Ray of Frost MTG Card
Key Takeaways
- Ray of Frost provides a form of card advantage and control by neutralizing key threats in enemy strategies.
- Can be cast at instant speed, offering flexibility and tactical advantage during critical game moments.
- Despite mana specificity and cost considerations, its strategic value in the right deck is undeniable.
Guide to Flash card ability
Explore the dynamic Flash ability in Magic: The Gathering (MTG), a feature that allows you to cast spells at lightning speed, often leaving your opponents reeling and your strategy several steps ahead. This versatile ability can turn the tide of a game, providing the element of surprise and tactical advantage. It places a premium on timing and foresight, transforming an ordinary deck into a formidable arsenal of instant threats and responses.
Text of card
Flash Enchant creature When Ray of Frost enters the battlefield, if enchanted creature is red, tap it. As long as enchanted creature is red, it loses all abilities. Enchanted creature doesn't untap during its controller's untap step.
Card Pros
Card Advantage: Ray of Frost offers a unique form of card advantage by neutralizing a threat on the battlefield without immediately removing it, allowing you to effectively nullify an opponent’s card and potential strategies. This is particularly potent when targeting creatures essential to your opponent’s game plan, diminishing their ability to capitalize on their resources.
Resource Acceleration: Unlike traditional resource acceleration that increases your own mana pool, Ray of Frost can be seen as a form of indirect resource acceleration. By temporarily locking down an opponent’s mana dork or utility creature, it can slow down their ability to develop their board and hence, by comparison, accelerate your relative position in the game.
Instant Speed: As Ray of Frost can be cast at instant speed, it offers the tactical advantage of reactive play. You can decide the best moment to freeze an adversary’s creature, whether that’s mid-combat to disrupt an attack or in response to an opponent attempting to utilize a tap ability. The flexibility to act on your opponent’s turn with Ray of Frost can be tremendously beneficial for maintaining control of the game’s pace.
Card Cons
Discard Requirement: While Ray of Frost does not have a discard requirement, it’s important to consider this factor when evaluating cards in your deck. Discarding can set you back, especially if it coincides with the need to control the board. In contrast to Ray of Frost, cards that impose a discard cost could be less appealing.
Specific Mana Cost: Ray of Frost requires a precise mana setup to cast—an investment of one blue mana. This specificity necessitates a commitment to blue within your deck, potentially limiting the card’s versatility in multicolored decks that could benefit from a broader mana base.
Comparatively High Mana Cost: For its effect, Ray of Frost’s mana cost might seem steep, particularly since it is designed to be a control tool. It costs two mana, which can affect the pace of control-focused gameplay, especially when up against numerous or more rapidly deployed threats.
Reasons to Include Ray of Frost in Your Collection
Versatility: Ray of Frost is a flexible addition to blue-focused decks, adept in hindering opponents’ creatures, particularly those red in color. Its ability to tap a creature upon entry and keep it from untapping offers strategic control, allowing you to dictate the pace of the game.
Combo Potential: This card shines when combined with effects that capitalize on opponents’ creatures being in a perpetually tapped state. Utilize it to complement ice-themed decks or to exploit abilities triggered by frozen adversaries.
Meta-Relevance: With red decks often commanding a significant presence in various meta environments, Ray of Frost provides a targeted and cost-effective countermeasure. Its presence in your collection grants you a tactical edge, ready to deploy whenever the meta calls for temperance against fiery aggression.
How to beat
Ray of Frost is an intriguing utility spell within the realm of Magic: The Gathering. Its ability to tap a target creature and render it virtually ineffective as long as Ray of Frost remains attached offers strategic control, reminiscent of frost effects seen on cards like Frost Breath. To overcome Ray of Frost, the simplest strategy involves removing enchantments since it’s classified as one. Cards such as Disenchant are perfect tools against it as they can easily destroy enchantments, effectively freeing your creature from its icy grasp.
Another efficient method is to employ the use of hexproof to shield your creatures. By doing so, they become untargetable by spells like Ray of Frost. Dive Down and Lazotep Plating are examples that can provide temporary hexproof protection for surprise defense. Lastly, countering the spell outright with counterspells such as Negate is a failproof way of ensuring your creatures stay in action. Each method provides a different approach to mitigate the freezing effects of Ray of Frost, maintaining the tempo and flow of your gameplay.
Understanding the dynamics of Ray of Frost and preparing your deck to face enchantment-based control spells can give you an edge, letting you keep your creatures active and avoid being put on ice.
Cards like Ray of Frost
Ray of Frost is a spell that brings utility and control to the game of Magic: The Gathering, similar to Frost Breath. Both cards function by impeding the opponent’s forces, with Ray of Frost specifically targeting tapped creatures and effectively neutralizing them for as long as the enchantment remains. In comparison, Frost Breath can freeze two creatures at instant speed, but it offers no long-term control, lasting only until the next turn.
Capture Sphere is another akin card. It shares the theme of binding creatures without destroying them, a common blue tactic, enabling a player to deal with threats on the battlefield in a non-lethal way. However, while Ray of Frost focuses on tapped creatures, Capture Sphere can target any creature regardless of its state and it also taps them, but at a higher mana cost.
Assessing this variety, Ray of Frost stands out for its low mana cost and ability to keep a creature indefinitely out of commission, a strategic tool that can turn the tide of a match in a player’s favor.
Cards similar to Ray of Frost by color, type and mana cost
Where to buy
If you're looking to purchase Ray of Frost MTG card by a specific set like Adventures in the Forgotten Realms and Alchemy Horizons: Baldur's Gate, there are several reliable options to consider. One of the primary sources is your local game store, where you can often find booster packs, individual cards, and preconstructed decks from current and some past sets. They often offer the added benefit of a community where you can trade with other players.
For a broader inventory, particularly of older sets, online marketplaces like TCGPlayer, Card Kingdom and Card Market offer extensive selections and allow you to search for cards from specific sets. Larger e-commerce platforms like eBay and Amazon also have listings from various sellers, which can be a good place to look for sealed product and rare finds.
Additionally, Magic’s official site often has a store locator and retailer lists for finding Wizards of the Coast licensed products. Remember to check for authenticity and the condition of the cards when purchasing, especially from individual sellers on larger marketplaces.
Below is a list of some store websites where you can buy the Ray of Frost and other MTG cards:
- eBay
- TCG Player
- Card Kingdom
- Card Market
- Star City Games
- CoolStuffInc
- MTG Mint Card
- Hareruya
- Troll and Toad
- ABU Games
- Card Hoarder Magic Online
- MTGO Traders Magic Online
See MTG Products
Printings
The Ray of Frost Magic the Gathering card was released in 2 different sets between 2021-07-23 and 2022-07-07. Illustrated by Kim Sokol.
| # | Released | Name | Code | Symbol | Number | Frame | Layout | Border | Artist |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2021-07-23 | Adventures in the Forgotten Realms | AFR | 68 | 2015 | Normal | Black | Kim Sokol | |
| 2 | 2022-07-07 | Alchemy Horizons: Baldur's Gate | HBG | 129 | 2015 | Normal | Black | Kim Sokol |
Legalities
Magic the Gathering formats where Ray of Frost has restrictions
| Format | Legality |
|---|---|
| Historicbrawl | Legal |
| Commander | Legal |
| Historic | Legal |
| Legacy | Legal |
| Modern | Legal |
| Oathbreaker | Legal |
| Vintage | Legal |
| Duel | Legal |
| Explorer | Legal |
| Gladiator | Legal |
| Pioneer | Legal |
| Timeless | Legal |
Rules and information
The reference guide for Magic: The Gathering Ray of Frost card rulings provides official rulings, any errata issued, as well as a record of all the functional modifications that have occurred.
| Date | Text |
|---|---|
| 2021-07-23 | If the enchanted creature is red (or if it becomes red), it loses all abilities that it had prior to the time Ray of Frost became attached to it. It will keep any abilities that were granted to it after Ray of Frost became attached to it. |
| 2021-07-23 | If the enchanted creature is red and has a characteristic-defining ability that specifies its power and/or toughness, that ability will not have its effect. In that case, its power and/or toughness (as appropriate) become 0. |
| 2021-07-23 | If the enchanted creature is red and has a characteristic-defining ability that specifies its types or colors, that ability will still have its effect because it's applied before the creature loses the ability. |
| 2021-07-23 | Some noncreature permanents, such as Grand Master of Flowers, become creatures because of a static ability they have. If Ray of Frost becomes attached to such a creature and that creature is red or becomes red, that permanent will remain a creature even though it loses the ability that is making it a creature after that ability applies. |
