As with Litori and the fire abilities highlighted last time, Ta'zo has access to most of the abilities I'll talk about this time. Litori Frostburn's flip ability gives us a taste of how the mage's icy abilities work. For only two resources, you can prevent an ally or hero from attacking for a turn. On the grand scale of things, her ability is little more than a last-ditch effort at keeping herself or an ally alive. However, when you add in the other frost abilities that mages can use, it goes from being a last-ditch effort to being a way of life.
Frostbolt is a well rounded card, dealing a moderate amount of damage and adding an effect that locks the opposition in place. Of course, its targets can still use abilities or powers, so long as they don't include that character attacking. Frost Nova does almost the exact same thing, however it spreads the effect over the entire field and, unless your opponent has something ready to stop the Nova or prevent the damage. Most importantly, you can use either of these abilities in response to an attack, stopping the attack and doing a little damage in return.
Winter's Grasp is one of, if not the best card in the mage's repertoire for stopping the opposition. Play one of these each turn for your third through seventh turns and your opponent will be unable to attack until the late game... either that or they'll be unable to put more reinforcements on the field. This is also a really good way to counter characters with ferocity, as your opponents will have to wait longer than usual due to that extra one or two resources to attack right after they drop their allies. Brain Freeze is a frost ability that locks your opponent in a different way from the other frost cards. As an instant ability that only lasts one turn, you can play the card during your opponent's turn in the priority window between readying and drawing their card, meaning that you deny them that extra card and prevent them from using any quests or other powers or abilities to draw cards. After a few turns, the advantage becomes significant as you'll continue getting fresh options in your hand while your opponent will be stuck with the same old things.
Cold Snap is what gives Litori Frostburn an edge over her troll counterpart, Ta'zo. By being able to recycle her control cards, she's able to play them many more times than she would otherwise. With a well-timed Cold Snap, you could get one copy of each of your other frost abilities out of your graveyard and turn around and Frost Nova the opponent's army. The catch is that you can only use each Cold Snap once before it's removed from the game, so it's important to make the most of them.
With the arcane, fire, and frost abilities all at a mage's disposal, they make a very formidable opponent. However every class has a flaw and it's only a matter of time before the mage's flaw is found.
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