Coldsnap - Set History

Set History

In the initial announcement, Randy Buehler said that Coldsnap was designed around the same time as Ice Age and Alliances but was never released because "internal politics" had "forced" Wizards to release Homelands instead. Buehler said that although the set was not a modern design, it would go through modern development and released with modern Magic text and wordings. However, in the Ask Wizards section on November 10, 2005, a player pointed to several inconsistencies in Buehler's story and suggested that Coldsnap was in fact a newly designed set. While Buehler did not explicitly confirm that the player's analysis was correct, he did imply as much by saying only that the notion that Coldsnap was "from the vault" was more fun to think about.

Mark Rosewater confirmed in his February 6, 2006 column that the "from the vault" story was a "cute little cover" to make the announcement more interesting and expressed surprise that any players took the story at face value. He apologised for the confusion Wizards R&D had created and made it clear that the set is indeed a newly designed one.

As of August 2012, Coldsnap is tournament legal in Legacy, Vintage, Modern, and Ice Age Block tournament formats. It was also released on Magic: The Gathering Online on August 14.