New Mage Card Revealed: Frozen Clone
A new Mage Card has been revealed by Chinese Streamer, Ruo Ji!
Learn more about Knights of the Frozen Throne!
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Dunno why this is Common but sure...
I think this card will see play and might bring back Mirror Entity into mage decks.
Your opponent will try to give you small minions and usually they have a good battlecry - you gain them twice, which means your next turn can be value and tempo. If they give you a big minion you just gain value but more ressources for the late game. So either way, you gain more than loosing when playing this card - not to mention the mind games this cards creates just for it's existance.
the real mindgame of this card though, is that people could second guess themselves thinking its frozen clone and play a big minion, but you chose to run mirror entity, essentially winning you the game or giving you a huge advantage.
people really have forgotten how powerful mirror entity is since it hasnt seen play in a long time, but tbh i throw it in as a curve ball in alot of my late game mage decks and it works very well
i'd argue this is better than Mirror Entity in many situations, because many people attempt to bait out Mirror Entity with cheap minions where this situation it allows you gain the full benefit of your opponent's minion with battlecry. Mana cost of the played minion is regardless, because you still gain value whether your opponent plays Tirion Fordring or Doomsayer. Probably will see play in iterations of the tempo secret mage, especially since tempo secret mages often lack card drawing power and this sort-of acts like an arcane intellect.
It works well in secret mage because you really don't have much in the means of minions in the deck and this would help you at least get more of a board presence so your secret keeper (5/5 that loses 2 mana every secret) doesn't get nuked the turn it comes out. Now the opponent will have to weigh the benefits of using their removal on the minons you just got or will about to be playing.
Duplicate was compared to Arcane Intellect back when it came out, both focus on card economy, which for mage means to forgo tempo and invest mana into your win condition. Given how Arcanologist creates a mini engine in your deck, Arcane Intellect is right now best used after you exhaust most of your hand and look to fish for burn to finish the game, Freeze Mage being the exception . Duplicate saw its fair amount of play alongside grindier mages, with minions such as Sludge Belcher and Ethereal Conjurer in decks with a spin on exhausting their opponents resources (Fatigue Mage/Concede Mage). Again, given how the game has evolved, more card generation being introduced in the game and mage being shaped by spell generation, this card follows said flavor of that spin on Duplicate. If this card is to make it to the lists, this card has to advance Mage's gameplan considerably, that is, you have to consistently get an advantage off playing this. Either through your opponent making a suboptimal play and you capitalizing on other secret synergy cards like those in Secret Mage, or being on a slow meta in which you can extend the game to the point that you can wait for a high value target. In other words, either you decide this is the next best card for your greedy deck for a greedy meta, or somehow this card works like a better Mirror Entity in Secret Mage. I believe the way we'll see this card is with the tag "Created By: ..."
I think this card is good depending on what you get. Mirror Entity you get something on the board right away, while with this its added to your hand. With Entity, if they play a Doomsayer, you are kind of fucked. But with this card, if they play one you have two potential board clears.
I don't know if I will put it in my deck (like most secrets) but I would be all too happy to get it from some sort of spell generating card.
They only have 1 secret and that secret was determined before they played it, so it's not rng. You can think "either my opponent will summon a copy of my minion or gain 2 copies of it", and then chose what minion to play from there. A small minion with no battlecry would be most beneficial, but you can weigh your options to decide which outcome would be best if you don't have that. The gaining of the secret itself might have been random, but all of the decisions and counterplay you make from that point onward aren't.
It's a double-edged sword this one. What if your opponent gives the Mage high-cost minions that they can deal with, but they are slow to use for the Mage? 6+ Mana Cost. Mill the Mage with cards they won't use. Giving the Mage 2 1-Cost or 2-Cost cards could allow them to regain posture. Or Dirty Rat. Or why not 2 Howlfiend which they'll most likely never play :P
I was so focused on the affect that it took me a long time to even notice that Bliz probably just made this for the 'Frozen Throne' Rhyme pun.
I like that you don't play around this the same way you do mirror and potion of polymorph, at least not all the time.
I like it, rewards knowing your opponent's deck and timing it correctly. Can be used to screw with your opponent's line of play, or to preemptively snag copies of high value minions. And you even get to use battlecries.
it's interesting. most players before play a cheap shitty minion to fizzle out Mirror Entity but it seems with this secret, you would want something relatively cheap to be useful. I mean its fun to think of stealing some gigantic legendary, but i wouldnt be upset with getting Crystalline Oracle or even a Swashburglar
Indeed, the drawback to Mirror Entity is that Battlecry minions are much less useful for you because you don't get the Battlecry- but with this card you do, twice.
Kripp is not going to like this card...
Arena Mage are going to be more broken, with even more card generators!!!!
I think this can be good in a secret mage with all the reduce the next secret to 0 so then you can gain value from your opponent instead of your own where you're most likely still trying to produce your low cost 5/5. In other mage decks, I don't think so, but I may be wrong.
Imagine a paladin playing Hydrologist into this... oh god the horror.
But that can't happen, you can't discover out of class.