Use the Cryomancer now or waste 3 mana and wait for +2/+2?

I often have the problem that I can get a Cryomancer out or wait a turn or two and get it with +2/+2. Below shows a really stark example:

So, in the example above I have a choice (note that the board is empty and I am playing against a Paladin). I can use all my mana and deploy the Cryomancer immediately, but it will have no buffs and just be +5/+5. Otherwise, I can do nothing except use my hero ability for one damage against the enemy hero and waste 3 mana. However, if I opt for choice 2, then I get to get out the Cryomancer next turn with +2/+2 (for a total of +7/+7) and the Glacial Shard.

In this particular example, I chose to wait. My thinking was that even if the Paladin played a 6-mana minion, I would freeze it for one turn anyway with the Glacial Shard and get out the Cryomancer with +7/+7. So, I just wasted the 5 mana and waited a turn.

Solution 1:

There isn't actually one answer for all cases here. You already know what deck you're playing, and by turn five you should have a good idea of the type of deck your opponent is playing (face, tempo, combo, control).

You already have a turn six play in the archmage, so in all matchups except one, you want to play the 5/5 on turn five for the tempo (this statline is only slightly below vanilla stats for a five mana card and totally fine to play tempo).

The only matchup where you would want to wait is control-vs-control where your deck is slower/heavier. In all other cases the tempo from the 5/5 will be much more useful to the coming turns.

Solution 2:

In this case specifically, there's an empty board, you have three other 6 mana cards, and if you don't play Cryomancer, you have no play. In this case, taking the tempo and playing the 4/4 is incredibly valuable. In situations like this, you should absolutely go for tempo over value. However, if you had other five mana plays, throwing one of those down and playing the cryomancer on turn six would generally be preferred.