MTG Salvation

This is the type of card my group likes, and since we probably aren't getting any other blue inclusions from this set, it is an easy try for me. Now I just need to pull a foil at the prerelease.

Eating a significant removal spell and taking their entire turn might be just what I want. Not going down to searing blaze is a big deal.

What the hey, I'll give it a shot. I do think blue could use a 2 mana wall and this probably be fine until we get that blue Wall of Blossoms we've all been eternally waiting for.

Quote from Gelete »

Are you testing this already??? I was very lukewarm about the card at the beginning but now I'm on the verge about getting one asap.

Yeah, and it has been awesome about 2/3 of the time so far!

In WCS, it at least blocks some weenies, a thing blue was really bad at before its printing. No joke, Serendib Efreet was the only one reliable early blocker before Thing in the Ice in the blue section. Some also run Deceiver Exarch, like I do, or Augur of Bolas, but that's pretty much it.

I've run omenspeaker for a long time because blue needs some things that can block one drops. Aggro decks on the play always have 2-3 creatures on board when you take turn two. Leaving mana up for a counter is asking to get spanked. This guys is all magical tension while doing what you want to do anyway.

I'm not convinced by this. 4 counters is alot. IMO it leads to bad drafting habits; i.e. trying to get this to work like it's plan A, and when you don't have it you fall short. It's also a combination of turns/spell dependent. In other words, good cards allow you to play normal magic. I mean, does one pick a 2mana 0/4 "vanilla" wall that highly in the first place? Do you always treat it like a 0/4? And when it's removed do you simply shrug and move on? Or does the plan simply fall apart when it's gone?

The argument of course, is mainly for a mainstream, spiky, cube.

But if your cube is all mumbo jumbo johnny-gets-to-magic, then go for it.

This card doesn't require you to play bad Magic. Obviously nobody would consider this Plan A, anymore than someone would build their entire win condition around a planeswalker ultimate. The defensive body is useful, the tension that the potential transformation puts the gamestate into has value, and in the instances where it can transform, it's really powerful.

If the only value that came from Walls was the secondary ability, none of them would be playable. But it's the ability combined with the value you get from the defensive body that builds their value. Thing in the Ice isn't a staple, but it should probably be tested, because there's a lot of value (both in the board tension it creates and in the potential to transform) that the Wall investment becomes worthwhile.

I think including this card really depends on the type of decks you see in cube. In an average 8 man draft my cube will see ~ 2 Blue centered decks that would like to block and cast lots of spells into the late game. Very often one of these is a W/U U/R or W/U/R spells matter deck. In addition there are ~2 very aggro deck at the table that are annoyed by 0/4 walls. Against the ~2 midragne decks this is ok, and the ~2 combo/goodstuff/trainwreck decks it is not really predictable.

So for me there are at least 2 people who want this and it is decent to good against half the field. I would probably side it out against control, and maybe combo but that is also true of lots of cards.

Now if your cube is less aggressive, or have solid ways of handling aggro decks this might not be for you. Or If your blue is more focused on tempo it may not want this either. My cube needs the fun police aggro to keep control and combo in their places. I like to give foils against aggro that aren't just more wraths.


Young Pyromancer and delver have played great as tempo/incremental value cards in creature light builds. Monastery Mentor and Kiln Fiend seem to combo out more if they can stick on the battle field. I think TITI will be more like the later.

Quote from Bolas, the Mindsculptor »

I'm not convinced by this. 4 counters is alot. IMO it leads to bad drafting habits; i.e. trying to get this to work like it's plan A, and when you don't have it you fall short. It's also a combination of turns/spell dependent. In other words, good cards allow you to play normal magic. I mean, does one pick a 2mana 0/4 "vanilla" wall that highly in the first place? Do you always treat it like a 0/4? And when it's removed do you simply shrug and move on? Or does the plan simply fall apart when it's gone?

The argument of course, is mainly for a mainstream, spiky, cube.

But if your cube is all mumbo jumbo johnny-gets-to-magic, then go for it.

If you are trying to build a deck where Thing in the ice is plan A, then you are not drafting well. It comes from a misunderstanding of the format and good deck building/drafting principles. It's not the cards fault.

If your cube list is reasonably stock, their will be a few common draft strategies were this card will organically fit into... And ANY blue deck will be happy to have access to it in their sideboard. It doesn't have to be entirely built around, it's not a problem to pick it up late in the draft.

If your 2 drop gets answered, yes, you shrug and move on... You don't need to invest any additional resources into getting it to flip.

Despite it being mono-blue, I think it's great for a U/R drafting concept, which is something that I think is typically weak in the draft setting as a whole, despite it being one of my 10 favorite 2 color combinations.

I don't know if it's going to stay inside my cube for long, but I'm definitely willing to give it a shot.

I find U/R to be the best guild to be in.

Quote from LucidVision »

If your 2 drop gets answered, yes, you shrug and move on...

That's also exactly what I think. Since when an answered 2-drop has been a concern?

Quote from TorontoJock »

I find U/R to be the best guild to be in.

Yeah, UWR and UR are also builds in which Thing in the Ice shines the most for us. Lot of counterspells, burns and instant speed answer can be find in those colors in order to make it flip reliably. Sure, traditionnal sweepers don't help, but there's also stuff like Earthquake, Balance and Fiery Confluence that can let it survive.

Does anyone have more reports on how this has been performing? I'm still not sure if I really want a copy of this but i'm planning on swapping a few cards out of blue soon and was wondering how this has held up with a few more weeks of testing.

Mediocre in SOI draft so far in my experience. People play it in standard. I'm thinking it's probably not quite good enough for most cubes. (Which should make it perfect for mine, yay!)

Quote from JohnnyDegenerate »

...despite it being one of my 10 favorite 2 color combinations.

A sentiment after my own heart!

I've been liking it. It can't be freely tossed into just any blue deck, but with the right spell concentration, the flip consistency can get up there, and it can be a pretty beastly card.

I was building a U/r deck on the weekend and picked up Thing in the Ice as my 3rd pick of pack 3 which was great as the deck I was building for perfect for this. The deck ended up only having three creatures, Mulldrifter, Spellskite (funnily enough, a horror) and Thing in the Ice and out of the spells, 15 were instants/sorcery so this ended up being a perfect shell. Finally getting to play this was great and it ended up playing out how I thought, it blocked great when you got it down early, ate removal spells and when it lived, it flipped and won me the game. One turn, playing Preordain, Serum Visions and Dismember to knock it down to 1 and then a Searing Spear to my opponents face the next turn and bouncing back their team and hitting for 7 was nice.

I got lucky picking it up so late that the deck I was building, Thing in the Ice, was perfect for but if you pick it early and build around it, the deck it goes into is very fun to play.

Necroing this thread for value. I've been contemplating adding this card for a while, as I've seen some different lists running it recently. Most of the discussion in this thread is from back when it was printed, so I'm curious to hear if anyone has some experiences to share after having the opportunity to play with it for a while?

This card has been great for us. The 0/4 wall mode is underrated and is exactly what a lot of blue decks want on turn 2 in Cube if they aren't ramping.

Agreed, I've been enjoying TitI a lot.

There was some grumbling when this came out and it never became the standard powerhouse some hyped it to be, but I put it in at release and have enjoyed since. It oozes flavour, it rewards you for doing what you should be doing anyway (throwing spells) and the flip mode can be a game ending play.

I love the UWR spells matter deck (pyromancer, mentor, this guy, guttersnipe, the lifelink buyback white 2drop, etc), so I've always been happy with TitI

I'm still enjoying Thing in the Ice. I haven't found it flips as often as I would hope but that is usually because an opponent is having to use their removal on my 2-drop instead of something else, even when I'm across the table from one I usually want it dead in case they fire off a spell on my endstep and flip it on theirs. When it does flip it is usually pretty good value even if your opponent sees it coming but when you catch someone off guard with an unexpected flip and replay your own value creatures it can get really nuts.

I think a key to playing it right is not to make bad plays just to flip it unless you really need to clear the board or can swing for lethal. I have been caught out a few times going all-in to flip it and having it removed with triggers on the stack, I was certain they had no removal and paid dearly for it.

That 4 toughness is amazing on a 2-drop and always makes we want another good utility 0/4 in blue. You opponents usually have to get to 4 drops before they have a creature that will kill it in combat so it usually blanks a few attackers.

A fun interesting card that I don't see myself cutting any time soon.

Quote from TheGroglord »

A fun interesting card that I don't see myself cutting any time soon.

I think this might be the day I'm cutting Thing in the Ice ... He's very hard to justify with Malcolm, Alluring Scoundrel being such a strong enabler for so many decks.