Is a 9 or 10 cost minion hit by Freezing Trap unplayable?
Today I was playing a game and had only my C'Thun on the board and my opponent (a Hunter) played a trap. I figured I was pretty safe as C'Thun would survive a damaging trap and I had an Innervate in my hand if he were to get returned. However, the Freezing Trap returned him to my hand and increased his cost by 2 (to bring it to 12) and when I played Innervate, it did nothing (kept my mana at 10 and did not allow C'Thun to be played).
It seems a bit overpowered for such a low cost trap card to essentially act as both a hard removal AND reduce your hand size by one (because you're then stuck with the useless 12-cost card in your hand), but aside from some sort of "Your minion costs are reduced by two" card, that seems to be the case.
Am I missing something? Is there a better way to defend against this aside from "Play a low cost minion, hope it doesn't die and attack with it first the next turn"?
Best Answer
Yes, a 9 or 10 mana minion bounced back by a Freezing Trap becomes unplayable. There's (currently) no way to get above 10 mana and Cost-reducing effects for minions are very rare: as of today only 3 minions offer a cost-reducing effect, Emperor Thaurissan, Pint-Sized Summoner and Summoning Portal. Of these only Thaurissan sees play, since the other two have usually no immediate impact on the game state and can be easily removed. Also, in this specific case, Thaurissan would still require to be played after your C'Thun has been bounced back in hand AND survive for at least another turn after he's been played.
The "Play a low cost minion, hope it doesn't die and attack with it first the next turn" is exactly the way to play around Freezing Trap. Usually anyway the Freezing Trap is used way before turn 10 and most of the Hunter decks in the current meta use only one copy, so normally the chance of your C'Thun being bounced back is pretty low.
The perceived Overpowerednees of the trap is offset by the fact that it has to be played proactively, so the Hunter doesn't get the chance to target the minion to bounce, giving you the opportunity to play around it.
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