<p>Magnetic freeze-casting is a promising technique to create structures that are lightweight, yet relatively high strength for applications in aerospace, biomedical devices, and bone and tissue implants. Freeze-cast scaffolds previously have been hampered by a lack of strength in directions orthogonal to freezing, but recent work using fields generated by Helmholtz coils has provided a unique solution to effectively fully align the microstructure and increase ultimate compressive strength (UCS). Though the increase in strength that comes with aligning the microstructure is well documented, little is known about how this changes the failure mode of the scaffold. This work uses finite element models created from micro computed tomography (CT) scans of freeze-cast scaffolds, which are validated using experimental results. These models provide insight into the dominant failure mode of freeze-cast scaffolds and how it changes with microstructural alignment. The energy absorbed by different failure modes (e.g., buckling, ultimate compressive failure) within the magnetically freeze-cast scaffolds enables more informed applications and tailored scaffolds to best suit their applications.</p>