BACKGROUND INFORMATION
The main offensive purposes of this deck is the barbarian deck and the minion horde. The defensive cards of this deck is the ice spirit, spear goblins, and the fire spirits. They can also be supporting cards in addition to the lightning spell and the zap spell.
BASICS: AVERAGE ELIXIR AND HOW TO USE EACH TROOP EFFICIENTLY
The average elixir cost for this deck is an even 3.6 and the following cards used are:
TROOPS: USED FOR DEFENSE AND OFFENSE. IMPORTANT TO USE THE RIGHT COUNTER FOR EACH TROOP
Ice Spirits- The ice spirits can be a great card to use in conjunction with the hog. The ice spirits can be compared to the zap spell because both of those cards stun enemy buildings or troops. However, unlike the zap spell, the fire spirit does not cost two elixir. Instead, it is half as expensive and only costs you one elixir to use. In addition to that bonus, the fire spirit’s stun ability lasts twice as long as the zap spell. Because of these two stats on the ice spirit, the ice spirit is worth about four times as much as the zap spell is per elixir. However, there is one downside to using the ice spirit over the zap spell. The ice spirit, unlike the zap spell, can easily be countered. The ice s[irit can be countered by almost anything from direct damage spells like the zap spell, the arrows, the fire ball, and the rocket. The ice spirit is also very fragile against any sp[lash damageing troops because even if they target your own hog rider, the splash damage effect can still kill your ice spirit since the ice spirit has such a low health point stat. Some splash damage troops that can kill your ice spirit is the wizard, the baby dragon, th ice wizard, the princess, the bomber, the witch, and the valkyrie. Because of this, using the ice spirit is a risk reward type troop. If the ice spirit does get its stuf off before it dies, it is well worth it and you have a four times effectiveness when compared to the zap spell. However, if it dies it has a zero effectiveness when compared to the zap spell. If you find that your opponents are countering your ice spirit more times than not, you make want to switch to the zap spell. Switching to the zap spell will garuentee that you will get a stun on each of your pushes every single time. The zap spell will also get you a little more damage that is also reliable.
Fire Spirits- The fire spirits are your other splash damage card. The reason why they are not your only splash damage card is because they die when they give out damage. This makes it hard for them to support a push all the way through because once they run into a troop, they no longer can support your push. However, their damage is insane for only two elixir. Their damage exceeds 500 and can be put out all withing one second. This lets the fire spirits easily kill bunched up troops very easily like skeletons, spear goblins, and the regular goblins. It can take out equal level spear goblins, skeletons, or regular shank goblins with only one out of the three fire spirits that are present. This means that this one card that only costs two elixir can kill all three of those cards costing a combined total of five elixir. The fire spirits can also nearly take down barbarians to the grave. The fire spirits can make the barbarian’s health points go so low that your arena tower can finish them off with out taking any damage. This gives you a three elixir value and a great quick reaction counter to swarm troops. The fire spirits can also help strengthen your anti air defense against any minions or minion hordes. However, they do not do well against higher health air troops like the lava hound or the balloon because they lack sustained damage. The fire spirits do not do well against high health singular targets like the pekka, prince, or balloon. They also are countered by the zap spell. It does a so so job against troops that have medium health like the mini pekka, musketeer, and wizard.
Spear Goblins- The spear goblin card is one of the most basic troops in the game. For being one of the first cards to be unlocked in the game, it is surprising how well they perform. The Spear Goblins not only can defend against goblins, enemy Spear Goblins, and Minions in a on verse one with the help of your Tower, but it can also be used at the very beginning. If the Spear Goblins are used right at the start, you force your opponent to either react to them by placing a much more expensive troop, leaving an option to have a hard counter ready, or make them just watch those Spear Goblins chip 300 damage off their tower. 300 may not seem like a whole bunch, but do that 2 or three times in a match, and you got yourself 1000 free chip damage. The Spear Goblins can also kill a Princess that is on the bridge very quickly as long as the princess is distracted. If the princess is not distracted and you deploy the spear goblins, they will die before they can kill the princess, making you basically waste three elixir. On a very good note however, you can do an advanced move with these spear goblins. the spear goblins, just like your minions, are one of your only air targeting units. You should save your spear goblins just to counter any balloons or lava hounds they may have. If you see that their deck does not have any of those cards, you can use the spear goblins like you normally would.The spear goblins are extremely vulnerable to splash damage units like the bomber, the Valkyrie, the witch, the bowler, the fire spirits, and the baby dragon. The spear goblins are also very vulnerable to any direct damage spells such as the fire ball, the arrows, and the lightning spell.
Barbarians– The barbarians costs five Elixir. This is best used to counter Princes, P.E.K.K.A, and the Hog Rider. They are also an extremely helpful distraction for smaller troops that can do major damage if left untouched, like the Minions, Spear Goblins and the Goblin combo. Also, the Barbarians can help defend against the dark prince if the situation is desperate, but is not recommended counter since the Dark Prince is a pretty good Barbarian destroyer. The barbarians can also counter a miner. All you have to do is place the barbarians where the miner will pop out and only one of your defending barbarians will get killed, If the Barbarians are set on top of the much feared Sparky, they can easily destroy it, and you will gain a major Elixir advantage. The barbarians in this deck is for defense though. If the enemy spawns in a hog rider, send your barbarians just in front of the contested arena or crown tower. If you do this perfectly, the hog rider will get no damage onto your tower. Usually though, the enemy hog rider will squeeze through and be able to get one shot off. Additionally, if the enemy combines a fireball, zap, or fire spirit and zap combo,l they will be able to get a lot more damage off onto your tower so be very careful about what they have to support the hog rider and make adjustments accordingly. If they send in a prince, the barbarians are a great hard counter to him and will kill the enemy prince with ease. In my opinion, the Barbarians are one of the biggest staple cards in the game. The barbarians are extremely vulnerable to splash damage units like the bomber, the Valkyrie, the witch, the fire spirits, the sparky, and the baby dragon. The barbarians are also very vulnerable to most direct damage spells such as the fire ball and the lightning spell.
Minion Horde- The minion horde is used to defend against most things. The minion horde contains 5 minions which means that a ton of damage can be put out. A single minion all ready can do a ton of damage but when five minions are combined to form a single group, they melt anything that they attack. The minion horde counters any ground unit very hard. They can completely kill a charged prince even after it has crossed your side of the bridge. The minion horde is also every strong against the barbarians, wiping them in only a few seconds, the golem- killing him before he has a chance to do any damage to the tower, and nearly anything else. The major weaknesses to the minion horde are spells and grounded splash damage troops that can attack air troops. Spells like the zap, the fire ball, and the arrows can all either one shot the minion horde or get them very low on health. If your enemy uses that zap spell, they will gain a three elixir advantage. If your enemy uses the fire ball, the will get a one elixir advantage. If your opponent uses the arrows, they will gain a two elixir advantage. As you can see, if your enemy has any of these spell cards and uses them to counter the minion horde, you will be behind in elixir compared to him very fast and most likely have a hard time winning. The ground troops that are a major problem to the minion horde is the ice wizard, the regular wizard, and the princess. The ice wizard, along with the support of the enemy crown or arena tower, can easily kill your minion horde. This will give your opponent a two elixir advantage. The wizard can easily solo you minion horde by himself. Although it is an even elixir trade, he still has a wizard up at full health which means he got a five elixir advantage on you. This is the same with the princess and the ice wizard counters. The princess can take out the minion horde as long as she has enough time. And with her range, she, even at level one, easily has enough time to take out almost any level minion horde. It only will take two to three shots from a princess to completely annihilate your minion horde. She only costs three elixir so not only does your enemy get a free princess, but they also gain two more elixir on you. With all these counters to the minion horde, this card is a real hit or miss. If your opponent does not have any of these counters or just has a bad cycle timing, you will beat them. If they, how ever, have direct counters and play them well, you should stop using your minion horde as it will just keep on making a bigger grave for yourself. If you find yourself being counter far too often for your liking, you can switch the minion horde to the regular three elixir minions. This will still let you have an anti air=/ full ground troop counter but also let you less likely to suffer from extreme and heavy counters,
TOWERS: HOW TO USE THEM AND WHERE TO PLACE THEM
Elixir Collector– The Elixir Collector is a very special card. Most people don’t see its full potential. At first glance, most people just think it just gives you two additional Elixir. While this is true, there is a hidden, more important use for it. The Elixir Collector allows you to build up an even bigger push faster than without one. This lets you gain an elixir advantage on your opponent during your assault or perhaps when you need a quick reaction defense. Since it is such a valuable card, instincts tell you to put it at the back of you base, where it can’t be touched. this is a good strategy because you can easily protect the elixir collector from any troops. Just be aware of any direct damage spells your opponent may have as they can get the crown or arena tower and elixir collector combo on you for a big elixir advantage. However, there is a draw back into putting an elixir collector in the back. Since you are down on elixir for a defense, the enemy can send down a elixir heavy push and you will have a hard time defending because you are very low on elixir. For example, a hog rider user can immediately rush you and destroy the tower. To counter this quick offensive push made by your enemy, you can put the elixir collector between your arena or crown towers, two to four squares in front of your king’s castle. This will make hog rider pushers think twice before making the attack. If they do launch one, be ready to deploy your minions, barbarians, and or the spear goblins to help take down the hog rider. I suggest having at least one elixir collector on your side of the map at all times because this deck is a bit expensive. If you want two down on the field at the same time, i recommend placing the elixir collector far away from each other. If you put them too close together, the enemy may rocket, fire ball, or lightning both of your elixir collectors for a huge elixir profit.
SPELLS: THEIR MAIN USES AND HOW TO MAXIMIZE THEIR POTENTIAL
Lightning- The lightning spell is mainly used for two things. The first one is to counter the spawner strategy. The lightning spell can be a very good counter because it can put heavy damage on 3 targets. For example, you can hit a goblin hut, a barbarian hut, and the arena or crowns tower with it. This can help slow their flow of troops quite a bit. Another way that you can counter the hut spammers is targeting their elixir pumps. You could do a combo of an elixir pump, a barbarian hut, and their arena or crown tower and get a pretty good elixir advantage. Another strategy for the lightning spell is to use iyt to destroy their defense if they have one. The best defense to use the lightning spell on is the inferno tower because the inferno tower poses the biggest threat against the pekka. By lightning the inferno tower, it will almost destroy it. And if you wait just like ten seconds before lightning spell the inferno tower, you can pretty much destroy the inferno tower to the point where it will do little to no damage to the mini pekka at all. If you do not have the lightning spell, the freeze spell if also a good option to use as it can also stop the inferno tower from doing damage to the pekka. Please take note though that after thawing out, the inferno tower damage will not reset. The good thing additionally about the freeze spell is that it only costs four elixir instead of the six elixir the lightning spell costs. Either way, any of those two spell should work just fine.
Zap– I consider the zap spell to be a “fast splash” car because it does do a little splash damage and almost happens in an instant. The Zap spell is mainly used to support your hog rider. The best way to use the zap is to either severely injure a minion horde and let your spear goblins or your minions finish them off. The other major use for zap in this deck is to stun any inferno towers. With the most recent update,. the zap will now reset the inferno tower’s damage. This will greatly increase the life time of your hog rider and make this deck even stronger. Remember, the longer your hog rider stays alive, the longer your high damage per second troops stay alive, and the more damage you can put onto enemy building, arena or crown towers, and on their troops. The zap will be your best friend because since it resets the inferno towers damage, it is better than the freeze spell. As a bonus when compared to the freeze spell, the zap spell only costs two elixir while the freeze spell costs four elixir. This lets you put two more elixir into your push that would have been spent on freezing the inferno tower. I recommend you zapping the inferno tower when the inferno tower’s beam is on the second stage. This will allow the hog rider to receive little damage and by the time the inferno tower resets, locks back onto the royal giant, and charges back up, the tower should be destroyed by your royal giant and the other supporting troops behind him. With this zap your pushes should be able to hit harder and last longer, a great support spell when trying to take down an enemy arena or crown tower. The zap spell hard counters small troops like the spear goblins, the regular shank goblins, the skeletons, the minions, and the minion horde. The zap also counters the goblin barrel spell quite well. It has a hard time when trying to kill high health point troops like the golem, the pekka, the barbarians, any type of prince, the balloon, and other troops like that. The zap can also stop the princes charges and make them start walking before they charge again . This allows the zap to be used in some tight defenses when a prince is right next to your tower.
