Freeze-yard Cycle

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Introduction

Hey there Clashers! GrandWiz here bringing you a self made deck. I’ve tested this deck plenty of times in Classic Challenges, and I am positive that this is a viable deck.

This is a fast cycle deck. With an average elixir of 2.75, you can out cycle your opponents and attack frequently.

Similar to Balloon Freeze, the first Graveyard Freeze push is extremely deadly. As people do not expect the Graveyard or the Freeze, it is very likely to get a Tower down in one push, or at least inflict heavy damage.

On the defence side, this deck plays similar to 2.9 X-Bow. Kiting with cheap units is essential, as well as staggering units to avoid giving spell values.

Another key concept with this deck is to punish, which is identical to 2.6 Hog Cycle. However, the lack of big spells and buildings means that your opponent can build up a massive push and potentially overwhelm your defence, as your defensive troops are not spell resistance.

If you like playing fast Cycle deck and outplaying your opponent, definitely check this deck out!

Deck Information

Deck Created by: GrandWiz05

Minimum Recommended King Level: 9

Maximum Recommended King Level: 13

Arena Required: Spooky Town (Wrong?)

Average Elixir Cost: 2.8 (Wrong?)

More Statistics: Go to Deck Builder

Card Roles

Graveyard: Your one and only win condition. As a 5 cost spell, it is an effective tool for counter pushing, punishing, and occasionally defending.

Ice Golem: A 2 elixir tank with almost 1000 health, targets building and have a death effect that kills Bats and Skeletons. Tanks for Graveyard, cycle your deck and good at tanking and kiting troop on defence. What more can you ask for?

Dark Prince: Your secondary tank. With splash attack, somewhat good DPS and a shield, Dark Prince is reliable on defence against ground units. His charge mechanic can potentially bait out small spells for Graveyard.

Archers: Your main air defence and ranged troops. They are decent at countering swarms, as well as having enough health to not die to The Log. Can also be cycled at the back.

Skeletons: Your cycle card, distraction and damage dealer against win condition.

Ice Spirit: Your cycle card. Can be used to chip Tower, kite troops and reset charges.

The Log: Your small spell. Knocks back all ground troops, chip Tower and shut down troops up to Princess.

Freeze: None other then your cheese spell. Once broken because of the long duration, yet after it is reworked and nerfed nobody uses it anymore, beside Balloon decks in sudden death. The surprise factor of this spell has not changed, however.

Why this deck?

So recently I’ve been spamming Classic Challenges, because Ladder is currently a living hell (Season reset Woohoo! I’m not seeing any King Tower below level 13, end my misery). I’ve seen a lot of weird decks in Classic Challenges (as you would expect) — Golem Balloon, Double bait (this one I might write a guide about, extremely annoying), Elixir Golem Rage (AIDS), Giant Skeleton Royal Giant, etc etc, as well as a few classic decks sprinkled in every few games.

Then I think to myself: why don’t I make a deck that uses a stupid card? So I looked at Freeze, the infamous card that is known for helping your opponent to build a massive counter push to overwhelm you. I made this deck with Freeze, which is somewhat logical, and to my surprise, this deck works a lot better then I intended.

So I’m sharing it here. There might be similar decks, my apologies if it seems like I have stolen your deck, but a deck is no special magic that let’s you win the game instantly. So, let’s get into it.

Card Explanation and Interaction

I mentioned some of the usage card roles, but there are a lot more in depth usage for each card in this deck. So, I’ll mention them below.

For more general tips, visit the card’s page by clicking on their link.

Ice Golem

Just in case you don’t already know, Ice Golem can kite non building targeting melee troops to the opposite side. By deploying it 1~3 tiles from the river and 1 tile to the opposite side where the opposing troops are incoming, they will start chasing the Ice Golem instead of heading towards the Princess Tower.

Ice Golem’s death damage is essential against a push with Bats. Since this deck runs The Log, there is not many ways we can deal with Bats behind a Tank. By deploying Ice Golem right on top of the group of Bats, it’s death damage will take them all out.

It is also a cheap tank for your Graveyard. Since it only costs 2 elixir and has plenty of health, as well as being building targeting, deploying it at the river and following it up with a Graveyard is a fast and deadly push. It only targets buildings, so it is difficult to block it at the river, unlike normal Graveyard decks that run Knight.

Skeletons

You might not have noticed before, but Skeletons do 201 DPS for 1 elixir. That is one of the highest elixir to DPS ratios. This means protecting them and letting them be the damage dealer is sometimes viable. For example, tanking a Mega Knight with Ice Golem and deploying Skeletons behind him can take him out relatively quickly with the help from the Princess Tower.

Other times, letting them distract and pull units while letting your Archers doing damage is the better option. They are only 1 elixir after all.

Ice Spirit

Ice Spirit is even more versatile then Skeletons. Deploying it at the River can often get you chip damage, because your opponent is not willing to use higher cost troops to block it or spell it down.

It can stop Prince and Dark Prince from charging as well as freezing them. By pre-deploying it at the middle or at the kiting position of the Ice Golem, either Prince will approach it and because Ice Spirit have a 2.5 tiles range, it will jump onto them before getting hit.

It can also reset charges in a different mean, such as one of Sparky or Inferno Dragon.

Using the Ice Spirit to counter Bats can be risky. You have to ensure it is close enough to the Bats so all five of them will be attracted, but not so close that the Ice Spirit is killed before deploy time is finished. If you’re successful however, it is a positive trade and saves your Ice Golem from having to sacrifice itself.

Archers

I really like Archers as air defenders, more so than Musketeer simply because there is two of them and they hit faster. This makes them much better at defending swarms like Goblins as they two shot them.

Might bait out Poison for your Graveyard if they have no other answer to her.

Dark Prince

Why did I choose Dark Prince? Why don’t I choose something like Giant who has a lot more health, or Knight who is cheaper?

Well, because he has splash and does good DPS. This deck lacks consistent splash damage. Ice Spirit, Ice Golem and The Log all just provide one time splash.

He is able to deal with most singular cards on his own, and he is immune to spells before his shield is broken.

He is also somewhat threatening and pairs well with Graveyard. If the defense troop they placed is too close to the Tower, Dark Prince can splash on both.

Graveyard

The most important thing to know about Graveyard is it’s placement. A wrong placement will not only reduce your damage output, but may also activate King Tower, which is a death sentence for any Graveyard deck.

The best placement, by my experience, is one tile from the edge of the arena and horizontal to their Princess Tower. This placement can minimise distance needed to travelled by the Skeletons, and has a 0% chance to activate King Tower. The circle will look something like this:

Graveyard can also be used on defense to stall. If there are no building targeting troops, Graveyard can stall for it’s whole duration. Be mindful not to use this unless you absolutely have to (such as the last 10 seconds of a game), as this gives your opponent time to regenerate elixir and build an even bigger push, which you have no big spell to clear.

The Log

The first version runs Zap, where I found myself defenceless against Log Bait.

It’s knock back effect is very helpful while defending and stalling. It’s damage also allows you to counter the likes of Goblin Barrel and Dart Goblin, which you will have trouble dealing with if you’re running Zap or Giant Snowball instead.

Freeze

The one important thing I’ll have to remind you is: never use it on defence before the first Graveyard Freeze push. As I’ve explained before, this card has incredibly low play percentage right now. People don’t really know how to deal with it. They have forgotten the fear.

The only strength of Freeze is it’s unexpectedness. Once they know you have it, it’s threat lowers significantly.

These are the three rules of Freeze:

• Never Freeze the Princess Tower alone. This is wasting the potential of Freeze as well as elixir.

• Never Freeze troops that won’t die to the Skeletons spawned, such as a Baby Dragon or a Valkyrie. You are giving them excessive elixir to beat you with in a counter push, which you will not be able to handle.
• Never Freeze when your push is already able to damage their Tower severely. You are wasting elixir and making your defense against their counter push harder.

Freeze can also be useful in defending less tanky win conditions such as Hog Rider and Balloon. Paired with Archers, neither of those have any chances of breaking through.

If timed right, an Ice Spirit can extend the Freeze duration by 1 extra second.

Push Combos

Ice Golem + Graveyard

Your main punish combo. This combo will take a Tower if unanswered. As this push is only 7 elixir, you will be able to cast Freeze 1.4 seconds later if you were full on elixir. Against tough matchups, I suggest doing this combo when you have a lead of 4 elixir or above (namely when they just invested a tank at the back) and when their counters can be removed by Freeze (Skeleton Army and Bats). Remember to always do this push opposite to the side they are attacking, or else you are helping them build their push, as Graveyard last for 8 seconds.

Dark Prince + Graveyard

When your Ice Golem is out of hands, but you have a huge lead in elixir. This is not suggested when they have a mini tank in hand, as Dark Prince might be blocked at the bridge, rendering your push useless.

Ice Spirit + Graveyard

Cheapest Graveyard push possible, but very risky as they can legit absorb the Ice Spirit with anything. Very effective when they are empty on elixir, however.

Graveyard + Freeze

Used in conjunction with the three previous combos, when you know Freeze will surely take out their Tower, for example when they defend your Graveyard with Skeleton Army or Bats.

It is not recommended to go in with a bare Graveyard Freeze combo. The risk is too high and the payback is too low.

Defense Combos

Ice Golem + Archers

Either Kite with Ice Golem while Archers DPS in front of the King Tower, or tank with Ice Golem while Archers DPS down the push.

This can be done with any other Skeletons, Ice Spirits or Dark Prince. Even The Log + Archers is enough to take out most mini tanks.

Archers + Freeze

Against Balloon, this combo can guarantee 0 damage on the Tower if your Archers can’t be removed.

Graveyard + Archers

Against pushes that have no building targeting troops, Graveyard can stall for 8 whole seconds.

Game plan

Single elixir time (3:00 to 1:00)

As a cycle deck, one advantage is that bad starting hand have minimal effects on you. Unlike a Golem deck, where a bad starting hand means high chances of losing, a cycle deck always have cards to cycle and force your opponents to make the first move.

These are some standard moves you can make when your elixir bar is full.

• Ice Spirit at the bridge or at the back
• Split Skeletons
• Split Archers at the back
• Log at the bridge to chip tower
• Ice Golem at the back or in front of the King Tower

These are the moves you can make without being punished. This forces your opponent to play first, because if he remains idle, Ice Spirit, Archers and Log will get a lot of chip damage on their Tower. Unlike Hog Cycle or X-Bow, Ice Golem at the back is not so risky since you have Dark Prince as a back up tank.

In this time, you would want to figure out what deck your opponent is running. You can often tell by a seeing a few key cards, which are listed here.

A few cards you want to look out for:

• Poison: It will single handedly ruin your Graveyard Freeze push. Try to bait it out by placing Archers in the same lane. You can try to out cycle their Poison if their deck has a slow cycle.
• Dart Goblin, Princess, Firecracker, Magic Archer: These troops can be placed behind King Tower to chip away at your Graveyard and significantly reduces it’s damage. You don’t have a way to remove them until they walk near the bridge.
• Elixir Collector, Barbarian Hut: Absolute nightmares. Not only do you have no ways to deal with them, it also means they are running some type of big spell bait deck. Wether it is 3M, Golem or Lava Hound, you‘re pretty screwed nonetheless.
• Arrows, Fireball: Your only air counters are Archers. Though you have a fast cycle, it is still problematic if they removed your Archers during a Balloon push.
• Golem: This deck simply lacks the damage to takedown a Golem. You don’t have a building to pull it either, so It they can simply invest a Golem, ignore your punish and take a Tower regardless.

As you can see, there are quite a few decks that give you a hard time, namely Fireball bait, heavy Beatdowns and decks with Poison (Miner Poison and Graveyard Poison, in specific). When facing these decks, you are very likely to lose. It is possible, however, to cheesy a win by getting a Tower in the single elixir time and defending/stalling with Graveyard and Freeze on defense for a 1–0 win.

Your goal would be to defend with both Archers in the same lane, gain a elixir lead then go in with Ice Golem or Dark Prince in front of Archers then Graveyard. This is a deadly push, as they have to defend both side or suffer heavy damage. The rule of Freeze still apply, if they defend you Graveyard with a Valkyrie, don’t Freeze her because you won’t do enough damage to take her out. Let the Archers get damage on their Tower and get ready to defend their counter push afterwards.

Remember to always punish investment. This deck does not have defensive power strong enough to handle a fully build push, so you must split their support or at least trade Tower, although you are a Graveyard deck.

Double Elixir Time (1:00 to 1:00 in overtime)

If you’ve already gotten a Tower or did severe damage to it while keeping your own relatively safe, good job. All you have to do is survive for 1 extra minute and finish their Tower off with Ice Golem + Graveyard + Freeze push near the end if you haven’t already.

You can use Freeze on defence more frequently, as losing a Tower generally means game over for you. Remember to still pressure the opposite lane when they try to build a big push.

Triple Elixir Time (1:00 in overtime to Tiebreaker)

I’d say it is practically impossible.

If it actually happens, just constantly chip with Log and Graveyard Freeze push, and hope you win by health during Tiebreaker.

Substitution

As I’ve mentioned, there is plenty of decks that give this deck a hard time. By substituting some of the card, you can have a much easier time against curtain deck.

Mini P.E.K.K.A.: Substitutes Dark Prince. Mini P.E.K.K.A. gives you a much easier time against Golem and Giant decks.

Musketeer: Substitutes Archers. Does higher DPS and have a longer range for 1 more elixir. However, substituting Archers means it will be hard to cycle your deck, because investing a Musketeer is rather risky against Balloon decks.

Inferno Dragon: Substitutes Archers. Melts single units of almost any kind, which means your matchup against heavy beatdown and balloon is significantly better. However, like the Musketeer, it is harder to cycle your deck with the Inferno Dragon. The Inferno Dragon also doesn't deal with swarms effectively, so keep the Dark Prince if you are using the Inferno Dragon.

Bats: Substitute Skeletons. Gives you a much easier time against Balloon and Hound decks, as well as being able to bait Zap for your Graveyard, or as a cheaper punish with Ice Golem. Reduces your cycle speed slightly.

Zap or Giant Snowball: Substitute The Log. Can be paired with Freeze to take out Archers and below, giving you a way to remove such units on their side of the board. Having knock back of Snowball can help significantly against Balloon decks.

Knight: Substitute Ice Golem. Have more health, does damage on defence and threaten Tower if ignored. He is 1 elixir higher, cannot kite troops and can be blocked at the bridge however. Reduces your cycle speed.

Poison: Substitute Freeze. This actually makes the deck a lot more scientific as you now have ways to deal with investment buildings and larger pushes, but takes out the surprise factor of Freeze and changed the name of the deck as well.

Graveyard and Freeze is the core of this deck, so they cannon’t be replaced. Beside that, cycle cards should be kept cheap to ensure a fast cycle.

Matchups

This is more of an entertainment deck, so I’m not going too in depth into each matchup. I‘ll just list how difficult they are, from scores of 1 to 10, 1 being easiest and 10 being hardest.

Classic Hog Cycle: 3/10 (1/10 if you have Mini P.E.K.K.A.)

2.9 X-Bow Cycle: 10/10 (9/10 if you have Poison instead of Freeze)

Ice Bow: 9/10 (8/10 if you have Poison instead of Freeze)

Miner Poison: 9/10

Golem: 10/10 (6/10 if you sub Mini P.E.K.K.A.)

3M Pump: 10/10 (7/10 if you have Poison instead of Freeze)

Fireball bait: 9/10

Lava Hound: 9/10

Log Bait: 7/10

Zap Bait: 6/10

P.E.K.K.A. Bridge Spam: 4/10

Balloon: 8/10

Graveyard: 9/10 (5/10 if you have Poison instead of Freeze)

Spawner: 8/10

Elixir Golem: 10/10

Giant: 9/10 (7/10 if you sub Mini P.E.K.K.A.)

Mortar: 7/10

Sparky: 8/10

Final Words

As you can tell, this deck is nowhere near effective. It is not a Classic deck that stand the test of time like Hog Cycle or X-Bow, but it is somewhat fun to play. This decks is also a good practice, if you enjoy playing cycle decks.

Give it a go in Classic Challenges and see if you like it. I’ll be praying for you to not get 3M as your opponent. Anyways, have fun Clashing!