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As wise as the brothers Urza and Mishra were, they had to have known the price that was to be paid for their epic battle. Who really won? I’ve heard tales that Urza’s side claims victory, but look at this desolate landscape around me. I can’t tell you who won, but I can surely tell who did not win. Us. Ever since the battle ceased to be waged, the planet had slowly been healing itself from its ravages. While the climate cooled, the empires struggled to find food. They fought with one another, even with themselves, all in the hopes of living out a miserable existence. The struggle didn’t last all that long. As quickly as those very empires fell, so too did the snow fall. With the falling snow came the falling temperatures. The loss of life was immeasurable, comparable to the count of deaths following the Great Brother’s War. Now, snow drifts completely engulf forests. The ocean froze as fast as a pond did. The landscape has become even more barren; it is white as far as the eye can see. Our research shows that this was the final straw. The world itself revolted against the Brothers and the resulting people. The planet itself would reset the balance; the Ice Age would be that restoration. While completely covered with snow, the landscape was barren, yet finally peaceful. There were no wars, for it was too cold to fight; your flesh would freeze outdoors. The snow covered all the battlefields, graves, temples, palaces, and everything that resembles civilization. All of the accumulated knowledge was buried under mountains of snow. After many years, the polar caps began to recede. Where everyone hid to survive the worst of times has been lost, but these people began to come out. Gone were the civilized empires and cultures. They more resembled tribes of people. As is always the way with humans, they returned to what they knew best… war. From the mountains, the Balduvians were quick to engage the Kjeldorians of the snowy plains. Out of the dark places came the Order of Stromgald, who also took to arms against the Kjeldorians. In the frozen forests came tribes of ape-like men and the elves to protect the forests, even though the forest barely protected them from the falling snow. All the while, we Soldevi began to discover the ancient artifacts buried deep and long, in our ground, the snow… Alliances coming gave birth to Magic as we know it today. The game used to be centered around creature combat. It was more important to play artifact removal than it was creature removal. After all, that is what my creatures are for, killing yours.
Alliances introduced good creature destruction spells in Pyrokinesis, Guerrilla Tactics, and Contagion. In addition were the non-basic lands that would redefine what a non-basic land should be. Gone were the City of Shadows and Sorrow’s Path, and in were the Lake of the Dead and Kjeldorian Outpost.
These types of cards brought new potential to creature and now non-creature decks. To give the newer player a feel of the Ice Age Block (IAB) back then, I thought about trying to compare it to a block that some of you might have experienced. The best one that I could think of was the Odyessy Block (OB). We were exposed to new concepts in Ice Age, Cumlative Upkeep, Snow-Covered Lands, etc., just as Odyessy showed us to play with the graveyard, which had not been used before. Just as Torment came in and shifted everything around for the OB, Alliances came in and tossed in new mechanics and added strength to Blue. Also, remember how Judgement balanced out the scales, and provided answers to the overly powerful Black spells, well... hrmm, for some reason I can't seem to remember what happened at the end of the IAB. (More on this later.) Color Analysis
Speaking of White, the first creature with an evasion ability of get-the-heck-out-of-the-bus’s-way was born in Blinking Spirit. Ice Age gifted White counterpart Knights, but they were over powered by the speed in which Black could produce them. The Seraph was also given, who was termed to be Serra’s big sister, but in reality became Serra’s distant cousin. To White also came a spell named Reprisal, which was called ‘Kill Ernie.’ It would have been a most helpful spell, if the threat of that day didn’t say on it ‘Protection from White.’ Along with Reprisal came the replacement for Swords to Plowshares, called Exile (see note about Reprisal). Honorable mention to Enduring Renewal which has fueled many a combo deck with infinite mana.
When thinking about Dystopia, I am reminded not only of how it single card-edly destroyed White, but also Green, simultaneously sometimes. The problem Green had was not one of its own making. Imagine if you will, you’re standing there, ready to fight your most hated nemesis, and he suddenly stands up straight and points past your head, indicating to you to turn and look. What do you do? Do you turn, and get stabbed by your enemy? Or do you get eaten by the big Black Dragon behind you because you didn’t turn around and then get out of its way? See, Green was designed to fight with Blue in this block. It has a few cards that are anti-Black, but for the most part, it was facing Blue Mage, and didn’t see the big, Black Dragon behind it, and so it was eaten. Again, offering honorable mentions for the color would go to: Deadly Insect, Lhurgoyf, Pygmy Allosaurus (for actually being able to damage a Black Mage, and for being a dinosaur still alive in the Ice Age), and Stunted Growth. Lastly, props to Green for offering one mana to the casting cost of Stormbind and Tinder Wall, then getting out of the way again, and no props to you for giving Green mana to Phelddagrif and Storm Spirit (since it is also White).
Lastly, we come to Red. Red was actually a very formidable option in this time. Before this block, only Lightning Bolt was Red’s real removal. However, when Ice Age entered the arena, it was complimented with Incinerate, Pyroclasm, and two Fireball effect X spells: Lava Burst and Meteor Shower. Also, Red gained the attitude it has today, ‘Stop or I will blow up the board’ with Jokulhaups. Alliances then presented Guerrilla Tactics and Pyrokinesis. The problem Red had was that its ally, Black, was too strong. Red could keep Black’s creatures at bay with its direct damage / removal, but that was it. It took every bit of effort to do this, and eventually, it would run out of steam and be slain by a Pump Knight (Knight of Stromgald).
An order of strength of colors in this day and age would be: Black, Red, White, Blue, then Green. By the end of the block, Blue would surpass White and Red, not because the colors changed, but because of players learning to metagame, and figuring out what made the Black deck tick. Then… apparently we were snubbed. Bamboozled! Hoodwinked! Snatched away from us was the balancing set that we desperately needed. Green could not remain the sissy little brother for three sets could it? The ice was just thawing, nature should be ready to return with vengeance right? The storms were crackling as a new spring arrived. The lighting would illuminate the dark night we were stuck in right? Wrong. In a move that still enrages me, a player who didn’t know I was stolen from until ten years later, we were all had. Instead of the forthcoming set that would revert the system to some semblance of order, we endure a commercial break. We are introduced to a set of action figures.
Hi Autumn!, Hey there Baron! What’s going on Ishan! How are you doing today Eron? Common opinion of this set, Homelands, was that it was simply the worst set ever created. It had no flow with Ice Age, and rightly so, since it was on an entirely different plane. It had a completely new storyline, a new set of characters, and a poor job of creating a real reason of why we, as Players, should buy this set, since only Autumn Willow and Ishan’s Shade were any good. Ah HA! They got us good. But don’t worry guys, because we did a really good job forgetting all about the debacle. No one wants to remember Homelands. No one wants to remember the crap we had to endure. But lets think about the possibilities. What could have been if… Dictionary.com tells us that a Cold Snap is ‘a short period of unusually cold weather.’ This would tell me that following the thawing of the glaciers, a new freeze sweeps through. This would sound bad for Green. Leaves don’t grow very well when water is frozen. Elves are not very graceful when slipping across the ice. However, trying to think along the lines that this should be the set that balances the power, Green should get stronger. So perhaps when it gets cold again, the humans don’t do very well in the freezing conditions, but the furry beasts of the land thrive! Cards along the lines of Might of Oaks and Overrun come to mind. Also, perhaps the freezing makes the flow of magma recede, causing Red’s strength to fade, and then having to rely on the strength of their Goblin Ski Patrol. Or even more so, Red is also known for its beasts, so perhaps the mountainous beasts strengthen too, or maybe just become more courageous and come out in hordes.
The easiest story that could be is the typical evil story. ‘Just when the Evil Empire was at its climax, the number two man, strikes down the leader, and then a civil war breaks out, man on man, thrull on thrull, minion on minion.’ However, knowing how the makers of the game worked back then a little bit, Black most likely would have read the script ahead of time and cheated to win. They would not have laid down and gotten their just deserves from a Green and White alliance (see Judgment story line). They would have just given Black another two or three discarding creatures, a fist full of creature removal, and a select neat enchantment or sorcery for a flashy pop. See, back then, it wasn’t about balance, as we have today for the most part. It was about making cute little themes. An example would be the opposing knightly orders, Stromgald and White Shield. It was about the color faction wars, Green on Blue, Black on White, and White on the world. It was about cool art, a nice border around the cards that made sense, a wintery theme, and not ever trying to utilize the mechanics offered. The fact of the matter is, Wizards really didn’t know what they were doing yet. Sometimes I still wonder if they have got it down yet or not, but they clearly were in their infancy stage here. The biggest proof of this is that ten years later, we get released to us a set that most likely will be an average set at best, that will finally execute and want to use snow-covered lands, when they are illegal for tournament use, and to use Cumulative Upkeep, when other cards in the current environment rarely have upkeeps at all anymore. My personal feel of this idea is that it reminds me of Chronicles, of how great an idea it was to reprint some cards and try out some older creatures in a newer environment, then charge full pack price for these cards. It reminds me of how cruel the dollar bill is and how power hungry people don’t think about other people when they make snap decisions. So many people who used to play Magic ten years ago and were force fed Homelands – and now no longer play the game – will never even know that there really was a third part to the Ice Age story. Fitting for this to happen in the thought process behind the Ice Age. Fitting from people with cold hearts, driven by the dollar bill. Coming from one of those people that you stole memories from, Thank you. cpn You can discuss this article in the MDV forums here. Articles
Spotlights from 2006 |
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Black,
of course, was the most dominant color of this dark period of Magic. Black
already possessed a good handful of quick, efficient creatures. The addition of
the Knights of Stromgald, Order of Lietbur’s cousin, was welcome, but not
necessary. Black received a handful of other decent creatures; Ashen Ghoul, Mole
Worms, etc., but mostly, Black’s strength came from its sorceries and instants.
With creature removal like Dark Banishing, Soul Burn, Pox, and Contagion,
Black’s creatures were free to kill the opposing wizard at their leisure. Just
when White and Green finally got some good creatures and some strength to
challenge Black, Alliances provided the foot to the throat in the way of
Dystopia. 
Blue
was actually born as a color as a result of this block. Never before was Blue
viable. Its creatures were sub-par before, and it only had Counterspell and
Powersink as true countering options, plus, Blue did not really play well with
other colors. Due to most of its decent cards being Blue mana intensive, it
would normally slow down your deck rather than help it. The Ice Age – Alliances
tandem offered Blue new creatures and countering options that would make people
take a longer look at it. With Illusionary Forces and Sibilant Spirit, Blue got
a better collection of creatures to team with Air Elemental and Mahamotti Djinn,
at long last, and the addition of Arcane Denial and Force of Will, Blue now had
four different countering options it could choose from. Eventually, Blue would
end up becoming a main staple, and dismantle Black’s stranglehold on the
Tournament Scene. 
