again, it effects your own permanents, rendering your own shields/weapons/etc frozen for the same duration, its a significant balancing mechanism, especially in water where permanents can provide key support
I understand that it freezes your permanents too, I even noted it in several places in the analysis. That is indeed a potent balancing mechanism. I'm just not so sure it is a strong enough to warrant such a low cost.
Yes I agree water does rely greatly on its shield for protection, but at a cost of 2
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, this card is easily splashed into almost ANY deck.
Even deflagrate has a cost of 3
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. I think this card should be on par with that.
My reasoning is that deck strategies exist that make little to no use of permanents beyond pillars and pendulums.
I am worried that this card will provide too much benefit for such deck strategies as it will allow them to seriously disrupt other decks that do need non-stacking permanents (namely shields and weapons).
On a related note, will the freeze affect immaterial permanents (e.g. hope, morning star, etc)?
As an aside, I do really like that this provides a more effective counter to Dim Shield and Bonewall than standard PC. That is something that I think many players will applaud greatly.