The Ganyu Freeze deck is currently one of the most prominent decks in Genshin Impact’s TCG, Genius Invokation TCG. Patch 3.4 of Genshin Impact has introduced a wide variety of changes to the Genius Invokation TCG game mode. Most of these implemented changes came as a result of the oppressive meta game that players were able to concoct with the available character cards and action cards. Decks such as Maguu Kenki Freeze and Ayaka OTK ran rampant throughout the game and wreaked havoc. It made a lot of matches very unfun to play due to how one-sided some of these matches would be. Because of these, HoYoverse implemented changes which would serve to balance out the deck and reel them in so that they would not be as oppressive.
With the implemented changes, these decks took a step back and more decks were able to take to the limelight and show off what they could do. One of these decks would be the Ganyu Freeze deck. The Ganyu Freeze deck is a deck that in hindsight, looks to be very difficult to pilot with how restrictive its playstyle is. However, because of how slow the meta game has become, this deck has managed to thrive despite being quite dependent on luck. With that being said, let’s get to know what this deck is all about and how it plays.
Deck Recipe
Character Cards: Xingqiu, Ganyu, Mona
Action Cards:
2 Liben
2 Elemental Resonance: Woven Waters
2 Changing Shifts
2 Leave it to Me!
2 I Haven’t Lost Yet
2 Chang the Ninth
2 Liu Su
2 Elemental Resonance: Soothing Waters
2 Lotus Flower Crisps
2 Mushroom Pizza
2 Strategize
2 Gambler’s Earrings
2 The Bestest Travel Companion!
2 Paimon
2 Undivided Heart
Ganyu Freeze Deck Breakdown
The concept behind this deck is to use the Freeze reaction to control and disrupt the opponent’s turn. Generally, if things go well, the Ganyu Freeze deck is able to prevent the opponent’s active character from doing anything the whole turn as well as deal extra damage to the other units on standby. However, considering that Freeze requires that Hydro is applied on the opposing character, it can be quite difficult to set up. To cover for that weakness, this deck uses double Hydro characters to make sure that there is a constant stream of Hydro applications being dealt out.
Because of the need to run double Hydro character cards in Ganyu Freeze, this presents another weakness of the deck. Considering that the main driving force of the deck is the special normal attack of Ganyu, having really bad dice rolls affects how much damage is dealt by the player. Aside from that, Ganyu is the sole Cryo unit in the character card roster. This is another major problem of the deck since if Ganyu is unable to apply Cryo or use her Cryo attacks, the player will not be able to freeze the opponents’ characters. Thankfully enough, both Xingqiu and Mona are able to put shields on the active character as part of their Elemental Skill. These shields will help protect Ganyu as she mows down the entire roster of active characters the opponent controls.
Since this deck is able to disable an active character consistently while also dissing out damage to other units, this deck has an advantage over hypercarry and tank decks. Decks such as Hypercarry Noelle and Quicken Collei find it difficult to counter the Ganyu Freeze deck due to being reliant on a singular unit. When these units end up frozen, those types of decks tend to do nothing for the rest of the round. This essentially gives the player a free turn to set up and deal damage. However, despite these strengths, the deck also has a stark weakness. Because of the need to set up two elements to Freeze the opponent, the Ganyu Freeze deck typically has a slow start. As a result, this deck would typically lose to faster decks that are quick to burn down other character cards. Decks such as the Klee Aggro deck have a huge advantage over this deck as they take very little time to set up and are quick when dishing out damage. Because of this, it is imperative that the player is able to get creative with how they switch around the character cards of the deck as this will help the deck make safe set ups.
Having explored where the Ganyu Freeze deck stands in the meta, it is now time to find out how it actually plays. To start off, the main game plan of this deck is to set up Xingqiu’s Elemental Burst and in combination with Ganyu’s Frostflake Arrow, freeze the opponent’s active character. Once Xingqiu is able to use his Elemental Burst, it becomes a matter of switching to Ganyu and making sure she can use her Normal Attack: Frostflake Arrow. The challenge here would be making sure that she stays alive throughout her attacks and making sure there is enough dice to even use that attack of hers. Because of this, the action card deck tends to have a lot of damage mitigation and healing to help with the survivability of Ganyu. The deck also has a lot of fast swap cards so that swapping to Ganyu will not consume a turn and that will enable Ganyu to safely use her attacks.
When it comes to opening hands, the most important cards to have are cards that will help ramp up the amount of elemental dice the player has available. Cards such as Elemental Resonance: Woven Waters, Liben, and Paimon are very important opening pieces as they will allow the player to make sure that they have enough elemental dice to use Ganyu’s Normal Attack: Frostflake Arrow. Other important cards are Energy generating cards such as Liu Su as they will allow Xingqiu to get their burst off right away in the first round. Ganyu’s talent card, Undivided Heart, is also a good pick in the starting hand as it gives Ganyu extra damage when she uses her Normal Attack: Frostflake Arrow. However, compared to elemental dice fixing cards and energy generating cards, Undivided Hearts is not as important. Other cards that are worth keeping are Chang the Ninth as well as The Bestest Travel Companion! as they are able to give the player advantages as well although albeit at a much slower rate than the aforementioned cards.
As for which character card to start with, Xingqiu is generally preferred as he needs to be able to quickly set up his Elemental Burst. However, in cases where Liu Su is available, Mona is also a viable starting option as she is able to use a quick swap.
At the start of Round 1, generally the player will be setting up Xingqiu’s burst. This is done by starting with Xingqiu and using his Normal Attacks to rack up his energy. His Elemental Skill can also be used in cases where an element is inflicted on Xingqiu and it needs to be cleansed so as not to give the opponent an advantage. During this time, the elemental dice ramps must also be set up to prepare for Ganyu’s very elemental dice demanding Normal Attacks. During the 2nd round, the player will typically use the Elemental Burst of Xingqiu and if there is not enough resources to use at least one Normal Attack: Frostflake Arrow from Ganyu, switch to Mona to stall out the round and protect Ganyu. The 3rd round is where this deck will start going at it. In the 3rd round, switch to Ganyu and use her Normal Attack: Frostflake Arrow. This will allow Ganyu to freeze the opponent’s character card as well as deal extra damage across the board. From there, the Ganyu Freeze deck will just be repeating the process once Xingqiu’s rainswords run out.
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