Would the Iceologer REALLY Have Been "Another Phantom"?

One of the most common arguments I saw against the Iceologer, both during the poll that we don't talk about, and now, is that the Iceologer would become "another Phantom". "Phantom 2.0". "The Phantom all over again". "As bad as the Phantom". "Don't make the same mistake as we did with the Phantom".

I saw COUNTLESS comments along the lines of comparing the Iceologer to the "terrible Phantom" and how if Iceologer won the vote, it would become the joint worst mob in the game, tied with the Phantom.

In this rant, I want to discuss to all you one people out there if this sentiment is true. 

So, the very first thing I need to address is that I don't think the Phantom is a terrible mob. I think it's far from the worst mob in Minecraft. My very first rant was literally defending the Phantom. But my personal views aside, there is no doubt the Phantom is the mob the community loves to hate. No, we hate it so much that we hate hating it because it's so bad they should never have been added and we hate ourselves for voting it. In the wider community, comparing a mob to the Phantom is a low blow. The lowest of the low in fact. I mean, the Phantom is SO hated that Mojang even added an OPTION to disable their spawning!!! When people express that the Iceologer would become another Phantom, they are, more often than not, saying it would become one of the worst mobs in Minecraft, if not the actual worst.

Would it have really been the worst mob in Minecraft?

Differences Between the Iceologer and the Phantom

I am going to ironically start this section out by saying what ISN'T different about the Phantom and the Iceologer? They're both hostile, and they're both high up. That's where the similarities end.

The Phantom spawns EVERYWHERE at night, assuming you or other players haven't slept in 3 days or more. It's essentially a common hostile mob at night. Because they are so hard to hit, it makes them quite hard to deal with, meaning they tend to be more persistent as well as being so common. Their swooping down and very fast circling motions make them fairly intimidating, and to many players, downright annoying.

The Iceologer would not spawn everywhere at night at all. In fact, you'd REALLY have to go out of your way to find it. It would spawn only in rare structures, very high up in a very rare biome. In fact, you'd almost NEVER see the Iceologer. This is especially true as Mojang revealed Iceologers wouldn't just spawn anywhere on mountain peaks, they would actually be confined to their own structure. Now, obviously I can't say what its attacks would've actually been like, and whether or not they would've been "annoying" attacks, but the main point is, overall you would encounter this mob FAR less frequently than the Phantom. Unlike the Phantom, you'd only find it if you were REALLY looking for it. This is VERY different to a mob that spawns in groups after simply not sleeping for one real-life hour of gameplay.

At its core, the difference between a mob that spawns everywhere whether you like it or not, and a mob you'd have to purposefully seek out in a rare structure in a rare biome, is monumental. Because of this reason alone, I think it's very unlikely the Iceologer would go on to become such a hated mob as the Phantom. Part of this of course DOES depend on Mojang's implementation of the mob - if literally every mountain had Iceologer structures all over it, that would be bad. But I highly doubt Mojang would do that, especially when they so readily take community feedback into account. 

I get the sense you would never be exploring the peaks, then WHAM, ice cloud hits you every 5 seconds. But I guess a lot of the younger community just think, Phantom = Hostile mob we voted in before, BAD! Iceologer = Hostile mob we could vote in, NOPE! votes Glow Squid in hopes of getting followed by D****

Damn, I promised myself I wouldn't include any saltiness in this rant.

NaCl.

What Could the Iceologer Have Added?

I have already discussed how I think it would be almost impossible for the Iceologer to become as hated as the Phantom, but I must also discuss - is there really any point adding a mob that is so rare that players are never going to encounter it? Wouldn't that just be pointless, and almost the OTHER extreme of the Phantom?

Well, I think there is one key reason Iceologer would've been great for Caves & Cliffs. I know C&C is primarily the big cave update, but there is a second part to that title: Cliffs. In comparison to caves, cliffs have so few new features added. Other than the terrain itself, the only things to find there are a high number of emeralds, Goats, and "snowier snow", which is really just a trap block. There is nothing really to see up there, other than getting some emeralds and looking at the view. The Iceologer could have given the player some incentive to seek out climb to the top of the mountain, especially if the Iceologer had a good drop or good chest loot in its structure. If the Iceologer had been able to drop its Ice Staff for the player to use as a weapon, the Iceologer almost could've served as a mini-boss of sorts. 

I'm not saying there is NO incentive to visit a Mountain biome, seeing as how bloody broken trading is right now, emeralds may just be the most useful item in the game. But emeralds can also be very easily obtained in heaps by other means, namely the broken trading.

In short, the Iceologer could've added a lot of excitement to mountain peaks which are fairly lacking in content, and could've had a very unique and interesting method of attack. We really haven't seen that many "magical" or fantasy enemies in the game in the last few years, as almost all the enemies lately have been tank enemies largely lacking in originality.

The Caveat

It goes without saying, one of these mobs is in the game and has been for years, the other has never even been prototyped. We have no gameplay footage, no test builds, not even any designs or in-game textures for the Iceologer. The Iceologer side of this rant is fairly speculative, and does depend on how Mojang would have actually implemented them. There IS a chance they could've done a really bad job with the Iceologer, and it would be a really crappy mob to fight. 

Final Conclusion

But here's where I reach my final conclusion. Even if the Iceologer HAD been badly implemented, and turned out to be one of the worst, most annoying, or most lame mobs to fight and it dropped nothing good and simply got in your way, I don't think it would become as widely hated as the Phantom. For the very simple fact Phantoms are FAR more abundant in your world. The Iceologer would be such a rare encounter that, even if you DID hate it, it wouldn't seem as bad as the Phantom, and you could choose to ignore the Iceologer by never seeking it out.

I conclude that it's very unlikely the Iceologer would have been seen as the worst mob in Minecraft. I do think Mojang would've done a very good job with the Iceologer - but even if they did poorly implement it, it wouldn't be encountered nearly as often as the Phantom. But of course, this is a fairly speculative rant, as we ultimately have no clue how exactly the Iceologer would've been implemented. And sadly, we will probably never know. But if someday Mojang DOES decide to add the Iceologer, it would be fun to see if the community does come to hate it as much as the Phantom, or if they end up loving it and all those salty cunGlow Squid haters would finally be appeased.