Frozen Shade
Creature — Shade
: This creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn.
- CMC
- 3
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- Fifth Edition
- Price
- $0.17
- EDHREC rank
- #26663
Frozen Shade is a mana sink that can theoretically grow to any size, but paying 1B repeatedly for +1/+1 until end of turn is one of the least efficient uses of black mana ever printed. A 2/3 for five mana is not a threat; it's a chore.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | not legal |
| pioneer | not legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Frozen Shade is legal in Commander, Legacy, Vintage, Pauper, and Oathbreaker, but legal and playable are different words. In Pauper, where the bar for black creatures is already set by cards with actual enters-the-battlefield effects and statlines that don't require a second mortgage in activated costs, Frozen Shade doesn't make the cut. In Commander, 99-card singleton gives it no help — the format rewards permanents that do something the turn they land, and a 2/3 that needs repeated investment just to trade with a Grizzly Bears equivalent is not that. Vintage has better things to do with black mana on turn two. This is a bulk common that has never found a competitive home in any format where it's been legal.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.17 bulk tier
At $0.17, Frozen Shade sits firmly in bulk territory, and nothing about its power level suggests that changes. It's the kind of card you find in a draft chaff box, not one you track down.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.