Freeze Baby! *PRIMER*

Commander / EDH WU (Azorius)

NV_1980

Creature (24)

• 1x Court Street Denizen
• 1x Dreamshackle Geist
• 1x Drumbellower
• 1x Elite Scaleguard
• 1x Elvish Mariner
• 1x Esper Sentinel
• 1x Frost Titan
• 1x Gadwick, the Wizened
• 1x Gideon's Avenger
• 1x Gideon's Lawkeeper
• 1x Grand Arbiter Augustin IV
• 1x Icewrought Sentry
• 1x Mondrak, Glory Dominus
• 1x Niblis of Frost
• 1x Niblis of the Breath
• 1x Niblis of the Urn
• 1x Ojutai Exemplars
• 1x Rhoda, Geist Avenger
• 1x Sharae of Numbing Depths
• 1x Squall Drifter
• 1x Sunblast Angel
• 1x Timin, Youthful Geist
• 1x Weathered Wayfarer
• 1x Willbreaker

Enchantment (9)

• 1x Anointed Procession
• 1x Brave the Sands
• 1x Dismiss into Dream
• 1x Land Tax
• 1x Opposition
• 1x Quiet Contemplation
• 1x Rhystic Study
• 1x Smothering Tithe
• 1x Verity Circle

Land (36)

• 1x Ancient Tomb
• 1x Arcane Lighthouse
• 1x Arid Mesa
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Exotic Orchard
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 1x Glacial Fortress
• 1x Hallowed Fountain
• 7x Island
• 1x Mana Confluence
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 1x Maze of Ith
• 1x Mikokoro, Center of the Sea
• 1x Misty Rainforest
• 1x Mystic Gate
• 1x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
• 7x Plains
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Reflecting Pool
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Scalding Tarn
• 1x Sea of Clouds
• 1x Temple of Enlightenment
• 1x Windswept Heath

Sorcery (7)

• 1x Bond of Discipline
• 1x Borrowing 100,000 Arrows
• 1x Cone of Cold
• 1x Freeze in Place
• 1x Hands of Binding
• 1x Hidden Strings
• 1x Impede Momentum

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Teferi, Who Slows the Sunset

Commander (1)

Instant (11)

• 1x Cryptic Command
• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Dovin's Veto
• 1x Downpour
• 1x Fierce Guardianship
• 1x Icy Blast
• 1x Mana Drain
• 1x Path to Exile
• 1x Succumb to the Cold
• 1x Swords to Plowshares
• 1x Teferi's Protection

Artifact (11)

• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Ashnod's Altar
• 1x Azorius Signet
• 1x Champion's Helm
• 1x Fellwar Stone
• 1x Hylda's Crown of Winter
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots
• 1x Talisman of Progress
• 1x Thought Vessel

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Welcome to Freeze Baby! {W}{U}!

Hi there! Welcome to the primer of my icy Azorius (assault-)inhibition, draw-, token and boost deck; commanded by Hylda of the Icy Crown. Her long black hair flutters in the cold, winter gale while she surveys from the balcony of her glacier-castle Winter’s Home the adventurers and armies that have come to try and defeat her ice-elemental forces and powers. From below, her slim body in impeccably white attire is not visible as blasts of snow obscure the vision of every soul that attempts to ascend to her level. She knows, power attracts either those that fear it or those that are hungry for it. Her crystal jewelry tinkles slightly as she raises her arms above her crown of the purest white permafrost. A white-blueish energy field starts to surround her hands as with a final, harsh glare to the enemy, she condemns all beneath her to an agonizingly chilly end. This deck is meant to be played casually. It’s not meant to be used in a competitive fashion, but of course I welcome anyone to try! Feel free to comment on anything you (dis)like throughout this primer; I hope you will enjoy it!

Why Hylda?

Because her triggered ability is amazingly strong and has great utility. Its required trigger, the tapping of opposing creatures, is dead-easy to achieve when wielding Azorius magic. Once applied, it’s just a matter of choosing one of Hylda’s spectacular rewards and cause some serious havoc. Whether it’s through the application of ice elementals in combat, boosting all my creatures OR by choosing to scry and draw; all of it is useful!

Strengths and Weaknesses

I use the following ten parameters to determine the strength of the deck. For each, I allocate a score of 5 (very good), 4 (good), 3 (mediocre), 2 (bad) or 1 (very bad); when totalized this score represents the power rating of the deck (maximum score is 50 points).

• Mana: indicates the availability of mana sources within the deck.
• Ramp: indicates the speed at which mana sources within the deck can be made available.
• Card Advantage: indicates availability of filter- and draw resources represented within the deck.
• Overall speed: indicates the deck’s potential for pace, based on resource availability and mana curve.
• Combo: indicates the measure of combo-orientation of the deck.
• Army: indicates the deck’s creature-army strength.
• Commander: indicates how much the deck is commander-oriented/dependent (less dependency is better).
• Interaction: indicates how much this deck can mess with opponents’ board states and turn-phases.
• Resilience: indicates whether the deck can prevent and take punches.
• Spellpower: indicates the availability and strength of high-impact spells.

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Mana: 3

Didn’t go overboard with the mana generation in this deck. Aside from a solid land-count, it contains six rocks, a single creature that reduces overall mana-costs by 1 and an enchantment that relinquishes treasure tokens whenever my opponents try to draw something without paying for it.

Ramp: 1

Two white options allow me to fetch lands under the condition that I’m behind on land-count. Not exactly spectacular but still pretty reliable; especially when facing decks featuring green.

Card Advantage: 3

Without a doubt, Hylda is the deck’s most important (repeatable) draw resource, provided I have the mana available to activate her when opportunity knocks. Aside from her, seven other direct draw cards, two scrying resources and one card that allows me to steal make up this deck’s card-advantage suite.

Overall speed: 3

Cards within this deck have an overall low CMC, which is useful as that leaves more mana available for Hylda’s triggered ability (which I’d ideally trigger multiple times per turn). Combined with this, there’s enough mana/card-resources available to guarantee early-game castings and get things going fast.

Combo: 1

No infinite combos in this one, though there are a couple of very swanky synergies that deserve mentioning; especially mass tapping combined with my commander’s benefits or those of some of my other permanents.

Army: 3

Just about every creature in here is utilitarian and is not really a behemoth of destruction in any significant way. However, the force in here doesn’t need to be particularly strong; it just needs to be unopposed by blockers and the deck features plenty of ways to make that happen (not to mention benefits other than unimpeded movement in the opposition’s direction).

Commander: 3

Having Hylda around does make a major difference to the deck’s possibilities; purely because of her many available utilities when I manage to tap my opponents’ stuff. However, she’s not the only provider of boons with regard to that strategy, so I don’t consider her indispensable to a winning strategy.

Interaction: 5

Obviously, in a deck that’s been made to tap opposing creatures, it is filled to the brim with interaction options. Twenty-seven cards that can force tapping; either through attacking, spell-casting or other means. Four counter-spells as well as two exile spells can also cause some havoc on the opposing side.

Resilience: 4

For the most part, this deck’s resilience score is derived from how resistant it is versus attacks (because it has the power to tap at least some attackers before they ever get the chance of being declared as attackers) and how resistant it is against activated abilities from creatures. However, it does also feature some countering magic and limited access to some lifegain.

Spellpower: 4

A decent amount of mass-tapping spells, along with some mass-bounce, mass draw and a number of very insidious removal spells make up this deck’s impressive spell arsenal.

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Total power score: 30

By itself, this deck has more or less average strength when compared to the average EDH deck. Sure, it only has a few ramp and combo options. These minor weaknesses are offset by its access to enough resources, its massive inhibitive powers and an army that synergizes very well with these. And yet, the deck’s true power resides within a factor that’s even more potent in determining victory; politics! Unless all decide to gang-up on you, this wielder of this deck is bound to be offered deals in exchange to disabling certain powerful features of opposing decks. This feature alone, grants the deck great staying-power overall.

General strategy

One of the most sure-fire ways to stop opposing creatures from screwing me over by blocking my attacks OR instead by attacking me (how dare they?!), is freezing (tapping) their sorry asses. The general idea of this deck is to use that method of inhibition copiously, after which I benefit from either stomping through to my opponents unopposed, keeping myself from harm OR by using Queen Freeze’s excellent utility powers to create/boost armies or drawing some more cards.

From early game-phases onwards, I aim to create plenty of opportunities for tapping opposing forces; in both my turns as well as those of my opponents. The goal is to achieve a battlefield state that allows me to attack regularly with at least some of my forces every turn. These attacks need to be balanced affairs though, as the enclosed army within this deck is not huge and I can’t afford large-scale losses. Hence the support through tapping combined with Hylda’s boons. While building up my forces, I will try to use my tapping abilities to (temporarily) gain allies, allowing me to focus the deck’s tapping resources and take out my targets piecemeal (until I’ve generated enough ice-elementals, boosted my creatures enough OR dropped a game-winning combo to win outright).

Starting hand

At least three cards in the starting hand ought to be lands (or two lands and a cheap-to-cast rock like Arcane Signet, Azorius Signet, Fellwar Stone or Sol Ring. This is a must; I’m not going to start a game without this hand (even if I have to mulligan down to three cards). The ideal hand would also contain some additional ramp and/or low-cost draw options.

Early game

As some of the resources that can tap opposing forces (of benefit from such) require mana to use (per tapping), I want to ensure first that I have sufficient energy for that. So let’s get some good old resourcing going first. Ramp cards like Land Tax and Weathered Wayfarer have casting priority, along with rocks like Talisman of Progress and Thought Vessel. Some card advantage stuff is also appropriate at this stage. Especially options like Elvish Mariner, Esper Sentinel, Rhystic Study and Verity Circle. Next on the agenda (in terms of casting-priority) are permanent tapping resources. During the initial stages of games, I’ll try to cast the tappers that don’t cost mana to activate. Cheap CMC options include Dreamshackle Geist, Hylda's Crown of Winter, Icewrought Sentry and Niblis of the Urn. Once a bit more mana becomes available, options like Gideon's Lawkeeper, Icewrought Sentry, Niblis of the Breath, Quiet Contemplation and Squall Drifter can join to support the tapping action.

Note that it’s really useful during this phase to ally-up with another player, to compensate a bit for this deck’s lack of brute force. In my experience, the most useful allies to obtain either use a token-strat (this deck has some difficulties to guard against opponents going wide), a spell-slinging-strat (non-creature decks are hard to deal with when there’s nothing to tap) and mill/forced-draw decks.

Mid-game

With some tapping assets secured, Hylda is ready to come out and play. Ideally, resources that increase her effectiveness join her on the field. Some good examples would include Anointed Procession and Mondrak, Glory Dominus, to increase the amount of ice-elemental tokens she can generate. Grand Arbiter Augustin IV and Smothering Tithe enable me to save/generate mana for Hylda’s abilities while Champion's Helm, Lightning Greaves, Swiftfoot Boots and Vanishing strengthen her staying-power.

By this time I should be able to field enough strength to cause some ruckus in the opposing creature-ranks. To make sure my attacks remain undisturbed, I’ll tap defending creatures whenever I can; not just with the aforementioned permanents but also with instants/sorceries, amongst them being spells like Downpour, Freeze in Place and Succumb to the Cold. Of even more importance are tapping-spells that can be imprinted on my creatures so that they’re recast whenever said creatures attack. This includes options like Hands of Binding and Hidden Strings.

My impact on the battlefield can be increased further by bringing in the next tier of creatures. First off, a more powerful generation of tappers, including Frost Titan, Gadwick, the Wizened, Niblis of Frost, Ojutai Exemplars, Opposition, Sharae of Numbing Depths and Timin, Youthful Geist. Increasing benefits from tapping can be realized through cards like Borrowing 100,000 Arrows, Gideon's Avenger and Rhoda, Geist Avenger.

End-game

Once my principal opponents have been eliminated, (during the mid-game phase or even before), it’s time to finish things off to close out the game. This can be done by disabling an entire army with a single spell after which I proceed to trample the controlling opponent with my own forces. Such spells include Bond of Discipline, Cone of Cold, Cryptic Command, Cyclonic Rift, Icy Blast and Sunblast Angel.

Combos and synergies

• Hylda of the Icy Crown + Court Street Denizen + tapping mechanism: use the tapping mechanism to tap a creature. This triggers Hylda’s ability. Pay 1 and create an ice-elemental. When it enters the battlefield, the Ice Elemental triggers the CSD, which allows it to tap another creature. I can repeat this process as long as I have mana to activate Hylda’s ability (this can be achieved by sacrificing the elemental to Ashnod's Altar to generate a potential large amount of colorless mana. Adding Anointed Procession or Mondrak, Glory Dominus to the mix ensures the army of elementals keeps growing while I sacrifice one of them per cycle of the combo).
• Hylda of the Icy Crown + Opposition + Ashnod's Altar + one untapped creature (to start the combo): use Opposition to tap the untapped creature and tap an opposing creature. This triggers Hylda. Sacrifice the tapped creature to Altar to generate 2. Use 1 to have Hylda’s ability generate an ice-elemental. Now use Opposition to tap the elemental to tap an opposing creature again. Repeat until all opposing creatures are tapped; yields 1 colorless mana per tapped opposing creature (adding Anointed Procession or Mondrak, Glory Dominus to the mix ensures the army of elementals keeps growing while I sacrifice one of them per cycle of the combo).
• Drumbellower + Opposition: allows me to use Opposition (and other repeatable tapping mechanisms) during every turn, which makes it the perfect political mechanism.
• Dismiss into Dream + targeted tapping mechanism: any (opposing) creature that’s targeted by a tapping ability/spell dies.
• Willbreaker + targeted tapping mechanism: any (opposing) creature that’s targeted by a tapping ability becomes mine (as long as I control Willbreaker of course).

Card Choices

Lands

Reliable sources of mana, and some utility:

• Ancient Tomb: a double portion of colorless mana for a small life-cost.
• Arcane Lighthouse: creatures with hexproof beware; you’re immune to forced tapping no longer!
• Arid Mesa/Flooded Strand/Marsh Flats/Misty Rainforest/Polluted Delta/Scalding Tarn/Windswept Heath: the lands I use to filter through my deck, which enables me to find the cards that matter to my strategy quicker.
• Command Tower/Exotic Orchard/Mana Confluence/Reflecting Pool: great all-color mana lands that have very few disadvantages in their use.
• Glacial Fortress/Hallowed Fountain/Mystic Gate/Sea of Clouds/Temple of Enlightenment: lands that provide Azorius mana, that depending in circumstances enter the battlefield tapped or untapped. I’ve tried to incorporate the best MTG has to offer on this front, except for the original dual lands which are outside my (and most players’) price-range.
• Geier Reach Sanitarium/Mikokoro, Center of the Sea: some additional options to draw, if there are no other ones at hand.
• Maze of Ith: takes an attacker out of combat without repercussions; useful for my own creatures, but also take something opposing off the field.
• Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx: in a deck with plenty of permanents, the amount of mono white or blue mana that can be generated by this land can really get off the chain.
• Reliquary Tower: I hate to discard; this helps me retain my hand no matter its size.

Mana and ramp

The cards I use to accelerate mana-availability:

• Arcane Signet: cheap-to-cast, doesn’t come into play tapped and grants me any Azorius mana whenever tapped.
• Ashnod's Altar: great mana source in a pinch; especially useful when a creature is about to be killed anyways, might as well still make itself useful.
• Azorius Signet: excellent mana rock in any Azorius deck. Its only drawback is that it requires 1 to activate.
• Grand Arbiter Augustin IV: creates a wonderful casting-cost imbalance between them and me.
• Land Tax: many of the successes I’ve had in games featuring white, are owed to the presence of this card. In my view, arguably the best non-green land-fetching device that was ever created and it’s a staple in all my decks featuring white.
• Smothering Tithe: drawing is no longer free. Either pay, or allow me Treasure tokens.
• Sol Ring: are there EDH decks without this card?
• Talisman of Progress: grants either colorless or an Azorius mana on tapping (and 1 life), nice rock for CMC2.
• Weathered Wayfarer: fetches any land for me, not just basics, provided someone else currently controls more lands than I do.

Card advantage

Hylda allows me to draw, but she wouldn’t mind some support on this front:

• Borrowing 100,000 Arrows: so much fun to cast after first making sure most of the opposing field is tapped.
• Elvish Mariner: scrying upon attacking; decent little perk.
• Esper Sentinel: with Hylda potentially boosting its power, Sentinel becomes a draw-engine that increasingly becomes harder to stop/counter.
• Gadwick, the Wizened: massive insta-draw along with some multi-functional tapping upon casting blue spells; noice!
• Rhystic Study: one of the most important draw enablers I own; a staple in almost all decks I’ve built that feature blue.
• Sharae of Numbing Depths: too bad her triggered ability only applies once a turn; still, it’s pretty much guaranteed in this deck to go off (in other players’ turns as well).
• Verity Circle: this one is not just great because I can force taps, but also because players using creatures with activated abilities that require tapping are screwed over.
• Willbreaker: tapping now means stealing; goody!

Tappers

The cards that allow me to freeze stuff where it stands:

• Bond of Discipline/Cryptic Command: I’ll use mass tapping (and some utility) to completely neutralize opposing defenses or even an impending attack.
• Cone of Cold/Freeze in Place/Hands of Binding/Icy Blast/Impede Momentum/Quiet Contemplation/Succumb to the Cold: stunning is even cooler than freezing; especially when it’s deployed on mass.
• Downpour: freezing rain taps three opposing creatures.
• Dreamshackle Geist/Timin, Youthful Geist: sometimes, attacking isn’t needed to trigger a tappin’; the start of combat is just as good.
• Elite Scaleguard/Frost Titan/Niblis of the Urn: upon attacking, these creatures enable me to tap something; very useful for disabling opposing blockers.
• Gideon's Lawkeeper/Squall Drifter/Niblis of the Breath: multiple cards that allow me to tap (or even untap) another permanent for the low cost of paying a (colored) mana and a tap.
• Hylda's Crown of Winter: not just a great utility creature-tapper, but one hell of a draw-enabler as well based on tapped stuff.
• Niblis of Frost/Ojutai Exemplars: more creature options that use another nice way to trigger a tap; me casting non-creature spells.
• Opposition: multi-functional tapping, at the cost of tapping something myself.
• Teferi, Who Slows the Sunset: his primary power can untap AND tap whatever stuff I want.

Counters and Removal

When I don’t want you to use certain permanents:

• Cyclonic Rift: gets rid of all opposing permanents except lands for a measly 7 mana; which is almost win-enabling by itself under certain circumstances.
• Dismiss into Dream: it’s not getting tapped, I swear!
• Dovin's Veto: an uncounterable counterspell; beat that!
• Fierce Guardianship: potentially a free-to-cast counterspell; has wonderful applications for situations in which I am tapped out.
• Mana Drain: sucking the mana right out of your spell; ready to be used for my own ends.
• Path to Exile/Swords to Plowshares: in exchange for a minor boon, your titan over there has been atomized into nothingness forever!
• Sunblast Angel: remember those creatures I tapped? They’re dead now …

Utility

Some protection, token-production and un-tappers.

• Anointed Procession/Mondrak, Glory Dominus: token doublers that allow Hylda to generate more ice elementals.
• Brave the Sands: easier to deal with multiple opposing forces when attacking doesn’t cause me to tap.
• Champion's Helm/Lightning Greaves/Swiftfoot Boots: a little hexproof for Hylda, and some other assorted bonuses.
• Drumbellower: allows all my creatures to be used to their full extent every turn.
• Gideon's Avenger: this guy gets big fast, with minimal effort on my part.
• Teferi's Protection: wonderful card to protect my board-presence in case someone decides to try and wipe it out.

Notable exclusions

• Junk Winder: not bad, synergizes ok with Hylda but I still think it’s too expensive to cast for what it does.
• Topplegeist: it’s cheap to cast, but I’m not a big fan of the delirium-requirement for the remainder of his abilities.

Thank you for reading!

I appreciate the time you took to read my primer. Hopefully it was entertaining and useful to you. If so, feel free to leave a +1 and/or feedback of any kind in the comments below. Thanks again!

Date added	3 months
Last updated	3 months
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	16 - 0 Mythic Rares 36 - 0 Rares 23 - 0 Uncommons 10 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.95
Tokens	Elemental 4/4 WU, Emblem Teferi, Who Slows the Sunset, Treasure