All 9 Snow Commanders in Magic Ranked

Last updated on September 10, 2025

Isu the Abominable | Illustration by Victor Adame Minguez

It’s beginning to look a lot like winter. (Orange you glad I didn’t say “Winter is coming”?)

The snow card supertype in Magic really makes me feel at home. I’ve gone ice fishing. I’ve gone camping in the snow. I’ve ridden behind a snowmobile on a frozen lake while using an airplane tire as an inner tube. It’s not all fun and games, though: Cold exposure can be downright deadly.

But as a Commander deck theme, snow can be a lot of fun, especially as a change of pace when your games get stale. Grab your parkas and snowshoes: I’m your Informer on snow commanders!

What Are Snow Commanders in MTG?

Svella, Ice Shaper | Illustration by Andrew Mar

Snow commanders are legendary creatures and other eligible commanders that can serve in the command zone of a deck with snow cards and other snow theming.

The first place to look is, of course, the list of legendary creatures and commanders that have the snow supertype or that mention snow in their rules text, but that can be a little misleading. Reidane, God of the Worthy / Valkmira, Protector's Shield mentions snow on the front side, but it’s a snow-hating ability, not snow synergies. Reidane does nothing to help your snow deck, so it’s not a snow commander.

In theory, many lands-matter commanders can be tweaked to run a snow deck if you squint. I won’t be listing them here because that topic deserves its own time to shine.

Honorable Mentions

Jill, Shiva's Dominant, Shiva, Warden of Ice, and Snow Villiers put “Ice” and “Snow” in your command zone, but are really limited in their potential to lead a deck. At least the effects on the summon side of Jill are on theme with ice and tapping down your opponent's creatures. Snow Villiers is a cool effect, but more of the white token, go-wide variety and really fits better in the 99 of an aggro deck.

#9. Heidar, Rimewind Master

A 5-mana 3/3 without flying, ward, or vigilance? In this EDH economy? Heidar, Rimewind Master belongs in your snow deck to help you bounce problematic permanents back to your opponents’ hands, but a mono-blue commander for our snow deck just isn’t it.

#8. Kenrith, the Returned King

Another for the “good commander is good” file. Kenrith, the Returned King is a 5-color commander, and its various activated abilities are all useful in a way that supports many deck archetypes. A color identity lets you play any snow card you desire, which means it may sometimes be a snow commander you don’t even intend on taking out of the command zone. Nothing wrong with that; sometimes your deck chugs along just fine without it.

#7. Moritte of the Frost

Moritte of the Frost gives you a shapeshifter Simic commander (). Scintillating, like fresh snow in the morning sun. (I swear, if we get a “Frosted Foil” treatment someday….)

Moritte can enter as a copy of any permanent you control; it doesn’t have to be a snow permanent. My issue with this changeling is that it needs something to copy as it enters unless you cast it using snow mana with Boreal Outrider on the battlefield. Which, if the Outrider’s already on the board, you’d probably at least copy that, right?

#6. Svella, Ice Shaper

Oh nice! A snow commander that can pump out mana rocks for you. Snow mana rocks, nonetheless. You miss out on one of the Marit Lage cards in a Svella, Ice Shaper deck, but Etali, Primal Conqueror is good enough, right? A Svella deck that’s focused on snow is going to be stacked full of mana dorks and big-mana creatures, and some big-mana enablers like Fanatic of Rhonas or Nyxbloom Ancient.

Otherwise, I’ve seen many players build Svella as a land destruction commander. Not the worst lane to be in, since a Gruul commander () gives you a mix of land destruction to aim at your opponents and ramp for you, plus those Icy Manalith tokens mean you won’t rely on lands as much yourself.

#5. Esika, God of the Tree / The Prismatic Bridge

Like Kenrith, this is a good 5-color commander that you can use for your snow theme.

Esika, God of the Tree gives all your legendary creatures its own abilities, vigilance and the ability to tap for any color of mana.

Meanwhile, The Prismatic Bridge has an upkeep trigger that tutors out creatures and planeswalkers for free. Most Esika snow decks I’ve seen seem to be filled with as many gods as their builders can find (especially the Kaldheim ones), with some incidental snow in the mana base and among the noncreature spells.

#4. Narfi, Betrayer King

Listen, if you tell me I can cheat on commander tax, I’m instantly at least mildly intrigued. Narfi, Betrayer King reminds me of the Draugr of Skyrim, since it’s a lord for your snow and zombie creatures. A dedicated snow deck should have no trouble bringing this Dimir commander () back from the graveyard. Feels more like a budget zombie commander to me than a snow commander, though.

#3. Hylda of the Icy Crown

Hylda of the Icy Crown is a snow commander more in the flavor sense than in the mechanically sense (if we're going by mechanics, Hylda is Magic's best stun counter commander). This Azorius commander () from Wilds of Eldraine has ice in its name, and it rewards you for tapping your opponents’ creatures. Tapping and otherwise locking down your opponents’ creatures definitely fits into the theme of slowing them down. There’s a few Azorius snow cards that tap your opponents’ creatures or prevent them from untapping, including Icebreaker Kraken, and you can supplement them with other tappers from WOE and other cards with icy or snow card art.

#2. Isu the Abominable

So you’re telling me I can pay the same mana value as Narfi, but get a 5/5 yeti out of it?

Sign. Me. Up.

Isu the Abominable comes to us from Jumpstart 2022, and it’s a really strong option for your snow deck. As a Bant commander () you get access to a solid suite of snow cards across multiple Magic sets.

Its abilities lets you play snow cards from the top of your library, which means that scrying and surveilling are super useful here. Snow creatures also give you the opportunity to add +1/+1 counters to your commander, which can get brutal if your opponent isn’t drawing into their removal (or running enough of it in the first place).

#1. Jorn, God of Winter / Kaldring, the Rimestaff

Here’s the pitch: a Sultai commander () that gives you acceleration and recursion, just on different sides of the card.

Jorn, God of Winter’s attack trigger also untaps itself, leaving you with a board of snow creatures that are ready to defend and a fresh board of mana for your second main phase (or your opponents’ turns).

As for Kaldring, the Rimestaff, you have permission to cast a snow card from your graveyard. You still need to actually cast the spell, which follows normal timing restrictions. You can just play a snow land from your graveyard, too.

Of all the snow commanders, it’s really a toss-up that is more directly impactful between Isu and Jorn. One accelerates your ability to play cards by letting you dip into a topdeck strategy, while the other gives you mass untapping as an attack trigger. The only difference is the white and black in their color identities, but otherwise, their decks look fairly similar.

Best Snow Commander Payoffs and Enablers

Apart from the other snow commanders, your best payoffs are going to be snow cards themselves. I won’t list all the best snow cards here since there are over 100 cards with the supertype on them, but I’ll aim to give an overview of some of the ways snow cards play with each other.

Abominable Treefolk’s power and toughness are correlated to the number of snow permanents you control. Avalanche Caller can animate your snow lands into 4/4 elementals, while Boreal Outrider makes your creatures enter with a +1/+1 counter if snow mana was used to cast them.

Icebreaker Kraken gets increasingly cheaper the later in the game you play it, and this creature has built-in recursion to help you use it over and over. Dead of Winter can be a one-sided board wipe for you since it won’t touch your snow creatures.

You’ve got all the snow lands at your disposal, and Dark Depths gives you the Marit Lage win condition (big, scary flier). Note that both Dark Depths and Marit Lage's Slumber give you a legendary token with the Marit Lage name, so you can’t have both tokens on the field without outside help.

Thawing Conclusion

Jorn, God of Winter | Illustration by Magali Villeneuve

And with that, we can siphon the gas out of our snowmobiles and get ready for summer. I’m glad that Kaldheim gave us more reasons to care about snow. As someone who probably has shoulder damage from shoveling my driveway and lugging too many groceries through snowy sidewalks, I feel really seen with all these cards that show how deadly snow can be.

Which commander do you run at the front of your snow deck? What do you want to see from future snow commanders, and which kinds of Magic sets or planes do you think will bring us our next batch of them? Leave your thoughts in the comments, or come warm yourself by the hearth in the Draftsim Discord.

Until next time! I trust that you don’t need a reminder to stay away from the yellow snow.