They were quickly asked by Richard Garfield to create a Magic expansion, and Chris Page was assigned to join the team. The ' East Coast playtesters', consisting of Skaff Elias, Jim Lin, and Dave Pettey, that had helped Richard Garfield with the original Alpha set of Magic decided that they could create a 'more interesting' set. Names were largely Scandinavian in character, and occasional runes and Norse-style clothing and armor can be seen in the art. The setting was based largely off of Norse style mythology and culture. New cultures arose on the ice, fighting bitterly for survival, but when the necromancer Lim-Dûl unleashed a horde of undead, old enemies were forced to work together or be overwhelmed.

All the major civilizations of Terisiare had been destroyed by either the war or the ice. That war ended with the Sylex Blast, which was powerful enough to alter the planet's climate the slow creep of glaciers, the mighty gales of blizzards, and the numbing cold of lumpy winters have all combined to make Dominaria a dark and frigid world. The Ice Age storyline, like the earlier sets that took place on Dominaria, occurred on the continent of Terisiare, where the Brothers' War had taken place. It was also the first set to have a prerelease tournament (Toronto, June 2–4, 1995). Ice Age was the first Magic expansion that was released in French, German, Portuguese, and Spanish. It was the first expansion to have boosters with foil wrappers and artwork ( Jester's Cap, Dire Wolves, Scaled Wurm, Pygmy Allosaurus, Karplusan Yeti). Ice Age was the last set to have 10 starter decks in a box. The cards were sold in 60-card starter decks and 15-card boosters. The print run is estimated at 500 million cards.

It was released in early June 1995 and went out of print in February 1996, although it did not really dwindle in availability until the end of 1996. Unlike earlier sets, Ice Age didn't have a fixed printrun, but was only available in a certain time period. The plan was scrapped for legal reasons and recognizability. His original idea was that the game would keep reinventing itself and when Ice Age came out, it would be named as 'Magic: Ice Age'. The Ice Age non-basic lands have a unique ice-colored text box.Įven though Alpha was released with the name ' Magic: The Gathering' it wasn't originally Richard Garfield's intent that this would always be the name. The expansion symbol of the set is a snowflake, to symbolize the arctic nature of Dominaria at the time. Ice Age is the first expansion to have a cycle of 'color hosing cards'. It was also the first expansion to use the new tap symbol that was introduced in Fourth Edition. Ice Age is the first expansion to use the new white mana symbol ( ) that was first introduced in Fourth Edition and is still used today.

All in all the set included about 8% reprints of old cards and another 8% of the cards were functional reprints. Because of this, it was the first expansion to reprint all five basic lands, staple cards like Swords to Plowshares and Giant Growth and popular older cards.

It is notable for being the first standalone Magic expansion set it could be played independently of other Magic products. Ice Age contained 383 black-bordered cards (121 rare, 121 uncommon, 121 common, and 20 basic lands).

Garth deck list for shadow era