BACKGROUND INFORMATION
This deck is centered around all the cards having good defense with good chip damage potential. Most of the cards in this deck can be used for both sieging and defending. This balance allows you to switch from a defensive stance to an offensive one extremely quickly. Being able to control your aggression and not fall into a pattern like cycle decks, you will be able to play mind games with your opponent and beat him that way instead of brute force.
BASICS: AVERAGE ELIXIR AND HOW TO USE EACH TROOP EFFICIENTLY
The average elixir cost for this deck is 3.4 elixir and the following cards used are:
TROOPS: USED FOR DEFENSE AND OFFENSE. IMPORTANT TO USE THE RIGHT COUNTER FOR EACH TROOP
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.
Minions– This deck uses the Minions instead of the Minion Horde. The Minions are preferred in this deck over the Minion Horde because you want to keep the cost of troops low. With the royal giant and valkyrie already costing a lot, you want some cheap cards in your deck. By keeping the cost low, you will be able to cycle through your cards faster. The Minions also do well enough against air troops like the Balloon or Baby Dragon, although for the Baby Dragon needs to target your Crown Tower first. Minions also can take out the Barbarians with the help of the Spear Goblins. This leaves you with a major counter push at the ready. Also, these blue little monsters can help destroy Prince rushes with the help of some ground troops. Even if your enemy uses Arrows, you are not at a Elixir disadvantage, unlike the Minion Horde. The Minions could also kill a Sparky before it can take its aim at the Tower. The minions are very vulnerable to anything that attacks air troops like the baby dragon, the witch, the spear goblins, the musketeer, the fire spirits and the wizard. They are also weak to the ice spirits because they can be stunned long enough so the enemy tower can finish them off. The minions are also one of your only air targeting units so you should be careful and know when the right time to use them is. If you are seen having to defend against a lava hound or balloon without your minions or spear goblins, you will have a pretty hard time defending. Because of this, if you see your opponent has one or two of these cards, you should save your minions or spear goblins just to counter the enemies air troops. The minions are also weak to direct damage spells like the zap spell and the arrows. Both of these direct damage spells will give your opponent an equal or an advantageous elixir trade. It is strong against group troops that have a medium or low amount of health. The are strong against the mini pekka, the musketeer, the barbarians, the pekka, and the princes.
Musketeer- The musketeer is the main damage dealer besides your three musketeers. The musketeer is your long range, anti air damage dealer so it makes her a little more special. She is very good behind a Valkyrie because her high ranged damage lets her take down recently deployed troops very quickly. If your opponent decides to spawn in spear goblins to counter the ice Valkyrie and musketeer push, those spear goblins will die before they even get one spear thrown because of how good the Valkyrie is good at splash damage. The musketeer is fairly weak in terms of health points which make sense because her damage is very high. This can result in a same level fireball killing her though. Be careful because if you send a lot of your troops out because all your damage can be taken out with a single fireball, giving your opponent a huge elixir advantage. The fireball can kill most of your whole deck. Its defensive abilities are very good too because it can hide behind your crown tower or arena tower while doing a lot of damage to the attacking troops. The musketeer will be able to kill a whole army of small troops without taking much damage and also the musketeer will not let the arena or crown tower take much damage. Later on, there is a card called the three musketeers which basically spawns three of these single musketeers. They have the same stats per level as this card does so they can be taken out just as easily. The three musketeers do cost five more elixir but that card does come out with two more musketeers than this one. This single musketeer card is a very good option to have in a new, beginner deck because of its high damage, long range, ability to hit air troops, and how versatile it is in many situations. The musketeer is very vulnerable to point damage troops like the mini pekka, the pekka, and the prince. It is also vulnerable to direct damage spells like the fire ball, the arrows, and the lightning spell.
Wizard- The wizard is your support for your hog rider in this trifecta deck be adding lots of splash damage to enemy ground and air units. The wizard is an overall great card to have in your deck because it is the most effective card that does splash damage to both air and ground troop. Its fast fire rate compliments the giant’s sluggish moves. Additionally, the wizard helps counter what the hhog rider is weak against, small critters. The wizard can one shot many small troops like the skeletons, the spear goblins, the regular goblins, the three elixir minions, and the archers. The wizard can also make quick work of swarms of troops killing the barbarians in three shots, the minion horde also in three shots, and the skeleton army in a few more shots. The wizard however is pretty weak when being attacked. The wizard can be easily killed by an enemy lightning spell or rocket. The wizard can also be killed by a relatively high level fire ball. The wizard is actually pretty good on defense. It can kill oncoming enemy barbarians by itself. It is also the best troop to use when countering the minion horde because your wizard can one shot the minions making quick work of the minion horde. However, the wizard is not so great at countering high health troops like the prince, the pekka, the golem, and the lava hound. The prince and pekka do too much damage to even let the wizard have a chance and the golem and the lava hound have too much hit points for the wizards relatively weak fire balls to do any noticeable damage. However, an extremely well timed wizard can completely kill all the lava pups that spawn from a lava hound with one fire ball. This also is the same with the goblin barrel. An extremely well timed wizard can kill the goblins from the goblin barrel all in one go. The wizard costs five elixir which is one of your higher costing cards. I recommend saving your wizard only for your trifecta push because this is a key troop for it. Only use your wizard for something else if it is the only option from saving your arena or crown tower.
Dart Goblin- The dart goblin card is like the spear goblins but only one of them and it is stronger. For being one of the the three dart goblins, it is surprising how well they perform. The dart 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 dart Goblins is 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 the dart Goblin chip 200 damage off their tower. 200 may not seem like a whole bunch, but do that 2 or three times in a match, and you got yourself 500 free chip damage. The dart 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 dart goblins are extremely vulnerable to most damage units like the musketeer, the Valkyrie, the prince, the bowler, the fire spirits, and the miner. The dart goblins are also very vulnerable to any direct damage spells such as the fire ball, the arrows, and the lightning spell.
Miner- The miner will act as your tank in this deck. When you are set to do a balloon push, you should send your miner to your opponents tower that you are attacking, The placement of the miner should be a random side of the tower but not the inner wall. This makes it harder to counter the miner with regular shank goblins because they may guess your miner’s location wrong and that will allow your miner to lock on to the tower for some damage. The miner should not be sent on the inner wall or else both of the enemy crown towers will target it making your miner have half as effective health. By sending your miner our right before the balloon crosses the bridge, you allow the miner to tank and let the balloon get to the tower easier. The balloon push should also be supported by the wizard, ice spirits, or minions if possible. The miner also has other uses in this deck. If your enemy has more elixir collectors on the field than you like, you can send a miner on to one and the miner will do some crazy damage to it. Also, your opponents may think that the miner is going for their crown or arena tower and spawn defending goblins or minions really far away from the miner’s location. Just like with the elixir collector, the miner is also great at destroying hut spammers by targeting their tomb stones, goblin huts, barbarian huts, and furnaces. The miner is also a great princess killer as he can spawn right next to her and take her out in two shots. The miner is very vulnerable to things the princess is to like princes, pekkas, musketeers, and any air troops like minions and the baby dragon.
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
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.
