Chilling Trap MTG Card

Zendikar Rising (ZNR)
2020-09-25 - Number 50

Jumpstart 2022 (J22)
2022-12-02 - Number 281

Card sets	Released in 2 setsSee all
Mana cost
Converted mana cost	1
Rarity	Common
Type	Instant

Key Takeaways

Chilling Trap allows card draw with Wizards, giving a strategic advantage in resource management.
It restricts deck compatibility due to blue mana dependency, influencing deck construction choices.
Although mana costly, the card’s utility makes it a considerable option for blue spell-focused decks.

Text of card

Target creature gets -4/-0 until end of turn. If you control a Wizard, draw a card.

"Serves you right for rushing ahead." —Kaliea, Sea Gate trapfinder

Card Pros

Card Advantage: Chilling Trap provides a key advantage by letting you draw a card under certain conditions. This can help you keep up with your opponents by replacing itself in your hand, ultimately contributing to maintaining a solid flow of resources in your game.

Resource Acceleration: While Chilling Trap itself doesn’t directly accelerate your resources, it synergizes well with decks that capitalize on casting multiple spells. It can be a useful tool for spell-heavy decks that benefit from casting numerous instants and sorceries, indirectly promoting resource acceleration through deck mechanics.

Instant Speed: The ability to cast Chilling Trap at instant speed gives you the flexibility to react during your opponent’s turn. This enables strategic plays such as weakening an attacking creature or potentially saving a blocker at a crucial moment, all while drawing a card if you control a creature with power 4 or greater.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Chilling Trap requires the discard of another card to activate its full potential. This can deplete your hand, especially if you’re already managing limited resources during gameplay. Balancing this cost against the benefits of the card’s effect is crucial for strategic play.

Specific Mana Cost: To cast Chilling Trap, a deck must have access to blue mana, which can restrict its inclusion to blue-centric or multicolor decks that can accommodate blue mana requirements. This specificity reduces the card’s versatility across various deck types.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: When assessing the utility of Chilling Trap against its mana cost, players may find that the card has a higher mana investment for the effect it grants. With competitive play often favoring speed and efficiency, cards with a lower mana cost may be preferred over Chilling Trap for their quicker impact on the game state.

Reasons to Include in Your Collection

Versatility: Chilling Trap offers a cost-effective way to boost your card draw in decks that feature Wizards. This makes it a useful inclusion in various blue-based strategies, helping maintain hand advantage throughout the game.

Combo Potential: As a spell that targets creatures, it can be woven into spell-slinging decks that capitalize on casting instant spells. Plus, its potential card draw effect can seamlessly key into combos centered around card advantage and spell count.

Meta-Relevance: In a play environment where creature-based aggro decks are common, Chilling Trap provides a timely boost by potentially drawing you into answers while thwarting an opponent’s attack. This relevance in the current game can be pivotal for control or tempo-based decks looking to survive the early onslaught and stabilize in the later stages of the game.

How to beat

Chilling Trap represents a nuanced form of strategy in the Magic: The Gathering card pool. This blue instant spell is adept at offering a quick and targeted response to an attacking or blocking creature by giving it -4/-0 until end of turn. But those deeply familiar with gameplay know that it contains a conditional advantage: it draws a card, provided you control a Wizard.

Victory against Chilling Trap involves a two-pronged approach. One, manage your opponents’ Wizard creatures to prevent the card draw. Two, focus on the resilience of your creatures; ensure their strength can withstand a temporary debuff. Tales of strategy often unfold around low-cost protection spells, or utilizing the window provided by Chilling Trap’s effect to alter combat outcomes in one’s favor. An emphasis on creature diversity can dodge the targeted nature of Chilling Trap.

Overall, while Chilling Trap can protect life totals and possibly chart a player’s course to deeper strategy through card draw, it can be outmaneuvered. Knowledge of your own deck’s capabilities and a keen sense of timing can neutralize the temporary setback this spell aims to impose, ensuring your creatures survive and your strategy thrives.

Cards like Chilling Trap

Chilling Trap adds a cool twist to the blue color’s suite of defensive spells in MTG, aligning closely with other spells geared toward neutralizing the opposition. It finds its kin in cards like Frost Breath, which also operates on the principle of delaying adversarial creatures. However, Chilling Trap emphasizes hindering just one creature and offers a card draw if you meet its condition, having a Wizard in play.

Delving deeper, we encounter a close relative: Unsummon. This spell is simple yet effective, allowing you to return a creature to its owner’s hand at a low cost. Unlike Chilling Trap, Unsummon doesn’t draw a card but offers more flexibility by not requiring a Wizard. There’s also Drag Under, which provides both the effect of returning a creature to the hand and drawing a card but at a steeper mana cost, diminishing its tempo advantage.

When comparing utility and strategic value, Chilling Trap holds a unique position with its conditional card draw, making it a nuanced choice for players featuring Wizards in their decks. Its capacity to impact the game and cycle itself into another card under the right conditions makes it a spell worth considering for blue-focused, creature-heavy strategies.

Cards similar to Chilling Trap by color, type and mana cost

Blue Elemental Blast - MTG Card versions

Enchantment Alteration - MTG Card versions

Whispers of the Muse - MTG Card versions

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Chilling Trap MTG card by a specific set like Zendikar Rising and Jumpstart 2022, 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 Chilling Trap and other MTG cards:

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Printings

The Chilling Trap Magic the Gathering card was released in 2 different sets between 2020-09-25 and 2022-12-02. Illustrated by Johann Bodin.

#	Released	Name	Code	Symbol	Number	Frame	Layout	Border	Artist
1	2020-09-25	Zendikar Rising	ZNR		50	2015	Normal	Black	Johann Bodin
2	2022-12-02	Jumpstart 2022	J22		281	2015	Normal	Black	Johann Bodin

Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Chilling Trap has restrictions

Format	Legality
Historicbrawl	Legal
Historic	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Paupercommander	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Gladiator	Legal
Pioneer	Legal
Commander	Legal
Modern	Legal
Pauper	Legal
Vintage	Legal
Duel	Legal
Explorer	Legal
Timeless	Legal

Rules and information

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

Date	Text
2020-09-25	If the target creature is an illegal target by the time Chilling Trap tries to resolve, the spell doesn’t resolve. You don’t draw a card if you control a Wizard.