BACKGROUND INFORMATION
This deck is perfect for people who want a fairly cheap deck that is strong on defense. The mini pekka and barbarians are both super strong defenses and the cannon can provide further distraction to troops if you are in a desperate situation. On top of those defenses, you can use the ice spirit and the zap spell to have a total combined time of three seconds to stall. If you just have one additional troop defending, that troops can get three whole seconds of free damage which can end up being over 1000 damage to your enemy push and troops. This deck can also defend against hut spamming decks fairly well because of your miner, which you can send to destroy enemy goblin huts, barbarian huts, furnaces, and tombstones, and your princess which can easily eliminate small targets from a far distance and help destroy the hut buildings with her area of effect attack. This deck is not for the person who likes to build up trifecta pushes or any type of push above 15 elixir. This is because most of your troops are very cheap and the purpose of this deck is not to make an uncountable push, but to slowly weaken your enemy defenses and counters enough and get enough chip damage off to eventually destroy one of your enemy’s towers. This deck will most likely get a ton of one star wins and very little three crown wins. That being said I still think most people will enjoy this deck.
BASICS: AVERAGE ELIXIR AND HOW TO USE EACH TROOP EFFICIENTLY
The average elixir cost for this deck is an even 3.1 and the following cards used are:
TROOPS: USED FOR DEFENSE AND OFFENSE. IMPORTANT TO USE THE RIGHT COUNTER FOR EACH TROOP
Ice Spirits- The ice spirits can be a great card to use in conjunction with the hog. The ice spirits can be compared to the zap spell because both of those cards stun enemy buildings or troops. However, unlike the zap spell, the fire spirit does not cost two elixir. Instead, it is half as expensive and only costs you one elixir to use. In addition to that bonus, the fire spirit’s stun ability lasts twice as long as the zap spell. Because of these two stats on the ice spirit, the ice spirit is worth about four times as much as the zap spell is per elixir. However, there is one downside to using the ice spirit over the zap spell. The ice spirit, unlike the zap spell, can easily be countered. The ice spirit can be countered by almost anything from direct damage spells like the zap spell, the arrows, the fire ball, and the rocket. The ice spirit is also very fragile against any splash damaging troops because even if they target your own hog rider, the splash damage effect can still kill your ice spirit since the ice spirit has such a low health point stat. Some splash damage troops that can kill your ice spirit is the wizard, the baby dragon, th ice wizard, the princess, the bomber, the witch, and the valkyrie. Because of this, using the ice spirit is a risk reward type troop. If the ice spirit does get its stuff off before it dies, it is well worth it and you have a four times effectiveness when compared to the zap spell. However, if it dies it has a zero effectiveness when compared to the zap spell. If you find that your opponents are countering your ice spirit more times than not, you make want to switch to the zap spell. Switching to the zap spell will guarantee that you will get a stun on each of your pushes every single time. The zap spell will also get you a little more damage that is also reliable. Since this deck uses both the ice spirit and zap, you cannot spawn them out for each other. Instead, you can use both of them in the same push in order to get three consecutive seconds of stuns on enemy troops and three seconds of stun on the enemy crown or arena towers.
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.
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.
Miner- The miner will act as your tank in this deck. When you are set to do a sparky push, you should send your minter 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. By sending your miner our right before the sparky crosses the bridge, you allow the miner to tank and let the sparky get to the tower easier. The sparky push should also be supported by the fire spirits, ice wizard, and goblins 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.
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.
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.
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
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.
