BACKGROUND INFORMATION
This deck was created to center around the theme
BASICS: AVERAGE ELIXIR AND HOW TO USE EACH TROOP EFFICIENTLY
The average elixir cost for this deck is elixir and the following cards used are:
TROOPS: USED FOR DEFENSE AND OFFENSE. IMPORTANT TO USE THE RIGHT COUNTER FOR EACH TROOP
Dark Prince- The barbarians is your other main offensive troop in this deck. The dark prince brings in splash damage against enemy ground units but more importantly provides mobility by pushing your other troops while it has its charge on. The dark prince main use in this deck is for its invaluable charge. It is chosen over his brother, the prince, for a few reasons. The first reason is that the dark prince is a splash damage troop instead of the point damage troop the prince provides. You do not need more point damage as your barbarians provides plenty of it. Also, the splash damage is definitely needed to help take down opposing barbarians within one to two seconds. If you use the prince instead of the dark prince, the barbarians will take a lot longer to destroy and be a true obstacle to your push. The dark prince also kills the skeletons, the spear goblins, the archers, the regular shank goblins, and any hut spam strategy deck extremely well. The dark prince’s major weakness is the fact that it is a ground unit that can only target other ground troops. This makes the dark prince useless against countering any air troops like the baby dragon, the three elixir minions, or the lava hound. Also, being a ground troop makes it extremely easy for your opponent to use some minions to kill tyou dark prince for a positive elixir trade and for some free minions. However, with your wizard supporting both your pekka and your dark prince, minions or any other air troop for that matter will do every little damage because the wizard can one shot any level minion and two to three shot any level minion horde. When the dark prince is in your push along with your wizard and pekka, there is very few things that could stop this push. More often than not your opponent will take damage and can only slow the inevitable damage. Also, the dark prince only costs four elixir which helps make your offensive push a little cheaper. The dark prince also has a shield which can be super useful during some times. For example, if your enemy sends down a rocket on your dark prince, he will not go super low in health. Instead, the shield will absorb all the damage that came from the rocket and then fall off once the rocket’s damage is done. This shield is a great defense against burst damage like the prince charge, the pekka’s swing of her sword, or the lethal explosion cause by a rocket. The shield doe not work as good against smaller damage like the damage cause by a barbarian because the shield does not negate as much damage.
Skeletons- This one elixir card is basically a cycle card. A cycle card is a cheap troop that you can use very fast in order to get the better cards in your deck. It essentially makes it so that there is seven cards in your deck and not eight. The skeletons will either be used in order to cycle to a defensive position or an offensive position. The defensive combination you would cycle to is the cannon and ice wizards combo, or the barbarian and ice wizard combo. The offensive combo would be the giant and balloon combo. Do not be fooled though, as these skeleton can tank very well for your towers. They can slow down a pekka, prince, or any other high damage, single target unit coming to your tower. These skeletons can stall enough time for you to be able to defend against a pekka and you would be able to save a tower. Additionally, these skeletons can effectively stop a hog rider from doing a ton of damage to your tower, although your barbarians are a better choice for the job. In conclusion, the skeletons are a best card for cycle decks and can save your tower from major damage in desperate times.
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.
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 five 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,
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.
SPELLS: THEIR MAIN USES AND HOW TO MAXIMIZE THEIR POTENTIAL
Zap– The zap spell does do a little splash damage and almost happens in an instant. The Zap spell is mainly used to support your sparky and giant. 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 sparky and giant and make this deck even stronger. Remember, the longer your sparky and giant 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 sparky and giant 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.
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.
