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On a side note, the few times I encountered Rogues using Conceal (back when it was available), the primary issue was never stand-alone high-value cards such as Arcane Giant that could obliterate my hero's face regardless of whether they were concealed or not, it was usually a really buffed Edwin VanCleef or Questing Adventurer. Rogues spent a lot of low-cost cards to buff those two to really big numbers, so obviously they don't want my Priest to simply Shadow Word: Death, Mind Control, or (since it hadn't been rotated out yet) Entomb it, hence the need to Conceal it to make it untargetable. So in that sense, Dispel Magic is a very good counter in those situations, as it doesn't just remove the Conceal, it removes all the buffs.
Also, I know Blizzard doesn't remove the concealed minions; it doesn't usually need to. The two damage from Blizzard, followed by the four damage from the Turn 7 Flamestrike, will usually do that. If not, just follow up with another Blizzard or Frost Nova. Or again, Doomsayer on the board after you've frozen it. (After all, all the Mage has to do is survive another round or two with her Ice Blocks before using Alexstrasza to knock one's opponent down to 15 HP & then burn their face with two Fireballs & a Frostbolt on Turn 10...)
I would love to see Ice Block deleted from the game, it's the epitome of non interactive cards in Hearthstone and facilitates even more non interactive decks. Blizzard should be able to design "smarter" cards for Mage sustainability than "nah na nah na nah na, you can't kill me." I could do it in right now, like; Secret, 3 mana - whenever a character attacks your Hero, Freeze all enemy characters. At least then you'd still be able to do damage with Charge, Spells and Hero Powers to end the game.
Imagine this scenario. Your opponent is playing a Freeze Mage with 4 cards in his hand with 6 Health, Ice Block up and no board. Those four cards are 1 Fireball, 1 Pyroblast, 1 Ice Block and Alexstrasza. You on the other hand are playing an Evolve Shaman with 25 Health and Thing from Below on your board. In addition, you don't have any burst damage or buff cards in your hand or deck. It's your turn and you play another Thing from Below, fill up your board and roll a taunt totem. You attack face leaving the Mage on 1 Health with a Ice Block up. Your opponent plays Alexstrasza setting your Health to 15. You attack face and trigger Ice Block and trade with Alexstrasza. Your opponent puts down his second Ice Block and Fireballs your face and pings it leaving you dead to Pyroblast lethal next turn. You trigger his second Ice Block and with no choice pass. Your opponent Pyroblasts you for lethal.
Without Ice Block, the Mage wouldn't have been able to get lethal. Ice Block allowed the Mage to stall 2 turns to deliver lethal. The worst part about it is you had no choice but to wait for another 2 turns to deliver lethal but in the end lost because of a card effectively saying gain one more turn. It's uninteractive because you as the Shaman couldn't do anything about the Mage stalling for more time and effectively stopped you from delivering lethal 2 turns earlier. Why do you Conceal was moved to the Hall of Fame? How to you kill a stealthed Gagetzan Auctioneer on turn 6/7. Most of the time no. With the stealth up, Auctioneer could potentially draw 5 or even more cards. Would you consider that to be healthy for the game and interactive? Animated Armour was originally meant to be a neutral card but was instead put as a Mage class card. Why you may ask? Because Animated Armour with Pre nerfed Master of Disguise meant only taking 1 damage to face per attack and not able to clear the permanently stealthed Animated Armour which is uninteractive. I hope you now understand what it means for a card to be uninteractive.
That was topdecked? Nah, it was because I let the Heart of the Cards guide me ;)
Personally I believe Eater of Secrets is enough as a tech counter. Besides, since this card has been one of the Mage class identity, I guess a nerf would be too much for Mage-lovers, and it would destroy so many long-existing decks. Rotating it is kindof not a bad idea, and we can make Standard a more welcoming environment for newly-released cards and decks, while Wild is a more fun environment that welcomes any idea.
Gotta love finding those contradictions. What you are essentially saying is Ice Block is uninteractive if it is as you say "Secret: When your hero takes fatal damage, prevent it and become Immune this turn. At the end of the turn, set your hero to the health amount that he started the turn with." Since the effect of Ice Block is "When your hero takes fatal damage, prevent it and become Immune this turn", your argument holds no water. You still become Immune for the turn. The extra healing makes little to none difference. A heal for 5 damage? Sure, I will deal 5 damage to you next turn with my minions on board. The uninteractive bit of Ice Block is becoming Immune for this turn, not healing for the amount of damage you have taken. The becoming Immune bit encourages uninteractiveness with dying to burst damage from you hand, not from minions on the board which is interactive. I just want Ice Block to be rotated to the Hall of Fame.
As the for Evolve Shaman analogy, you could literally substitute that with any deck. Lets for arguments sake say you where playing a TGT Priest which has various ways of healing such as 4 from hero power and Antique Healbot. You would still die from the burst damage that Old School Freeze Mage had after Alexing you. Bloodmage+2 Fireballs, 2 Frostbolts, 2 Ice Lances and a Pyroblast would still deliver lethal over the course of 2 turns. Ice Block promotes this burst uninteractive behaviour because you can ignore taking lethal damage because of Ice Blocks. My point is even classes with heal will still lose to the burst that Freeze Mage has and you as a Priest can't do anything about it cause of the Immune effect. I feel classes with heal or armour can't survive the burst over two turns, how can other classes deal with it?
In regarding to the tech in an Eater of Secrets argument, it is the nature of the tech card statline that determines whether it see play or not. Eater of Secrets has poor stats. 4 mana 2/4 is one of the worst stats a four drop can have. If it is a 3/4 or 4/4, I will guarantee you that it will see a ton of more play. If you weren't playing against a secret deck, a 4 mana 2/4 is way too slow for a turn 4 play. How does a 2/4 challenge a turn 3 3/3 or 3/4? It doesn't unless you use more mana on turn 5 to cast a spell or use your hero power to clear it. You will forever be losing tempo and playing reactively while your opponent plays proactively, two very different playstyles. If you play arena, playing a 4 mana 2/4 on curve is an almost certain loss with very little to non chance of coming back unless you have multiple ways of clearing the board. The best tech card that I believe that exists is Ooze. A 2 mana 3/2 with battlecry destroy a weapon, really good stats and good effect. Even if you aren't playing against a weapon class, you would still play it as a 2 mana 3/2. Same with the 2 mana 2/3 battlecry destroy a pirate. Even if you aren't facing a pirate warrior, it's still a solid two drop. Those cards still see play because of their statline. In short, cards with poor stats won't see much play. I teched Eater of Secrets for my decks to counter Mage but for too often it's subpar 2/4 statline is a liability in most of my matches against other classes. Sure it counters Ice Block efficiently, but what about the 8 other classes which only 2 have Secrets? In those other non secret classes, Eater would do little to nothing. Blizzard should buff Eater of Secrets to at least a 3/4, preferably a 4/4 or 3/5 so it can see more play.
That was topdecked? Nah, it was because I let the Heart of the Cards guide me ;)
Ice block is necessary. Should not be removed from standard because it gives mage one more turn to gather guaranteed-win cards. Mage experience is part of the diversity of Hearthstone, and diversity is the reason why Hearthstone is fun.
Hearthstone is fun to play
I say rotate it. It's been a staple of mage decks long enough to HoF it and gives mage something new to work with. I feel like the card by itself enables a lot of long standing archetypes that rely WAY too much on its existence.
I won't say that it's not fun to play against, because it's not like you can't play against it, but I feel like it's been mage's Azure Drake for the past few metas. But I feel like the reason they rely on it is because they suffer becoming like warlock or rogue who seriously buckle under pressure from lack of sustain.
Without the freeze/burn line of gameplay they really don't have a solid win condition aside from the ancient "play big stuff" method, which as we've seen with the lack of elemental mages, isn't really working for them. They need more deck archetypes or tools to enable something other than a super lategame combo like quest or freeze. Even secret mage relies on iceblock because their draw RNG can completely screw them.
Not saying to bring flamewaker bullshit back, but they need something.
Ice block is fine in wild because there are more counters there like loatheb.
But in standard it's just too annoying . Unless you have eater of secrets in your deck the mage is going to have a powerful extra turn and there is nothing you can do to mess with it .
Eater of Secrets works wonders for me.