Hearthpwn

Whispers of the Old Gods Patch: Freeze Mage (4/29/16)

Played freeze mage for many seasons, ever since I started hearthstone. Got to legend during season 22 (January 2016) with just freeze mage and aggro paly.

It looks like freeze mage is getting a lot of indirect buffs in WotOG, I fully expect to see some ladder freeze mage decks. The removal of Loatheb, nerfs to Aggro Shaman (Leper Gnome, Knife Juggler nerfs etc.), and Combo Druid all help out freeze mage, and on top of that, silences are becoming more expensive so your doomsayers are going to land a lot more often. All of these effects are going to significantly spike the power of freeze, despite losing mad scientist.

Why I chose what I did:

After the full card list was revealed, it looks like WotOG is going to be a predominantly control meta. Freeze mage excels against control meta as long as it doesn't get put out of range (i.e. armor stack). Malygos variant was common during S21 and although it fell out of meta as it was too slow (needed to draw more cards than standard freeze mage), there should be a spot for OTK freeze mage in a slower meta such as a control metagame.

Not only that, OTK freeze definitely has the potential to be the only style of freeze mage that becomes viable, as there's going to be a lot of stall decks, and with that comes a lot of heals. The traditional alexstrasza, follow up with 15 damage the next turn or even antonidas is going to be far too slow against decks with heals. We need a way to OTK to get around those pesky heals.

Card Spots:

Especially without mad scientist, running so many secrets (and 3 drops) seems like we're going to be overwhelmed in the 3 mana spot. This is why I removed ice barrier completlely. Instead of both ice barriers, I'm running cult apothecary as the heal is much more useful at low health and not taking up a 3 mana spot is pretty valuable in freeze. That being said, we're still running two acolyte's, two novice engineers, and two loot hoarders for plenty of card cycle.

The reason there are no fireballs is because in an OTK deck you need to draw more cards than the standard freeze mage deck. As a result, you need to extend the game, and forgotten torch will help you extend the game with removal while also acting as your fireballs. It's important that you don't throw away your frostbolt's and ice lances to clear, as they are your main source of OTK damage with malygos.

Why I didn't take many WotOG cards:
With the new cards released a lot of people are getting excited about Cabalist's Tome, Demented Frostcaller, Shatter, and Twilight Flamecaller. I don't believe these cards have a place in freeze mage, with a very stern maybe on the Flamecaller. The whole point of freeze mage is to CYCLE through your deck as fast as possible to draw your win conditions such as Alexstrasza/Malygos/Thaurissan and win the game. None of the WotOG cards help cycle, and if they stall, their stall is very limited compared to what freeze mage already has.

Cult Apothecary is an exception. Although it doesn't help you cycle, being able to Frost Nova, Apothecary for 14 health and also play doomsayer is pretty devastating to your opponent. Even if you can't use doomsayer, you can clear the next turn or continue to stall.

Thanks for reading, any comments or suggestions are welcome.