Hearthstone Legendary Freeze Mage BrM

[Sottle 221]

Thalnos is pretty important, but since Thalnos is basically a Loot Hoarder and a Kobold Geomancer built into one card, just pick one or the other.

[batanete 28]

i remember you mentioning in your stream(as well as hearing other players say it too) that this deck is favoured against patron warrior.i tend to do awful against them with this deck,and i think i played with it enough to at least be half decent with it in most of its good matchups(rogue,zoo,handlock,etc).

 

 

have patron warriors adapted to facing freeze mage,or am i doing something wrong?

[Sottle 221]

I may have said that a very long time ago, but since Double Armorsmith became the standard in Patron, Patron is definitely favoured.

[batanete 28]

yeah thought so.do you have any tips for that matchup though?my usual strat involves trying to avoid them to get whirlwind effects with an armor smith on the board,as that's the only way they can stack up enough armor to survive all the burst in the deck(if they get it with patron,its not as bad,since FS demolishes them),even going as far as wasting frostbolts on armorsmith to prevent it.is this the direction you want to go or should i be playing differently?

[batanete 28]

yeah thought so.do you have any tips for that matchup though?my usual strat involves trying to avoid letting get whirlwind effects with an armor smith on the board,as that's the only way they can stack up enough armor to survive all the burst in the deck(if they get it with patron,its not as bad,since FS demolishes them),even going as far as wasting frostbolts on armorsmith to prevent it.is this the direction you want to go or should i be playing differently?

oops meant to edit and clicked on quote,my bad.

Edited June 26, 2015 by batanete

[Sottle 221]

Yeah you're absolutely having the right ideas with trying not to let them leverage Armorsmith + Whirlwind, but sometimes it's just impossible to stop them since they can generate their own board from scratch with Patrons and then Armorsmith Whirlwind in the same turn, especially if they've dropped Emperor.

One neat idea is to deliberately not reveal your deck type for the first few turns and hope they just drop an Armorsmith as they would against a Mech Mage or Tempo Mage. Something like a Coin Scientist opening on your side is a decent start to this sort of plan.

[Guest Akemi Homura]

I have everything in the deck except for thalnos and antonidas. What should i swap them for and which should i craft first?

[batanete 28]

I have everything in the deck except for thalnos and antonidas. What should i swap them for and which should i craft first?

from my experience with the deck,you should get tony first,thalnos is a much lower priority.plus he is good on many other mage decks,while thalnos is basicaly only good on this one(though thalnos is also good if you play rogue).

 

i would just replace them with more card draw,life gain or aoe,depending on what you feel you need the most.you should totally get tony as soon as possible though,the amount of decks with life gain around means you won't get very far without him.

 

 

@sottle another tactic i'm currently using against them that works really well is to abandon the general strategy of trying to burst your opponent down and simply surviving both of their patron turns,using fireball to remove the frothings and FS to clear their patron board.i also try to bait out both executes with frost nova+doomsayer.in the end,since patron doesn't currently run any threats other than their combo,you end up winning with fatigue damage and by hitting them repeatedly with alex,tony and/or thaurissan.it requires a bit of luck(notedly you need to draw ways to deal with their combo quite early),but so far this looks like the strat that works best for me against patron warrior.

Edited June 27, 2015 by batanete

[Guest willybab]

I have all cards but thalnos and mad scientist what should I replace them with?
 

[Sottle 221]

More card draw, Novice Engineer, Loot Hoarder etc. The deck is weakened a LOT by not having Mad Scientist though.

[Guest SLGShadow]

Hey Sottle, thanks for answering questions and being super helpful

 

I have all the cards except Bloodmage Thalnos and Alexstrasza. Which card should I prioritize to craft first and would it possible to have a filler card as a downgrade before I am able to craft them?

[Sottle 221]

Alex is the top priority, and you cannot play this deck without it.

[Guest somebody]

I just wanted to mention that I won three games in a row yesterday without drawing Alex by entirely burning from hand (with pyroblast)

 

Of course, relying on that strategy will not carry you too far

 

 

[Sottle 221]

Right, you will win games without Alex for sure, but there is no sense in playing an Alexless version of this deck over another good deck, you're just going to have poor results.

[Chelo 0]

Hello.

 

I use exactly the same deck as Sottle posted in here. However after more than 30 matches I'm unable to go past rank 15. With warlock zoo or demon I got rank 8. Even with non freeze mage I got better results

 

I must miss something here ... does anyone have issues with this deck?

 

Thanks.

[Sottle 221]

Freeze Mage is extremely difficult to play, this is addressed multiple times in the guide, you're probably just not playing the deck effectively vs a more straightforward deck like Zoo.

[Chelo 0]

Freeze Mage is extremely difficult to play, this is addressed multiple times in the guide, you're probably just not playing the deck effectively vs a more straightforward deck like Zoo.

 

Agree on the difficulty. But IMHO it's more a "precision" deck. I mean every move must be precise, specially the key turns as 5 (nova + doomsayer) or 10 (Toni + nova). However after more than 70 games with this deck (still at rank 15) I realize that people are playing more often Warriors, almost unwinnable, Face Hunters, really hard to win, or introducing in their decks "ironbeak owl" which disable the key turn 5 silencing Doomsayer. This happened countless times to me and leads to an almost sure defeat.

 

Anyway, it's the most enjoyable win, when it occurs. Probably, as you say, due to the difficulty.

So, just for this, thanks a lot for sharing the guide :)

Edited July 18, 2015 by Chelo

[batanete 28]

Agree on the difficulty. But IMHO it's more a "precision" deck. I mean every move must be precise, specially the key turns as 5 (nova + doomsayer) or 10 (Toni + nova). However after more than 70 games with this deck (still at rank 15) I realize that people are playing more often Warriors, almost unwinnable, Face Hunters, really hard to win, or introducing in their decks "ironbeak owl" which disable the key turn 5 silencing Doomsayer. This happened countless times to me and leads to an almost sure defeat.

 

Anyway, it's the most enjoyable win, when it occurs. Probably, as you say, due to the difficulty.

So, just for this, thanks a lot for sharing the guide

just wait until you get to rank 5 and meet people using kezan.

 

i literally feel like smashing my keyboard when i meet someone who does.

[Sottle 221]

I don't think Kezan is a massive deal against this deck, it changes your mindset and you may have to make some weird plays to play around Kezan, but you can still setup guaranteed wins over 2-3 turns even with Kezan in mind.

I also don't think Kezan is too common on ladder in my experience.

[Guest Flex]

I lack of Bloodmage Thalnos. Is it worth to play this deck without him and what would be an good alternative for him? Thank you in advance!

[batanete 28]

I don't think Kezan is a massive deal against this deck, it changes your mindset and you may have to make some weird plays to play around Kezan, but you can still setup guaranteed wins over 2-3 turns even with Kezan in mind.

I also don't think Kezan is too common on ladder in my experience.

it's not,but it seems people always have it whenever i do not play around it

 

i didn't mean to say the card is enough of a reason to not play the deck or anything,just that it's damn annoying when they play it at the right time.you think you've won the game,and then it gets stolen from you.

 

i guess this game just manages to get to me sometimes lol

Edited July 29, 2015 by batanete

[Guest Energy]

I found myself able to end on turn 9(possibly 8 with coin) if i get lucky. Do normal draw mechanics at first, board clears at turns 5-7, turn 8 I play emporer with the following in hand: 2 of each frostbolt, ice lance, fireball, along with bloodmage. it doesnt matter if they kill him because it will be 32 damage for 9 mana. Math (keep in mind bloodmage) 4+4+5+5+7+7. mana (in order) 1+1+0+0+3+3 (add one for bloodmage.obviously not a garenteed win condition but more of a if you get lucky to draw these but unlucky enough not to draw archmage or alex. all together a fun deck though, i found these days the explosive sheep are more handy than that of loot horders, The best part is the opponent will always think he is winning until turns 9+ so he will be more cocky. I also have added another flamestrike at sacrifice of a ice lance when there were so many grim patrons in the meta (like i was seeing them every other game). i have sense swapped back but it was handy when i needed it.

[Kobal 13]

So I decided to buy a few classic packs for money, and happened to open Bloodmage Thalanos, Alexstraza and one Doomsayer. I already had a Pyroblast before, and the rest of the list was crafted from what arcane dust I had collected. After a bit of playing with the deck I definitely do like how it attacks from quite a different angle than most other decks. Unless Garrosh's ugly visage shows up, then I am far less happy. I am definitely still in the learning process, though.

 

 

I lack of Bloodmage Thalnos. Is it worth to play this deck without him and what would be an good alternative for him? Thank you in advance!

 

 

From my limited experience Thalnos is not as important, because Kobold Geomancer is a quite suitable replacement. Rarely do you play Thalnos early and really benefit from his deathrattle. Most of the time he is used to juice up the finishing burst. Of course there is the real chance that I play him wrong. 

 

On the Tempo Storm team page they have a nearly identical list, however they substituted one Blizzard with a Cone of Cold. I tried that one first (so I would not have to craft a second Blizzard just yet) and in my admittedly small sample size that felt all right. What do you think?

 

Also, how am I supposed to play against Aggro Paladin. Again according to Tempo Storm this is supposed to be a favorable matchup since I can really get them with my board clears. The problem, though, is Divine Favor. Should I play around that one by delaying my card draw resp. not mulliganing for card draw in the begining like I do in most matchups? How am I supposed to play that matchup.

 

And lastly, any educative streams/guides you could recommend to learn the finer points of the deck?

Edited September 13, 2015 by Kobal

[Sottle 221]

I'm not a huge fan of Cone, but it's definitely one of the cards that other players rotate in, with good reason.

Aggro Pally, honestly, you shouldn't worry too much about Divine Favor, a lot of their damage comes from buffs as they don't play THAT many chargers, so if you can consistently keep their board clear, or neutralised with freeze, you limit their damage a lot. Early Ice Barriers are huge, i'd even keep one in my opening hand, although you'd much rather have a Scientist.

Thijs and Firebat are two big streamers that are exceptionally good at Freeze Mage and play it a decent amount, so you can try checking them out if you can. Thijs also played a lot of the deck in the Archon Team League recently, which you can find VODs for on Amaz's channel.

[Guest Toadstool]

Sottle, just started watching your streams and love them.  Very informative.  I tried searching past streams of you playing this freeze deck but nothing comes up.

 

After a few months I've finally crafted this deck which has been a dream of mine.  It's very exciting to play.

 

I know this is an old archetype and probably isn't on your priority list to play on stream, but just tossing it out there, play it some for us to learn in the new TGT meta!

 

I know it will take weeks/months/forever to get this deck down solid, but any new streams would help tremendously.

 

Thanks again.