Frost Walker is a high power creature for a low mana cost, but he’s pretty fragile. Not just because he has 1 toughness, but if it’s targeted by a spell or ability, he will be sacrificed. You might think he might do alright in a control deck – I mean, if the opponent targets it with some spell to kill it, you can just counter that spell and keep your Walker around, right? But you’d be wrong.
The Walker’s ability triggers when it becomes the target of a spell or ability. That trigger will actually resolve before the spell or ability that triggered it. And once that triggered ability is on the stack, countering the spell or ability that caused the Walker’s ability to trigger in the first place won’t affect the Walker’s ability. The Walker was already targeted, and it will still be sacrificed when the triggered ability resolves.
So keep that in mind the next time you have a Frost Walker on the battlefield: if your opponent is targeting your Walker with some spell, don’t bother wasting your counter spell on it: your Walker is going to die, no matter what you do to that spell.
Today’s Rules Tip written by Nathan Long