Addressing several of the comments without quotes or replies, because there are simply too many by the time I got back here.
To those saying it is just as powerful as silence. You are simply incorrect. Silence leaves the core match-3 game mechanics in play. It is by far one of the most powerful combo denial abilities in the game currently for sure. But you can still work the board effectively waiting for it to expire. If your opponent does something stupid and creates a ton of skulls you kill them with skull damage. If they leave 4 of a kinds on the board you scoop them up so they can’t. You can bide your time until you can be effective again. A silenced enemy is far from defenseless and you still had better be careful. Also under the mass silence of TSO your troops come back often one at a time and with the multiple 10% chance you often get at least one or two rather quickly. This frozen effect stays in place as long as even a single troop has the debuff. Under this effect you have a single cumulative timer which if it doesn’t expire cripples your entire team. It also denies the basic functionality of defensive play. They make a ton of skulls, congrats, you match one and they steamroll you with the rest. 4 of a kinds left on the board due to transmution or gem creation? No biggie, they will just pick them up on their turn because you can’t do anything about it. All while you wait for a single timer to expire so you can actually play again. Sure maybe it expires quick, maybe it doesn’t. However, you have just given your opponent 5 turns of free reign before the odds are even you will actually purge the effect. During that time you have basically no defense, not even “standard” board control / denial.
To those claiming it doesn’t stop you from playing combos like KoS or sheggra. Of course it does. Pay attention next time you trigger sheggra or KoS. Do you really want to hand the board to your opponent in that state? I can promise you after most sheggra casts if I gave the board to the opponent I would be down minimum 1 often times 2 troops before I got it back. I don’t have KoS yet, but based on the way the AI often plays it I can tell you for sure what I do with it when it is used to create skulls and not clear them. So now not only can I not play defensively I can’t even cast my board control spells because I will leave the board in a state not suitable to be handed to my opponent.
To those saying it won’t be used because no one fields the cards today. The examples are plentiful of cards that received changes and suddenly became useful and thus immediately started being used. Look at our current Glade Warden or Centaur issues. Guess how often I saw those cards before the true shot and agile traits were introduced? Pretty much never unless someone was building a funny themed team designed to lose. People don’t use the two cards mentioned today because their current spells aren’t dramatically overpowered, and that is pretty much all that gets used. Once people realize how ridiculously broken frozen is they will get slotted and support teams will be built around them to shore up their weaknesses. By the logic of this crowd if I gave the Dire Wolf spell a 30 point damage addition it wouldn’t be used because it isn’t today. Horribly flawed logic there. Cards are used because they are effective. Card changes make them more or less effective causing them to be more or less used.
To those saying wait and see. If I watch 3 guys get hit in the head with a hammer I don’t need to get hit in the head to know it is going to hurt. We have spent years watching various games implement variations on common themes. Especially when it comes to games with troop skills. I could list a litany of TCGs, CCGs, and RPGs from the last 20 years that equal a mass amount of experience in this arena (as I am sure could most people on this forum). This kind of ability is exactly the kind of ability that causes huge problems in game satisfaction. It isn’t that it kills you outright, those abilities are certainly not a lot of fun to fight against, but at least the pain is over quickly so you can move on. This one leaves you shuffling along completely unable to do anything meaningful in the game, but not providing a clear win condition either. It is hands down the worst kind of ability. It is the worst not because it is game ending, it is the worst precisely because it makes the game over without ending it.
The simple solution to me is Frozen should stop the troop it is on from triggering extra turns with its spells. That troop only, and natural 4 and 5 of a kind matches are unaffected. In that form the spell is still powerful, it still hurts the goblins (I still can’t believe we are continuing to obsess over goblin counters, just delete the zaejin kingdom and be done with it already), and it gives players a tool against the combo decks that isn’t completely overpowered. You won’t see it in defense teams then because it won’t be global enough for the AI to abuse, and invade teams can still take advantage of it. The core mechanics of the game stay intact and we get a “cool” (copying @Jainus here) new effect to play with. I like the concept, but this implementation is flawed and game breakingly so. I don’t log into GoW to not be allowed to play. I could care less if the AI takes 5 or 6 turns, that is their turn and I knew they would be doing it before I ever hit Battle, I can look away or stare with bated breath while it occurs (usually with groaning and cursing if we are being honest). But on my turn I had darn well be able to play the game or why bother?
-Razlath