RDU's Freeze Mage - The Deck That Won Him Dreamhack Summer 2014

INTRODUCTION

Dreamhack Summer 2014 is finally over, with RDU winning 3-0 against Amaz in the grand finals in a best-of-5 game format. Interestingly, he only used one deck: Freeze Mage. This is compared to Amaz using Combo Druid, Face Hunter, and his famous Randuin Wrynn Priest deck. That's right, it would seem that the mages have begun a comeback in tournament play, aside from Aggro Mage getting attention in Ranked Play.

THE DECK

This deck list was posted by HP user Bibikis, and it is an exact replica of what RDU used. This is actually a typical freeze mage deck, but was put to good use because it goes well against Miracle Rogue, the most famous deck in Ranked Play right now. 

CARD DRAW

The deck has two copies of Arcane Intellect, and they are actually good to have in your opening hand. Aside from this, Bloodmage Thalnos and Azure Drake provide card draw and spell damage. Finally, two copies of Acolyte of Pain and a single piece of Loot Hoarder are in it, which is great because you can just use your hero power to activate the card-drawing abilities of those two minions.

SLOWING YOUR OPPONENT

With the deck being called Freeze Mage, it's no wonder that the deck has two copies of Frost Nova, Blizzard, and Ice Block. The deck has four secrets in total. The other two secrets are one Ice Barrier and one Vaporize, with the latter giving a more aggressive tone to the dominantly control deck compared to having two copies of Ice Barrier. Aside from this, Mirror Image is included to stall your opponent's minions, with Doomsayer to threaten your opponent's board and bait your enemy into using his removal spells to get rid of it, allowing you to ideally drop an Alexstrasza on the next turn. Not to mention, there are two copies of Flamestrike.

DRAGON WIN

The ideal win condition with this deck is to use Alexstrasza on your opponent if his life is still a bit high. If your Alex survives, then you can attack next turn and a Fireball and a Frostbolt will do the job. Additionally, with the deck having two copies of Flamestrike and Blizzard, it wouldn't be impossible to deal about 20 burst damage to your opponent in one turn, even without the help of Sorcerer's Apprentice. This can be done by using Fireball + 2Frostbolt and + 2X Ice Lance. It's even better when you have Azure Drake or Bloodmage Thalnos in play.

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FREEZE MAGE: Legend Rank itsotter's Version

INTRODUCTION

itsotter is a Hearthstone player who reached Legend Rank 18 over the course of six hours using his Freeze Mage deck. He also finished last season at Legend Rank 12 by solely using this. Additionally, it performs well against Miracle Rogue, with itsotter having beaten Tides of Time and Massan. The deck only has two legendaries, so it's still relatively affordable, and is perhaps the best deck to use in the higher ranks. You can check out his steam here.

Additionally, Dreamhack Summer 2014 is over, and we all know that RDU won the game using Freeze Mage. One of the few differences between itsotter's deck and RDU's is that RDU uses Loot Hoarder instead of two copies of Novice Engineer. Finally, RDU replaces one Ice Barrier for a second Flamestrike, making it a bit more aggressive. RDU actually saw itsotter's version and called his "otter's list with a Vaporize".

THE DECK

The deck above is provided by itsotter himself using his account in HP. It costs a total of 6120 dust. He also defended his choice to use Novice Engineer, stating that he originally went for Loot Hoarders, but the Engineers gave better topdeck value because the card draw comes immediately from Battlecry and not through Deathrattle.

So, how does one win the Freeze Mage deck? The objective is pretty simple: stall the game using Doomsayer, Blizzard, Flamestrike, Ice Barrier, Ice Block, and even Mirror Image. But why? Because when you get enough mana in the late game, you will cast Alexstrasza and put your opponent's life down to 15 if the original life was higher than that. Once you set it to a mere 15 points, you go for the kill with your direct damage spells. you've got two copies of Acolyte of Pain, Novice Engineer and Arcane Intellect to dig for cards, while Azure Drake and Bloodmage provide additional power through spell damage.

Even when your opponent is at 20 life, he should be cautious already. It's not rare to use Frost Bolt + Frost Bolt + Ice Lance + Ice Lance + Fireball for a surprise 20 burst damage, bonus if Azure Drake or Bloodmage Thalnos is in play.

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