Dunno why people would play Ice Lance when there are so many better options.

I never liked circle of blood that much, and preferred Eye, which is great. I would say: Undercity > Eye > Circle.
Undercity was great all day, it's just an incredible card vs any rush mirror.  Especially in our deck where you could potentially just use your numerous quests + 4 rubies and spell suppressions + undercities to play and win a war of attrition vs opposing agro.

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I would like a count of out of 150 mages, how many Ice Lances were in decks.  I'm betting less than 4?

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Only two things are infinite......

1540010:

I would like a count of out of 150 mages, how many Ice Lances were in decks.  I'm betting less than 4?

I played 5 or 6 mages in the day, and 4 of them were running ice lance either main or side. 

Ice lance was a very solid answer to dethvir. 

What were the better options chargles?  Meltdown?.. What if it played those too?

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Chris "Jedion" Reilkoff

Flip + Wub's!

But I'm guessing he meant there were much better options for mirror tech in general. Dethvir just never seemed worth teching against.

1395285:

But I'm guessing he meant there were much better options for mirror tech in general. Dethvir just never seemed worth teching against.

yeah, this. Dethvir is fine, but was not particularly feared or something I'd devote a sideboard card to stopping. I'd rather have just run Spell Reflection or Amice or something for the mirror.
I also stole 2 dethvirs with flip or spell suppression + wubs.  Wubs was so often a blowout play... I love that card.

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1354190:

1395285:

But I'm guessing he meant there were much better options for mirror tech in general. Dethvir just never seemed worth teching against.

yeah, this. Dethvir is fine, but was not particularly feared or something I'd devote a sideboard card to stopping. I'd rather have just run Spell Reflection or Amice or something for the mirror.
I also stole 2 dethvirs with flip or spell suppression + wubs.  Wubs was so often a blowout play... I love that card.

Unless you always chose to go 2nd, wubs is better than ice lance 50% of the time, and ice lance is better than wubs 50% of the time :P

Edit: Note, I did not play ice lance, and did play wubz.. but was blown out by ice lance more than I was blown out by wubz.

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Chris "Jedion" Reilkoff

1664869:

Unless you always chose to go 2nd, wubs is better than ice lance 50% of the time, and ice lance is better than wubs 50% of the time :P

Not completely true... Ice Lance isn't as good if you don't draw it until a turn later. Plus, it doesn't kill Pappy. Also, when Ice Lance is better, it's just a little better. When Wub's is better, it's a LOT better.

And for the record, I did always choose to go second, and never regretted it.

And for the record, I did always choose to go second, and never regretted it.

I always chose to go first, and you're insane.

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What he said.

I never once considered going second to even be an option.

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Basem.

I know that all the Scotts, myself, Erik van der Laan and Jan Palys ran Ice Lances. I was sold after testing with Jan a bit, and I then sold Erik on it after it became obvious there would be a lot of Emek and Velindra. I can't remember if Stuart ran with Ice Lance in the end, maybe 2 in the side. It was never a horrible card, more often than not as an efficient way to beat up an opposing Mikael and Elder as well. The only match-up I didn't want it in was my round three against a BE Mage that was heavy control, and then I didn't draw it and sided it out almost immediately.

The way I looked at it, the WotF allies available to Velindra were better 1v1 against the Loraala allies. Being able to Ice Lance Sivandra or Dethvir was great because of that. I was even fine with dropping IP'd Heartburns on Dethvir. It also helped I think that a lot of people did not run 4 Mana Rubies in the mirror, it's often fine to anticipate both getting one if EC draws are minimal, and that's where the second could be game breaking. It also made a huge difference versus the Ryno/Pidge match-up.

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Zapped Giants - UK Community Site, now with daily articles!

Our last sideboard card was Ice Lance (for our Loralaa deck). It was between Ice Lance and Prismatic Wand. Ice Lance just seeemed a more efficient card and having an immediate answer to an opposing Elder Achilla seemed big.

We also ran 3x Spell Richochet in the main (4th in the side). If you tested that card at all in the mirror you would have never left home without it. It was a complete blowout in so many situations.

Were we the only ones running counterspells?

We also cut Dragonling just because it led to getting absolutely blown out by Talisman of the Alliance (instead of just mostly blown out by it).

1354190:

And for the record, I did always choose to go second, and never regretted it.

I always chose to go first, and you're insane.

Insane, maybe. But I blew out so many people with Wub's all day. In fact, most of my opponents chose to go second against me after game 1.

I wouldn't recommend choosing to go second in any context just because you are playing Wub's, but at this particular event it was correct a lot of the time, for a variety of reasons.

1395285:

1354190:

And for the record, I did always choose to go second, and never regretted it.

I always chose to go first, and you're insane.

Insane, maybe. But I blew out so many people with Wub's all day. In fact, most of my opponents chose to go second against me after game 1.

I wouldn't recommend choosing to go second in any context just because you are playing Wub's, but at this particular event it was correct a lot of the time, for a variety of reasons.

Against the one Velindra mirror I played, I had the same experience as you.
I win the die roll and choose to go second.
Game 1: I win after stealing his Dethvir with Wubs.
Game 2: he chooses to go second and wins after Wubsing my Dethvir.
Game 3: I go second and win after Wubsing his Dethvir again.

Dethvir is VERY important in the Velindra mirror, and its almost impossible to lose if you can use Wubs as a control magic against an opposing Dethvir.

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So how exactly are you "stealing" his Dethvir, or are you referring to getting a copy from the graveyard? Or are you playing Spell Suppression on it first? Otherwise the copy you targeted goes nowhere, but you can get a copy from the graveyard.

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No quote for you!

hero flip + wub's.

You missed out on some sick technology at worlds!

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Basem.