Well, ice shield costs 6 
for a 30% freeze chance, and so if there's a monster that you want to duplicate, you would play it once you play the ice shield in case it freezes on its first attack.
So, best case scenario, you use 6 + 3*1 + 3 
= 12 to duplicate 23 creatures, and then wait 3 turns for them to unfreeze, so 21 quanta for 23 creatures.
average case scenario, you use 6 + 3*4 + 3 = 21 to duplicate three creatures, and then wait 3 turns for them to unfreeze, so 30 quanta for 3 creatures O_O
of course, it's probably very efficient with freezes and squids, but meh.
I think you mean
Average case
6 [Ice Shield] + 3 [Casting Cost] +3 [Absorb] +3 = 12 + 3 for N-23 creatures [would hold the mirror in reserve until the threshold N frozen creatures with enough turns remaining is reached]
Best case is 12 + 3 to use as a spell to gain 23 creatures. (The mirror does not need to continue to absorb. It can be destroyed either manually or by lack of quanta)
Worse case is 9 + 3 + (3 per turn) to gain N creatures.
15 quanta for 23 creatures best case is ridiculous. (However that is unlikely)
12 quanta + 3 quanta per turn for N creatures is a fair deal (However still unlikely)
More often it will return between these two values. Between fair and ridiculous is on the too powerful side.
Okay, wait. Have you ever had more than 2/6 creatures frozen at one time from an ice shield alone? I haven't...
Destroying it manually would mean dabbling in fire quanta for deflagrations/explosions, and this is already a water-aether duo. If you run out of water quanta, you wouldn't be able to have used water quanta for extra stuff. So basically, you won't be able to use a water stall if you plan on having no quanta for it to destroy itself. In that case, you'll have half the opponent's monsters on your side of the field, and when your monsters unfreeze, so will your opponents'.
No I haven't had more than 6 frozen. (I included the absolute maximums and minimums not the likely results)
The manual destroy was a comment about a rainbow spell-like useage. The run out a quanta was refering to a tactical low QI and variable quanta levels probably by including squids.
In my examples I was assuming the duo tactic would be to use
Aether Mark
Water Pillars
Squids for additional freezes and for control of water quanta levels
Ice Shield for heap mass (2-6) frozen per turn
Mirrors for primary win condition
(assorted other cards)
So the user would wait until there was going to be a sufficient advantage from playing the mirror. Then play the mirror. Then uses squids to reduce water quanta level to below 3 and freeze extra targets. Then uses mirror to gain more creatures but without having to pay the absorb per turn.
Ideally this lockdown would have high water quanta costs per turn so very little effort would be needed to achieve the lack of quanta needed to cheat the absorb.
So if I wait until there are 3 creatures that are frozen with enough turns left to be reflected.
Then I will get those 3 + 30% of the rest + 2 more from arctic squid to lower water quanta
6 [Ice Shield] + 6 [arctic squid freezes] + 3 [mirror casting cost] + 3 [Absorb] + 2 [last absorb] +3 [activation cost]
20 + 3 for ~ 6 creatures that have approximate thaw times of 2 turns (if thaw times are conserved)
That is about 4 quanta per creature about half of Twin Universe. (assuming card advantage and lack of ideal targeting cancel each other out)
six creatures? that's like 4 freezes, so you'd have to save up your freezes until late-game, when you'd probably be dead by then.
Or, if you're going the squid route, each squid costs 3
to play and 3
per freeze, so lets move everything up to congeal to better fit the "mass TU" theory.
permafrost and octopus in play.
octopus congeals one monster [3 quanta]
octopus congeals another monster [3 quanta]
mirror played and drains [5 quanta]
reflect activated [3 aether quanta]
7
[permafrost] + 9
[1 octopus congealing 2 monsters] + 3
[mirror played] + 3
[mirror absorbs] + 3
[activation cost] = 25 quanta for maybe 4 monsters. taking in the fact that octos can easily be CC'd and the delay between the copying and the actual use, i think it's pretty fair.
Also, I still think there's no way to "cheat the absorb." To make it last past the first turn (so you can activate the ability), you need at least 5
before you play it. So, it'd have to be like 3
per turn, save for one turn, summon--or congeal with--an octo the next turn to cheat and use ability. To me, 3
per turn doesn't sound like a good stall to me..
Give me the EXACT numbers, cards, and strategy for a deck using mirrors and then we can go all medieval pen-and-paper on Frosted Mirror's ass.
