Hearthpwn

Intro.

Greetings all! I really appreciate everyone, who interested in this write-up and feel free to ask me any questions/suggestions - i'll help you with everything i can! Also, if you like this article - rate it, let more people inform themselves about one of the most interesting and difficult decks in whole game!

Proof on rank/deck.

Rank

Deck

Few words about me: i'm Lekariy, player from Russia, who played this game since early beta, i achieved legend rank 30+ times, always play on high legend division (top 100 mostly), finished December season on exact #200 slot, but was top-100 during all season with different decks. I mostly play Oil Rogue, Demon/Classic Zoo and Freeze Mage, so want to share with you all the stuff and tips about freeze mage, that i know. This deck is inspired by Freeze Mage God - LaughingHS so big applause to you, Senpai! My twitch channel is twitch.tv/lekariy.

General. 

Freeze mage is in my opinion top tier deck right now (Tier 1 or even Higher - "God" Tier), cause meta game is really favored for freeze. Most of ladder decks are Secret Paladins, Reno/Zoo Warlocks, Control Priest who are super playble opponents. I try explain every matchup vs every class very deeply and give some tips with muligans. 

Main strategy.

Freeze Mage is control oriented combo deck. Your gameplan is pretty straightforward - you should cycle throw all your deck to get key cards, which help you to win opponent, but you should understand every matchup very well, cause information about every possible enemy damage every turn is the most important knowledge you can only work with. Freeze Mage playstyle similar to Handlock - during all the game you are walking on the edge between life and death, balancing and holding board as possible. You have 8 cards, that cycle your deck (x2 Loot Hoarder, Mad Scientist, Arcane Intellect and single copy of Acolyte of Pain and Bloodmage Thalnos), so draw them early game IS YOUR MAIN AIM - late game impact of every this card is absolutely low. Also you have some sustain mechanism mid-game, like Doomsayer, Frost Nova, Ice Barrier, Ice Block, Antique Healbot, Blizzard, Flamestrike. And the finisher usually is Alexstrasza with your burn spells. But ... usually it is *dream* scenario and game goes often the other way, which you always should grab under control. Lets talk about matchup's.

Matchup's (number in brackets - is the complexity of current matchup from 1 to 10, 1 - autowin, 10 - unwinnable):

Druid (7) - it is one of the hardest opponents for your deck, because Druid doesnt always play for board, they want to kill you with combo from hand and you should always play around that fact, that opponent HAVE it already in his hand. Your basic muligan is: Frostbolt to kill his Darnassus Aspirant turn 2 and wipe his ramp ability, Loot Hoarder, Mad Scientist, Arcane Intellect and Acolyte of Pain. All the other card are useless early game, you need them only after turn 5. Basic idea vs Druid - cycle early game, try to drop Doomsayer on turn 5 to prevent his Emperor Thaurissan on curve, play your stuff, keep in hand Frost Nova as an answer for his Loatheb on turn 8-9, use offensive Alexstrasza and try burn him down. If you are on 14hp and turn 9 incoming, try to freeze his face with Ice Lance, Frostbolt to block 2 incoming damage. Always count quantity of cards in Druid hand, when he plays Emperor Thaurissan. Nothing else - difficult, but winnable. 

Hunter (3) - this matchup is pretty favored, but tricky. Hunter can win if he have god hand (Leper Gnome into Mad Scientist into Animal Companion into Piloted Shredder into Savannah Highmane into Dr. Boom) and your draws will poor. Otherwise you are ok - he has no heal, so offensive Alexstrasza is not important, usually you will heal with her. Great muligans are Frostbolt to answer Knife Juggler, Loot Hoarder, Mad Scientist, Bloodmage Thalnos, Acolyte of Pain, Doomsayer - to stop his tempo turn 3-4, you usually want to drop him turn 3-4 on board to win board or eat 7 damage, also u can muligan for Ice Barrier, if you already have some cycle cards in starting hand. I don't keep Arcane Intellect, cause it's super slow vs hunter. Try survive, heal yourself, freeze board, outvalue him with Doomsayer + Frost Nova into Blizzard into Flamestrike and then finish him with random spells. 

Mage (4) First step that you should do - on muligan stage define who is your opponent, Tempo or Freeze, cause both muligans are different. I don't pay attention at Fatigue Mages - they are very rare in ladder and you will make decisions solving board situations, also mech mages are similar to Zoo Warlock - you can read strategy in that section. If your opponent thinking really fast and muligan all hand or keep only 1 card - it very looks like he is Freeze, if he thinking for a long time, touching every card couple of times, switching few cards (keeping prob 2) - he is Tempo. Vs Freeze mage you should keep all cycle cards Loot Hoarder, Mad Scientist, Arcane Intellect and Acolyte of Pain, Emperor Thaurissan and Alexstrasza, Vs Tempo mage you really want cycle cards, Frostbolt to deal with his early Sorcerer's Apprentice and Doomsayer! Doomsayer is the key card to win vs tempo mages, cause you will drop him into enemy's Mirror Entity to wipe all his board easily. BE GREADY with it, let him build strong board with 2-4 minions and then pop this secret with your fire master. Other time you cycle deck, heal yourself, killing threat enemy minions with Fireball / Frostbolt and secure the win. Vs Freeze strategy is absolutely different. First of all - if your enemy have equipped any secret never attack him into face with your small minions - you don't want heal him for 8 from Ice Barrier, just finish turns. Next - always count your cards in hand and enemy's. If u can burn him for 1-2 cards by pinging his Acolyte of Pain - do it! Usually this matchup is going to fatigue battle, so who is ahead on draws - loses. You should always just throw away from hand freeze spells in midgame to empty space for incoming cards. Also you MUST NOT draw at all with you loot horder / Arcane Intellect, when you left with 8-10 cards in deck, don't fatigue yourself for nothing. Next point is Alexstrasza - usually great freeze players use her to heal youself with first (rarely second) fatigue tick, to making proc your Ice Block harder, because if opponent Fireball + Fireball + frosbolt you, than u will unblocked with 3 hp and next fatigue damage will tick for 2, so you wouldn't die. Always try to heal, never offense with it. And final point - person, who throw Archmage Antonidas first and cycle 2-3 Fireball with it is SO FAR AHEAD - it is, how you win it, babe. Play patiently, remove enemy Emperor Thaurissan in a moment and always keep in hand fireball during midgame phase to have a possibility kill Archmage Antonidas. 

Paladin (3) This should be pretty easy for you, if you hard muligan for key cards. Paladins now divide for 2 archetypes - Secret/Aggro or Murlodins. Actually you can't understand which deck they play during muligan phase, but if he is on coin and fast remove 3 or all cards from hand, he probably choose MURLOCKBOYS. Your basic muligan is - Frostbolt for Knife Juggler, Doomsayer, all cycle cards, Ice Barrier if you have 2 other good cards and Frost Nova if you already have Doomsayer in starting hand. Never keep frost nova without him - this move will lose you a game. You always want to Frost Nova + Doomsayer turn 5/6, but dont be greedy keeping Frost Nova without any cycling start. About gameplan - if you have option kill a minion with your ping or invest 2-drop into your board - choose first. Your lifetotal (even 1 hp) is very important. Also coin into 2-drop isn't very cool move, unless you saw that on muligan phase opponent keep all cards and probably he will have phenomenal early curve with Knife Juggler / Shielded Minibot on turn 2, only this scenario you invest coin right. Try to cycle, calculate your damage in hand and possibly enemy damage on turns 7-9. If you already have Ice Block up and Alexstrasza in hand + plenty of damage, so offensive alex himself and burn next turn. Care of Loatheb - try to save second Ice Block / Frost Nova to deal with him. Remember, that only possible heal in Secret/Aggro paly is Truesilver Champion, so in critical situation he might heal for 2 or 4 over two turns. Sometimes you should play Archmage Antonidas just on curve turn 7 to make opponent confuse - pushing for Ice Block popping or remove fat buddy. Freeze any treatment stuff, sometimes you should fake your opponent with casting Ice Barrier on yourself to heal for 8. If you doing it this way, you will win without a lot of troubles. Against murlodins you should pressure himself all the game. He have a lot of heals, but you shouldn't afraid it. If you Alexstrasza himself turn 9 (or 8 with emperor) next turn he should somehow kill 8/8 body and heal himself too, but both actions are really difficult to make simultaneously. So you should burn him all the game, he will not play any murlocs in case of lack of mana, so his annyfing will be weak and also we will not have tempo to curve it out, while risk of die is so high. Archmage Antonidas himself with bunch of spells after Emperor Thaurissan to get 3-4 fireballs and he wont be able survive at all. Pressure, pressure and pressure win this matchup. 

Priest (2) - autowin? I guess it's similar to control warrior, but killer and victim switch their roles. Muligan for all cycle cards, Emperor Thaurissan, Alexstrasza and Archmage Antonidas, you can even keep combo of 2 big dudes in starting hand, Priest dont have a lot of pressure during all game, so it should be easy Emperor Thaurissan on curve. Try to Alex him only when you have 20+ damage in hand, cause Flash Heal / Light of the Naaru outrange him from basic combo, even heal for 2/4 can be pretty annoying, so always you will kill Priest over two turns after Alex or setup good Emperor Thaurissan to reduce your burn combo cost. If you didn't see any Zombie Chow during all the game, you should play around 15-22 damage combo with Auchenai Soulpriest + 2 Zombie Chow, 1-2 Flash Heal, hero power. But usually only Kolento/Tides may do this stuff, other priest's play vast worse. 

Rogue (4) Rogue matchup isn't difficult, but there are few ways, how Rogue can win - let's observe them. First and most tragical scenario is pretty simple: rogue on coin, you play Mad Scientist turn two, he making Backstab Preparation Shiv Coin into huge Edwin VanCleef (for example), so you should always keep Doomsayer vs Rogue with Coin, also you can keep already with Doomsayer your Frostbolt / ice lence to setup easy combo, but its not a must. Second possibility to outplay you, is pushing tempo with tempo turns (tempo si:7 turn 3, tempo teacher turn 4, azure drake, boom) and then drop Loatheb, so dont make basic mistakes, hold 1 copy of Frost Nova to counter Loatheb late game. Sometimes, when you hardly lose board, you should go for Frost Nova + x2 Doomsayer to prevent sap at one target. Other stuff is pretty straightforward, cycle, survive, burn. Rogue dont run a lot of healing, usually from 3 to 8 points (rarely 16), so play around that possibility. 

Shaman (5) Aggro Shammy is super annoying. They are similar to Hunters, but only one difference - their tempo is much higher. So - dont even think about killing them, main goal is survive all their burst with x2 Ice Barrier, Antique Healbot and Alexstrasza. Freeze as much as possible, dont afraid spend your Frostbolt / ice lence into his face to prevent Doomhammer damage, but do it only with lethal count, dont waste your cards for free. Usually if you survive to turn 9 - you win. Muligan is very similar - early draw, dont keep Arcane Intellect - too slow, should keep Ice Barrier always.

Warlock (3) okay, there are mostly 2 types of Warlock now - Reno and Zoo. Against Zoo you play similar to Secret Paladin / Hunter - draw early, freeze midgame, burn late - nothing super tricky, just play around Loatheb, proc deathrattles when possible to clear later with AoE. Reno, hmm, its like Murlodin. You pressure him all game, u can fireball one him face, down him to 15-18 with some stuff, than probably he will Brann+Healbot, after this you should make strong Archmage Antonidas turn. If you can get 3-4 fireballs, you win it, so timing your Emperor Thaurissan is main idea, how you win it. After you play Tony and burn him again to 12-16 he will Reno. After it you should Alex him and finish with burn. Nothing extraordinary, just right timing. 

Warrior (9, if CWarrior and 6, if Patron) Both matchups are very skillbased for mage-player, but one is often winnable by skill and the other is winnable by draws. Freeze can win against CWarrior not only by DC opponent, but with great draws. First of all, the amount of armor SHOULDNT scary if, you may deal with it, but you need instruments. You need good early cycle (scientist / arcane intellect / hoarder), better if 2+ cycle cards. Also you need Emperor Thaurissan + Alexstrasza + Archmage Antonidas lay in first 10-15 cards and coin is very preferable. So gameplan: Mad Scientist turn 2, Arcane Intellect turn 3, Loot Hoarder + ping face turn 4, play secret / Acolyte of Pain + ping face turn 5, Emperor Thaurissan turn 6, Frost Nova + Doomsayer turn 7, Alexstrasza turn 8, Pyroblast turn 9, Archmage Antonidas + 4-5 spells on turn 10. After turn 10, you double fireball mostly every turn.  Its *DREAM*, but i won twice in ±50 games vs CWarriors, so 4% is not as low as it seems. Versus patron you mostly play similar to hybryded matchup CWarrior+Combo Druid. Try to kill Armorsmith as fast, as possible. Survive, cycle, Alex and burn. Tricky, but everything come with experience. 

Some advices and tips:

1) Draw as much, as possible. Its how you win, but remember, that you always should stop vs Freeze Mage and ping 1 health minion over dropping scientist/hoarder vs aggro.

2) Waste all mana as efficient, as possible. If you finish any turn before turn 6 with unused mana, i bet you doing something wrong. 

3) If you will draw this turn from intellect / wiping your hoarder, but also have scientist on board, you have to kill scientist first, it decrease chance, that you draw secret to 0%. 

4) If you want to hold the board with freeze at 10 mana, better use more expensive spell blizzard for 6 >> blizzard for 5 >> nova for 3 >> nova for 2 (all with possible Thaurissan), cause you have more outs for enemy Loatheb. 

5) If you facing "WHOAMI" on turn 6 and also Paladin has some recruits on board, your next turn (7) should be ping recruit to proc Avenge + Redemption and only after that you Frost Nova + Doomsayer. Order is very important.

6) Try to save any 2-drop minion vs Secret Paladin for turn 7. If he has full Christmas Tree (5 surprises), so you should proc Repentance somehow, before you are allowed to play Doomsayer.  

7) If you dont have clear gameplan after turn 7 (like alex+burn) and relying only on draws, but opponent played Dr. Boom, Blizzard + Ice Lance him turn 7, ping next turn - it's pretty easy way to deal, which saves you 7+ hp minimum. 

8) Always think, how you opponent can win vs you with THIS situation on board. Always imagine, that opponent has BEST draws and FULL combo pieces (usually they actually have it Kappa).

9) If you can make OR / OR situations to your opponent - do them. Opponent is 18 hp, you drop Thaurissan + Fireball him face - let decide what to do, clear or heal. 

10) Play more, pay attention at all mistakes and right move. What action secure your victory and why you lose to that retarded druid, who played tempo Big Game Hunter turn 3 and tempo Keeper of the Grove turn 4, than he Loatheb turn 5 (UMADBRO?!) and then ... double roar you turn 6, oh ok (answer is - he "outtempoed" yourself).

Deck variations, possible changes and replacements.

Most cards in this deck are staple and its really impossible to replace them, but if you dont have Pyroblast / Archmage Antonidas, try Forgotten Torch version, replacing them. You should add some more draw in this deck (include 1 more Acolyte of Pain), drop out "tech" cards, like Flamestrike, Antique Healbot and may be 1 more freeze card, like Cone of Cold. Its super agressive/greedy version of Freeze Mage, which piloted Neirea/DrHippi to top-3 several times during last 2 seasons.