Hi everyone, hope all is well.
Just a quick question today: how do we feel about the current role of Ice Block and Sorcerer’s Apprentice in Wild these days?
For me personally I am very surprised that, after all these years, Ice Block is still in the game and Sorcerer’s Apprentice is still able to reduce costs below 1. Those two cards seem to enable most of the “fishbowl”/“solitaire” decks in Wild and I feel like relatively minor tweaks could still maintain the spirit of the cards while creating more fun and dynamic play patterns.
Thoughts?
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Sorcerer’s Apprentice for sure with the rule of thumb being “Can’t reduce spells below (1)”.
Ice Block is fine in wild, I wouldn’t nerf that card.
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Yup, that one has felt like a no-brainer to me for years…
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I think ice block is too strong: i have a deck that only draws and OTK with the new elemental that draws spells and the infinite fire spell; thanks to iceblock, i get 2 free turns.
Since i can otk on turn 9, i just need to draw and survive 7 turns.
Sorcerer’s apprentice should have been nerfed ages ago; since they didn’t nerf it when it was standard, now it seems strange to nerf it; i guess she is fine
Yeah, I mean continuing to make a bad decision doesn’t eventually make that decision good lol…
For Ice Block, I wonder if they could just change the wording so it only triggers once you’ve taken a certain amount of damage… so you need to take at least like 5 damage before it triggers or something. Still saves you from death in most scenarios, but prevents abuse.
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It’s so easy to play it on turn 3 and feel safe for the rest of the game; then you play another one and gg
Yup, and combining that with massive OTK potential through apprentice is a pretty toxic direction for the class if you ask me…
I think Sorcerer Apprentice was fine before they decided to give 1 million draw cards that also are cheap (or even restore mana).
What I want to say is that you could estimate the damage potential of a Mage just by looking at their hand, now you have to estimate their potential to draw the whole deck and burn you at the same time (also just casting Incanter’s Flow once makes the whole situation stupid). Given these conditions, I definitely wouldn’t mind a “but not less than (1)” to limit them.
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I don’t see how Ice Block is un-interactive though. They cast it on their turn, for 3 mana (or for discount/0 through the incredibly synergistic secret package) for a “i get another turn in the future”. However, there is a ton of secret tech in wild that can destroy it (and/or a mage can counterspell it in certain situations). It’s also not the only card that does this stall tactic which I totally understand is annoying, but Cloak of Shadows, which is in both wild and standard, accomplishes the same thing except that the rogue can decide when it would like to activate its stealth. Cloak is more versatile (and since your opponent cannot destroy it) it also does have some work-arounds in non-targeted damage in things like a knife vendor or quest warlock killing itself, etc.
Again, it’s an annoying card, but it does offer up interactivity and counter-play so of all the things that are busted in wild, this doesn’t really feel like it. If I am say, playing odd hunter and a mage casts ice block for 3 mana and I get to destroy it with flare (and draw a card) for 1 mana, I am pretty happy with that trade.
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Yeah, I’ve never really felt that Ice Block was broken per se, just a deeply unfun card in the context of a class that doesn’t really need to do anything proactive to kill people… nerfing one or the other could potentially be fine, not necessarily both, so I guess we are in agreement lol.