Log deck

Background Information

This deck is another hog rider type deck.  However, this deck uses the log.  In most people’s eyes, they do not see the utility that the log has.  I think the log is great at defense, being able to apply a lot of ground damage in a big, linear area while also allowing the enemy troops to be pushed back a little.   This deck is also a bit cheaper than most because it uses the log card rather than the fire ball card.  It also uses other cheap cards like the fire spirits and the zap spell.  I think the log is a great utility card when compared to the arrows or the fireball.  The log can do more damage to ground troops when compared to the arrows and also pushes them back a bit.  However, this extra damage is exchanged for its inability to target air troops.  I think you can use the log instead of the arrows because you already have enough anti air troops.  When it comes to your zap spell, fire spirits, and your furnace, no enemy three elixir minions or their minion horde will even come close to bothering you.  Also, the log is better than the fire ball in this deck because it allows you to cycle through your deck a little bit faster.  A one elixir difference can sometimes mean the difference of defending your tower with ease and getting your tower completely destroyed.  Usually a one elixir difference can be a result of a few hundred hit points being knocked off your tower though.  However, having your spell card be one elixir cheaper can help make your defense stronger or your offensive pushes bigger and stronger.  At 3.1 elixir, this is a very fast paced deck.  With it being so cheap you can sometimes afford to maybe push a bit harder because you can have the knowledge that you will always have a relatively cheap troop in your hand that you know will defend.  Also, another good tip for this deck is to always have a furnace on your side of the field.  This makes your opponent always have pressure on one side of his map which he will either have to counter some how or to just take in and have his crown or arena tower soak up the damage.

BASICS: AVERAGE ELIXIR AND HOW TO USE EACH TROOP EFFICIENTLY 

The average elixir cost for this deck is 3.1 elixir and contains the following cards:

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.  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.

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 sngle 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 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.

Hog Rider–  This is the heart and soul of the deck.  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 rider and valkrie push in the combos combining the troops of the Spear Goblins, the Minions, or the fire spirits.  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– 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.

Fire Spirits-  The fire spirits another one of your other splash damage card.  The fire spirits go with the theme of “fast splash” because they 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

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

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 fnd the deck that works well with the log and you can have the element of surprise held against your enemy.

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.