Kneel to the Ice Queen - A Full Guide to Legend Freeze Shaman on the Wildest of Wednesdays

Wild Hearthstone has thousands of cards, and a wide variety of possible decks. This incredible deck diversity is sometimes lost when only looking at the few decks common in the highest ranks. Wednesday, the Wildest of Days is a series aiming to highlight a different off meta deck each week with an in depth guide into its strategy and gameplay. The decks are selected for having interesting synergies and using rarely seen cards.

Today we're checking out a Freeze Shaman deck that Swizard took to legend from Rank 5 (0 Stars) with no star bonus. How long did it take? Less than 5 hours! Read on to find the deck itself and a full guide.

Freeze Shaman was one of the weakest archetypes in wild for years, ever since Moorabi came out back in Knights of the Frozen Throne. Now, finally, Freeze Shaman is a viable deck, although the optimal version of it doesn't play Moorabi. This deck combines Freeze synergy with the Shaman Galakrond package due to the great Galakrond freeze spell Invocation of Frost. It becomes a deck that's capable of developing boards in the midgame and having Galakrond, the Tempest, Bearon Gla'shear, and Shudderwock as potent finishers. It has a fun and engaging playstyle loaded with various synergies and is actually quite powerful.

Now, let's get into a guide on playing the deck. It's going to go through major overarching strategies to keep in mind, how to mulligan, gameplay tips on key synergies, and card choices.

Strategies

Freeze Galakrond Shaman will develop the board in the early and midgame while Freezing enemies. It can use midgame board dominance to win the game, and if its midgame boards are cleared has multiple powerful finishers to win in the lategame.

Early Game - Use your Freeze cards like Invocation of Frost, cheap minions like Glacial Shard and Sleetbreaker, and cheap spells like Windchill to start invoking Galakrond and developing the board while freezing enemy minions.

Mid Game - Continue to invoke Galakrond with Corrupt Elementalists while using powerful mid cost cards like Wildpaw Cavern and Snowfall Guardian to develop your board.

Late Game - Sometimes, you just dominate the board in the midgame and win. If the game does go to turn 7 and above, you can start dropping your powerful late game bombs. These include Bearon Gla'shear for a board of 3/4 freeze Elementals, Galakrond, the Tempest for 8/8s with rush and a 5/2 weapon, and Shudderwock which can summon a large board, freeze all minions, and gain a ton of stats. Each of these are powerful Battlecries which can be repeated by Brilliant Macaws.

Freeze Galakrond Shaman is very powerful against minion based decks, but can struggle against combo decks that don't play any minions for you to freeze.

Here is a highlight of how the deck can win in the midgame by exploiting the Battlecry of Snowfall Guardian along with Brilliant Macaw to repeat it. The enemy's board is frozen for 3 turns in a row while you build large minions.

Mulligans

Keep a Glacial Shard unless you're against a class that can deal 1 damage easily like Mage or Druid.

Keep Ice Fishing or both Toxfin and Firemancer Flurgl if you have both murlocs.

Keep an Invocation of Frost.

Keep Windchills.

Keep Sleetbreakers.

Keep Zentimo or a Diligent Notetaker if you don't have Zentimo if you have a Windchill or Sleetbreaker.

If you think you're against a deck like Aggro Druid or Pirate Warrior that creates wide boards, keep Snowfall Guardian.

These are general mulligans for minion based decks, if you suspect you're playing against combo decks that don't use minions you shouldn't mulligan for early game spells and removals, instead hard mulligan for Wildpaw Cavern. It's the key card in such matchups that can build boards that, along with Cheaty Snobolds to increase damage, can allow you to rush a win before their combo goes off.

Gameplay

The key to playing this deck is balancing value with tempo depending on the matchup. For example, against aggressive decks, don't wait to use Brilliant Macaw to double or triple up on Shudderwock's Battlecry as you would against a slower deck. Even playing it turn 3 and getting an extra Windchill from Sleetbreaker's Battlecry can be a good play.

Below are gameplay tips regarding many of the synergies in this deck and how to use them effectively.

Galakrond Synergies

Invocation of Frost and Corrupt Elementalist invoke Galakrond, the Tempest, summoning 2/1s with rush and upgrading Galakrond. After invoking him twice, he summons two 4/4s with rush and after invoking him 4 times, he summons 8/8s and equips a 5/2 weapon.

Invocation of Frost can be duplicated with Diligent Notetaker if you need to invoke Galakrond more.

Invocation of Frost can be used along with Zentimo to cast it 3 times, which will freeze 3 enemy minions and invoke Galakrond 3 times.

Corrupt Elementalist invokes Galakrond twice, so using it with just one Battlecry doubler like Bolner Hammerbeak, Brann Bronzebeard, or Brilliant Macaw will fully invoke Galakrond with 4 invokes.

Overall, it's easy to fully invoke Galakrond in this deck. You can draw him from your deck with Kronx Dragonhoof, and double his batttlecry or replay it with Brilliant Macaw or Shudderwock to summon more 8/8s.

Finally, Kronx Dragonhoof can have various powerful effects that you can double with Battlecry synergy cards. These include board clearing, board buffing, board generation, and face damage and healing. This can be very powerful, for example if you use him with Brann Bronzebeard you can deal 10 damage to the enemy hero while healing your own face for 10 or buff your entire board by +4/+4.

Freeze Synergies

Zentimo and Windchill will freeze 3 enemy minions and draw 3 cards. This is incredible for both board stalling and card draw, as if you can combo 2 Windchills with Zentimo that is a total of 6 cards drawn.

Cheaty Snobold is very powerful, and it's important to keep in mind that his effect works even if a minion or the enemy hero is already frozen. This means that if you freeze an enemy that was already frozen, Cheaty Snobold will still deal 3 damage to it.

Cheaty Snobold can give you burst damage for lethal. If you use one Cheaty Snobold, your 3 attack freeze elementals from either Wildpaw Cavern or Bearon Gla'shear will now deal 6 damage, while using Glacial Shard or Invocation of Frost face deals 3 damage. With 2 Cheaty Snobolds, that increases to an incredible 9 damage each for the elementals and 6 damage each from the Glacial Shards and Invocation of Frosts.

Cheaty Snobold can also be used to help with board control. It can be comboed with Snowfall Guardian, or for example after a Snowfall Guardian on turn 5 you can combo Cheaty Snobold with a Brilliant Macaw on turn 6 to freeze and deal 3 damage to all enemy minion. It can be used for board control with Windchills, freeze elementals, Invocations of Frost, and Glacial Shards as well.

Overall, Cheaty Snobold is a very versatile card. He can be played early in the game to combo with something like one Windchill to deal 3 damage to a minion, be used for a ton of damage to either enemy minions or face in the mid and lategame, and you can always tempo him out on turn 3 as a decently statted 3/4 minion if you have nothing else to play.

Keep in mind that only one Wildpaw Cavern can be active at a time.

It's important to note that if your minions are able to attack on a specific turn (they don't have summoning sickness and haven't attacked yet) and you use Snowfall Guardian to freeze them, then the freeze will count on that turn, and next turn they can attack. So if you have minions that you can attack with, you have a choice: do you attack with them this turn before playing Snowfall Guardian but then not be able to attack with them on your next turn, or do you avoid attacking and instead freeze them, but have them be able to attack next turn. Depending on the situation and board state you should be aware of this interaction so that you can make the right choice for each minion.

You can have very powerful multi turn board freezes. First, you can play a Snowfall Guardian. Then, you can play Brilliant Macaws, the other Snowfall Guardian, and Shudderwock on subsequent turns. In the best case scenario, you will be able to freeze the board for 5 turns in a row. This is usually not necessary because your minions will be getting stats as they freeze boards and can just lethal at some point after 2 or 3 total board freezes.

Brann Bronzebeard and Bolner Hammerbeak can combo with multiple Battlecries in the deck, but they are especially potent with Snowfall Guardian's Battlecry. They can make it gain twice as many stats, and even more if you trigger Bolner Hammerbeak's effect multiple times with cheap Battlecries like Glacial Shard and Sleetbreaker. Using either of them turn 6 along with a Brilliant Macaw after a turn 5 Snowfall Guardian is a great play that will freeze the board and can often make the Macaw gain over 20/20 in stats.

Finally, you have Bearon Gla'shear as a finisher to summon multiple 3/4 freeze elementals. Although they have low damage, they can flexibly be used to freeze certain enemy minions while the other elementals go face, and you can use Cheaty Snobolds to double or triple their damage.

Other Synergies

Ice Fishing will draw Firemancer Flurgl and Toxfin, which together make a 3 mana one sided board clear. This is very powerful and you can stall for a bit with freezes while developing your own board, wait for your opponent to play more minions, then finally use Toxfin and Flurgl to clear only their side of the board. This is such a powerful tempo swing, it will usually lead to winning the game against board based decks.

Shudderwock repeats both Galakrond and Freeze Battlecry cards. Try to remember what Battlecry cards you have played to predict what he will do. Depending on the order of his Battlecries, he may or may not freeze whatever minions he generates for you in addition to freezing your opponent's side of the board if he repeats Snowfall Guardian. However, this is ok because he should also gain a ton of stats in this case and usually be able to lethal your opponent next turn.

If you played a Brilliant Macaw or two, remember what the last Battlecry you played in the game is. This is important because when you play Shudderwock, he will repeat that Battlecry.

Finally, Brilliant Macaws can be used to repeat Shudderwock's Battlecry after you play him.

Card Choices

This section is going to go through the main packages of cards in the deck. Each package has cards that help the deck with a specific goal. When playing the deck, it's useful to know what purposes each card serves and what other cards in the deck have synergy with it or help achieve the same purpose. This section might also be useful if you're interested in the reasoning for why each card was included in the deck.

Freeze Synergy

These cards either Freeze or synergize with cards that do.

Galakrond Package

These cards are directly related to invoking or benefitting from Galakrond, the Tempest.

Support Cards

These cards aren't directly related to either Freeze or Galakrond synergies, but either help the deck in general or can flexibly support either the Freeze or Galakrond sides of the deck. Ice Fishing is both a Frost spell feeding Bearon Gla'shear while also drawing your 3 mana one sided board clear in Firemancer Flurgl and Toxfin. Diligent Notetakers and Zentimo can get more value out of your 1 cost Freeze and Galakrond spells. Finally, Bolner Hammerbeak, Brann Bronzebeard, Brilliant Macaw, and Shudderwock synergize with Battlecries from both.

Freeze Galakrond Shaman combines Freeze and Galakrond synergies to create a very cool (😎) board based deck where instead of using freezing to stall to some combo as in Mage, you use it to gain control of the board and win through board pressure. If you like midrange tempo decks or think the new Freeze cards look exciting, give this deck a try! If you have a question or comment, or are wondering about a card substitution, post below.

What are your favorite wild decks? Which off meta decks have you been playing? Let us know in the comments below!