BACKGROUND INFORMATION
This deck was created to slowly damage your opponent’s crown tower and with enough pushes, eventually take it down. The main idea to play this deck is to cycle to your goblin barrel, princess, and furnace to keep laying on the pressure and chip damage. The spear goblins in this deck is another way for you to get a few hundred damage off at the very start of the game or to help you defend from air troops. The Valkyrie, the ice spirits, the log, and the ice wizard will mainly be used only for defense. The furnace and spear goblins can be used for both offense and defense.
BASICS: AVERAGE ELIXIR AND HOW TO USE EACH TROOP EFFICIENTLY
The average elixir cost for this deck is 2.8 elixir and the following cards used are:
TROOPS: USED FOR DEFENSE AND OFFENSE. IMPORTANT TO USE THE RIGHT COUNTER FOR EACH TROOP
Princess- The princess is very squishy. She can die to arrows and sometimes even to a zap spell. However, she has excellent range and some good splash damage. Her range compares that to of a mortar and is the only troop that can attcak an enemy crown or arena tower without being targeted. She is the only troop that can three star the enemy by herself because she out rangers both the arena or crown towers along with the king’s tower. Her area of effect damage is also great for small swarm troops all the way up to barbarians. She can kill spear goblins before they can even throw a single spear at her, goblins will not even be able to get close to her, archers wont be able to shoot a single arrow at her, skeletons will easily get one shotted, and the barbarians will be nearly useless once they kill your princess. By countering your opponent’s barbarians with your princess, you gain a three elixir advantage over them. She hard counters hut spam decks really well. Also, she can bait out arrows for your goblin barrel in you deck. You can also place the princess at the bridge and have it immediate target the opponents crown tower as long as no troops are closer. This strategy will help you get a hundred or so damage everytime you place her down. The princess does very bad against high health troops though. She is very vulnerable to the pekka, the musketeer, the wizard, any type of prince, the miner, and other troops like those.
Goblin Barrel- The goblin barrel because it only costs only three elixir, it can be used at almost any time. When your opponent counters this, they probably will use a fire ball and it will become a become a bad elixir trade for your opponent while arrows stop being a good elixir trade for your opponent and are now an even elixir trade. Now, the only good elixir trades for your opponent is the zap spell and the fire spirits. The goblin barrel can be very effective and can through your opponent off guard. The goblin barrel is mostly if not always used to be thrown at your enemy’s arena or crowns tower. Once the goblin barrel breaks, three goblins pop out and start to attack the tower. After each of these guys take a swing, about three hundred hit points gets taken off at a time. This lets you get some quick burst damage onto your enemy crown or arena tower if you surprised your opponent or if they do not have a counter in their hand. The goblin barrel, if needed to be, can be used as a quick defense. If you has an enemy prince coming by and you have no good troops to defend against the enemy prince, you can shoot your goblin barrel down right in front of the prince. However, the goblin barrel is mostly an offensive card. Another offensive push you can do with the goblin barrel is the goblin barrel and zap spell push. This push makes it so that your goblins gets a few extra hits because your enemy tower is stunned for one second. Because of this stun, your goblins are able to get a few hundred more hit points then they would without the zap spell. the goblin barrel costing three elixir is what I think is a great card that usually gets some damage on to your enemy towers and has few elixir advantageous counters for your opponent. You can also throw your goblin barrel to the corner of the map allowing the enemy’s arrows or fireball to miss, wasting their elixir and allowing you to keep your goblins alive.
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 one 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.
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 spirit 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 splash damaging 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, the 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 stuff 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 guarantee 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.
Valkyrie- The Valkyrie, even though it has a slow movement speed but makes up for it in raw damage. The Valkyrie also only costs four elixir which is fairly cheap. Also, if you put her in front of your furnace, your opponent will have a very hard time pushing into your base. Instead of their usual barbarians, skeletons, spear goblins, or regular shank goblins, they have to think of some other way to push into your base. This is because your Valkyrie, now acting as a splash damage tank for your weaker troops and will kill any of those counters extremely quick. If they place a high health troop down, you can easily kite them with all your small troops. The fire spirits would not only help clear any skeletons, spear goblins, barbarians, archers, or regular shank goblins even faster by help supporting the Valkyrie, but the fire spirits can also counter any air troops. Without fire spirits in your push, our assault can be easily taken out by the minion horde or be somewhat countered by the three elixir minions. With the fire spirits, the three elixir minions will be reduced to nothing and the minion horde will be reduced to a single, half health minion. Having these two troops to defend will make your base extremely strong and very hard to push into. The valkyrie is extremely durable against most troops because she has high damage and a good amount of health. The valkyrie can tear through the barbarians, the goblins, the spear goblins, the skeletons, the archers, and hut spam strategies. However, the valkyrie only attacks group troops so she will be extremely weak against the three elixir minions, the minion horde, and the baby dragon.
Ice Wizard- The ice wizard will help you a lot in this deck. It is great at defense against the hog because if you have the spear goblins and ice wizard defending, good placement of both troops will make it hard for your enemy to get a shot off the tower. The ice wizard’s slowing stat also allows him to counter high damage per second troops by slowing their fire rate. Another example of the ice wizard working his magic is against the royal giant. With the ice wizard defending against the royal giant, a moderate amount of damage will be done to your tower. If you add the ice wizard onto your defense, the royal giant will get a lot less damage off during his life time.. The ice wizard is also very good on offense as it can help slow defending units or the crown tower. The combination of the ice wizard and musketeer can work extremely well if left uncontested because the ice wizard has a moderate amount of health and does splash damage while slowing the tower down a lot. This makes him act as a very good support troop for the musketeer that causes all the damage. The ice wizard is probably your best card in supporting offensive pushes and supporting your musketeer during a defense.
SPELLS: THEIR MAIN USES AND HOW TO MAXIMIZE THEIR POTENTIAL
Log– The log is here because your opponent would not be expecting you to play this card. The reason why your log is here and not your arrows or your fire ball is for a few reasons. The log does quite a bit more damage when compared to your arrows. In exchange for this damage, though, you cannot target enemy air troops with the log card. In this deck,I think the log is a better choice than the arrows because you already have the furnace and the zap spell. Both of those cards combined should let you kill any swarm air troops like the minion horde or the regular three elixir minions. Also, the log is better than the fire ball in this deck because it is cheaper than the fire ball. The once elixir difference can be the difference in having enough elixir to defend an enemy counter push and to have one of your crown or arena towers completely wiped out. The log also can hit your enemy towers which can help you finish them off if they have low health. Also, just like the fire ball, the log can help support your hog rider in your main push. If you put the log right behind your hog rider, you will be able to use the log to push away and damage any defending barbarians. This push back is similar to the knock back the fire ball does to any defending enemy barbarians. The log will also sort of clear the way for your hog rider to get to the enemy arena or crown tower very easily. The log can also be used fairly well for defensive purposes. If the enemy is bring a strong push to your arena or crown tower, you can send in your log to not only damage the oncoming troops, but to also push them back and away from your arena or crown tower. This push back can help you stall for another second which can really change the tide of the battle. With that one second stall your log provides you, you may be able to reduce the damage done to your tower by hundreds of hit points. I think for three elixir, the log is a pretty good card that can help you in some situations. I see the log more of a utility card than a damage card but it still can easily counter hut spam decks. The log card is great in some decks while lacking in others. The trick is to find the deck that works well with the log and you can have the element of surprise held against your enemy.
TOWERS: HOW TO USE THEM AND WHERE TO PLACE THEM
Furnace-The furnace has some offensive capabilities. The furnace is a card that can help support your pushes. The fire spirits can be a great addition to constant pressure push. Even though you only get 2 fire spirits, they can still do a ton of damage. Two fire spirits can reduce a whole minion horde down to everything but one, single half health minion. This greatly reduces the damage going on your troops and lets you get a lot more damage on to your enemy’s crown or arena tower. The furnace can also be used just as a stead supply of chip damage. With a reasonable level furnace, one fire spirit will always make it to the enemy crown or arena tower. Since each fire spirit can do a decent amount of damage, your opponent has to keep an eye on this furnace. If you opponent just leaves that furnace alone and does not try to counter it at all, you will get a lot of damage off onto his or her tower. The total damage will be around 500 to 1000 damage, quite a lot for only the cost of four elixir. The furnace can also be used in a hut spam strategy. The furnace can provide aerial and ground coverage which only the goblin hut can also provide. It also provides much needed splash damage in the hut spammer deck. Where as before a hut spammer would be completely destroyed by a minion horde, the furnace, along with the goblin hut, lets you easily counter the minion horde very quickly. The furnaces main job, in my opinion, is a defensive one. If you place it behind one of your crown or arena towers, it is very safe and can essentially block off that whole lane. The reason that it can block off a whole lane is because the two fire spirits do a ton of damage. If an an enemy tries to push up the lane where your furnace is located, they will probably receive four to six fire spirits during the whole time of their push. This can be up to eight hundred damage and completely destroy a ton of pushes. Eight hundred damage will kill barbarians, hog riders, balloons, or prince pushes. Because of this, you can sort of influence your opponent to push your other side. A good idea to use the furnace like that is when one of your towers is stronger than the other. If you place the furnace on the side of the weaker crown or arena tower, you make that weaker side a lot stronger. The furnace makes a tough decision for your opponent to make to whether attack the weaker side with the furnace, or attack the stronger side with no furnace. The furnace can also be placed in front of your king’s tower a few squares forward. This, in an addition of being a spawner building, makes the furnace be able to be a big distraction. The furnace can distract the hog rider, the giant, the royal giant, the balloon, the golem, and the lava hound. This can act as a tank for your tower and absorb the damage from troops instead of your own crown or arena tower take the damage. Both of these defensive strategies are very useful but you should use them in their specific situations. If they have a hog rider, place it up front. If one of your towers has 1500 health, place the furnace behind that tower. After you get to know the furnace, you will know what action is the best to take in any given situation.
