From what you’ve described and what I’ve tested there’s a lot of inconsistencies but the main one you’re complaining about is not one of them.
(Edit : I’ve added collapseable areas because this was hell of too long to scroll, there’s also a tl;dr)
Basics first.
- The default mage hero power is targetted. When you use it, you have to pick a target for it (obvious so far).
- When you chose the target, all on-arget synergies will apply.
- If you were not to chose the target, because you’re not the one actively using your hero power, the target is still picked, either at random or pre-established depending on the case (similar to casting a spell from an external source).
- For an on-hero-power-target synergies to apply on an hero power whose target is decided by an external source, it has to be studied case by case as it is for spells.
- The imbued mage hero power is not targetted, so no on-target synergy should apply
Examples
Examples with spells for point 4 :
You cast a targetted spell with nagaling.
You have Sethekk Veilweaver on board. It’s effect will not trigger because it reads “After you cast a spell on a minion”.
The nagaling is casting the spell, not you, so the on-target-cast synergy will not trigger.
Now if the target of your nagaling is a minion with elusive (nagaling isn’t a spell so it can target an elusive minion), then the spell will try to cast on that minion. Elusive’s text is generic and applies to all spells regardless of how they’ve been cast, so the spell will respect the on-target-cast “synergy” of elusive and will try to find another legal target to cast on instead.
Example wth spells for point 5 : an elusive minion can not be targetted by a targetted spell such as arcane shot, but can be impacted by non-targetted spells such as areas of effect like Arcane explosion, or randomly targetted spells like Arcane Missiles
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With that in mind, let’s check on-target hero power synergies.
Ice walker, Amplified Snowflurry, Spirit of the Dragonhawk, Reckless Apprentice, on their own and with the default hero power, they all work as expected.
Let’s combine them now and try to draw conclusions on how the game thinks these should work.
Default hero power interactions
- Ice Walker + Spirit of the Dragonhawk
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- Both read “Your hero power also [does X or Y]”. Both effects apply
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- In the eyes of Ice Walker, the extra targets from the spirit are still “Your hero power”
- Ice Walker + Reckless Apprentice
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- The efect of Ice Walker will apply on each minion hit by your hero power
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- In the eyes of Ice Walker, the extra targets from the Reckless Apprentice are still “Your hero power”
- Spirit of the Dragonhawk + Reckless Apprentice
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- The effect of the Spirit will NOT apply on each minion hit by your hero power
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- In the eyes of the Spirit, the extra targets from Reckless Apprentice are not “Your hero power”, despite its wording being the same as Ice Walker.
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- That is our first inconsistency
- Amplified Snowflurry + Spirit of the Dragonhawk
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- You will only freeze the minion that you have targetted
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- In the eyes of Amplified Snowflurry, the extra targets from the Spirit are not “Your next hero power”, despite your hero power having only be used once
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- That’s our second inconsistency
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- For that behavior to be consistent, the spirit should read something like “After you’ve used your hero power on a minion, fire it on the adjacents ones”. The wording can be improved but this could imply that the extra targets do not come from you
- Amplified Snowflurry + Reckless Apprentice
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- The effect of Amplified Snowflurry isn’t used
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- In the eyes of Amplified Snowflurry, the hero power from Reckless Apprentice is not yours
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- This is inconsistent with the effect of Ice Walker, however I will consider it as a reasonnable exception to the rule and will not count it
So that’s only the basics and we already have 1 exception and 2 inconsistencies. Let’s add the imbued hero power into the mix.
As stated in point 5, the imbued hero power isn’t targetted, so none of those minion should have a synergy with it.
Individually, that is true. Amplified Snowflurry will make it cost 0 but not freeze, Ice Walker will not freeze, Spirit of the Dragonhawk will not target adjacent ones.
So far, so good.
Imbued Hero Power interactions
- Spirit of the Dragonhawk + Ice Walker
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- Spirit of the Dragonhawk + Reckless Apprentice
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- Ice Walker + Reckless Apprentice
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- Reckless Apprentice will trigger your hero power for each ennemy and try to target them in the process if your hero power can pick a target. He will do so in the traditional Hearthstone “list of appearence order”. The first target will be the first ennemy to arrive on the board (usually, the ennemy hero) then each minion in the order they’ve been summoned
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- As for any other non-targetted spell, Reckless Apprentice will randomly cast the imbued hero power for each ennemy (if a minion for which the hero power has not been triggered dies in the process, Reckless Apprentice will not cast the hero power for this minion. he will alos not cast the hero power for a minion that would have been summoned during its battlecry)
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- what happens is that each ennemy will be frozen after each trigger of the hero power, in their order of appearence, even if they have not been hit by the hero power
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- So for some reason, in the eyes of Ice Walker, with Reckless Apprentice, ANY hero power will be considered as “Your hero power” AND to be targetted
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- This is our third and a heck of an inconsistency
If you guys are curious I have the tests replays for those tests, I’m not putting them now cause I don’t feel like digging in and sorting each case at the moment
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tl;dr : yes there are bugs, but no, your imbued hero power should not synergize with Ice Walker, Reckless Apprentice, Spirit of the Dragonhawk or Amplified Snowflurry (other than cost reduction)