The final set of a block, Eventide, has arrived, and that means only one thing: hundreds of cards will soon be rotating out of Standard! Which of these cards lived up to their hype? Which ones left a lackluster impression? Join me in an informal review of a few select cards that have had at least a year of play to prove themselves worthy. There might even be a deck list or two along the way!

This edition of Second Impressions focuses on Coldsnap, which, because of the unusual structure of both Coldsnap and the twin Lorwyn/Shadowmoor blocks, has had its day in the Standard sun for more than two years. Let's run down which cards were the bomb, and which ones just bombed. Note that success in Limited in no way entitles a card to a good review in my book. Constructed or casual success will be the criteria.

The No-Brainers:
Into the North, Boreal Druid, and Rite of Flame - All three are mana accelerating variants of time-tested staples (Rampant Growth, Llanowar Elves, and Desperate Ritual/Dark Ritual), so nobody was surprised that these made solid, dependable waves in both casual and competitive arenas:

Into the North - From mana fixing to creature kill to card advantage, the variety of Snow lands available actually makes this card better than Rampant Growth!

Boreal Druid - Used as additional acceleration in Big Mana decks and Elf Tribal decks. Who doesn't want more mana bugs? (Now, if only they would print a Black Llanowar Elves.... Hey, a guy can dream, can't he?)

Rite of Flame - I guess Rite of Flame didn't really make solid dependable waves. Actually, it helped make stormy, explosive waves of Goblins and Dragons!

Snow-Covered Lands - With an entire block of Snow-related mechanics, it was obvious these reprint commons would take root. Some players even run them as a bluff to make the opponent wonder what Snow tricks they might have up their sleeves!

Coldsteel Heart - Mana producing artifacts are always in demand, and at a cost of only two mana, this is an obvious choice for decks that want to reach four mana on turn three. I'm told the price of the digital version of Coldsteel Heart has skyrocketed!

The Casualties:
These are some of the cards that never made a ripple (no pun intended) in any tournament format, but are still hits in Second Impressions, because the casual crowd just adores them.

Darien, King of Kjeldor - This fellow is popular both as a flavorful "Lord" and as an unusual Johnny card. Just imagine: Darien, King of Kjeldor + Helix Pinnacle + Burning-Tree Shaman = many tokens and not much life! You know you want to. (Ok, add Essence Warden, if you must, but that's all you're getting out of me!)

Karplusan Wolverine - Initially predicted to be a tournament contender, it could never eclipse the concurrent existence of Mogg Fanatic in the same formats. On the other hand, it sees pleasingly large amounts of play in casual games.

Dark Depths - This Legendary Snow land continues to thrill with stories of 20/20 indestructible tokens Aether Snapped into play. Check out Death_By_Beebles's article for a decklist!

Lightning Serpent - You would think a pseudo-Blaze would do better in Constructed formats, but at least this continues to be popular around kitchen tables.

Herald of Leshrac - Great fun in multiplayer games! I like stealing lands, and so do you. Tekkactus cites a JMS deck using the big guy in an Avatar Tribal article, linked for your convenience.

Phyrexian Soulgorger - I'm not sure anybody else likes it, but hamsandwich seems to think it's the bee's knees.

Thrumming Stone - Gets an Honorable Mention for propagating the dream of an army of Relentless Rats.

The One-Hit-Wonders:
These cards made the smallest of splashes on the tournament circuit. Their short-lived success, combined with a certain quirkiness that also endears them to the casual crowd, deserves acknowledgement.

Sek'kuar, Deathkeeper - For just a little while, the Deathkeeper was played in a "Project X" variant, where you used Crypt Champion and Saffi Eriksdotter to continually sacrifice and revive creatures. With Sek'kuar in play, all those sacrifices translated into hasty 3/1 Graveborn attackers for the win.

Panglacial Wurm - I'm very amused by the fact that this unlikely favorite hit its competitive stride for the briefest of moments in a Red-Green mana ramp deck. For a primer on this lovable Wurm, check out Irrational Love: Panglacial Wurm, by Cashew.

The Competitors:
This is the one card in the set that hit the tournament scene hard, but strangely failed to capture the attention of the casual crowd. Actually it's not so strange, once you see what the card is.

Cryoclasm - This card has been widely adopted as a sideboard card for certain Red decks. In particular, it has gone into decks with land destruction as a major theme. The fact that casual forums are strangely silent on Cryoclasm only lends support to the claim that casual players generally dislike LD. Why casual players want to ignore an entire deck strategy is beyond me, but I digress....

The Limited-Only Dregs:
We'll get to the all-stars in a moment, but now it's time to mourn the worst of the worst. These are the underachievers which could have made a difference, under other circumstances (like being made as a better card).

Surging Aether, Surging Dementia, Surging Flame, Surging Might, Surging Sentinels - For a mechanic with as much potential as ripple, the weak execution of this cycle relegated them to the world of Limited. Even casual circles rarely allow more than four of a card in a deck, making these cards excellent for leveling uneven table legs. However, if I happened to be playing a format like MTGO's Freeform, where they do allow more than four of a card in a deck, this is what I would build:

In formats where this deck is legal, you could easily toast three opponents on the first turn of the game. Every. Single. Time. It can be scaled down to 40 cards, or to more than 60 cards, depending on the number of opponents you want to annoy. Plus, it's all commons, too!

Allosaurus Rider - Also touted as "the best Limited rare in Coldsnap," this couldn't make the transition to Constructed, casual or otherwise. All of the other "free spells" from Coldsnap saw at least some play - mostly in a strange and entertaining Legacy deck known as "Pitch World." However, this one doesn't appear to have seen any love from anybody. Aww, poor, sad dinosaur. (I say dinosaur, because the elf is really incidental, as far as I'm concerned. Dinosaur!)

Garza's Assassin - I really don't understand why this hasn't seen more face time. I'm guessing the difficult-to-remember recover trigger may have sabotaged this card (but the same mechanic has seen Grim Harvest get some play - go figure).

There is one more card, which is the absolute bottom of the Coldsnap barrel, but we'll get to that in a moment or two.

The All-Arounds:
These cards are popular with casual and tournament players alike.

Ohran Viper - A close runner up for top card of the set, Ohran Viper is just a flat out good card. Casual players particularly appreciate that Green gets the traditionally Blue Ophidian card-drawing ability.

Skred - Simultaneously a cheap removal spell and a mini-combo with Stuffy Doll and Spitemare, its appeal to all types of deckbuilders should be apparent.

Adarkar Valkyrie - A powerful effect on a flying beatstick that doesn't cost ridiculous mana gives it definite tournament potential. On the flipside, the Angel creature type practically guarantees that a subset of the casual crowd will be pleased. Also, see how the Valkyrie's ability to steal creatures only works after the opponent is essentially done with the target creature, because it is going to the graveyard anyway. This mollifies the negative reaction that casual players can sometimes have when their stuff gets "stolen" by control magic.

Haakon, Stromgald Scourge - A definite hit on all fronts. Whether it's recurring Nameless Inversion, or just exhuming itself, Haakon certainly captures the imagination of deckbuilders everywhere.

Jester's Scepter - While so far this has only seen moderate play in both the tournament and casual environs, what is really special is why it sees play. Tournament players include it as virtual "extra counters" in control decks, while casual players recur and replay it as a mill effect. I bet this is the kind of stuff Wizards' R&D lives for!

Scrying Sheets - Do I even have to tell you? Oh, okay. More cards is good. Happy now?

Zur the Enchanter - This preview card lived up to the hype, seeing both casual and tournament play. Do you know how many good three-or-less-mana enchantments there are in Magic? Neither do I.

Juniper Order Ranger - This card almost ended up a casual-only favorite. Then they printed Reveillark. After that, they created the persist mechanic. Now the White-Green (Avocado?) Ranger is living the high life with Murderous Redcap at his side. That doesn’t sound very safe....

Mishra's Bauble - While initially underrated by many, this turned out to be fun for casual players who want to play with virtual 56 card decks and useful for tournament players who needed another way to up their storm count.

Mouth of Ronom - This is one of those solid cards that sees widespread acceptance, without being so broken as to drive up the price beyond your average casual budget.

Phyrexian Ironfoot - Just like Mouth of Ronom, this is another solid Snow card that appeals to players of the midgame strategy.

Martyr of Ashes, Martyr of Sands - Inexpensive life gain and board sweeping. Yep, that pretty much covers it.

Jotun Grunt - While the use of this card is not as widespread as the others in this section, Jotun Grunt gets an Honorable Mention for seeing a decent amount of play in Vintage and Legacy formats. In fact, it was more polar in those Eternal formats than any other format. Can you say anti-dredge tech?

The Biggest Loser:
Phyrexian Etchings - For me, Phyrexian Etchings is by far the biggest disappointment of the entire set. What’s that, a Black enchantment that draws cards? Can you say Necropotence?

However, Etchings is no Necropotence. Nor is it a Phyrexian Arena. Not even a Greed. I would rather play Infernal Tribute.

Apparently, it's not just me. Etchings has made absolutely no tournament impact, and it gets practically no love from casual deckbuilders either. In order to try and rectify the latter issue, and because this is the Magic DECK Vortex, I set out to build a Standard deck - a "last-ditch-effort," so to speak.

I chose Standard because in bigger formats I'd rather use Dark Confidant, Phyrexian Arena, or, well, almost anything else. I also apologize for the ridiculous cost of this deck, but let's be honest here, Phyrexian Etchings needs all the help it can get:

The entire goal of this deck is to make Etchings useful. That means the game needs to last long enough for Etchings to actually start helping. The plan is to disrupt and stall until either Phyrexian Etchings comes online, or until you just run them over with Warhammered beasties. Augur of Skulls has some surprisingly good synergies with basically the whole deck, especially with Garza's Assassin (hey, I used one of the losers from the dregs section - score!). If you often face weenie swarm decks, I suggest trying Soul Snuffers instead of Ashling, the Extinguisher. Dunerider Outlaw is one of the more flexible spots in the deck, and you could easily replace it with some other evasion creature without changing the core deck very much. The Dunerider was initially included because it messes with Elves, so that's always fun.

We now return you to the Coldsnap re-review, already in progress.

The Top Dog(s):
There were two cards that topped the charts in both tournament and casual use. I was having a hard time picking out just one winner, when I realized I don't have to - it's my article, after all! So, without further ado, the biggest all-around hits of Coldsnap:

Counterbalance - You all saw this one coming. I think what helped Counterbalance's casual street cred was that several "professional" players and authors initially gave it a bad review. It's fun when "smart people" are wrong, isn't it?

Rune Snag - I bet this was a surprise for some of you. While Rune Snag is an obvious replacement for the already-rotated Mana Leak in Standard, what makes it so fantastic for the kitchen table? I suspect it is because, like Mana Leak, it is a conditional counter. That evil Blue mage could have stopped you cold if he were playing Counterspell, but his Rune Snag isn't always going to cut it! Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!

That wraps up this haphazard review of Coldsnap. Did I skip reviewing your favorite card? Am I just plain wrong about how bad Phyrexian Etchings is? Sound off in the forums on your own Second Impressions of Coldsnap! Remember, hindsight is 20/20! (So is Marit Lage.)

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