Hearthpwn

#4 - Absolute Zero

Whereas Frigid Desolation represents the Low-end Shatter synergy, this is as good as it gets. For a 9-mana two card combo, you can silence and destroy all enemy minions. The card was costed at 6 specifically so that the mana cost could be driven all the way up to 9 mana. The only other card you can play here assuming you haven't reduced the cost of these spells is probably something like Soul Harvest.

#5 - Lich Slap

Ah, Lich Slap. This card isn't the most "ultra-efficient, auto-include 2" like some other cards are. This card has some uses, like tagging on a tiny bit of extra value for AoE ice combos, or serving as a cheap trigger for single-target ice combos (which will become clear in the next set). It's a 0 mana Freeze with the downside that it gives the water elemental effect to whatever it hits. While this usually means that you get a drawback when you use it on an enemy minion, there are some cases that you can use it on your own minions, as you will see below.

#6 - Frost Maiden

 Lich joins the "1 mana 1/3" club. This is an excellent card for what I'll call "Tempo Freezing", which is using minor freeze cards (like Lich Slap and other upcoming cards) to freeze just a few minions to stop your opponent rather than trying to fully halt their board or shatter it. It's great when your opponent has a 3-mana minion frozen for this to kill, rather than something you try to save to kill a bunch of minions. It combos doubly well with Lich Slap: Lich Slap the enemy minion and hit it with this. Although this card gets frozen, it's immediate hard removal. Or, if you're up to the risk, you can actually Lich Slap this minion, and then it will indeed become "destroy any minion damaged by this minion."

#7 - Shadowfrost Lich

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With this card, we begin to transition out of the Ice focus for this week. Within the 4 themes of Lich, Ice easily synergizes with the themes of Death and Planning. Likewise, Shadow cards will also synergize easily with Death and Planning. However, if you look at Ice and Shadow, you'll find that they're as different as black and white (literally). Does this mean that you can't make a deck that has both Ice and Shadow? No! It just means that you'll have to use "connecter" cards, like this one right here. It takes your ice cards, and converts them into shadow synergy. It will be a staple in Malygos Lich, as well as an interesting card for new players to use in any of their Lich decks.

#8 - Devious Plan

 The second planning card! A two mana on-demand Thaurissan for your spells. A great card for helping you build your combos, especially in an Ice set, which has so many combos. Not only does it make some of the later game combos playable early (Frigid Desolation -> Permafrost goes from 4 mana to 2 mana!) but it also draws a card, which helps you a little bit in drawing into those combos if you don't have them. Note that you draw a card before the spell cost reduction, so if you've schemed enough to see that the next card of your deck is a spell, you get some extra value. I personally think this card is a little overcosted, but honestly the fact that you can play it on turn 2 instead of waiting till turn 6 is worth something in and of itself.

#9 - Soul Harvest

The death card for this week. A nice card to throw in after a Shatter combo, especially if it was one of the combos that killed your own minions too. It's easy to combo especially if you've Devious Planned it, and serves as one of the win conditions for super control / fatigue Lich. Watch as your opponent's Rags and Dr. Booms return from the dead on your side, while they're in the topdeck phase!

#10 - Annihilation

 And finally, the representative pure shadow card for this week. This is the kind of super simple card you'd expect from the basic set. Sure, you could say it's "Boring" because the effect is so simple, but it's charm really comes from the impact this card has. 7 damage to a minion for 4 mana, while balanced, feels like a lot. Combined with a solid animation, this card could feel epic to play as you completely erase a minion from existence with RAW POWER.

To see why this card is balanced, check out the spoiler below this one.

How in the world is 4 mana: Deal 7 damage to a minion BALANCED?

You might look at this card, and accuse it of being designed based on the premise that Shadow Bolt sucks (which is not okay), or say that I'm balancing based on fireball (which is purposefully OP, and as such other cards shouldn't be compared to it), or that regardless It's just OP. But allow me to explain...

As I was looking at cards like Savagery and Shield Slam, I wondered how they could possibly be balanced. I mean, shield slam can easily get to deal 10 or even 20 damage, for 1 mana. I mean sure, it requires setup, but still... if you balance minion damage off of Shadow Bolt, there's not that big of a difference between minion damage and regular damage... so how the heck is 1 Mana: Deal 20 damage to a minion even the slightest bit reasonable?

What I realized is that, unlike pure damage cards (which cap out at around a 29 mana value (29 Mana: Deal 30 damage is technically balanced), since if you increased the damage then it wouldn't matter (unless against a warrior) since the most value you can get is 30 damage, which is worth 29 mana) minion damage caps out at a slightly less than 5 mana value, no matter how high you set the damage. This is because of the card Assassinate, and the common notion that "Destroy a minion" is worth 5 mana on its own. That means you could make a card like:

And, it's actually slightly underpowered! This is because it gives the slight disadvantages of not being able to break divine shield and triggering enemy "whenever this minion is damaged" effects.

Anyway, back to Annihilate. Clearly, not breaking divine shield and triggering effects is not enough of a drawback to justify a card like Holy Moly! to cost only 4 mana. As such, the value we have to choose for damage shouldn't kill every minion in the game. That's why I chose 7, because while it kills most minions, the fairly large category of 8 and 12 health minions escapes this card. I think that a drawback like that is enough to justify a 4 mana cost. Even if it is a little strong, remember that this card isn't a damaging card, it's just a different way of going about hard removal. And this is a game where "execute" is considered balanced...