With the arrival of Darkmoon Races, we might have gotten the final pieces to revive the old Freeze Mage archetype!
Erodos' Imprisoned Phoenix OTK deck was the first list I've come across. The goal of this deck is to stall and draw until you've got your combo pieces together, a task Mage is really good at. The major difference between this deck and older lists is that you can't play around the Imprisoned Phoenixs. A really cool side effect is that you're able to mill unsuspecting opponents. In my own experience, you usually have to go to turn 10 to pull off the combo. It's certainly possible to do it earlier if you gamble to draw missing combo pieces during the 2 turns the Phoenixes need to prepare.
Bonus tip: Don't play Doomsayer the turn before your Imprisoned Phoenixes wake up :D
RavenSunHS uses a more flexible combo, built around Mozaki, Master Duelist. This deck also makes good use of two new cards from Darkmoon Races: Imprisoned Phoenix again and Conjure Mana Biscuit. This list looks to finish earlier, but I haven't tried it yet.
All in all, I have high hopes for a return of the Freeze Mage archetype. Both of them don't look like Tier 1 decks to me, but Tier 2 or 3 seems possible (Secret Mage is a bad matchup and Odd Warrior is insta-concede). Have you tried those decks yet? Do you think they will end up being permanently viable? And if so, is that a good thing?
Comments
With the arrival of Darkmoon Races, we might have gotten the final pieces to revive the old Freeze Mage archetype!
Erodos' Imprisoned Phoenix OTK deck was the first list I've come across. The goal of this deck is to stall and draw until you've got your combo pieces together, a task Mage is really good at. The major difference between this deck and older lists is that you can't play around the Imprisoned Phoenixs. A really cool side effect is that you're able to mill unsuspecting opponents. In my own experience, you usually have to go to turn 10 to pull off the combo. It's certainly possible to do it earlier if you gamble to draw missing combo pieces during the 2 turns the Phoenixes need to prepare.
Bonus tip: Don't play Doomsayer the turn before your Imprisoned Phoenixes wake up :D
RavenSunHS uses a more flexible combo, built around Mozaki, Master Duelist. This deck also makes good use of two new cards from Darkmoon Races: Imprisoned Phoenix again and Conjure Mana Biscuit. This list looks to finish earlier, but I haven't tried it yet.
All in all, I have high hopes for a return of the Freeze Mage archetype. Both of them don't look like Tier 1 decks to me, but Tier 2 or 3 seems possible (Secret Mage is a bad matchup and Odd Warrior is insta-concede). Have you tried those decks yet? Do you think they will end up being permanently viable? And if so, is that a good thing?
In standard those Imprisoned Phoenixes can never truly make an OTK deck tier 1-2 simply because Cult Neophyte exist. If it turns out that freeze mage is turning up everywhere again, all it takes is to slot one of these bad girls in and suddenly your OTK is now limited to 20 damage. And since freeze mage doesnt pressure with minions, its nearly impossible to kill without slotting in pyroblast and praying.
In wild it gets worse with the best card in the game Loatheb being so good.
I dont have much experience in wild, but I think the current auctioneer build for mozaki is perhaps the better OTK deck out there, at least in standard. At times it can seem impossible to stop, and since in wild we can have two ice blocks, it may well be impossible without secret eaters.
But of course in wild, is there any reason not to just play quest mage to fill your OTK quota for the day?
I love freeze mage and it may be one of my top played decks of all time. Wild is a rough place for freeze mage, as decks either kill you very early or dirty rat you at some point. Probably the Mozaki OTK deck is the most consistent, as it can give you an otk as early as turn 5.