It's June down here in South Carolina, which means it's 90 degrees with 80 percent humidity every day. It's the kind of weather that makes you long for winter and has me adding Snow-Covered Lands to my latest Cube to at least remind me that snow exists for more fortunate climes.

The Snow supertype is almost as old as Magic: the Gathering, albeit with a caveat. 1995's Ice Age brought with it "snow-covered" as a modifier for Basic Lands, but didn't do much to develop the mechanic. It remained a curiosity until 2006's Coldsnap introduced the actual Snow supertype, which retroactively applied to Snow-Covered Lands along with the new Snow Creatures, Artifacts, and Enchantments.

The Origins of Snow

In Ice Age, Snow was mostly a drawback or a way to update iconic cards, e.g., Withering Wisps for Alpha's Pestilence or Thermokarst for Ice Storm. There were enough ways to punish playing Snow-Covered Lands, like Avalanche or Cold Snap, that Snow rarely showed up outside of the most obsessively thematic decks.

Snow fared better in Coldsnap, where we were given actual reasons to play Snow-Covered Lands to fuel the draw engine of Scrying Sheets or the premium removal of Skred.

Snow then went dormant for almost a decade, only showing up in Modern to fuel Skred with Snow-Covered Mountains, before returning in 2019's Modern Horizons and 2021's Kaldheim. This is when Snow truly came into its own, receiving sweepers, supplemental pinpoint removal, and Creatures that were more relevant than Frostweb Spider.

Even now, Snow is a bit too underpowered to compete in tournament Magic, save for the classic Dark Depths decks that have defined Legacy for decade, or at higher brackets in Commander. Adarkar Valkyrie goes infinite with Aurelia, the Warleader and any sacrifice outlet, but for the most part, there aren't many ways to exploit Snow in Magic's most popular format.

If you're looking to explore the frozen wastes of Dominaria and Kaldheim in a more cohesive and balanced way, I would recommend a Snow Cube. Most of Magic's 107 Snow cards are geared more for Limited and a snow-themed 360-card Cube that uses the best of the Snow cards with other thematically resonant cards is cheap to put together and well-balanced. It's not a powerful environment, but there's joy in that, too, as it feels great to first pick a Rimescale Dragon or Abominable Treefolk.

Snow in Commander

As of 2026, there are five Commanders with the Snow supertype: Isu the Abominable, Jorn, God of Winter, Moritte of the Frost, Narfi, Betrayer King, and Svella, Ice Shaper. In addition, Heidar, Rimewind Master requires Snow permanents, but is too low-impact to consider for 2026 Magic.

Essentially, your best options are a Bant deck with Isu the Abominable or a Sultai deck with Jorn, God of Winter, both of which will still let you run Moritte in the 99. Personally, I would default to Jorn, as that gives you access to the powerful board wipes of Blood on the Snow and Dead of Winter, but Isu is an extremely fun Commander that plays like a combination of Future Sight and Augur of Autumn.

The three uncommon Legendary Snow Creatures are less inspiring as Commanders, as Narfi pushes you toward a Zombie deck, Moritte is a Clone effect designed for Limited, and Svella, while cool, can't run the best White, Blue, or Black Snow cards.

Jorn acts as a kind of Bear Umbra, untapping your Snow Lands and Creatures (including himself) whenever he attacks, which is especially good for pumping Ascendant Spirit, Hailstorm Valkyrie, or Chilling Shade. The back side, Kaldring, the Rimestaff, is also useful as a Conduit of Worlds in the command zone.

At his best, Jorn is a pseudo-Prophet of Kruphix, letting you use your mana again in your second mana phase and enabling explosive turns with cards like Rime Tender and Sculptor of Winter. You'll need ways to protect him so he can profitably attack, but you have access to Blizzard Brawl, Mithril Coat, Commander's Plate, and various Snakeskin Veil effects, and Jorn's cost makes him easy to recast if he's dealt with.

Isu the Abominable lets you sculpt the top of your library and boost your Commander with counters for each Snow permanent you play. You can run Isu as a Landfall deck, as a Dark Depths/Marit Lage's Slumber deck, or as a combo deck with Adarkar Valkyrie. It's a more value-oriented deck than the explosive turns of Jorn, but you're able to run Diamond Faerie to help your Snow Creatures go from silly to threatening.

Snow Staples

Whether you go Bant or Sultai, there are a few must-runs for any Snow deck, including Marit Lage's Slumber, Ohran Frostfang, Graven Lore, and Scrying Sheets. The trio of Snow mana artifact, Arcum's Astrolabe, Coldsteel Heart, and Replicating Ring, are all exceptional and help shore up the Snow deck's weakness, which is suboptimal mana.

An Isu, Jorn, or Svella deck does have access to some great Green sources of mana ramp, from one of the better Rampant Growth effects in Into the North to the Llanowar Elves clone Boreal Druid. Note that running a Snow-Covered Land base lets you break the symmetry of Extraplanar Lens. You you can exile one of your Snow Lands to double the mana output of the rest without granting the same benefit to your opponents.

You can, of course, run Dark Depths combo with Thespian's Stage in either Isu or Jorn or with Vampire Hexmage/Mutated Cultist in Jorn. You won't win any friends by doing so, but in a world of Erode and Path to Exile, it's not a guaranteed game-ending play like it's been in other formats. Marit Lage's Slumber is a much less threatening way to summon the Avatar, but one that can pop off surprisingly quickly in a deck that runs upward of 60 Snow permanents.

There are other Snow cards that are worth running, even beyond a Snow deck. Ice-Fang Coatl, Ohran Viper, and Ohran Frostfang are all excellent options who offer card advantage and trade up in combat. Instant icon Icetill Explorer may not be officially Snow, but belongs in almost every Commander deck with a Green identity and has a suitable name.

Alpine Guide comes packaged with a cool minigame. Centaur Omenreader lets you cast Creatures for cheap for either value or as part of a combo, and Graven Lore powers up with minimal effort, just from running Snow-Covered Islands in lieu of normal basic Islands.

In general, there's not much downside to running Snow cards in Commander, as people don't pack Mystic Melting or Avalanche in all but the most warped Commander metas. You don't have predators at the table. In addition, flipping Jorn or Isu or Narfi up into the Command Zone doesn't set you up as a villain, making them readily adaptable to lower brackets.

Wrapping Up

More than anything, I enjoy the aesthetics of Snow. Saddled Rimestag is unplayable outside of 40-card decks, but that Winona Nelson art is museum-worthy. Ice Age is an underpowered set by any metric, clogged with prolix garbage like Snowblind and Winter's Chill, but the frosty vibes of the set are still appealing over three decades later.

Jorn and Isu may not be the most powerful Commanders out there, but their high rankings on EDHRec imply widespread adoption.

Snow is a part of Magic's history and a part of my own Magic history. I started with the game in 1997, and Ice Age cards were affordable and omnipresent in the schoolyard games I was playing at that time. I'll always have nostalgia for that era of the game and for the Ice Age snow cards, even if they were (quite suitably) more "cool" than "good."