Glacial Fortress
Land
This land enters tapped unless you control a Plains or an Island.: Add
or
.
- CMC
- 0
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- UW
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Magic 2011
- Price
- $0.63
- EDHREC rank
- #99
Glacial Fortress enters untapped for free in any deck running enough Plains and Islands, making it a functional dual land at essentially zero cost. Any Azorius or white-blue-x Commander deck — Temmet, Naktamun's Will included — should run it without deliberation.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy

Temmet, Naktamun's Will
Temmet, Naktamun's Will runs a tight two-color Azorius shell that needs reliable white and blue mana on curve, and Glacial Fortress delivers that untapped the vast majority of the time given how many basic Plains and Islands the deck runs.

Tidus, Yuna's Guardian
Tidus, Yuna's Guardian operates in white-blue and wants clean mana from turn one to execute its early game, so Glacial Fortress is a near-automatic inclusion at 78% of decks.

Ms. Bumbleflower
Ms. Bumbleflower sits in a multicolor identity that still leans on white and blue sources, and Glacial Fortress fills that role efficiently without the deck sacrificing a land slot to a tapped dual.

Éowyn, Shieldmaiden
Éowyn, Shieldmaiden's aggressive curve demands untapped mana early, and Glacial Fortress shows up untapped reliably enough in a base-white shell to earn its slot in over 81% of builds.

Shiko and Narset, Unified
Shiko and Narset, Unified is a white-blue deck that can't afford to miss early mana, and Glacial Fortress alongside other check lands and basics gives the manabase the consistency it needs.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
In Commander, Glacial Fortress is the default budget dual for any Azorius or multicolor deck with a meaningful Plains and Islands count — it enters untapped nearly every game past turn two, and at bulk price there's no reason to skip it. In Modern and Pioneer, it sees play in white-blue control shells where the check-land condition is met by basic-heavy lists, though faster aggressive matchups punish any early tapped land and push those decks toward fetchland-shock configurations instead. Legacy and Vintage don't need Glacial Fortress given access to better options, but it's technically legal if you're building on a strict budget. Oathbreaker mirrors Commander's calculus exactly — two-color white-blue decks run it as a matter of course.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.63 bulk tier
At $0.63, Glacial Fortress sits firmly in bulk territory and has stayed there across multiple reprints, so there's no value argument for or against — you buy it because it's the right card, not as a spec. It's one of the cleanest pickups in the game: strong enough to belong in competitive builds, cheap enough that replacing it later costs nothing.
Explore
Sources
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.