Hearthpwn

Quote from LordPikachuStarscream >>

Quote from Supuhfuzz >>

I don't understand how people say there are counters to Ice Block. 

Flare, Kezan Mystic, Eater of Secrets, Curse of Rafaam. 

If you remove ice block then I feel like mage is going to need reworked.  A big part of mage's identity and strength is built around this card.  Removing it would be gutting the mage class IMO

Quote from Zukuu >>

Quote from craigrs84 >>

If you remove ice block then I feel like mage is going to need reworked.  A big part of mage's identity and strength is built around this card.  Removing it would be gutting the mage class IMO

If only warlock had a spell that would be the epitome of its class identity. One that would sacrifice a minion in return for power and that would make  Void Terror and Shadowflame more playable... oh...

Just killed an Exodia Mage through Ice Block by fatiguing him with Naturalize. 

Thought that was pretty relevant. 

Quote from Bannanawaffles >>

Quote from SleepTurtle >>

HS community really toxic.

complain about all the card when loses.

ice block only make people survive extra 1 turn. What is the prob? And new freeze mage also very inconsistence.

the toxic player will only stop complain when HS become arena value games. So, they can put 30 legendary in deck to outvalue the newbie and f2p.

 The main problem people have is how consistent Ice Block has become. Arcanologist has increased the consistency of drawing the card to a whole new level, Primordial Glyph has allowed for a potential *4* ice blocks, before counting cards like Babbling Book and Cabalist's Tome's tendency to also give Ice Block. 

Mages now have a window of 2-4 safe burst turns to get you down, which I admit is very frustrating. 

 

Thing is, all that aside, I don't actually agree the card should enter the Hall of Fame. It's almost single-handedly responsible for Mage's play style and it *is* a well designed card. I feel like removing it without a ton of mage support being added would seriously damage the class. 

I really don't know if mage decks are going to survive if they send Ice Block to wild... It's seen in pretty much every mage decks and it really helps mages do something.

Quote from chromium624 >>

I really don't know if mage decks are going to survive if they send Ice Block to wild... It's seen in pretty much every mage decks and it really helps mages do something.

ITT: quest rogues being salty about the increasing ammount of freeze/burn mages

They didn't  Hall of Fame cards just because they were too good and played in every deck. Fiery War Axe is still played in every Warrior deck ever.

When it comes to Ice Lance, it was probably a case of the team making a new, interesting card/archetype (possibly for next expansion) and someone noticing that the sleeper card, Ice Lance, could make it way too OP. Imagine a WoW mechanic, Shatter, being introduced, where for instance frozen enemies take double damage. Instead of redesigning the whole archetype, throwing days of work into the trash, they simply Hall of Famed the problematic card.

Ice Block is a different kind of card. It was created with it being OP in mind. Thanks to this thing archetype like Freeze Mage can even exist, and Hall of Faming it would remove a beloved archetype from the game.

Quote from Okacz >>

The sleeper card, Ice Lance

Quote from Justice171 >>

Quote from Okacz >>

The sleeper card, Ice Lance

 The Sleeper card Ice Lance?

Somehow I knew the reply 'only said it once' would come. Don't take images like these as literal. 

However, Ice Lance was a big problem. It was a 0 mana (Thaurissan) deal 8 - 10 damage. (depending on having Thalnos) in a deck that revolves around burst damage. It has not been rotated because it was game breaking, it was rotated because the developers want Freeze mage out of standard because it's a deck that's been around since the beginning of Hearthstone.

Unfortunately for Blizzard, they apparently did not play-test with a 'Ice Lanceless' freezemage deck, as Freeze mage is still very viable.

I do agree that Ice Block would have been a better fit to rotate if the intention was to delete Freezemage from standard. On the other hand, I would also have agreed to nerf Small Time Buccanneer 2 months earlier, as would I have agreed to many other stuff Team 5 didn't do.

once they add a side board it will all go away

Giving me a golden one isn't gonna change my mind, Blizzard. Lol

Quote from Okacz >>

They didn't  Hall of Fame cards just because they were too good and played in every deck. Fiery War Axe is still played in every Warrior deck ever.

When it comes to Ice Lance, it was probably a case of the team making a new, interesting card/archetype (possibly for next expansion) and someone noticing that the sleeper card, Ice Lance, could make it way too OP. Imagine a WoW mechanic, Shatter, being introduced, where for instance frozen enemies take double damage. Instead of redesigning the whole archetype, throwing days of work into the trash, they simply Hall of Famed the problematic card.

Ice Block is a different kind of card. It was created with it being OP in mind. Thanks to this thing archetype like Freeze Mage can even exist, and Hall of Faming it would remove a beloved archetype from the game.

Am i the only one that thinks Primordial Glyph is a even worse deisgn than ice block? Turn 8 pyroblast, 4 ice blocks, surprise conditional polymorph, that needed Meteor in sticky situations and Primordial Glyph into a Primordial Glyph with a Mana Wyrm on board, basically making it possible infinite or really high dmg. It's basically everything you need without a downside.

Ice block is troublesome, but there are things that are more broken and make mage not a big problem. There is the new Kripp tempo mage that uses it which is quite cheap, but what really makes the deck shine is the extra burst from primordial.

Quote from IcySoul >>

Also besides Freeze mage The Exodia Mage right now is not that great, without iceblock would be a dead quest.

I'm pretty sure the fear with Ice Lance was at least in part due to a card like Primordial Glyph and future cards that might make it too easy to just go completely off with any bit of Spell Damage.  As it was, with Evolved Kobold you could have a turn where you went Frost Bolt x 2 Ice Lance x 2 for 22 damage for 10 mana. If you hit a lance or a frost bolt (or 2) off Glyphs during the game you could easily OTK without even needing the quest.

I get the feeling Blizzard really likes Freeze Mage despite the anti-OTK rhetoric. They probably like the flavor of the deck. It is very reminiscent of the way Frost Mages PVP in WoW (at least when I played wow).