Now that we have good Walls again, I must wonder
out loud where they were this whole time. After
all, hasn't everyone read a novel about wizards
who stand behind walls made of fire or ice or
crystal or blood or sound, that people like
Conan or Red Sonja have to hack their way
through? Regarding Wall of Frost, it is strong
in limited formats, and I would not even be
surprised to see it in constructed sideboards at
some point in the next year. Seven toughness is
very hard to fight through, and its "icetouch"
ability even helps keep swarms manageable,
something blue decks have struggled with at
times.
Constructed: The other wall, Wall of Denial, is
better because of two keywords, Flying and
Shroud. It is great on it own, but one Doom
Blade kills it.
Casual & Multiplayer: It will make someone think
twice about attacking in your direction unless
they have a way of killing it. Good defense, but
again there is the other wall.
Limited: Great defensive card, just keep a eye
out for Doom Blade and flyers. Grab a Levitation
and a couple of Jumps to really annoy you
opponents.
Welcome back readers today’s card of the day is
one of the better wall cards to be seen since
Wall of Denial, Wall of Frost. Now Wall of Frost
is a 0/7 creature with Defender and the ability
whenever it blocks a creature that creature does
not untap during its controllers next untap
step. Wow a huge body allows Wall of Frost to
block a plethora of creatures and potentially
locking down powerful threats an opponent
controls. In standard its overshadowed by Wall
of Denial which can block flyers, has a bigger
body, and is immune to targeted removal.
Although Wall of Frost is a great defender I
don’t know how many you would want to stick in
your deck, although Wall of Denial is two
colored where as Wall of Frost is monoblue
making it ideal for blue permission style decks.
In extended very unlikely this card will see any
play, in eternal formats not possible. In casual
and multiplayer having a huge wall to tap down
anyone who dares to attack you is a powerful
deterrent around the kitchen table. In limited
it’s a huge creature that can stop opposing
player’s creatures a decent pick if you’re in
blue.
Today's card of the day is Wall of Frost which
joins Wall of Reverence, Wall of Denial, and to
a lesser degree Wall of Faith as high toughness
Blue or White creature based stall. There are
other cards with high defense or defender, but
each have their own traits. Wall of Reverence
and Denial are both very solid and I see Frost
fitting in well with one or both if the deck
needed that many.
In Constructed Wall of Frost's high defense can
stop almost any single creature in their tracks
and keep it that way for an extra turn. A very
handy ability, but the purely defensive nature
of the card limits it heavily when Blue is
generally more direct in controlling the field.
In Casual some people really enjoy playing walls
or just using them to buy time for a big combo.
It has some value in that role, but to a fairly
limited audience.
In Limited this is quite effective in practice.
Having played the card it generally seems to
face off against a single large creature and
shut down your opponent's offense entirely.
Relatively early on, once you get past the
double blue cost, it can really maintain a field
advantage for the person playing it. It is only
a medium pick in booster, but in sealed I tend
to put it into any blue deck I run.
In Multiplayer the Defender ability is similar
to Vigilance in a way as it keeps something on
defense to help deal with threats to your life
points or Planeswalkers. Able to freeze the
creature of your choice on any attack should
keep most players from bothering to swing at you
without overwhelming force. A defensive strategy
like this generally won't encourage the average
player to target you or "waste" a kill spell on
a simple wall. Provided your deck builds up to
something later this can be a great strategy
that might only work once for each group.
