Today in chat, the idea and value of the Shockwave and Freeze combo was discussed.
Why can a voodoo doll being frozen freeze the opponent's weapon but with a spell, not the rest of permanents?
Why can a frozen weapon be shattered with a Shockwave but not any other frozen permanent?
Is the concept of freezing permanents too powerful? Should
Water be given this type of permanent control? Would it make the game more strategic? Furthermore, don't the elements of
Water and
Air deserve at least some shred of permanent control?
Of course,
Darkness and
Fire are the most potent when it comes to permanent control, but there have been many card ideas which revolve around the idea of other manners to have permanent control, without blatant destruction or removal and in
other elements.
What I propose here is that both Shockwave and Freeze receive a slight buff such that Shockwave be able to destroy outright any permanent which is frozen, and that the spell Freeze be able to freeze any permanent. It could open many new strategic doors, not only for the elements themselves but also for card design.
**This is a version with a slight cost increase, to be on the safe side**
**Slight wording modifications**
- Freeze and Congeal would still keep their respective durations.
- Voodoo Doll interaction would be unchanged.
- Freeze would only target and affect the top card of a stack, and thusly Shockwave would affect the same one.
- Arctic Squid could remain with the version of the spell that can only target creatures.
- Shockwave would not be able to affect any permanent that is not frozen.
- Freeze could then be in a position to receive a cost increase of +1 .
- Shockwave + Freeze interaction would be unchanged with respect to creatures.
[18:26:59] Zblader: Shockwave's PC ability only comes mostly into light if you build a deck focusing on Freeze, e.g. IceBolt/Shockwave Stall or Squids/Shockwave stall.
[18:27:57] Hyroen: ‹@Zblader› I say neigh. 4 damage is more than enough to take out most creatures, plus considering Freeze lasts 3-4 turns, you might be better off not devoting a part of your deck to the combo.
[18:28:21] Zblader: ‹@Hyroen› Yeah, it's a weak example at best.
[18:28:26] Hyroen: the ability to instakill is a little less appealing than it is at first glance.
[18:28:58] majofa: Shockwave + EE = really good CC
[18:29:02] Zblader: The effect is barely influential enough to avoid being flavor but is too situational to actually be a viable strategy.
[18:29:21] Zblader: shatter frozen cards effect*
[18:29:40] pulli23: meh too much combo too
[18:30:01] Hyroen: If freeze and shockwave could affect any permanent, now there you have something interesting.
[18:30:33] pulli23: even then it would hardly be used
[18:30:49] pulli23: I mean, 2 elements, where a deflag is 1, cheaper & more reliable?
[18:31:11] Zblader: ‹@pulli23› It's much more flexible, though.
[18:31:25] Hyroen: Shockwave would not be PC, but if a permanent were frozen (through Freeze) then it could done.
[18:31:30] Zblader: Note that Deflag is also more expensive than either Shockwave or Freeze would be if they were changed accordingly.
[18:32:02] Zblader: This probably wouldn't raise the cost of Freeze or Shockwave either because both effects are still net weaker than an actual Explosion or Lightning.
[18:32:13] pulli23: you can always use pc anyways, don't really need the flexibility 
[18:32:16] Zblader: or more net expensive*
[18:32:34] Zblader: ‹@pulli23› And you're saying the PC meta should be dominated by Explosion and Steal?
[18:32:35] Hyroen: Not to mention that permanent control via the combo would probably be quite the risk, considering they could take out any dangerous creature, provided it's not immaterial.
[18:33:10] pulli23: so it's still not really good to add to decks
[18:33:57] Hyroen: And back to the previous topic, that change would buff Water and Air, and provide more versatility, which has been considered an opportunity for skill to seize control of the win.
[18:34:17] Zblader: ‹@pulli23› Is there a card ingame than can actually be a viable PC (target any permanents) and viable CC (targeting any creature) at the same time?
[18:34:55] Hyroen: BE could be seen as CC if at least for the lobo.
[18:35:02] Zblader: ‹@Hyroen› Which is also a entirely valid change seeing as Water and Air are on the more limited spectrum when it comes to Element completion
[18:35:11] Hyroen: and a limited one at that (<3)
[18:35:44] Hyroen: (not a heart, less than 3 attack, lol)
[18:36:02] Zblader: ‹@Hyroen› True but it's not often you pay 5 
for a lobo.
[18:36:28] Zblader: That's kind of similar to what we said about shockwave before - the second use is too situational but is enough impact to avoid simply being flavor.
[18:36:47] Zblader: (Diffence being that this use isn't a blatantly stated effect)
Discuss. Good idea? Bad one?
***I apologize if this is posted in the wrong area. This topic has more to do with the buffing of an interaction between which consists of 2 individual card buffs. I figured 1 thread which explained both cases would be better than 2 topics relating to the same concept.
***
Special thanks to
Zblader for brainchewing things with me.
