Icy Manalith MTG Card

Type	Token Snow Artifact
Released	2021-02-05
Set symbol
Set name	Kaldheim
Set code	KHM
Number	17
Frame	2015
Layout	Token
Border	Black
Illustred by	Andrew Mar

Key Takeaways

Icy Manalith ensures ongoing value by assisting the casting of impactful spells or enabling multipronged plays.
The artifact provides crucial mana ramp and fixes for multicolored decks, accelerating your game plan.
Despite its cost and discard requirement, its versatility and combo potential make it a meta-relevant inclusion.

Text of card

: Add one mana of any color.

Card Pros

Card Advantage: Icy Manalith doesn’t directly draw you cards, but its ability to remain on the battlefield as a permanent resource grants ongoing advantage by facilitating the casting of more powerful spells or multiple spells in a single turn.

Resource Acceleration: This artifact efficiently ramps up your mana production. By tapping for one mana of any color, it enables more flexible and quicker deployment of multi-colored decks, thus accelerating your resources to gain an edge over your opponents.

Instant Speed: While Icy Manalith can’t be activated at instant speed, its presence allows players to hold mana open for instant speed interactions. This opens up strategic plays where you can use your mana for instants or abilities if the situation requires, without having to commit to tapping lands unless necessary.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Icy Manalith necessitates the discarding of a card, which may not be ideal, especially if your hand is running short on options or if the match is drawing out and every card holds significant strategic value.

Specific Mana Cost: Icy Manalith requires a precise spread of mana for its activation, which could be challenging in multi-colored decks that may not have the necessary types of mana readily available or in games where your mana development is behind.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: When you weigh its cost against other mana-producing artifacts, Icy Manalith can come across as costly. While it does offer a level of flexibility, there are alternatives that might be more efficient or come with additional benefits for a similar, if not lower, mana investment.

Reasons to Include Icy Manalith in Your Collection

Versatility: Icy Manalith is a flexible card that can seamlessly integrate into a variety of decks requiring mana fixing. Its ability to tap for any color of mana makes it an asset in multi-colored decks, always ready to smooth your mana curve.

Combo Potential: Not just a mana rock, Icy Manalith’s capacity to act as any mana color enables synergies with cards that key off of certain colors or mana symbols. Moreover, it can help to swiftly ramp into game-changing combos or activate abilities that could turn the tide of a match.

Meta-Relevance: Within the shifting landscape of the game, mana acceleration and color fixing remain consistently crucial. Icy Manalith situates itself well in a meta that demands efficiency and flexibility, ensuring your deck performs consistently against a wide array of strategies.

How to beat

The Icy Manalith is an intriguing mana rock in Magic: The Gathering that taps for a mana boost. It’s easy to compare this artifact to ones like Manalith, which similarly yields any color of mana when tapped. Yet, Icy Manalith has the extra twist of being able to freeze an opponent’s land or creature, making it slightly more tactical.

As with any card, there are ways to navigate around its strengths. Cards like Disenchant or Naturalize, for example, efficiently remove artifacts and enchantments, providing a clean solution to Icy Manalith’s presence. One could also turn to countermagic, such as Negate or Cancel, to prevent Icy Manalith from ever hitting the board in the first place. To handle the freeze effect once it’s active, swift reactions with instants that untap your permanents or offer hexproof protection will counteract the control it tries to assert.

Ultimately, while Icy Manalith adds a layer of control to the mana acceleration game, there are numerous answers within the depths of the game’s library. Knowing when to let it land and when to counteract its chill is another layer to the ever-evolving strategy of Magic: The Gathering.

Cards like Icy Manalith

Icy Manalith stands as an interesting mana-producing artifact in MTG, sharing qualities with other mana fixers like Manalith. Like its namesake, Icy Manalith offers one mana of any color when tapped. However, Icy Manalith comes with an icy twist – it also taps an opposing land to potentially disrupt your opponent’s strategy. This small tweak adds a layer of control not present in the basic Manalith.

Diving into comparisons further, Darksteel Ingot also jumps into the fray. Boasting indestructibility, it provides an unyielding source of mana acceleration. Unlike Icy Manalith, it lacks the capacity to tap down enemy lands, but its resilience against destruction effects can be invaluable in games where board stability is key. Additionally, we have Skyclave Relic, which not only taps for mana of any color but also can be kicked to create copies of itself, although at a higher mana investment.

To wrap it up, Icy Manalith finds its place among these artifacts with a unique blend of mana ramp and soft control, making it a noteworthy choice for decks that aim to meld resource acceleration with tactical gameplay in MTG.

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Icy Manalith MTG card by a specific set like Kaldheim, 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 Icy Manalith and other MTG cards: