When is this card being rotated out of standard? It’s been wildly broken in all metas for at least five years now.
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It’s unknown, because it’s not from a recent expansion which are rotated every year, but at the core group which are at the whim of the Devs how long they stay up.
I am aware, it is part of the original core set. Which is why I don’t understand the issue with rotating it out. It should have been dropped along with ice lance.
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Probably, “staple of the class”, same reason people whine about shadowstep but it’s still in.
Shadowstep is almost certain THE best card in the entire game, -2 cost battecry replaying.
This is what I do not understand, they’ve gutted classes before because current standard cards did not fit their future ideals for the game.
Like the example I used, ice lance was a core card for mage. They deleted the crap out of it and didn’t even give anything to compensate (mages literally had the fewest core cards in the game for 1-2 years).
Of which Rogue has almost a ~70% win rate from Diamond 5 - Legend right now and it’s been up there for around two weeks. That’s a serious problem and it’s 100% because of shadowstep and preparation. No deck should be over 60%. Ever.
To be fair this is closer to a “powerful tools but no cards to play as standalones” situation. Similar to priest having some of the most obscenely OP cards at stealing the cards of others, but their own cards aren’t great as standalone threats (even Aman’thul is not a threat if it just stays there as a stick being a minion).
E.g. imagine if a Pala could steal cards or re-play battecries, the handbuff deck would be obscenely OP.
Ice lance was literally the exact same way. It was only good in junction with other cards, but combined it broke the game. Which Blizzard acknowledged and dealt with PRIOR to the new set coming in that would cause the broken interaction.
Sure but it doesn’t change the nature of the class. E.g. a priest being able to just steal your board and make it theirs is OP, but it’s still part of their identity (even if it’s annoying).
Basically they seem to allow certain powerful tools but they try to not overdo it in total. Have you seen how obscenely powerful Aman’thul is lately?
It actually does, because it was also used for CC and damage after freezing something, which is what mage used to be about. So them removing ice lance literally changed the primary function of mage decks.
I’m not convinced Ice Lance specifically would change much if it existed today, plenty of powerful spells seem to outclass it
E.g. you can spam the opponent board with multiple hits that lower the level of their minions (devastating to handbufs).
Preparation when? Preparation H
Yes it would be very strong if you ramped up your spell power. Frost bolt / ice lance combo is 7 baseline face damage in 3 mana.
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