Drift of the Dead MTG Card

Card Pros

Card Advantage: Drift of the Dead can essentially serve as a wall that is difficult for your opponent to remove, safeguarding your life points and helping to ensure you don’t fall behind in defending your board.

Resource Acceleration: This card synergizes well with decks focused on self-mill or graveyard strategies, effectively turning your graveyard into a resource that can accelerate your board presence with a sizable blocker.

Instant Speed: Though not an instant itself, Drift of the Dead benefits from instant speed graveyard fillers that can quickly change its power and toughness, surprising your opponent by making it larger right before they commit to an attack or block.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Drift of the Dead comes with an inherent downside in that it mandates players to have a snow-covered land card in the graveyard to prevent it from being detrimental. This situation can cause tension for players who may not want to part with valuable land cards early in the game.

Specific Mana Cost: With its mana cost entailing a generic and a snow mana, Drift of the Dead can impose deck-building restrictions. Players are compelled to integrate snow lands into their decks which could limit the card’s versatility across various deck archetypes.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: A thorough analysis reveals that the mana investment to cast Drift of the Dead may be steep considering the payoff. Other cards in the same mana range could potentially provide a more immediate impact on the battlefield without the snow land stipulation.

Reasons to Include Drift of the Dead in Your Collection

Versatility: Drift of the Dead excels in decks where the graveyard size can be controlled and expanded. Its power and toughness are determined by the number of snow lands in your graveyard, making it a robust defender in the right setup. Whether you’re playing a snow-themed deck or one that focuses on graveyard mechanics, Drift of the Dead can be a key piece.

Combo Potential: For decks that capitalize on self-mill or land sacrifice, Drift of the Dead offers solid combo potential. By increasing the number of snow lands in your graveyard, not only do you boost its stats, but you can also work alongside cards that benefit from having a high land count in the graveyard to unlock powerful synergies.

Meta-Relevance: In a meta where graveyard strategies are prevalent, Drift of the Dead can shine. Its presence in your collection equips you to counter decks that aim to benefit from or disrupt graveyard contents, making it a strategic choice in certain metagame environments.

How to beat

Drift of the Dead is an intriguing wall-type creature in Magic: The Gathering, which gains power and toughness equal to the number of snow lands a player controls. It is a card that can potentially become a significant obstacle, especially in formats or decks where snow lands are prevalent. To tackle this icy barrier, having removal spells that don’t rely on the creature’s power and toughness is key. Cards like Path to Exile or Fatal Push can effectively deal with it no matter how large it grows.

Another practical approach is to sidestep the Drift of the Dead entirely by using flying creatures. Since Drift lacks flying, aerial attackers can soar over it, unimpeded. Furthermore, you may want to consider using cards that change lands’ types, such as Blood Moon, which would nullify all the snow land advantages and greatly weaken Drift of the Dead. Overall, while the card can be daunting under the right conditions, there are multiple strategies and specific card choices that can help to neutralize this frosty foe.