrying about invasion from Phyrexia, is what made those blocks so interesting. Hopefully they'll manage to keep that flavor alive in this new set.

[Bulls on Parade]

Damn, they could have done great things if they made this set legal only where Ice Age is legal (Vintage and Legacy). Oh well, I'm sure it will still be fucking cool as long as there's some old art kicking around too.

[Necrologia]

Since this is the third set of the Ice Age block, of course, the theme decks will include a few cards from the first two sets of the block.

While the set will be Standard legal, the random cards from Ice Age and Alliances won't be. It seems reprinted Force of Wills and Swords to Plowshares aren't out of the question just yet.

[Ephraim]

There's still the possibility that they'll re-release Force of Will. They intend to create theme decks that will contain Ice Age and Alliances cards, although those cards that aren't from Coldsnap will not be Standard legal. If they choose a terrible rare for one of the theme decks, they could sneak Force of Will in as an uncommon (or just make it one of the rares) and distribute it that way. Of course, I'm sure people would still snap up the theme decks in bulk and the secondary market would hardly notice the price decrease on the card.

Still, this looks very exciting. I'm really interested to see if they'll use this as an opportunity to design/develop anachronistically. Ice Age was a time when Tim was still blue (Zuran Spellcaster) and white was the master of removal (Swords to Plowshares, Disenchant). It would be cool if they actually develop the set as it may have been developed at that time. This makes me glad that I have about a dozen copies of Kjeldoran Skyknight sitting in my boxes somewhere. I loved that card.

[The Atog Lord]

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgcom/feature/291

So, this will be legal for Type 2, though not part of a normal block.

Interestingly, they will make pre-cons involving cards from Ice Age and Alliances alongside this. The cards from Ice Age and Alliances won't be legal for Type Two.

This, of course, opens the door to reprinting FoW without it going into Type Two.

[Bardo]

Wow. This is all so ballsy and brilliant.

It was in the Ice Age days when Mana Draining into a third turn Mahamoti Djinn was actually a respectable play. Ah, to be young and innocent.

[Polynomial P]

I wonder if the art on these cards will be more like that of Ice age and Alliances or the newer art. It would be a great chance for Wizards to bring back some of our "old" favorite artists.

[Lunar]

I dunno...if they re-print force of will in one of the theme decks that deck will probably be the only one that sells and it will sell sooooo much so fast that at some point I could see the market just dropping out on them...which would be bad (I see the same thing happening with ravnica right now...soo popular that the rares are starting to show up more like uncommons right now...at some point there will be so damn many of the rares from rav that they cannot possibly hold up their value over time....just the trend im starting to see happen, its part of the reason that birds of paradise have crashed so bad lately (at least around here anyways)

Id just hate to see them ruin something sacred like force of will....id much rather they re-release force as a special promo at some point instead like gemstone mine or balance or whatever....but hey thats just me.

[Matt]

I dunno...if they re-print force of will in one of the theme decks that deck will probably be the only one that sells and it will sell sooooo much so fast that at some point I could see the market just dropping out on them...which would be bad (I see the same thing happening with ravnica right now...soo popular that the rares are starting to show up more like uncommons right now...at some point there will be so damn many of the rares from rav that they cannot possibly hold up their value over time....just the trend im starting to see happen, its part of the reason that birds of paradise have crashed so bad lately (at least around here anyways)

Id just hate to see them ruin something sacred like force of will....id much rather they re-release force as a special promo at some point instead like gemstone mine or balance or whatever....but hey thats just me.

All I have to say is: get over it. Lower card prices are incredibly good for players. I would MUCH rather have $10 Birds than $20 Pithing Needle. $20 for a Standard-legal rare is horrendous, and that price is so high just because no one wants to open the godawful Saviors packs.

There's nothing "sacred" about Force of Will or any other card.