[SCD] Ice Floe

[tsabo_tavoc]

Ice Floe VS Maze of Ith

Comparing two cards, Ice Floe cannot ward against aerial assaults whereas Maze of Ith does not keep the attacker tapped. Floe shows practically no play in Legacy while Maze finds home in various decks: a playset in Lands, Tresure Hunt Control, a singleton or a couple in Loam decks, Reliquary decks, Stax.

Both cards are lands that count in spell slots and they are controllish. As a result, Maze's versatility outweights Floe's more aggresive nature, which can explain their present prevalency. However, a search of Ice Floe on deckcheck.net returns only 1 sideboard entry. Is Ice Floe really that unplayable?

1. Could there be a strategy that breaks Floe, making its advantage relevant?

2. Do the decks with 4 Mazes want more pieces so that Floe can slip in?

3. Is Ice Floe the best budget replacement for Maze? Does the replacement remain the deck as competitive, albeit suboptimal?

P.S. This topic has rarely been covered but there is some food for thoughts:

Doug Linn's article on Lands: http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/showthread.php?17098-[Article]-Legacy-s-Allure-Blue-Lands-Pt-1&highlight=ice+floe

A recent B/G control decklist with no reply: http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/showthread.php?17969-B-g-control&highlight=ice+floe

A recent discussion on Legacy Staples: http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/showthread.php?17677-A-newbie-s-guide-to-making-Legacy-decks&highlight=ice+floe

[Nonex]

Ice Floe not preventing combat damage is probably the biggest reason to not play it. It doesn't even produce mana to at least stand a chance against Maze of Ith.

[Malchar]

The problem with Ice Floe is that you'll never be able to tap their creature unless the opponent lets you. No one's going to attack into an untapped floe. It might be different if you have a Knight of the Reliquary to search after attackers, but even still that trick will probably only work once. After you realize that it's very unlikely that you'll be able to actually pin down a creature, Maze of Ith looks a lot better since it stops flyers.

[Valtrix]

The fact that you have to take damage once before ice floe starts dealing with the creature is the reason why it can't be played. I mean think about it: your opponent is playing 4/5 goyfs, but you have to take 4 damage each to just deal with them. In addition to all the other threats, that's pretty bad. But, to make it even worse, if your opponent plays something like a trygon predator or a Vendilion Clique, you can't deal with it. So, what happens if your opponent plays a creature that's even more threatening than the one that's tapped down? Well, in order to deal with that you need to untap ice floe, take damage from the new creature, then you can answer it. Because of this damage part, it's very difficult to make asymmetric. You can use maze of ith in combination with removal and still deal with new creatures, but once again need to take damage with ice floe.

In short, ice floe is not playable because you need to take damage from a creature before you can deal with it from ice floe.

[Nihil Credo]

If you want more copies of Maze of Ith, you should look at Kor Haven first, and then probably Kjeldoran Outpost/Kher Keep/Vitu-Ghazi.

[tsabo_tavoc]

Ice Floe not preventing combat damage is probably the biggest reason to not play it.

My bad, I totally missed that.

Yes, Ice Floe can never be competitive in Legacy.

@Mods: Sorry for the trouble, but feel free to end this thread.