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
Mini Pekka- The mini pekka is very versatile on defense and can be a treat if put on offense. The mini pekka is considered a glass cannon, where it deals a lot of damage but have little health in comparison. The mini pekka is great at countering high health tanks. The mini pekka can kill an enemy hog rider in two hits and only lets the hog rider get off one shot on your tower. Of course the mini pekka may only need one shot if you have some supporting troops defending with the mini pekka. This will also make the enemy hog rider not even get one shot off on to your tower. The mini pekka also kills the royal giant very efficiently. The mini pekka, since it does so much damage, will kill the enemy royal giant in just a few hits. This makes it hard for the royal giant to get much damage off on to your tower. With only the mini pekka defending your tower, the royal giant may get around 500 damage off of your tower. However, you most likely will have other troops, most likely the musketeer or the spear goblins, supporting your mini pekka which will make the enemy royal giant drop even faster. The mini pekka also kills the regular giant very easily and it can solo defend good enough. You do not need to worry about supporting your mini pekka with anything else. The mini pekka works great against single targeting troops like the musketeer, the wizard, the valkrie, the prince, and the troops previously mentioned above. What makes the mini pekka strong against the prince is that your mini pekka can easily survive the charge from the enemy prince, letting your mini pekka take in lots of damage while also dishing it out. The mini pekka is weak against swarm troops like the spear goblins, the skeletons, the regular shank goblins, and the barbarians. The mini pekka is also weak against some air troops like the minions and the minion horde.
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.
Musketeer- The musketeer is the main damage dealer besides your mini pekka. The musketeer is your only long range, anti air damage dealer so it makes her a little more special. She is very good behind a giant or knight 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 a knight and musketeer push, one or two of those spear goblins will die before they even get one spear thrown because of how big the musketeers range is and because of how high the musketeer’s damage per bullet is. 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 bomber, knight, and musketeer all you damage can be taken out with a single fireball, giving your opponent a huge elixir advantage. This goes the same for a giant, bomber, musketeer push. The fireball can kill the bomber and the musketeer. 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.
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. 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 hard counters hut spam decks really well. Also, she can bait out arrows if you have a minion horde or goblin barrel in you deck. Since you do not have any of those cards, you do not really need to use her for baiting the opponents arrows. 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.
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 mini pekka and ice wizard defending, good placement of both troops will make it impossible 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. An example of the ice wizard working his magic is against the royal giant. With only the mini pekka 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 mini pekka 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 mini pekka that causes all the damage. The ice wizard is probably your best card in supporting offensive pushes and supporting your mini pekka during a defense.
Giant- The giant is the first tank you unlock in the game. It has a rarer brother called the royal giant. However, the giant has a melee range unlike his brother. Also, the giant is a lot stronger health point wise. The main strategy with the giant in this deck is to spawn him in the very back of your side of the map. This will let you regenerate some more elixir before your push gets to the enemy’s side of the bridge. The best way to deal with a defending minion horde is to use your musketeer and the spa sp3ll on them. The zap will help you bring down the minion horde’s minions down to very little health and allow the musketeer to one shot each minion, making it a very fast killer. The best things to support your push with is with the musketeer and the mini pekka or the Valkyrie. This will let you be able to counter the minion horde, the baby dragon, or the regular three elixir minions because the musketeer can attack them. Also, you have the ability to counter the barbarians very well because the Valkyrie does ground splash damage. It will only take a few swings from the Valkyrie to kill the whole group of defending barbarians. If the Valkyrie or the musketeer get to the tower, you will deal out some heavy damage.
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 your hog rider push or perhaps a golem 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.
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 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 giant and make this deck even stronger. Remember, the longer your 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 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.
