Pekka’s Playhouse Deck

Background Information

This is the fourth part of the series of arena decks that lead up to the legendary arena.  This week we are going over the Pekka’s Playhouse arena deck.  Some of you may know the Pekka’s Playhouse arena to be arena four.  There are a few more cards available because the Pekka’s Playhouse unlocks important troops.  You may have to wait a little to get all the needed cards.    The new cards include the tesla, the minion horde, the hog rider, the freeze spell, the lava hound, the regular sized pekka, and the inferno tower.  The tesla is a special defense that can take out both the air units and the ground troops.  It is very efficient at killing any small to medium hit point troop and cannot really be damaged under ground.  The tesla will stay underground, safe from any spells, when it is not attacking and troops that are attacking you.  Because of this, it allows for it to our range any troop, given the space, because the troop will not recognize the tesla as a target when it is below the surface.  This is a very good defense card because it does cover both ground troops and air troops, but I still do not use it.  The tesla is the only troop that can defend against the lava hound by itself and only costs four elixir.  The minion horde is almost the same as the three elixir minions except for the fact that it spawns two more minions.  This card can either wreck havoc on your enemy and over whelm them with areal units or give them a big elixir advantage by letting them arrow the card and gain a two elixir profit, or letting them fire ball it which gives them a one elixir profit.  If you faced people who got to arena five, or spell factory, they can place down a wizards and gain a zero elixir advantage along with a completely free wizard.  The minion horde is a card that costs five elixir, is either a hit or miss, and I personally do not use the minion horde.  The hog rider is a great offensive unit that only costs four elixir.  I personally use it and I think it is a great card.  The hog rider is a fast moving unit that can jump over the river.  It also only targets defenses so it can’t be distracted with regular troops your enemy defends with.  I love this card and it is a very strong unit for this arena.  I recommend that you use it in your deck.  The freeze spell is the first support spell you unlock besides the rage.  Unlike the rage though, it does not buff your troops stats.  Instead, it nerfs your opponent’s troops in that they cannot more and defend.  This can either really help support your offensive push or maybe help you when your defense is not the best when it needs to be.  The freeze spell requires precise timing so you may want to try it out in friendly battles.  If you get the timing wrong, it could be the end for you.  The lava hound is the worst legendary in my opinion.  At seven elixir, it goes way to slow and is to much of a commitment.  Additionally, it can be easily countered by the inferno tower or the tesla.  There are some decks that are successful with the lava hound though.  If you have the lava hound and you really want to use it, I suggest you look for a good deck.  The pekka has high hit points and has high damage, but in return has a slow attack rate.  The pekka is extremely weak against small, swarming ground troops.  If it gets on to the tower though, it will do amazing work.  At the price of seven elixir, it is a big commitment.  If your using the pekka and your enemy has an inferno tower, you will have a very hard time beating him or her.  The pekka is weak against small ground troops and air troops.  The pekka is resistant and does well against direct damage spells and point damage ground troops.  The inferno tower, in my opinion, is the best defensive tower in the game.  The inferno tower costs five elixir and can counter so many high cost troops.  The inferno tower can easily defend against a giant, a royal giant, a lava hound, a golem, and the hog rider.  The inferno tower is also very strong health point wise and can make a stationary tank.  Lets get started with the Pekka’s playhouse deck since we went over the basics of each card.

BASICS: AVERAGE ELIXIR AND HOW TO USE EACH TROOP EFFICIENTLY 

The average elixir cost for this deck is 3.5 elixir and contains the following cards:

TROOPS: USED FOR DEFENSE AND OFFENSE.  IMPORTANT TO USE THE RIGHT COUNTER FOR EACH TROOP

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.

Goblins- The goblins are another great card besides the spear goblins.  For being unlocked at such an early arena, it has quite a high use rate among legendary arena players.  The goblins is a very good card because they provide a grouping of low health units which helps defend against high hitters like the mini pekka and prince.  They also give a lot more damage out so they work even better than the spear goblins when defending the prince and mini pekka.  However, they are not good enough to do it by themselves and they need the support of spear goblins or minions to do the job efficiently.  If you would end up doing minions the mini pekka and prince will die without a hit on the tower and you can start a counter push of the minions and a balloon, with the balloon tanking and in front of the minions of course.  The goblins can also be used in the giant, the goblin, and the bomber push.  This is a pretty weak push if your opponent does have minions but at this level they probably will have the minions focus on the giant and not your supporting troops so this push should still work.  The goblins can be killed by all splash damage troops very easily and are very vulnerable to the direct damage spells whether it is the lightning spell, the fire ball, or the arrows.

Spear Goblins-  The spear goblin card is one of the most basic troops in the game.  For its early unlock at Arena 1, it is surprising how well they perform.  The Spear Goblins not only can defend against goblins, enemy Spear Goblins, and Minions in a on verse one with the help of your Tower, but it can also be used at the very beginning.  If the Spear Goblins are 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 those Spear Goblins chip 300 damage off their tower.  300 may not seem like a whole bunch, but do that 2 or three times in a match, and you got yourself 1000 free chip damage.  The Spear 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 spear goblins are extremely vulnerable to splash damage units like the bomber, the valkyrie, the witch, and the baby dragon.  The spear goblins are also very vulnerable to any direct damage spells such as the fire ball, the arrows, and the lightning spell.  Just like with most ground swarm troops, they can pig push a hog rider.  Pig pushing will be explained in the hog rider section of this article.

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  five 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.  Also, a nice compliment of the freeze spell will allow you to get a ton more damage off, usually the freeze spell can stall ong enough or your troops to take down the enemy arena or crown tower if the enemy has very little elixir to make a defensive stance.  Failure to recognize which side is the one to do it on can result in an ineffective and useless push.  The hog rider is very vulnerable to swarm troops like the barbarians, the skeletons, the skeleton army, the goblins, the spear goblins, and the minions.

Bomber- This is a great unit for splash damage because of its huge damage per second.  It is the best splash damage troop right when you get out of the training arena.  It remains the best splash damage troop besides the valkyrie for a long time.  I think once you unlock the kamikaze fire spirits, the bomber is still your best choice.  Because this is your only splash damage troop in your deck, you should save this troop when your enemy sends a big swarm to your side of the field.  The bomber can take your enemy’s push out very quickly and give you a huge elixir profit.  This troop is also a ranged troop so if you are countering the opponents swarm push, make sure to send your bomber a little bit further away than where the push is so the bomber can make maximum use of its range.  If you put the bomber to close to the enemy’s assault, the bomber will die before it even has a chance to deploy one of his deadly packages.  The bomber is a great pushing unit when it is behind your giant or knight because most of your opponents troops will have low health points.  This will allow the bomber to easily clean up any oncoming goblins, spear goblins, or archers and help your push move forward undisturbed.  At only three elixir, the bomber can easily make its elixir cost back and do some nice damage to the tower.  If the bomber reaches the tower by itself with no damage done to it, you can expect a nice 400 damage against your opponents crown tower or arena tower.  This is because the bomber’s shot does about 200 damage per bomb thrown.  The bomber is very vulnerable to point damage troops like the pekka, the prince, the musketeer, and the mini pekka.  It is also vulnerable to flying troops like the minions and the baby dragon.  Fially, it is very vulnerable to direct damage spells like the fire ball, the arrows, and the lightning spell.

Barbarians– These four burly men 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.  The Barbarians can also 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.  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. These four mighty men are also your biggest tanks.  If you do want to launch a major offensive push, it is best to use them as the meat shield, or tanks of your push.  If you set the barbarians in front of your hog rider, the barbarians can tank for the hog through defensive If they do get to the tower unnoticed they can easily destroy it.  In my opinion, the Barbarians are one of the biggest staple cards in the game. The Barbarians, along with most swarm grown troops, can be used to pig push the Hog.  Pig pushing will be explained in the hog section of this article. The barbarians are extremely vulnerable to splash damage units like the bomber, the valkyrie, the witch, and the baby dragon.  The barbarians are also very vulnerable to most direct damage spells such as the fire ball and the lightning spell.

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 can also kill a Princess that is on the bridge.   The minions are very vulnerable to anything that attacks air troops like the baby dragon, the witch, the spear goblins, the musketeer, and the wizard (if you ever face him).

TOWERS: HOW TO USE THEM AND WHERE TO PLACE THEM

There are no towers in this deck.  This makes it a  more offensive deck and you may have a harder time defending against the hog rider or other defense targeting troops like the balloon or the giant.  If you do want to use a defense in this deck though, I would recommend switching out your regular shank goblins with a cannon.  The cannon costs three elixir so it would  not really impact your elixir count average.  You would play the cannon only when the giant, balloon, or hog rider gets spawned because you want the cannon to last a s long as possible.  If you send your cannon out to early, it will lose health over time, making it more vulnerable to to the damage brought by your enemy troops or direct damage spells.  The cannon does great against small swarm troops like the skeletons, the spear goblins, the regular shank goblins, and it does a some what decent job on the barbarians.  It also works great against defense troops like the giant and the hog rider.  It does good at distracting areal units like the baby dragon, the balloon, and the minions.  The cannon is very vulnerable to direct damage spells like the fire ball and the lightning spell.  Even though the cannon can distract the minions, the baby dragon, and the balloon, those units cannot be targeted by the cannon and can take it out with out receiving any damage.

SPELLS:  THEIR MAIN USES AND HOW TO MAXIMIZE THEIR POTENTIAL

Freeze Spell- The freeze spell requires good timing and great placement.  Usually, the freeze spell will be used for an offensive support spell for most of the time in your deck.  However, the freeze spell can be used on defense if needed to be.  A freeze spell along with the goblins and your arena or your crown tower can do amazing work.  Those goblins will be able to kill a hog rider and a good portion of oncoming enemy barbarians withing those four seconds of free reign.  The most common way to use the freeze spell is on offense though.  What you want to do is use a hog rider combo that is not very expensive, lets say you are doing the hog rider goblin combo.  What you want to do is send your hog rider in front of your minions so the hog tanks for the goblins.  Once the hog ridergets to the tower, do not use your freeze spell just yet.  You want to wait until your hog riders at around 25 percent health before deploying your freeze spell.  This is to ensure that any troops the enemy will place once they see the hog will easily be destroyed.  Obviously though, there are special circumstances where you should freeze earlier.  For example, if they send out barbarians very early to counter your hog, you should freeze both the enemy crown or arena tower IN ADDITION to the enemy barbarians.  This will allow you hog rider able to get to the tower, do some damage, and then the goblins kill some of the barbarians.  This will make there be less barbarians once the freeze spell duration is over and give your enemy a less overall damage out out which makes your hog rider survive longer and do more damage.  Another example to freeze earlier is if the send the minions or the minion horde, or any type of air unit for that matter.  This is because the minions can target the goblins and if your goblins die, you will lose a lot of potential damage.  BY freezing those air troops first, you let your goblins live for an extra few seconds which can equate to 1000 s of damage.  It is very important to know when to place the freeze spell during any given situation.   In the right hands, it is a night mare and is devastating to go against.  If you do not time the freeze spell to a near perfect precision, you will lose 100 s or 1000 s of possible damage and waste four elixir in the process.  The freeze spell works on both the ground troops and the air units.  They also work on enemy crown or arena towers, enemy king towers, and any enemy buildings or structures like the cannon, the tombstone, the goblin hut, and the barbarian hut.  Take note though, that if you freeze the tombstone and the tombstone gets destroyed in the process, the skeletons that come out will not be frozen.  They will be treated like regular skeletons that spawned after the freeze spell has been activated.