20/10 Balance changes: will it be end the of GiantPoison meta? If you've read some of my previous guides, you will know by now Ilike to play quick cheap cycle decks.Heavy Beatdown decks are my natural enemy, so I'mquite happy with the balance changes.
I expect that poison will be used less because withthe slow effect gone, people will drop it for other cards. Fireball willreturn. Also elixir heavy decks will be harder to play in general because ofthe increased cost of the Elixir collector. At a cost of 6, you will have less elixir availableto defend. With a quick cycle deck you can really punish your opponent forplacing a elixir collector and keep the pressure high.
So once again I'm writing a deck guide on a cycledeck, centered around the Hog Rider.
My deck
Hog Rider(8), Ice golem(6), Goblins(11),Musketeer(8), Mega Minion(7), Fire spirits(11), Princess(2), Zap(11)
Clocking in at 2.8 elixir average cost.
I am playing this deck around 3.8-3.9k trophies forthe moment.
Card Breakdown
Hog Rider: You're win condition and main damage source
Ice Golem: He is excellent on defense, he can distract/kite units and is usefullfor his slow effect and death damage
Goblins: Excellent card for a typical hog push. high dps for low cost
Musketeer: Together with Mega Minion the runner in this deck(try to transitionfrom defense to offense), as well as air support
Mega Minion: Together with Musketeer the runner in this deck, as well as airsupport
Fire Spirits: Great card vs barbarians, minion horde and all other cheap cost cards(skeletons, goblins, minions, guards, ...)
Princess: Splash coverage, used to put pressure on both lanes
Zap: Remains mynumber 1 spell, used both on offense/defensive, you will know how to use thisspell by now
Replacements
There are a lot of replacements possible inthis deck while keeping the format of the deck about the same.
Hog Rider: If you don't want a hog cycle deck, you can use miner for a minercycle deck
Ice Golem: Ice Spirit
Goblins: Spear Goblins, Skeletons
Musketeer & Mega Minion: My deck runs two cards who are excellent attaking down big air troops (musketeer, mega minion).
You could change one of those cards for a high DPSunit to take down ground tanks such as giant. For example: mini pekka, princeor even cannon.
Or you could just swap the mega minion for regularminions or a minion horde
Fire spirits: If you like a building, you can try Furnace. Otherwise ice spirit orspear goblins
Princess: Most off the time Archers will be a good replacement but in this deckalready running a lot vs air they are obsolete. You could use a 2nd spell suchas fireball
Zap: Arrows, Log
Battle Strategy
Defense
One thing you may notice when you look at my decklist is that I don't have a real high DPS unit such as mini pekka, prince, ...
Nor do I have a building to distract units. I'm guessingwith the Giant-Poison getting a hit I will see less Giant's and heavy decks ingeneral, therefore high dps cards or building might not be necessary.
I expect to see even more Air decks, therefore Iuse Musketeer + Mega Minion in one deck, and got zap, princess, fire spiritsready to melt the lava pups/minions/skeletons from tombstone's, ...If somehow Inotice giants (and maybe royal gaints) keeping their place in the meta, I willswap the mega minion for the mini pekka.
The general plan on defense is to transfer mymusketeer/mega minion from defense -> offense whenever possible to be ableto make a stronger hog push.
Since I will be pressuring the opponent as much aspossible I'm expecting to defend smaller pushes from him.
For this I will drop my princess in the oppositelane, forcing out cards from my opponent as well as letting my princess coveras much as possible from the battlefield.
The Ice Golem will serve a defensive role in mydeck, distracting and kiting away units behind enemy tanks.
For example: Let's say my opponent attacks withGiant + Prince. I will use my goblins to take down the giant, paired withmusketeer.
The ice golem is placed to distract the prince, forthis drop the ice golem 1 tile from the middle in the opposite lane so it will'kite away' the prince to the other tower.
Depending on the level it's possible you need touse another troop on the prince to not absorb any damage.
Offense
Most off my pushes will be centered around the hogrider + goblins (or fire spirits) + left-over troops from defense(musketeer/mega minion).
You can also do a ice golem + goblin push. Ifyou're opponent isn't able to take out your goblins quick enough thisparticular combo for only 4 elixir cost can wreck a tower. The goblins willalso push the ice golem towards the tower which is nice.
Another push that is good to perform is the icegolem + hog rider. For this place your ice golem at the river and your hogrider 1 tile after the ice golem. You're hog rider will now push the ice golemto the enemy tower, giving your hog rider an extra meatshield (already 1000 HPat lvl 6 for the cost of only 2 elixir).
Since the ice golem serves a defensive role as wellin my deck, this sort of push will be used more frequently when I know I canhandle my opponents pushes without the ice golem.
For example: If I face another hog cycle deck withsmall troops, I don't need the ice golem to distract units since I will take out the small troops with zap/fire spirits/princess,...
My ice golem will mainly be used on offense in thiscase.
When I face a double prince + pekka deck: Here Iwant my ice golem to tank the big hits, therefore it will serve the defenserole more.
In my gameplay video you will see a battle versus aair deck. Here I use the ice golem to tank/kite incoming pushes and build upstrong counter pushes with musketeer/mega minion surviving from defense.
This gameplay gives a good example on what I try todo with this deck.
Gameplay
