Wild Freeze Mage deck list and guide

Wild Freeze Mage is a deck that's been around since the earliest days of Hearthstone's beta period, but it's enjoying a resurgence of popularity in the new, anything-goes format. In simple terms, this is a deck that combines stalling with personal survival skills to ensure that the opponent's board development struggles to get off the ground, while you pull together your deadly collection of spells. Our guide will explain how to play this deck effectively in the current metagame.

There's actually very little difference between this deck and its cousin in Standard mode, and you don't need a single Old Gods card to pilot our preferred version of it. What you will need, however, is those Mad Scientists from Naxxramas, Emperor Thaurissan from Blackrock Mountain, and Forgotten Torch from League of Explorers. The rest of the cards are all drawn from Hearthstone's Classic set.

In our Wild Freeze Mage guide, we've got a breakdown of the latest and greatest deck list that's currently dominating the ladder, along with an outline of the strategy involved with playing it effectively. Next, we've got some important tips on Mulliganing correctly, followed by a look at all of the crucial synergies that power this fiddly deck. Enjoy!

(For the Standard version of this deck, make sure you take a look at our Freeze Mage (Standard) deck list and guide)

BREAKING NEWS! - Don't miss our Journey to Un'Goro guide, which contains everything we know about the next expansion for Hearthstone!

Wild Freeze Mage deck list - Gadgetzan

We reckon this is the best Freeze Mage deck list to use on the Wild ladder right now, and should give you pretty consistent results.

The objective with all flavours of Freeze Mage is to slow the game down to a crawl, prevent the opponent from building a meaningful board, and then obliterate their face once you've accumulated a massive pile of damage spells. This demands a lot of patience on your part, as it can be tempting to blow your vital, game-winning damage spells on minion control - don't do this.

Instead, you should start building up your defenses and growing your hand in the early game by fielding your Mad Scientists and triggering your Arcane Intellect if you've managed to get one. Resist the urge to use cards like Fireball and Frostbolt to deal with enemy minions, although its OK to throw Forgotten Torch into the mix, so that you get a free "Fireball" thrown into your deck nice and early.

Against aggressive opponents, you should be able to field an early Doomsayer and leave them incapable of dealing with it - this delays their board development and wipes out any early minions they've played. This is one of your key stalling minions, however, and so you should avoid playing it against heavier decks or busy boards unless you can ensure it's "survival" with Frost Nova.

Emperor Thaurissan is a crucial component of Freeze Mage in 2017, and you should look to play it on the board when you have plenty of game-finishing damage in your hand. He'll be removed from the board extremely quickly, and so you want to ensure you get maximum Mana-reduction value from this character.

Alexstrasza is a trickier proposition and requires you to evaluate your hand. If you've got lots of burn, get her out ahead of you pushing the opponent's health pool down. If you're going to struggle to get over the finishing line quickly though, you might want to hold back until you've developed your hand further.

As for how you deliver the damage in your growing hand, take a look at our combo rundown further down the page - it's got all the advice you need for calculating your damage, and weaving your spells together in as efficient a manner as possible.

More great Hearthstone guides:

• The best Standard Hearthstone decks
• The best Wild Hearthstone decks
• Hearthstone: Deck Tier List
• Wild Freeze Mage deck list and guide
• Wild Mech Mage deck list and guide
• Wild Reno Mage deck list and guide
• Wild Tempo Mage deck list and guide

Wild Freeze Mage Mulligan guide - Gadgetzan

Your most important Mulligan picks with Wild Freeze Mage include Mad Scientist and Arcane Intellect. If you're up against an opponent who's likely to be aggro in the current metagame, consider keeping Doomsayer and playing it onto the board as soon as possible.

Getting a Novice Engineer in your starting hand is by no means the end of the world, but resist keeping Acolyte of Pain - you'd rather play it on Turn 5 or later along with a Hero Power ping. Card draw is king with this deck, and you must find value everywhere.

Wild Freeze Mage tips, combos and synergies - Gadgetzan

If it's been a while since you dabbled with Freeze Mage, take a little time to re-familiarise yourself with all of the core combos involved with playing the Wild version of this deck!

- Avoid playing Secrets proactively wherever possible, and instead let the Deathrattle effect of Mad Scientist do the work of bringing them into play. It's a massive tempo gain for zero effort!

- Note that any frozen characters will take four extra points of damage from Ice Lance when it's played. This is an important card to combo with Frostbolt when you're bursting down your opponent.

- Unless you're playing against an aggro opponent, resist using Doomsayer until you can combo it with Frost Nova. This will pin the enemy minions in place and almost certainly guarantee you your board clear.

- Both Bloodmage Thalnos and Evolved Kobold boost the strength of every single damage spell in your deck by one point.

- If he's alive at the end of your turn, Emperor Thaurissan reduces the cost of every minion in your hand by a single Mana point. This effect stacks over multiple turns, but expect your opponent to remove this minion extremely quickly.