BACKGROUND INFORMATION
The Hog Rider trifecta deck covers all important points in a strong push. The hog rider provides the direct damage to the tower that is hard to stop. The valkyrie provides the splash damage and a health pool to kill ground troops and to act as a tank for your hog rider. The minions are your aerial support that can either help you kill air or ground units. Also, if you support your push with a zap spell, you should always get at least a few hundred hit points of damage off of your enemy’s crown or arena tower. The zap spell for your push is best used to either zap a minion horde, to zap a barbarian group so your Valkyrie can kill them easier and take less damage, to reset the damage on an enemy inferno tower.and to kill small troops like the minions, the goblins, the goblin barrel, the spear goblins, the skeletons, and the archers. The deck is at a 3.3 elixir average which makes it fairly cheap because every full bar of elixir, you will be able to spawn three troops on average. This is sort of like a trifecta cycle deck because of how low costing this deck is. Besides offense, this deck also has a fairly good defense as well. The cannon can be used to easily counter the hog rider and help distract other building targeting troops like the giant, the golem, the royal giant, and the balloon. You also have a really good tank killer, a k a a single target troop, the mini pekka which can melt hog riders and giants of all sorts. I think that this trifecta deck is very well balanced and can be fun from mid to high arena levels.
BASICS: AVERAGE ELIXIR AND HOW TO USE EACH TROOP EFFICIENTLY
The average elixir cost for this deck is an even 3.3 and the following cards used are:
TROOPS: USED FOR DEFENSE AND OFFENSE. IMPORTANT TO USE THE RIGHT COUNTER FOR EACH TROOP
Hog Rider– This is the heart and soul of the deck. The hog rider is part of your trifecta push that includes the hog rider, the valkyrie, and the minions. This will be the troop that will do the most damage to the Tower and it will also be your main offensive unit. Because of the Hog Rider’s decent health stats and its 
great damage per shot, it is a great unit to attack with. Additionally, it only targets defensive buildings which make it that much easier to control. There are some standard moves in playing the Hog efficiently. The moves that till be gone over in this article is the Elixir pump rush and pig pushing. If you are above or at arena 6, there is no doubt that you see a lot of Elixir Collectors about. Normal players want to protect their Elixir collector and put it in the back of their map. If it starts in their starting hand, that is going to be played first 90% of the time. If they do place it in the back, take advantage of the 5 elixir they just used. Try to make a Hog push in the combos of Hog and Spear Goblins, Hog and Minions, or Hog and Barbarians. If you don’t have the Hog in your starting hand, make a small push maybe of just Spear Goblins and see how they react. This move has given me so many wins since I found out that this worked. The Tower will fall if nothing happens to that push. Usually, they send in a panic Fireball and you still get about half their Tower. The second strategy is called pig pushing. It can be hard to master for some so it is recommended to practice with your friends. The basic concept of this is to nudge the Hog a little bit to the outside by spawning troops right next to the hog. The picture to the left shows how to pig push pretty well. It also shows the counter to the pig push in case you run into anyone also using this tactic. The counter to this is pretty ineffective since the movements happen so fast. There is barely any time to react to this strategy. If you do pig push, make sure your are on the side where the defense is further away from your chosen spawn location. Failure to recognize which side is the one to do it on can result in an ineffective and useless push.
Minions– The minions are part of your trifecta push that includes the hog rider, the valkyrie, and the 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. 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.
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. the mini pekka is considered a glass cannon because it can deal a lot of damage but it also has very 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 Valkyrie, 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.
Valkyrie- The valkyrie is part of your trifecta push that includes the hog rider, the valkyrie, and the minions. The Valkyrie, even though it has a slow movement speed, can be quickened. If she is put in front of your hog rider, she will move at the same speed as your hog rider. This element of additional speed is why I consider her to have “fast splash” in this deck. The Valkyrie also only costs four elixir which is fairly cheap. Also, if you put her in front of your hog rider, your opponent will have a very hard time countering your push. Instead of their usual barbarians, skeletons, spear goblins, or regular shank goblins, they have to think of some other way to counter your push. This is because your Valkyrie, now acting as a splash damage tank for your hog, will kill any of those counters extremely quick. If they place an inferno tower down, you can easily time a zap spell to reset its damage and you can plow straight to their arena or crown tower. Another good troop to pair up with the hog rider Valkyrie combination would be the fire spirits. 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 support your hog rider will make your push extremely strong and very hard to defend. 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.
Fire Spirits- The fire spirits another one of your other splash damage card. The fire spirits move extremely fast and give a quick burst of splash damage. 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 kill bunched up thinks 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 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 the goblin barrel. The fire spirits, like almost all other group troops, can be used to help pig push you hog rider.
TOWERS: HOW TO USE THEM AND WHERE TO PLACE THEM
Cannon- The cannon is your main defense against building targeting troops like the giant, the hog rider, the balloon, the royal giant, and the golem. Make sure you have good placement with your cannon because its five and a half tile range is very short. Also, you should never pre place a cannon. If you do, your enemy can send any air troop, like the three elixir minions or the baby dragon, and destroy it without taking any damage. You enemy can also just place a single musketeer and out range the cannon. This can make you basically waste your defense and make you lose three elixir. Also, you cannon is out of your hand which makes it a lot harder to defend from the defense targeting troops like the giant, balloon, and hog rider. If your opponent doesn’t have those troops or they just used it and you have the cannon in your hand, you can use the combination of the ice wizard and cannon to defend from hordes of small group troops. A cannon and ice wizard combo can defend from barbarians. If for some reason you do not like th cannon, you can use the tesla instead. The tesla costs one more elixir so it should not ruin your cycling that much. Also, the tesla can hit both air and ground troops unlike the cannon. The basic strategies can be applied to the tesla like using the ice wizard in combination. The downside to the tesla is that hog riders may take no notice of it because the tesla is underground. The hog rider may have targeted the crown tower once the tesla pops up making it a pretty bad counter. Also, using the tesla will not let you get an elixir advantage against the hog unlike the cannon.
SPELLS: THEIR MAIN USES AND HOW TO MAXIMIZE THEIR POTENTIAL
Fireball– The Fireball in this deck is not to constantly barrage the Crown Towers but to take down mass swarms for Elixir profit. Combined with the Zap spell, it can take down the Three Musketeers and let you gain an easy 3 Elixir. The main troops this card counters is the Minion Horde and the Barbarians. Striking a lone Minion Horde will give a one plus trade. The Barbarians will also give the one positive Elixir trade. The Fireball can also be used against the Princess if you can hit the Crown Tower also or if other troops can also be hit. It is not recommended to shoot a Fireball if it only hits the Princess as it will put you behind in Elixir. The Fireball can finish off a Tower as long as there is only a few seconds left and the Tower is not over 300 health. Combined with a Zap, the Fireball can do almost 300 damage.
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.
