June 1995 - 140 Cards

Ice Age describes a world set in perpetual winter due to the events in Antiquities.. 

The Brothers' War, referenced in the set Antiquities and the Urza block, has thrown Dominaria into a drastic climate change. Most of society has been lost; all that remains are the soldier nation of Kjeldor, the barbarians of Balduvia, and the elvish society of Fyndhorn. These people must battle against the necromancer Lim-Dûl who has begun to conduct twisted experiments. Meanwhile the wizard Zur the Enchanter trains new wizards to survive in the harsh environment.

Ice Age was the first stand-alone expansion; that is, it was the first set that could be played independently of other Magic: The Gathering products and the first expansion to reprint all five basic lands.

In Ice Age almost 8% of the cards were functional reprints of already-printed cards; cards identical to cards in other sets. i.e, Fyndhorn Elves, a functional reprint of Llanowar Elves; Zuran Spellcaster, a functional reprint of Prodigal Sorcerer.

Snow Permanents - In Ice Age, a new type of basic land was printed: snow-covered versions of the five basic lands. Some cards had effects that were stronger when a player used snow-covered lands rather than normal basic lands, and some effects exposed players using those cards to additional weaknesses. Currently, snow-covered lands are the only basic lands ever printed beyond the five normal basic lands. This mechanic was expanded later in the Coldsnap set, changing the supertype snow-covered to only Snow, and thus able to appear on nonland cards.

Cumulative Upkeep - Cards with Cumulative Upkeep forced the player during every upkeep phase to add a counter to the card, then pay a cost for each counter on it. The mechanic would later influence the design of similar mechanics involving reduced cost for future upkeep (such as Urza's Saga's Echo and Nemesis's Fading). The Arabian Nights card Cyclone, designed before this mechanic was implemented, was later errata'd to use this mechanic, but since had been reworded to match the original version more closely.

Cantrips - Cards that allowed the player to draw a card at the beginning of the next player's upkeep. This effect was added to cards whose effect might not be powerful enough to warrant being put on a card but for the added card draw. Future sets would use a similar mechanic, but instead allowed the player to draw a card instantly.

Cooperation of friendly colors - Ice Age is the first set to seriously explore cooperation between friendly colors. While such cards existed even in the original Magic release, Ice Age has several cards revolving around this theme.

Single-Color Legends - Before Ice Age, all legendary permanents were either multi-colored creatures or Lands. This was due to the designers of Legends wanting these legendary permanents to be more exotic than regular permanents. By the time Ice Age was developed, this stance was softened, and the single-color legends Marton Stromgald and General Jarkeld were printed.

Notable cards

Necropotence - The linchpin of the "Necro" deck, this black card allows a player to trade life for cards. After the restriction of Black Vise the use of this card increased drastically. Necropotence was originally used to give aggressive black decks a way to refuel after putting all their cards into play. The first Necro decks were so dominant that competitive strategies were reduced to Necro or anti-Necro (decks that arose to oppose necro's dominance included Turbo-stasis and Sligh). This period is often referred to as Black Summer (1996). Necropotence was reprinted in 5th Edition, leading to another surge of Necro-decks in Standard. Later Necropotence was used in Extended decks such as Trix as the draw engine (in tandem with Illusions of Grandeur, also from Ice Age). Nowadays, Necropotence is banned in Legacy and restricted in Vintage.

Zuran Orb - This card also allowed a tradeoff; in this case, a player traded lands for life. This, combined with a casting cost of 0, made this card immediately a staple in many decks, including the Necro deck (where a player could trade the lands for life, and then the life for more cards), and the Ernhamgeddon deck (where a player could trade the lands for life instead of having them be destroyed by Armageddon). Another way to abuse the Zuran Orb was to sacrifice lands to it in response to playing Balance. Most competitive tournament decks played at least one Zuran Orb, including Tom Chanpheng's deck that won the 1996 World Championship. The Zuran Orb's power was such that it was eventually the first card from Ice Age to be restricted; though that restriction has since been lifted and Zuran Orb is now banned only in Ice Age Block Constructed.

Jester's Cap - The Cap was the most popular card when Ice Age was first released. Though by itself, this card does nothing to directly hurt the opponent, as it removes three cards from any players library – an entire deck strategy is rendered useless. Jester's Cap was also popular due to allowing the player to look at the cards in their opponent's deck.