Everything I Know About Ice Lexi

By: Yuki Bender

 

This article will discuss my inspiration for the Ice Lexi deck that I took to Pro Tour New Jersey. I will also discuss sideboard plans and tips and tricks for some of the popular matchups.

Building the Deck

Lexi was at the forefront of my mind leading up to the Pro Tour, but despite all her strengths she had quite a few problems also. Lexi has always enjoyed a wide variety of builds including lightning or ice Voltaire, lightning Death Dealer, fuseless Voltaire and more. All of these lists have different strengths and are favorable against certain heros but weak against others. Lexi has always felt like she can be built to beat any hero, but being strong into all heros with one list has been a challenge. This problem inspired me to make a list that combines the core strategies of the fuseless Voltaire lists with the ice Voltaire lists. The idea behind the deck was to have most of the damage ceiling of the fuseless lists, while still having access to the disruption of ice for aggro matchups.

The end product is a deck that can play the disruptive role and can find a turn with one or more Rain Razors/Art of Wars and ideally Three of a Kind followed up by 4-5 arrows to deal 25-35+ damage. This combo is usually achieved by starting with an arrow in arsenal, loading two arrows with Voltaire, giving the arrow in arsenal go again with Snapdragon Scalers, and then loading the 4th arrow with Bull’s Eye Bracers. Sometimes you can even get a bonus reload with Boltn’ Shot or Pathing Helix for a fifth attack! Art of Wars are essential to the deck's ability to go off as they can give all your attacks +1 and give you greater card velocity to find your other power cards. In general the deck is always trying to end the turn with an arrow in arsenal when possible, and actively aiming to pair a rain razors or art of war with it to set up an explosive 6 card hand.

 

My main testing partners, Eric Lerer and Nghia Tran, really helped to refine and tune the list, although lots of other players helped us work on specific matchups as well. Eric, Nghia and I all brought the exact same 80 card list for the weekend. Eric and I both made day 2 of the PTand Nghia made day 2 of the calling. Across the three of us the deck had a 60% win rate (25-16 record) for the weekend. It was a small sample size, but overall we were very impressed with the list and feel like it’s pretty much perfect. I think Lexi has game into just about every deck in the format and in my eyes is comparable to the big 3 decks - Chane, Starvo and Prism.

 

Here is the exact 80 I took to Pro Tour New Jersey.

 

Class: Ranger

Hero: Lexi, Livewire

Weapons: Voltaire, Strike Twice

Equipment: Bull's Eye Bracers, Fyendal's Spring Tunic, New Horizon, Perch Grapplers, Snapdragon Scalers

 

(3) Blizzard Bolt (red)

(3) Bolt'n Shot (red)

(3) Chilling Icevein (red)

(3) Endless Arrow (red)

(3) Fatigue Shot (red)

(3) Ice Quake (red)

(3) Lightning Press (red)

(2) Lightning Surge (red)

(3) Pathing Helix (red)

(3) Searing Shot (red)

(3) Sleep Dart (red)

(3) Three of a Kind (red)

(3) Art of War (yellow)

(3) Blizzard Bolt (yellow)

(3) Bolt'n Shot (yellow)

(3) Chilling Icevein (yellow)

(3) Fatigue Shot (yellow)

(1) Frost Fang (yellow)

(3) Rain Razors (yellow)

(3) Amulet of Ice (blue)

(3) Bolt'n Shot (blue)

(3) Channel Lake Frigid (blue)

(3) Frost Lock (blue)

(3) Ice Quake (blue)

(2) Icy Encounter (blue)

(3) Winter's Bite (blue)

 

For those of you hoping to fit Shock Charmers or a bit of extra arcane barrier I might look at cutting Searing Shots or some of the lightning cards for the Prism matchup. However, I haven’t tested these configurations exactly, so you will have to make sure you aren’t giving up too much equity in that matchup. Prism is quite tough and requires us to play a lot of sideboard cards to keep up with her.

 

Sideboarding and Matchups

I will break down each of the popular matchups with the sideboard guide and some key  notes for the matchup. The cards listed as sideboard are the ones that should remain in your deck box. Play everything, except for the cards listed.

 

Starvo

Board out:

3 lightning press (1)

2 lightning surge (1)

3 chilling ice vein (1)

3 chilling ice vein (2)

1 frost fang (2)

2 searing shot (1)

1 perch grapplers

 

Against Starvo we hedge against the aggressive variant as it is the most popular. True control shells that play a bunch of extra 3 blocks + defense reactions are a very hard matchup as they can fatigue us but also punish us for taking too much time off to set up a big turn. If you know you are going to be playing against control, don’t be afraid to bring in lightning surge and lightning press to have a bit of extra reach. The good news is, aggressive Starvo lists are a very solid matchup for us, even if they board in 6-9 red defense reactions or not.

 

In this matchup we need to prioritize maximizing on hits to keep them off their game while we try to set up a big 25-35 damage Rain Razors turn to push them to a life threshold that forces them to block for the rest of the game. As a rule of thumb you want to start the turn with Blizzard Bolts when possible and attack with Sleep Dart or Fatigue Shot as late as possible. This type of sequencing can lead starvo to take damage from the first attack just to realize later that their unfused Spinal Crush won’t be effective at all thanks to Fatigue Shot.

 

The matchup can be quite swingy, and if they manage to go on a roll chaining hit effects they can run you over, however we also have our fair share of explosive hands and can high roll them just as hard. On the whole, I would say aggro Starvo is close to 50-50 or maybe slightly favored for Lexi. However, due the raw power of Starvo I’m never excited to be sitting across from one either.

 

Aggro - Runeblades/Lexi/Katsu/Boltyn

Board out:

3 lightning press

2 lightning surge

3 red fatigue shot

3 yellow fatigue shot

3 searing shot

1 perch grapplers

 

Aggro is this deck’s bread and butter matchup and you can expect to be highly favored.  Similar to Starvo, the general gameplan is to disrupt as much as possible while pressuring some damage, and then to have a big 25-35 damage turn off art of war, rain razors, and three of a kind to lock away the game. In general you want to block as little as possible and focus on maintaining heavy disruption to prevent the swing back. The priority is still often arsenaling an arrow, however red Ice Quake, Channel Lake Frigid, Winter’s Bite and even Icy Encounter can all be serviceable and situationally quite powerful as well. 

 

Against Chane specifically, trying to pressure them with frost bites and sleep dart is particularly troublesome, as both of these interfere with their ability to make soul shackles. When you are threatening frostbites, if they want to block out and still make a shackle it usually requires them to keep a blue in hand as well. I have definitely had my fair share of games in testing where Chane ends the game on 2-4 shackles, not because we killed them that quickly, but because there were multiple turns where they just never got the chance to shackle.

 

Lexi Mirror

Board out:

3 press

2 surge

3 red fatigue shot

3 yellow fatigue shot

3 art of war

1 snaps

 

In the mirror I would always assume they are on ice as that is by far the most challenging variant for us to play against. Ice is heavily favored into any of the lightning variants as your taxes are super effective and your output isn’t too much lower. This is the one matchup where I would actually prioritize going second if you can as your disruption is especially effective against Lexi and the match is almost entirely determined by who controls tempo the best.

 

Should you fall behind on Tempo, you will often just have to block out and look for a chance to pivot where they either have minimal disruption or you are able to play Three of a Kind or Channel Lake Frigid to force a pivot. These two cards are keys in the matchup as they are some of the only ways you can effectively regain tempo against another Ice Lexi deck. I also value the Perch Grapplers in this matchup as blocking an extra on hit can come in clutch. Art of Wars come out in this matchup because they don’t block and often require at least two other cards in hand (one to pitch and one to banish), which is not a luxury we usually have.

 

It is worth noting that Sleep Dart can be particularly frustrating to play against if you have an attack in arsenal face down as it turns off your ability to open up an arsenal slot with New Horizon. For this reason, I would lean towards arsenaling ice attacks if you see your opponent playing Sleep Dart and putting themselves in a situation where they can swing back.

 

Prism

Board out:

3 red chilling

1 yellow chilling

3 sleep dart

1 frost fang

3 amulet

3 art of war

1 snapdragon scaler

 

Against Prism we are trying to go as wide as we can while pushing as many breakpoints as possible, so placing an attack in arsenal is very important in the matchup. Pressuring her life total as heavily as you can is essential, as she will eventually overrun you with auras if you take it slow. Frostbites and Fatigue Shots are very strong in the matchup as it makes her C&C or herald crack backs much weaker. Prism is a tricky matchup because Arc Light Sentinel and Parable of Humility present a few unique challenges for the deck that you need to be aware of and modify your gameplay to account for. 

 

Parable of Humility turns off a ton of breakpoints but also turns off Boltn’ Shots go again. You may wish to sequence Boltn’ Shot as your second arrow or to give the attack go again with Voltaire to play around this in some spots because Parable ending your turn will often lose the game on the spot. Lightning Press and Rain Razors however can be sneaky ways to turn the Boltn’ Shots back on, and there are quite a few mind games you can play when deciding which mode to choose from Voltaire.

 

Arc Light Sentinel (ALS) can completely blow out your giant combo turns and lines up very well against a deck focused on using Three of a Kind and Rain Razors. As a result, I found it most effective to actually minimize how much I set up and save cards, to make it harder for them to get value out of their ALS turns. There are lots of subtle ways to do this but here are a few key ones:

1. Just play your Rain Razors anytime you have at least two arrows that benefit from it, a 4 for 0 go again is very good. 
2. Play your entire hand against Prism rather than holding back that vanilla 4 damage attack to set up a bigger hand next time. This way, if she does slam ALS the next turn you can probably still pop it, double arsenal and you got a whole extra attack compared to if you did not play the last arrow.
3. Attack with an arrow with go again first, then play Three of a Kind. Yes, it breaks the chain, but at least you make them commit to one attack before stopping your Three of a Kind turn. Also, they are usually scared of committing footsteps when they see Lightning Press and Rain Razors in the list.
4. When you activate Voltaire ask if they have any responses before revealing the arrow. Choosing +1 or Go Again is part of the resolution of the ability and can’t be responded to. Once the arrow is face up in arsenal, you have priority and she does not get to take any actions until you take another game action, such as attacking with the arrow.

 

Prism is one of the few matchups where Art of War comes out, because it incentivizes you to play into big combo turns which aren’t effective against ALS. Instead, Lightning Press has been a spectacular replacement as it can pop a herald, threaten footsteps, force an on-hit, help you turn your Boltn’ Shots back on against parable and close out the game.

 

The general gameplan is to maintain pressure as much as possible and kill auras occasionally.  You are essentially trying to do your best Lightning Briar impression in this matchup. Which aura is most important depends on life totals and on the board state but in general the kill priority is:

1. Parable of Humility
2. Shimmers of Silver
3. Haze Bending/Genesis (early in the game only)
4. Pierce Reality (early or mid game only)
5. Ode - this one can go up in priority if they have multiple other auras.
6. Ignore everything else unless it's relatively free to pop the aura and it’s early in the game.

 

At some point you will have to choose to ignore auras and just try to close out the game. Just make sure you aren’t ignoring Shimmers or Parable as both of those are extremely potent in late game racing situations. With practice I believe the matchup is quite close to 50-50, with most of the games coming right down to the wire.

 

Oldhim/Fatigue

Board out:

3 sleep dart

3 red fatigue shot

3 yellow fatigue shot

1 perch

 

Against fatigue we bring in a few extra reds so we don’t deck quite as quickly. We have not tested the fatigue matchup extensively, but this list is definitely better equipped than most ice lists to deal with it. I personally managed to beat an Oldhim at the Pro Tour by playing double rain razors and Three of a Kind followed up by 5 arrows for a total of approximately 40 damage. 

 

This matchup revolves around your ability to alternate between big 6 card hands and smaller turns where you set up your 6 card hands. Additionally, the bigger your one combo turn is, the more likely you are to be able to punch through for lethal. The deck is overall decently well equipped to deal with fatigue, but it can still be a tricky matchup regardless.