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Snow mana symbol

Snow is a supertype with no inherent functionality. Instead, it serves as an identifying characteristic, and is closely tied to snow mana costs.

Snow appears on basic lands from Ice Age, and on cards of multiple types in Coldsnap. It is referenced by cards in Alliances.

Description

Unlike other supertypes, like basic or world, but similar to the spell subtype arcane, snow does nothing other than to identify snow permanents. Instead, various effects reference snow permanents.[1][2]

Snow mana costs

Snow mana costs, represented by {S}, can be paid by one mana produced by a snow permanent, regardless of that mana's type. However, this is a requirement of the cost itself. The mana produced by a snow permanent has no special properties, effects, or restrictions derived from the snow supertype, and except when considering snow mana costs, that mana is indistinguishable from any other mana of the same type.

History

Snow is a replacement for the supertype "Snow-Covered". Cards that were formerly snow-covered received Oracle updates upon the release of the Coldsnap expansion set.[3]

Mark Rosewater considers snow basic lands a mistake, because they caused a lot of confusion about where and how many could be used in decks.[4][5][6][7] He is highly skeptical that they ever will be reprinted in a Standard-legal set.[8]

Rules

From the glossary of the Comprehensive Rules (March 8, 2024—Fallout)

Snow
A supertype that’s normally relevant on permanents. See rule 205.4, “Supertypes.”

From the glossary of the Comprehensive Rules (March 8, 2024—Fallout)

Snow Mana Symbol
The snow mana symbol {S} represents a cost that can be paid with one mana produced by a snow source. It can also represent mana from a snow source that was spent to pay a cost. See rule 107.4h.

From the glossary of the Comprehensive Rules (March 8, 2024—Fallout)

Snow-Covered (Obsolete)
Some older cards were printed with the term “snow-covered” in their rules text. Except when referencing card names, such cards have received errata in the Oracle card reference to reference the supertype “snow” instead. See Snow.

From the Comprehensive Rules (March 8, 2024—Fallout)

  • 107.4h When used in a cost, the snow mana symbol {S} represents a cost that can be paid with one mana of any type produced by a snow source (see rule 106.3). Effects that reduce the amount of generic mana you pay don’t affect {S} costs. The {S} symbol can also be used to refer to mana of any type produced by a snow source spent to pay a cost. Snow is neither a color nor a type of mana.

From the Comprehensive Rules (March 8, 2024—Fallout)

  • 205.4g Any permanent with the supertype “snow” is a snow permanent. Any permanent that doesn’t have this supertype is a nonsnow permanent, regardless of its name.

Notes

  • Rimefeather Owl has the ability to make permanents snow — that is, to give those permanents the supertype “snow” - with ice counters.[9]
  • In the Gatecrash update of Gatherer the snow symbol received a slight redesign.[10]
  • The Snow supertype appears on 7 White cards, 4 Blue cards, 5 Black cards, 6 red cards, 6 green cards, 4 colorless non-land cards, and 13 land cards.

References

External links

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