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Commander Nexus
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  3. Svella, Ice Shaper

Command zone

Svella, Ice Shaper

Svella, Ice Shaper

Legendary Snow Creature — Troll Warrior

Svella wants a deck that casts extra spells for free off the top of its deck. It also suits a deck that makes an army of small creatures and attacks with all of them.

  • Mana cost1 genericredgreen
  • Red, Green ()
  • Power / toughness2 / 4
  • RarityUncommon

3 generic, tap: Create a colorless snow artifact token named Icy Manalith with "tap: Add one mana of any color."

6 genericredgreen, tap: Look at the top four cards of your library. You may cast a spell from among them without paying its mana cost. Put the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order.

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Cards That Fit Svella, Ice Shaper

Picked for what they do in Svella's deck. When two cards do the same job, the one with the lower comes first. All of them fit Svella's color identity.Mana ValueThe total amount of mana a card costs, all added up. A card costing two generic and one green has a mana value of three. Wizards renamed this from "converted mana cost" in 2021, so older cards and articles may still use the old name.Sol RingOpen the full glossary

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The 6 Cards

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The 6 Cards

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The 6 Cards

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The 6 Cards

Rulings for Svella, Ice Shaper

explain how Svella works in tricky situations. They come from Wizards of the Coast, the company that makes Magic.RulingThe official answer to how a card works in a tricky situation. Most rulings are written by Wizards of the Coast, the company that makes Magic, and a few are notes from Scryfall, the card database Magic players use. A ruling explains a card. It does not change what the card says.Open the full glossary

Wizards of the Coast 5 Feb 2021

If the spell has {X} in its mana cost, you must choose 0 as the value of X.

Wizards of the Coast 5 Feb 2021

If you cast a spell “without paying its mana cost,” you can’t choose to cast it for any alternative costs. You can, however, pay additional costs, such as kicker costs. If the card has any mandatory additional costs, those must be paid to cast the spell.

Wizards of the Coast 5 Feb 2021

If you cast a spell using Svella’s ability, you do so as part of the resolution of that ability. You can’t wait to cast it later in the turn. Timing permissions based on the card’s type are ignored.

Wizards of the Coast 5 Feb 2021

In some unusual cases, the order of your library will matter as you cast the spell from among the revealed cards. Remember that looking at the top cards of your library doesn’t change their order or allow you to change their order. You don’t put the cards on the bottom of your library until after you are done casting the spell.

Wizards of the Coast 5 Feb 2021

Snow is a supertype, not a card type. It has no rules meaning or function by itself, but spells and abilities may refer to it.

Wizards of the Coast 5 Feb 2021

Snow isn’t a type of mana. If an effect says you may spend mana as though it were any type, you can’t pay for {S} using mana that wasn’t produced by a snow source.

Wizards of the Coast 5 Feb 2021

Some cards have additional effects for each {S} spent to cast them. You can cast these spells even if you don’t spend any snow mana to cast them; their additional effects simply won’t do anything.

Wizards of the Coast 5 Feb 2021

The {S} symbol is a generic mana symbol. It represents a cost that can be paid by one mana that was produced by a snow source. That mana can be any color or colorless.

Wizards of the Coast 5 Feb 2021

The Kaldheim set doesn’t have any cards with mana costs that include {S}, but some previous sets do. If an effect says such a spell costs {1} less to cast, that reduction doesn’t apply to any {S} costs. This is also true for activated abilities that include {S} in their activation costs and effects that reduce those costs.

Wizards of the Coast 5 Feb 2021

The spell you cast with Svella’s last ability is cast from your library.

Wizards of the Coast 5 Feb 2021

You’ll put the cards you didn’t cast on the bottom of your library before the spell you cast resolves.

11 rulings, all written by Wizards of the Coast. Read the originals on Gatherer ↗

Similar Commanders

Commanders that share the most with Svella, and what they share.

Color identityEvery color of mana symbol on a card, in its cost and in its rules text. Your commander's color identity sets the limit for your whole deck: every other card has to fit inside it. A deck led by a green and white commander cannot play a card with any blue in its color identity.Open the full glossaryRGPlayers write colors as letters: R for red, G for green.Cascade/Free CastCascade decks cast extra spells for free, straight from the top of their deck, every time they cast the right card. Cascade turns over cards from the top of your library until it hits a cheaper spell, which you may cast without paying for it.Open the Cascade/Free Cast pageFree CastCan be cast without paying its mana cost when a condition is met, often "if you control your commander". Because it costs nothing, you can still answer something after your mana is already spent. Fierce Guardianship, Deflecting SwatOpen the Free Cast pageCard SelectionImproves what you draw rather than how much: you look at the top few cards of your library and decide what stays on top. Ponder lets you rearrange the top three, Serum Visions lets you scry, and Consider lets you surveil. It makes your draws more reliable without giving you extra cards.Open the Card Selection pageMana SinkGives you somewhere useful to spend spare mana, usually through an ability you can activate again and again. Rogue's Passage, Mind StoneOpen the Mana Sink pageToken MakerCreates one or more tokens. Different cards make very different ones: creatures Grave Titan, Treasures Smothering Tithe, Clues Tireless Tracker or Food Gilded Goose. This is one of our largest tags, so pair it with an archetype or theme when you are hunting a specific kind.Open the Token Maker pageTokensToken decks fill the battlefield with small creatures made by their cards, then attack with all of them or make them all bigger at once. A token is a creature (or other object) that a card creates, not a card from your deck.Open the Tokens pageToken EngineMakes tokens again and again rather than once. A token is a creature or other permanent created by a card, with no card of its own. Something that makes one token gives you a body; something that makes them every turn gives you a board you can keep rebuilding after it is cleared. Grave Titan, Bitterblossom, OphiomancerOpen the Token Engine pageRampAn effect that accelerates your mana, giving you a reusable mana source beyond the usual one land per turn. Cultivate Rampant GrowthOpen the Ramp pageLibrary ManipulationCards that let you look at, rearrange or play from the top of your deck, so you control what you draw next.Open the Library Manipulation pageSnow-Covered PermanentsSnow permanents, like snow-covered lands, and cards that reward you for them. Some are paid for with mana from snow sources.Open the Snow-Covered Permanents page