Snow-Covered Mountain MTG Card


Card setsReleased in 10 setsSee all
RarityCommon
TypeBasic Snow Land — Mountain

Key Takeaways

  1. The Snow-Covered Mountain can lead to card advantage through its unique snow mana abilities and synergies.
  2. Resource acceleration is made possible with the land’s untapping capabilities, crucial for snow-themed strategies.
  3. Provides instant-speed mana access, promoting seamless play and maintaining turn efficiency.

Text of card

oc T: Add o R to your mana pool.


Card Pros

Card Advantage: While not directly impacting card draw, the Snow-Covered Mountain allows for synergistic plays with cards requiring snow mana, effectively expanding your options and potentially leading to card advantage by unlocking snow-specific abilities.

Resource Acceleration: This land’s capability to be untapped through certain spells and abilities like Skred or Scrying Sheets can accelerate your mana resources. This is particularly valuable in decks that utilize snow mechanics for powerful plays.

Instant Speed: Although lands are played at sorcery speed, having a Snow-Covered Mountain ensures that you can access mana for instant speed responses during your opponent’s turn. This seamless integration into your mana base keeps the game pace in your favor without sacrificing turn efficiency.


Card Cons

Discard Requirement: In the context of Snow-Covered Mountain, a potential downside is any synergistic card that demands a discard, thereby depleting your hand of these specialized lands. Being forced to discard a Snow-Covered Mountain could hinder strategies dependent on snow permanents.

Specific Mana Cost: Though it taps for red mana, Snow-Covered Mountain is sometimes a requirement for casting certain spells or activating abilities specifically calling for ‘snow mana.’ This necessity restricts deck-building options, as you’ll have to balance the inclusion of these lands with your overall mana base to ensure consistency.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: While the land itself doesn’t have a mana cost, it can contribute to a higher overall deck cost concerning spells reliant on a high count of snow permanents. These spells often come at a premium, both in monetary and opportunity costs, compared to their non-snow counterparts.


Reasons to Include in Your Collection

Versatility: A Snow-Covered Mountain offers an edge in decks that capitalize on snow mechanics, enabling more strategic options over a regular Mountain without changing the mana base’s foundational color.

Combo Potential: This card synergizes with effects that count the number of snow permanents you control and also interacts well with spells that specifically require a snow mana as a casting cost, potentially unlocking powerful combos.

Meta-Relevance: In game environments where snow themes are prevalent, having Snow-Covered Mountains can significantly bolster your deck’s performance against competitors while adhering to themes that reward snow land types.


How to beat

Snow-Covered Mountain is a unique land card in Magic: The Gathering that offers a slight edge in decks tailored to take advantage of snow mechanics. Unlike a regular Mountain, it provides “snow mana,” a specialized resource required to fuel powerful spells or activate abilities within snow-themed decks.

To outplay someone using Snow-Covered Mountain, the strategy should involve disrupting the synergy that snow cards rely upon. This can be achieved by including cards that target nonbasic lands or utilizing spells that hamper the snow abilities. For instance, employing land destruction cards like Field of Ruin can upset the balance of an opponent’s mana base, consequently stifling their snow-based strategies. Additionally, cards like Blood Moon can transform all nonbasic lands into basic Mountains, negating any advantages the Snow-Covered Mountain might bring to the table.

While exploring your options, remember that preparation is key. Construct your deck with the knowledge that you might face snow synergies. Equip yourself with the suitable sideboard choices to adapt, and the elemental chill of the Snow-Covered Mountain won’t freeze your path to victory.


Cards like Snow-Covered Mountain

Snow-Covered Mountain holds its unique position in Magic the Gathering as a basic land with a twist. Related to other basic Mountains, it taps for red mana without distinction. However, Snow-Covered Mountain’s defining characteristic comes into play with cards that recognize “snow” as a condition. This gives it a slight edge in decks that capitalize on snow synergies compared to its non-snow counterparts.

Considering cards like Highland Weald, which also produces red mana and adds green, the Snow-Covered Mountain still stands out. Highland Weald enters the battlefield tapped, delaying the mana advantage. Similar to other dual lands, it doesn’t have the basic land type, which is crucial for certain deck compositions that need an untapped land source immediately.

While both Scrying Sheets and Snow-Covered Mountain share the snow land type, Scrying Sheets offers an ability to obtain card advantage by potentially drawing extra cards. However, it cannot produce red mana inherently. Thus, Snow-Covered Mountain maintains a solid role in red-based snow decks looking for immediate mana access without the need for additional card advantage mechanics.

In conclusion, Snow-Covered Mountain’s simplicity and snow subtype offers an indispensable asset for players looking to optimize their mana base within certain MTG deck strategies, making it a staple in snow-themed decks.

Highland Weald - MTG Card versions
Scrying Sheets - MTG Card versions
Highland Weald - Coldsnap (CSP)
Scrying Sheets - Coldsnap (CSP)

Cards similar to Snow-Covered Mountain by color, type and mana cost

Mountain - MTG Card versions
Dwarven Ruins - MTG Card versions
Dormant Volcano - MTG Card versions
Sandstone Needle - MTG Card versions
Smoldering Crater - MTG Card versions
Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle - MTG Card versions
Ghitu Encampment - MTG Card versions
Teetering Peaks - MTG Card versions
Forgotten Cave - MTG Card versions
Vivid Crag - MTG Card versions
Blighted Gorge - MTG Card versions
Memorial to War - MTG Card versions
Castle Embereth - MTG Card versions
Desert of the Fervent - MTG Card versions
Kazuul's Fury // Kazuul's Cliffs - MTG Card versions
Valakut Awakening // Valakut Stoneforge - MTG Card versions
Spikefield Hazard // Spikefield Cave - MTG Card versions
Shivan Gorge - MTG Card versions
Flamekin Village - MTG Card versions
Goblin Burrows - MTG Card versions
Mountain - Bloomburrow (BLB)
Dwarven Ruins - Pro Tour Collector Set (PTC)
Dormant Volcano - Visions (VIS)
Sandstone Needle - Mercadian Masques (MMQ)
Smoldering Crater - Dominaria Remastered (DMR)
Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle - Magic Online Promos (PRM)
Ghitu Encampment - Tenth Edition (10E)
Teetering Peaks - Premium Deck Series: Fire and Lightning (PD2)
Forgotten Cave - Modern Horizons (MH1)
Vivid Crag - Commander 2015 (C15)
Blighted Gorge - Battle for Zendikar (BFZ)
Memorial to War - Dominaria (DOM)
Castle Embereth - Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur's Gate (CLB)
Desert of the Fervent - Commander 2020 (C20)
Kazuul's Fury // Kazuul's Cliffs - Zendikar Rising (ZNR)
Valakut Awakening // Valakut Stoneforge - Zendikar Rising (ZNR)
Spikefield Hazard // Spikefield Cave - Zendikar Rising (ZNR)
Shivan Gorge - The List (PLST)
Flamekin Village - The List (PLST)
Goblin Burrows - The List (PLST)

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Snow-Covered Mountain MTG card by a specific set like Ice Age and Coldsnap, 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 Snow-Covered Mountain and other MTG cards:

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Printings

The Snow-Covered Mountain Magic the Gathering card was released in 7 different sets between 1995-06-03 and 2021-02-05. Illustrated by 8 different artists.

#ReleaseNameCodeSymbolNumberFrameLayoutBorderArtist
11995-06-03Ice AgeICE 3791993normalblackTom Wänerstrand
22006-07-21ColdsnapCSP 1542003normalblackJohn Zeleznik
32008-09-22Masters Edition IIME2 2441997normalblackTom Wänerstrand
42018-07-14MTG Arena PromosPANA 2602015normalblackTitus Lunter
52019-06-14Modern HorizonsMH1 2532015normalblackTitus Lunter
62019-12-02Secret Lair DropSLD 42015normalblackAlayna Danner
72019-12-02Secret Lair DropSLD 14762015normalblackELK64
82019-12-02Secret Lair DropSLD 3282015normalblackJubilee
92021-02-05KaldheimKHM 2822015normalblackAdam Paquette
102021-02-05KaldheimKHM 2832015normalblackJung Park

Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Snow-Covered Mountain has restrictions

FormatLegality
HistoricbrawlLegal
HistoricLegal
LegacyLegal
PaupercommanderLegal
OathbreakerLegal
GladiatorLegal
PioneerLegal
CommanderLegal
ModernLegal
PauperLegal
PremodernLegal
VintageLegal
DuelLegal
ExplorerLegal
PredhLegal
TimelessLegal

Rules and information

The reference guide for Magic: The Gathering Snow-Covered Mountain card rulings provides official rulings, any errata issued, as well as a record of all the functional modifications that have occurred.

DateText
2021-02-05 In a Limited event (usually Booster Draft or Sealed Deck), you can’t add basic snow lands to your card pool as you would other basic lands. You can play with basic snow lands only if you open them in your sealed deck or draft them.
2021-02-05 Snow is a supertype, not a card type. It has no rules meaning or function by itself, but spells and abilities may refer to it.
2021-02-05 Snow isn’t a type of mana. If an effect says you may spend mana as though it were any type, you can’t pay for {S} using mana that wasn’t produced by a snow source.
2021-02-05 Some cards have additional effects for each {S} spent to cast them. You can cast these spells even if you don’t spend any snow mana to cast them; their additional effects simply won’t do anything.
2021-02-05 The Kaldheim set doesn’t have any cards with mana costs that include {S}, but some previous sets do. If an effect says such a spell costs less to cast, that reduction doesn’t apply to any {S} costs. This is also true for activated abilities that include {S} in their activation costs and effects that reduce those costs.
2021-02-05 The {S} symbol is a generic mana symbol. It represents a cost that can be paid by one mana that was produced by a snow source. That mana can be any color or colorless.

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