2 manas make hero immune on the top of all insanely undercosted freezing effects make mage invencible and absolutely the terror of the meta.
Control priest or warrior so many cry rivers about it never feels so insanely overpowered and completely nuts.
Maybe a druid giving 80 damage from hand and quest priest can deal with them but that is it.
Well IMO with Mage secrets the issue isnt that just for 3 mana they can ice block and prevent dying for a turn. Its also you dont know what they freaking played in the first place. So you end up guessing around their secrets and playing off pace. You play minions on turn 6 you would have played on turn 4 or 5 because you had to play a small minion incase they get a copy. You have to attack in a way you wouldnt incase ice block is in play or they fry the minion attacking them.
For only 3 freaking mana Mages have the ability to screw up the other players turn order. Copy minions 3x the cost of their secret or counter spells 3x the cost and so much more. I have played HS since its first year and I have NEVER understood why secrets are so tolerated. Go look at a physical board or card game that tries to do crap like that and it gets TERRIBLE reviews. Only in the digital/CCG card space do such unfair value plays seem to not be broken to the player base.
Do you use Deck Tracker by chance? It helps to determine what secrets are likely in play.
Secret Mage is one of the worst decks in the entire meta right now. People have tried to do well with it and it’s just straight-up bad.
Iv been debating installing it. Seems like an unfair advantage to me though since not everyone uses it. So in general iv avoided it til now.
And I dont think you should NEED to use a program like that to track a game mechanic 
You’re entirely correct. It is only a suggestion because it helps. The biggest help it provides me is actually counting the cards in my hand. I don’t know if it’s a visual problem on my end, but I have a hard time discerning the amount of cards in my hand. This isn’t to mention its other benefits.
I dont see the meta as a fair or justifiable thing to hide behind. Meta/competitive players cant let it sink in that many of us dont give a flying crap about meta. A card or deck not topping meta doesnt mean it doesnt have problems. First off it can just be inherently swing, uninteractive, not fun to play against or have any number of other issues. Second off not all of us care to be competitive and net deck just to be a top player. Plenty of us really really really cant stand playing ranked because this game has too many balance issues and has ALWAYS had too much luck to be taken seriously as a competitive endeavor. There are also TONS of people who are f2p and dont feel they have the cards to be competitive.
Again this game has two types of player. Competitive and casual. Those who want to rise the ranks constantly point to the meta and say anything not at the top of it doesnt deserve a nerf. But a ton of other peoples dont care whats at the top. They care whats not interactive, whats not fun, whats swingy etc etc etc. Thus why so many people here dont give a crap about Imps, while so many others are raging.
Just food for thought.
I managed to find what seems to be the best performing Secret Mage in standard right now. It is just below 50%, which means it is possible (not likely) to climb using it.
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People optimize their decks as much as they can to do better.
The issue with that is that “the meta” is often a “collective mind” rather than something done by a single person so the supposed goal of play as you want and have the same chance of winning is impossible.
Not even expert deckbuilders that are 100% capable of dealing with the metagame “play as they want”(in a sense of fun).
Even in a utopic world balance wise people would just play more of what they find fun doesn’t?
And that “Fun deck” would also have a specific matchup spread.
Therefore pushing decks in and out of the meta.
What people like you don’t get is that metagame not means overpowered.
You not need balance issues for a metagame to develop.
Ice Block is in Wild. End of argument as the entire format is busted.
Thats a silly excuse. Its like saying politics is broken so why vote. A problem is a problem and using whataboutisms that other things are broken as well is not a valid defense.
quest priest does not deal with them. druid soundly does. rogue somewhat does.
If it was broken, it would be part of the meta
hunter can too no matter which mage deck
I’m not trying to redirect. Team 5 has refused to do anything about Wild for years, and they have explained their reasoning many times.
If it doesn’t actually break the game in their view, then it is allowed.
And ice block can be played around. Plenty of players do it every day, including me.
Mages are OP as hell and needs nerfs.
Nightcloak sanctun needs to be 2 durability, it’s nuts how can they freeze your minions for 0 mana and it stays there forever.
There are other nerfs they could be done in order to make mage less opressive against board based decks.
*3 mana, but yes it’s a good card.
Compared to other 2 mana locations, it would be weak if it costed 3 with 2 durability.
Only against aggro decks, which demolish everything else.
I am playing freeze mage because the meta forced me to do so; it wasn’t fun to lose on turn 5 when I wasn’t playing a busted early game deck, so if I can’t defeat them with what I want, I defeat them with what HS offers me.
I still don’t think freeze effects are undercosted: the location is 3 mana freeze 1 every 2 turns, the 2 mana elemental freezes 1 as well.
Compared to what miracle rogue, aggro druid or imp lock can do, this is barely enough to survive.
It’s blizzard or nothing, the rest is just there to hopefully get to turn 6.
If you think freeze is undercosted and overpowered, what do you think of the current decks that can win on turn 3-4 because you couldn’t deal with their turn 1-2? Are they balanced?
(Example: trogg + turtle, you pass turn 1 and heropower turn 2.
Turn 3 they play herald of nature, but you don’t have an AoE.
You basically lost the game on turn 3, how fun!)
No it wouldn’t it would be balanced. It’s oppressive af now. It needs to be 2 durability
And mage is the reason people don’t wanna plsy board decks. It’s toxic af
this entire game is a sick joke now. Kill one class and another will take it’s place and you will be back here complaining again.
The game is broken, and it will never be balanced again without blanket nerfs and bans.
That’s the truth. Whether you believe? Is up to you.
Spooky Mage is in dire need of balance. It currently has no true weakness as it has board presence, control, utility, RNG, and incredible draw ability. I never understood giving control decks heavy board presence. It completely counters the only counter towards it…