This is the freeze mage combo. You have an ice block active and you play alexstrasza, or, with the help of Emperor Thaurissan, play them both at the same time, and then you FireballFireballFrostbolt, and possibly, also attack with alexstrasza.
Personally, I think this is just to strong. I don't think that you should be able to just deal 15 damage with 1 card, even situationally. Especially because the situation for this effect is that you do nothing.
I don't know why all of you guys started hating on alex and freeze mage as soon as the standard announcement was made. In your description you speak about the combo alex + ice block and next turn fireballs. Have you even ever tried to play freeze mage? For this combo you need to draw 3 legendaries, plus some spells. Mostly you will have this hand by the end of the game and not often at early stages, so most of the time there is a big chance you can rush the freeze mage down before they can kill you (except for control priests, but they got many spells and hero power that can counter freeze mage) Freeze mage has no problem.
Alex is mainly played in two decks, freeze mage and control warrior. So if Dr7 has never been nerfed why would they considering nerfing alex?
The only change that would be ok would be if they lower the stats of alex, f.ex. 4/4. So alex will cost a lot for those stats but her effect is unique.
I think Alex will be nerfed so it's a bigger healbot, perhaps restoring 15 HP to your hero. Right now she restricts future design space.
Please don't parrot that phrase without actually knowing what it means or being able to demonstrate that it's true. Alex does not "restrict future design space." That implies negative interactions with existing or potential new cards. If you want an example, go look at the comments about Dreadsteed and Animated Armor, both of which were supposed to be neutral cards but could not be due to negative interactions with pre-nerf Warsong Commander and Master of Disguise / Conceal, respectively. This is why Warsong was nerfed into oblivion as opposed to tweaked and why Master of Disguise is on the nerf chopping block despite never seeing play.
Alex, other than Dragon tribe, does not interact with other cards; and it costs 9 mana. It is therefore virtually impossible for it to "restrict future design space." Please give that specious argument a rest.
I think Alex will be nerfed so it's a bigger healbot, perhaps restoring 15 HP to your hero. Right now she restricts future design space.
Please don't parrot that phrase without actually knowing what it means or being able to demonstrate that it's true. Alex does not "restrict future design space." That implies negative interactions with existing or potential new cards. If you want an example, go look at the comments about Dreadsteed and Animated Armor, both of which were supposed to be neutral cards but could not be due to negative interactions with pre-nerf Warsong Commander and Master of Disguise / Conceal, respectively. This is why Warsong was nerfed into oblivion as opposed to tweaked and why Master of Disguise is on the nerf chopping block despite never seeing play.
Alex, other than Dragon tribe, does not interact with other cards; and it costs 9 mana. It is therefore virtually impossible for it to "restrict future design space." Please give that specious argument a rest.
Ice Block needs a change if something, especially when Kezan is leaving. In most cases Ice Block is essentially 3 mana - take an extra turn.
Pretty sure there will be another neutral anti-secret tech card in the next expansio for that reason. I guess something that destroys all enemy secrets, which also tackles Secret Pally.
I don't know why all of you guys started hating on alex and freeze mage as soon as the standard announcement was made. In your description you speak about the combo alex + ice block and next turn fireballs. Have you even ever tried to play freeze mage? For this combo you need to draw 3 legendaries, plus some spells. Mostly you will have this hand by the end of the game and not often at early stages, so most of the time there is a big chance you can rush the freeze mage down before they can kill you (except for control priests, but they got many spells and hero power that can counter freeze mage) Freeze mage has no problem.
Alex is mainly played in two decks, freeze mage and control warrior. So if Dr7 has never been nerfed why would they considering nerfing alex?
The only change that would be ok would be if they lower the stats of alex, f.ex. 4/4. So alex will cost a lot for those stats but her effect is unique.
Bed brode and multiple devs are on record with saying they dislike Freeze mage and its the only deck that has been nerfed because its unfun to play against not due to balance or other reasons. Antonidas is the card Brode wants to change according to a recent reddit post.
Having played 300-400 freeze mage games I can say its pretty boring everything you do is pretty obvious once you've played enough games and your opponent's choices matter not unless they run very specific tech cards which are likely going to win / lose them the game anyway.
This is ultimately why Freeze Mage will get nerfed if it gets nerfed. This will be an interesting case because it really provides an insight as to whether Blizzard cares about competitive, skill-based play or just selling card packs to casual players. Freeze is a technical, complicated deck that is not easy to pilot but does well in tournament formats. It would be a real shame to see it nerfed since it is obviously not overpowered and is a unique playstyle (particularly since Anyfin Pally will lose a lot of burst in Standard w/o Old Murk-Eye).
I would personally prefer to see Blizzard actually support some niche denial-based strategies (Freeze and Mill are the two examples of this now; but a discard-driven Warlock deck would be another example) just because of the value of a diverse meta; but I suspect they will continue to primarily foster the traditional Aggro>>Midrange>>Control>>Aggro meta-game with the occasional combo deck.
Im pretty sure Freeze Mage is a thing of the past now that Mad Scientist will be gone, folks.
I'd like to remind you that Freeze Mage has been around since forever.... It existed way before Naxx was released and it was even nerfed pretty harshly so it didn't exactly suck..... Losing Scientist will be a really bad hit,but with him also Loatheb,Kezan and Healbot are going away so the Deck gains more than it loses imo.....
The poll has spoken... Noobs keep complaining... Every few day this Thread is opened again. Alex is Not op. She isn't Even irreplaceable in freeze. Just to Test things i tried Running double pyro. It Works vor obvious reasons Not As good As Alex but still works.
That's not a good nerf. Also, probably not the kind of thing Blizzard would do if they were nerfing Alex. (More like "All your healing minions get +1 attack." /s)
I pulled a 2nd alexstraza from a pack lately.. I think freeze mage might be a deck blizzard doesn't like much being around forever the deck will always be there as long as the combo pieces and the freeze and stall cards are in the classic set, without deathrattle minions, and dr. boom it would be almost impossible to win against freeze mage with a mid range deck if the freeze mage draws decently..
I think the reason why alexstraza will be nerfed is cause it's stample for way too long time in control warrior too.. enabling 2 turn kills for control decks.
Control might be too strong since they will be nerfing a lot of aggro cards aswell specially the current strongest 2 aggro cards (Knife Juggler andLeper Gnome)
This is the freeze mage combo.
You have an ice block active and you play alexstrasza, or, with the help of Emperor Thaurissan, play them both at the same time, and then you Fireball Fireball Frostbolt, and possibly, also attack with alexstrasza.
Personally, I think this is just to strong. I don't think that you should be able to just deal 15 damage with 1 card, even situationally. Especially because the situation for this effect is that you do nothing.
So I propose the following change:
What do you think?
I like to make cards and discuss game balance.
I enjoy when "No similar decks were found."
My latest deck: http://www.hearthpwn.com/decks/1366184-scholomance-charge-rez-priest-wild
NO way
I think Alex will be nerfed so it's a bigger healbot, perhaps restoring 15 HP to your hero. Right now she restricts future design space.
I don't know why all of you guys started hating on alex and freeze mage as soon as the standard announcement was made.
In your description you speak about the combo alex + ice block and next turn fireballs.
Have you even ever tried to play freeze mage? For this combo you need to draw 3 legendaries, plus some spells. Mostly you will have this hand by the end of the game and not often at early stages, so most of the time there is a big chance you can rush the freeze mage down before they can kill you (except for control priests, but they got many spells and hero power that can counter freeze mage)
Freeze mage has no problem.
Alex is mainly played in two decks, freeze mage and control warrior. So if Dr7 has never been nerfed why would they considering nerfing alex?
The only change that would be ok would be if they lower the stats of alex, f.ex. 4/4. So alex will cost a lot for those stats but her effect is unique.
I don't think that 1 class out of 9 having a way to deal with it is any sort of valid reasoning.
I like to make cards and discuss game balance.
I enjoy when "No similar decks were found."
My latest deck: http://www.hearthpwn.com/decks/1366184-scholomance-charge-rez-priest-wild
No -- 20 dmg is still possible for a freeze mage: even higher with the OTK Mage deck that do not even use Alex
Even though there's nothing wrong with either the card or the deck, I dont mind if Alexstrasza gets nerfed.
I have 2 of them ready to be dusted :P
'There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact'
Sherlock Holmes
A problem? Yes. The problem? No.
CCGing since '98.
I don't think freeze mage will need a nerf in standard, but I guess we will see. Losing mad scientist is a pretty big loss for that deck.
Ice Block needs a change if something, especially when Kezan is leaving.
In most cases Ice Block is essentially 3 mana - take an extra turn.
Piloted Shredder, Knife Juggler, Mad Scientist, Dr. Boom
Need to be removed from this game
The problem with Freeze Mage is: There is none.
Arena Leaderboard EU - September 2018: #47 (@7.77 Wins Average)
Im pretty sure Freeze Mage is a thing of the past now that Mad Scientist will be gone, folks.
"この 先は 暗い 夜道 だけが も 知らない それでも信じて 進むんだ 星が その道 を 少し でも 照らしてくをるのを"
The poll has spoken... Noobs keep complaining... Every few day this Thread is opened again. Alex is Not op. She isn't Even irreplaceable in freeze. Just to Test things i tried Running double pyro. It Works vor obvious reasons Not As good As Alex but still works.
That's not a good nerf. Also, probably not the kind of thing Blizzard would do if they were nerfing Alex. (More like "All your healing minions get +1 attack." /s)
I pulled a 2nd alexstraza from a pack lately.. I think freeze mage might be a deck blizzard doesn't like much being around forever the deck will always be there as long as the combo pieces and the freeze and stall cards are in the classic set, without deathrattle minions, and dr. boom it would be almost impossible to win against freeze mage with a mid range deck if the freeze mage draws decently..
I think the reason why alexstraza will be nerfed is cause it's stample for way too long time in control warrior too.. enabling 2 turn kills for control decks.
Control might be too strong since they will be nerfing a lot of aggro cards aswell specially the current strongest 2 aggro cards (Knife Juggler andLeper Gnome)