Clash Royale F2P 2500 Trophies Hog Zap Deck With No Epics

Clash Royale F2P 2500 Trophies Hog Zap Deck With No Epics by dlerium

Deck In Question: http://i.imgur.com/iyECt5A.jpg

Troop Summary

1. Hog Rider: This is your main win condition, you’re hoping to strike down towers. Note I didn’t pair him up with freeze as I’m terrible with Freeze. Generally you want to send your hog down the lane and make sure he gets in 2 hits at a minimum. 1 hit isn’t doing enough damage, but you can’t always control if your opponent manages to throw down barbs at the right time.
2. Musketeer: Great at stopping and even going heads up against a baby drag or being your anti air support. I often put the musketeer right behind the hog rider, as hogs are beefy and can tank damage while bashing a tower. The musketeer can get of 2-3 shots during that time on top of the 2-3 more shots before dying. I can’t tell you how many times this awesome DPS has gotten me towers by getting a shot off before dying.
3. Fireball: Usually used defensively to stop barbs or DPS troops behind a tank. Can be used offensively too if I’m fighting a sim city opponent. Helps so my hogs can go straight at a tower.
4. Zap: Stops minion horde, masses of goblins, and in general the stun is very useful. I’ve stunned Wizards before dropping minion horde or even charging princes to save towers. This is also very powerful when used with your hog. Analyze what your opponent drops to counter your hog. Goblins? Zap. Skeleton army? Zap. Barbs? Wait for the counter push and nail his barbs AND whatever DPS unit behind with a fireball.
5. Minion Horde: Your anti-air. Necessary against ballooners, but if you can trick your opponent to waste arrows, this is an offensive might. A possible risky combo is a minion horde + hog rider combo. If your opponent is running zap like me, this is a huge weakness to take advantage of. Keep the hog in front for tanking the tower, and your minions, even if zapped will still rape the tower. I’ve gotten a few easy quick towers in the opening stages. It’s a high risk high reward run though. This can be used against a baby drag and wizard if you’re smart. Wait for them to lock onto something else first.
6. Elixir Collector: Even though we’re not dealing with a high cost deck, this building can be used defensively to stop hogs, charging princes, etc.
7. Barbs: My favorite troop. Drop them to back a push. Put your spear gobs and musketeer behind for maximum effectiveness. If they drop a wizard, lead with a hog to soak up the damage while your barbs run in. Same with bomb towers. Extremely useful in also taking out troops behind tanks. For instance a giant on its own isn’t that deadly, but if they drop 3M behind? Or a wizard? Or witches? Dropping barbs works well because they can take quite a bit of damage and dish out damage before going after the giant.
8. Spear goblins: For 2 elixir this is the best punching unit. Often your starting play (aside from elixir collector).

I was struggling around A5/A6 for some time before I found this deck, and once I did I realized how awesome it is. I felt like L1 epics were not cutting it as I was trying to push A6-A7, so this deck helped immensely. It’s a lot easier to get common and rare cards especially if you’re F2P.

Really though it’s not about the cards all the time; it’s about how you play them and how to counter for an elixir advantage.

Pros

• No epics, you don’t have to be a lucky guy or buy SMCs. You can get donated all the way. It doesn’t take long at all to get L8 commons. It helps I’ve been using musketeer from day 1 so I really focused on leveling musketeer and barbs.
• Well balanced with air, splash and ground attacks
• Multiple troops can carry out massive DPS when unchecked (barbs, minion horde, hog), and even the support troops can hold their own.
• It’s not heavily weighted against a single win condition. A barb/musketeer push gets me a tower just as often as a hog does.

Cons

• Weaknesses against legendary troops, in particular princess. The Ice Wizard is no threat. We don’t run arrows here, so it’s hard to take her out, and our strategy is heavily based on masses of troops (typical pushes will have barbs tanking).
• Golem/Pekka are still tough to fight against, although in my strategies below I will discuss counterpushing seems to be the best approach. I do worse when I try to balance fighting the Golem too heavily. The harder you counter push, the easier it is to fight the golem as he’ll likely be alone.
• Weakness against anti-splash.

Opening Moves

• Option 1: Elixir collector in the middle. This is a standard opener.
• Option 2: Drop spear gobs in the back, see how opponent responds; if nothing, drop hog at bridge and lead the charge. The worse case is they drop barbs, but you should usually get a hit in and your spear gobs should do some damage
• Option 3: If you’re feeling aggressive, you can drop musketeer in addition to Option 2; but its risky. If they drop barbs, you’re at a big elixir disadvantage as they can likely mount a huge counterpush. However if they drop something else like a Wizard, you’re probably semi-safe.
• Option 4: Minion horde + hog. I don’t use this often and it has like a 1 in 8 success rate as most people run arrows or will drop a wizard to shred your forces. However when it does work…. Sometimes I see a rage quit. Keep in mind this is how Jason got the first tower against steroidi in the tournament. Steroidi dropped a tesla to counter and had no arrows. It was basically gg. The strategy here is for your hog to tank while your minion horde does massive dps (and so does the hog)

Strats against common opponents

• Golem/Pekka beatdown: Don’t let them drop anything else behind the tanks. Once you see the golem/pekka go down, counter push the other lane hard. This is where you drop your whole offense. I go barbs, musketeer, spear gobs and hog charge. If they defense up with a elixir collector and a cannon/bomb tower consider using a fireball to soften those up so your hog can go for the tower. Carry your zap in hand in case they drop minion horde. Save your minion horde for taking down the golem/pekka. They have 2 choices at this point; really defend your push or push hard. 85% of the time they will switch to defense and let the lone golem/pekka go. In which case if you have a elixir collector down, you’ll already do pretty well with just dropping 1 more unit to do some dps on their tank. Save your fireball if they drop 3 musketeers or wizards behind their tanks. Depending on how hard they push, sometimes your best bet is to just push faster. Golems and Pekkas are slow, but if you push for a 3 crown hard with hog its often faster.
• Hut Spam: I hate this, but in general I counter push hard. Use your elixir collector to soak up damage, and save your fireball/zap for when their hut spam builds up. I tend to split push in this case, barbs + musketeer to handle hut spam and hog/spear gobs to counter push.
• Hog opponents: Dropping barbs up front to greet the hog can allow you get 2 swings in before an enemy hog reaches your tower. I usually counter with my own hog at that point so the barbs can push up behind. This also forces your opponent to choose between freezing your barbs or your tower. Having spear gobs in backup is always helpful in case your barbs get frozen. I do frequently panic and drop my barbs at my tower which should be a no-no, but having a backup troop is critical anyway.
• Bomb Tower: I hate bomb towers and they really ruin my pushes. You typically won’t be in that bad shape if your barb + musketeer gets steamrolled. They likely will drop another troop too so it’s not like you’re completely at a huge elixir disadvantage (usually something like bomb tower + spear gobs). I still start my pushes of barbs at the back followed by musketeer, but once you see a bomb tower go down, drop a hog. As long as the hog stays ahead of the barbs, it will soak up the damage.
• Giant Skeleton: For defensive GS, beware of initiating large pushes. The last thing you want is the standard 11 elixir push (barbs+musketeer+speargobs) to get blown to pieces. Most GS users drop it when they see my barbs go down. I’ll leave that lane alone and the barbs to die and then push the other lane. Also if they use the GS offensively, drop your barbs in behind the GS such that it turns around to engage your barbs. That way when it dies and your troops push forward, they run away from the bomb. For offensive GS, counterpush and save your barbs to take the GS out.
• Double Prince: The elixir collector realy throws them off and minion horde is their #1 enemy. I prefer to use a combination of barbs and spear gobs such that I can counterpush as minion horde often gets arrowed.
• AOE troops like Bomber/Wizard: Like Bomb Tower, leading with hog helps here, but also a fireball can too. I try to take out 2 troops if possible, like if they drop wiz + spear gobs. The majority of A7 players still drop troops next to tower, so adding in tower damage is always a bonus. Most players’ pulling/kiting skills aren’t that great unless you go to A8. I tend to also throw a fireball if I see that eliminating the wizard/bomber means that tower is mine or I can wreak massive damage. Once again it’s about trading elixir. So the more you can take out with a fireball, the better.