We've got a slipup, I repeat, we have a slipup! In Tavish's recent reveal, Blizzard has accidentally (or maybe purposely) revealed the identity of a new secret card coming in Fractured in Alterac Valley - Ice Trap.
Now, to be clear, we are not 100% certain this is the exact card that we'll see as the rarity and text is not known, but looking at the other secrets present within Tavish's Improved Secrets, they are all doubled in effect so we cut this one in half.
Note that although Ice Trap is a collectible card, we do not know its rarity yet so we haven't put the gem on the card - we don't need to be assuming that! In the case that we're wrong about the effect, please accept our apologies in advance and we'll be sure to issue a prompt correction once it has been officially confirmed.
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Comments
No.
I think this card will be run in hunters just because it slows down opponents, akin to Mana Burn. Otherwise, I think card is just stopped Big Spell Mage from ever having a chance to shine. Not that it had a very good chance to begin with.
A spell counter for Hunter is a very big deal, even if it only delays it a turn (or two). A little extra time is often the only thing a Hunter needs.
When you consider how Oh My Yogg! works and how players play around it, this card is just underwhelming.
The problem is that you're paying 2 mana to potentially waste your opponent's mana, not stop the spell from happening. So what they'll do is to play cheap spells to trigger this, get it sent back to hand, and then continue their turn unabated. Chances are good you'll end up spending more mana than they have because most decks have 1 mana spells somewhere. Gets worse if they have the coin, which is like bartering to rid your secret.
But for being what is essentially a hunter Counterspell, it might still see play regardless, or at very least function like all secrets have regardless of its powerlevel - striking fear into your opponent's hearts. For that reason, this card still gets high praise from me. Just wished the increased cost was 2 instead of 1.
Oh My Yogg is easy to play around because it’s one of two Secrets that a Paladin might cast. Hunter will (hopefully) end up in a place with 3 or 4 viable secrets. If you keep casting 1-mana spells to test for it, you’ll use a lot of spells inefficiently.
I agree with you that it can whiff, but I’m ok with that. Part of the risk of Secrets is that they might whiff or take too long to trigger, and the payoff is that other times you get a lot of value from them. I like this one mainly because it fleshes out the Hunter’s Secret package in general. Most of their secrets do damage and/or punish you for attacking. This one disrupts your turn, which is something new to consider.
Agreed for the most part. Im clearly not giving this card its dues, but I still dont think its as good as Oh My Yogg! or even Counterspell. Perhaps I'll get egg on my face again weeks after the expansion, when we discover that even a weak hunter counterspell will wreak the entire meta simply because being able to delay a spell as hunter might just not be fair.
Your last point may be the most important one. Losing your turn can be a lot more devastating against a Hunter than it is against a Paladin or Mage.
That'S actually an amazing (and ever so slightly unfair) disruption tool. It's basically Counterspell for Hunter and unlike Oh my Yogg it can't backfire.
Very clearly a freezing trap for spells. While it's not entirely bad, it feels odd to put a cult neophyte effect on a card and make it a permanent spell modifer. Obviously really good at disrupting spells that cost over 5 mana, so we'll have to see if this puts a damper on mage and priest stuff.