Icing Manipulator MTG Card
Key Takeaways
- Icing Manipulator provides recurring card advantage and can disrupt opponent strategies each turn.
- Its instant speed usage offers a high level of tactical flexibility, enabling pivotal board control.
- Consider its mana cost and discard requirement when integrating this artifact into your deck.
Where to buy
If you're looking to purchase Icing Manipulator MTG card by a specific set like Unfinity and Unfinity, 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 Icing Manipulator 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
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Text of card
Each +1/+1 counter on a creature you control is also a Food token. (It's an artifact with ", , Sacrifice this artifact: You gain 3 life.") , : Roll two six-sided dice. For each odd result, put a +1/+1 counter on a creature of your choice. Activate only as a sorcery.
Her most popular flavors are vanilla, maple pecan crunch, and Glurgian galactopod.
Card Pros
Card Advantage: Icing Manipulator can be a significant utility in your deck, functioning as a source of recurring card advantage. By manipulating the battlefield each turn, you have the potential to create favorable scenarios that disrupt your opponent’s strategy while conserving your own resources, thereby indirectly affecting card economy.
Resource Acceleration: While not directly contributing to resource acceleration in terms of mana, Icing Manipulator offers a form of tempo acceleration. It can effectively “tap down” any opposing key permanent, such as a land on the adversary’s upkeep to inhibit their mana development, or a creature to prevent an attack or block. This allows you to stay ahead on the board while devoting your mana to proactive plays.
Instant Speed: The ability to use Icing Manipulator at instant speed gives it a high level of tactical flexibility. Each turn presents a new opportunity to strategically halt or enable specific actions on the board, such as freezing an attacker or blocker at the most opportune moment, without needing to commit to a particular line of play until absolutely necessary.
Card Cons
Discard Requirement: One downside of the Icing Manipulator is the need to manage your hand wisely. Without a card to discard, the manipulator’s utility could be severely hampered, especially when holding crucial spells you’d rather not part with.
Specific Mana Cost: The Manipulator comes with an activation cost that requires a very specific type of mana. This can restrict its inclusion in multicolored decks that might struggle to consistently produce the required mana types.
Comparatively High Mana Cost: While its ability to tap or untap a target artifact, creature, or land can be quite versatile, the cost of this ability when compared to other cards might be considered steep. Savvy players will weigh its utility against other cards with lower activation costs or cards with abilities that have a broader impact on the game state.
Reasons to Include in Your Collection
Versatility: Icing Manipulator is a flexible tool, easily slotting into decks that aim to control the board. Its ability to tap any target creature or artifact can act as both a defensive measure to stop incoming attacks and an offensive maneuver to prevent blocking.
Combo Potential: With the right setup, this card can become a key piece in lockdown strategies. Pairing it with cards that untap permanents can create a loop, effectively neutralizing opponent’s threats or generating favorable board states turn after turn.
Meta-Relevance: Adaptable to various metagames, the Icing Manipulator shines against creature-heavy decks or those reliant on artifact synergies. Its presence can disrupt opponent artifact strategies and give players an edge over decks that don’t expect such an interference.
How to beat
Icing Manipulator is an artifact that’s been part of Magic: The Gathering’s landscape for many years, offering players the tactical advantage of tapping a target creature or artifact. Its presence can disrupt an opponent’s battle plans, forcing adjustments and sometimes creating a standoff as both players jockey for position. This control piece demands a strategic approach to overcome.
One effective strategy against Icing Manipulator is to employ cards that grant your creatures hexproof or shroud, making them immune to the Manipulator’s ability. By including these protective spells, you shield your key creatures from becoming frozen in their tracks. Another method is to use instant-speed creature removal or artifact destruction spells when the opponent taps out, leaving their Manipulator vulnerable. Cards like Naturalize or Disenchant can dispatch the Manipulator before it becomes a persistent threat to your game plan.
Lastly, leveraging a deck with multiple creature threats dilutes the impact of Icing Manipulator. By consistently presenting numerous creatures, the Manipulator’s influence wanes, as it can only target one per turn. This approach encourages diversification in deck building and ensures that not all your eggs are in one basket, so to speak. Overwhelm the Manipulator’s singular focus with a multifaceted offense, and you’ll mitigate its chilling effect on the battlefield.
Cards like Icing Manipulator
Icing Manipulator is a classic control artifact from Magic: The Gathering that has influenced the design of subsequent cards. It’s often likened to cards such as Pacification Array, which also offers the ability to tap an opponent’s creature for a cost. While Icing Manipulator requires two mana to activate its tapping effect, Pacification Array is slightly more economical, demanding just one mana.
Another card that echoes the utility of Icing Manipulator is Blinding Souleater. This card can also tap a creature, but it does so at the expense of either three mana or two life, giving players a flexible option based on their strategic needs. It stands out due to this dual resource usage. Comparably, the Manipulator is straightforward but lacks this versatility. Then there is Opposition, which not only taps a creature but an artifact, land, or enchantment as well. Though it doesn’t tap cards on its own and needs a creature to do so, the breadth of targets makes Opposition a distinct and sometimes superior choice for controlling the battlefield.
Evaluating their mechanics, Icing Manipulator remains a beloved and effective card in MTG for its simplicity and reliability in stalling opponents, but these similar cards provide varied alternatives for players seeking different control options in their arsenal.
Cards similar to Icing Manipulator by color, type and mana cost
Printings
The Icing Manipulator Magic the Gathering card was released in 1 different sets between 2022-10-07 and 2022-10-07. Illustrated by Raluca Marinescu.
Rules and information
The reference guide for Magic: The Gathering Icing Manipulator card rulings provides official rulings, any errata issued, as well as a record of all the functional modifications that have occurred.
| Date | Text |
|---|---|
| 2022-10-07 | +1/+1 counters aren’t “attached” to the creatures they’re on like an Aura or Equipment is, so a +1/+1 counter/Food token that becomes a creature stays on the creature its on. It still gives that creature a +1/+1bonus. It doesn’t give itself a +1/+1 bonus. Note that +1/+1 counters/Food tokens don’t have a mana cost, so their mana value is 0. Many ways of turning them into creatures will turn them into 0/0 creatures, so unless something else is raising their toughness, they’ll immediately spoil . . . er, die. |
| 2022-10-07 | The +1/+1 counters that are also Food tokens are still +1/+1 counters. They should stay on whatever permanent they were on, even though they become permanents themselves. That acorn symbol at the bottom of the card isn’t messing around here. |
| 2022-10-07 | The +1/+1 counters/Food tokens are artifacts, so anything that counts artifacts will count them. They can be tapped, untapped, sacrificed, and so on. They can even attack and block if you find a way to make them creatures. |
| 2022-10-07 | The activated ability doesn’t target any creature. You choose which creatures get counters after you roll the dice. If you roll two odd numbers, you may put both +1/+1 counters on the same creature. |