Cover of Winter
Snow Enchantment
Cumulative upkeep 
(At the beginning of your upkeep, put an age counter on this permanent, then sacrifice it unless you pay its upkeep cost for each age counter on it. can be paid with one mana from a snow source.)
If a creature would deal combat damage to you and/or one or more creatures you control, prevent X of that damage, where X is the number of age counters on this enchantment.: Put an age counter on this enchantment.
- CMC
- 3
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- W
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Coldsnap
- Price
- $0.47
- EDHREC rank
- #20227
Cover of Winter locks down entire combat steps — anything with power less than or equal to its accumulated ice counters simply can't attack you, and the counter-growth is free as long as snow mana keeps flowing. The cost is real: it does nothing the turn it enters, demands a snow-heavy mana base, and folds to any enchantment removal before it scales.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Isu the Abominable
Isu the Abominable puts a +1/+1 counter on itself at the start of each combat, which means Cover of Winter's ice-counter threshold has to keep climbing to stay relevant — but Isu's snow-payoff identity means the deck is already built around the mana base Cover of Winter needs to function, making the two a natural pairing.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | not legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Cover of Winter is legal in Commander, Legacy, Modern, Vintage, and Oathbreaker, but it's a Commander card in practice — the 100-card singleton format gives it the time and multiplayer threat density to justify a slow-building enchantment. In Legacy and Vintage, three mana for a does-nothing-now enchantment that requires ongoing snow investment is nowhere near competitive; no one is casting this in those formats. Commander is where the politics and inevitability actually matter: once the counter total climbs past three or four, most creature-based strategies simply cannot profitably attack you.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.47 bulk tier
At $0.47, Cover of Winter sits firmly in bulk territory — it's a bulk rare you can pick up without thinking about it. Demand is narrow enough that the price is unlikely to climb unless a breakout Isu the Abominable build pushes it into wider circulation.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.