Ashe LeBlanc is one of the oldest decks in Legends of Runeterra and in Patch 5.8, the Freeze deck continues to perform well and is one of the most-played decks in the meta.
This is a midrange freeze deck that aims to win the board presence. It has the combat tricks to keep key units alive, allowing you to keep the pressure going as players try to slow down your attacks.
Decklist
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With Ashe LeBlanc, you’re trying to build a strong board and use your combat tricks to win trades. The ideal goal is to kill the opponent’s units while keeping as many units as possible on your end alive. This forces opponents to find answers to your attackers or they’ll end up striking the Nexus.
We have multiple Characters that buff our units, giving them additional stats that turn them into a bigger threat, that can be too difficult for the opposing player to deal with.
Champions can become win conditions, especially a leveled Ashe, as she’ll shut down opponents from using 0 Power units as blockers. The list Incisive Tacticitian to activate Rally, giving you an extra attack, accelerating your game plan to destroy the Nexus.
Omen Hawk and Yadulski Snowdog are important for the early game, giving the top 2 allies in your deck +1|+1. Omen Hawk has Sharpsight, which finds use against a deck with an Elusive attacker.
Yadulski Snowdog has to attack to get that +1|+1 stat boost on your allies. It’s usually worth it if you attack with him early on and he can survive or at least kill the blocker.
Challenger units are useful in this deck to pick off opponent’s key units. Trifarian Gloryskeer can’t block, so we usually want to attack her and remove one of the opponent’s units to weaken their upcoming aggression. Her 1 health makes her vulnerable to Ping spells, but we could buff her up with Elixer of Iron.
Another Challenger unit is Scholarly Pioneer, capable of picking off low-health units. It can become a bigger threat if you manage to get an early +1|+1 stat boost on it. We’re mainly running it for the Explorer Spells, which offer different useful options depending on the game.
Challenger units synergize with our game plan because we can pick off opponent’s units strategically. They’re also great attackers with Ashe’s Freeze, getting a free trade or pulling away threats that could block and kill Ashe.
LeBlanc puts insane pressure in the early game, especially if you have the mana to keep her alive from damage spells with Elixer of Iron or Skyplitter. She’s going for 5 Power attacks that force the opponent to block her if they want to preserve their Nexus’ health. The Quick Attack makes sure that the blocker doesn’t kill her, forcing opponents to find other means to kill her.
If she’s leveled, we’re not creating Mirror Image, a powerful spell that summons an Ephemeral copy of one of our units. The “summoning” effect is extremely useful in this deck, synergizing with multiple units in our deck that I’ll talk more about later in the guide.
Ashe is a great play for her Freeze ability. When she goes for the attack, Ashe freezes the opponent’s strongest unit, shutting it down from trading with any of your units. Ashe’s 3 health makes her an easy target for opponents to kill, either through another blocker with 3 Power or damage spells. This is why we need mana saved up to play our low-cost combat tricks. Brittle Steel is perfect to freeze a blocker that can kill Ashe. At the same time, whenever we’re freezing we’re advancing Ashe’s level up.
Make sure to use your freezes once the opponent has committed a block/attack, to put them in the threat of losing their unit without winning the trade. So we’re using them reactively rather than proactively.
Once Ashe is leveled, all frozen units (0 Power units) are rendered useless, incapable of blocking your attacks. This enables stronger attacks or forces players to buff the Power of their units if they want to use them as blockers.
If we’re trying to set up a winning turn, we can play our Freeze spells reactively, shutting down more of the opponent’s units from blocking and making sure Ashe is leveled up when she goes for the attack.
Combat Cook is another great play on turn 4, which you’ll likely prefer over Ashe if you don’t have the mana or combat tricks to protect her. A Quick Attack weapon Combat Cook makes him extremely annoying when he attacks, forcing players to find answers to him.
As for Avarosan Hearthguard, he’s usually an immediate slam on the board on turn 5. The +1|+1 stat boost goes a long way as the game stretches out, letting you create a more threatening board that forces more resources from the opponent to keep up with.
Trifarian Assessor is perfect for the card draw. She does require you to have units with 5+ Power, but this shouldn’t be too difficult for this deck to set up. Also you can play Mirror Image on Trifarian Assessor to reactivate her effect and gain more card draw.
We play Incisive Tactician to add more aggression, especially if we have multiple attackers on the board. Thanks to our combat tricks, we should be able to weaken the opponent’s board once we attack, and a second attack could be devastating for them.
Combined with Mirror Image, you can activate Rally again for another attack, putting immense pressure on the opponent and potentially winning the game.
Bloody Business is our only way to interact with the opponent’s board and kill one of their key units. It only can used on your 5+ Power units, which we have many of them. 4 mana can be a bit expensive, so if you’ve struck with 5+ Power units at least 4 times, Bloody Business will cost 2 mana.
The Darkin Spear can be played on one of our units to make sure they don’t die easily thanks to the +2 health. Additionally, every time you attack with that unit, you’re buffing the top 2 allies in the deck by +1|+1.
In the late game, you can summon Anaakca, which if allowed to attack, it’ll summon the top follower you have at the top 6 cards in your deck, creating a wider attack turn.
Mulligan
- Yadulski Snowdog is one of the strongest cards to have for the early game. The +1|+1 buff can be a game-changer.
- LeBlanc is a great keep for the early game. The 5|2 attacks with Quick Attack can be troublesome for opponents.
- If you have an early game card, you could keep a low-cost combat trick to protect it.
Other Cards to Include
- Icevale Archer can shut down one of the opponent’s attackers with his on Play freeze, slowing their pace. The Freeze will also advance Ashe’s level up.
- Glacial Saurian is a draw card that also buffs units at the top of your deck. Having the Overwhelm keyword makes it a threat, especially if you buff its stats.
- Reckoning is more of a meta-dependent card, capable of killing all units with 4 or less Power. You have to have a 5+ Power unit on your side of the board to activate Reckoning.