by SpiderV1

Your heart is beating in your ears, you’re one loss away from falling out of the Grand Challenge, and you only have 50 health on your tower. Your Miner is digging towards their tower as you deploy a Minion Horde to follow him. They already used their Fireball earlier, you fear nothing. Your opponent is getting shredded, you’re about to win! Then it happens. Their Zap finishes your tower, game over

We’ve all been this guy, and it is the absolute worst feeling. Yet we often fail to sit back, and examine how we got there in the first place

Record scratch

Yep. That’s me. With the Fat L. You’re probably wondering how I got here…

Well buckle in, because we’re about to open up the database you use to play the game and explore the way you think

Two Common Mistakes

Sitting back, in your mom’s basement like all Clash Royale players, we begin to examine the psychological tendencies you expose yourself to subconsciously

Alright, I’ll try to stop being such a nerd (Not really)

Allowing Chip

Guys, calm down. I know it’s stupid and obvious. But it’s worth examining, alright, hear me out

I’m not talking about Miner or Hog Cycle Chip. They trigger a bunch of alarms, and only work because of the cycle ability, I’m talking about the smallest things.

My personal favorite of The true Chip damage is simple Spear Goblins at the Bridge. WHY?? Because it’s extremely hard to justify spending Elixir for such small damage

YOU struggle with that decision in your head nearly every time you play the game. Why would it matter anyways?

Because that is the road that brings you to a Zappable tower.

However, risking your only (X) Card is just as dangerous, and sometimes it’s NOT an option

So how do we choose?

It’s a dangerous game to play, and it’s difficult to win. However, there are a few rules (or as the Pirates say, guidelines) that can assist in your journey

• Once you know your opponents deck, the game becomes much easier, a simple assessment of whether you are risking a counter card by defending Chip
• BEFORE knowing their deck, only play a 3 elixir counter if you have another card that can fill the same role (Ex: If you were to have Guards and Tombstone in the same deck, and the opponent drops a Bandit at the Bridge, as long as I have my Guards in hand, or next in hand, I can defend with Tombstone while still being safe from the next Bridge Spam attack)
• Finally, any +1 elixir lead cards are completely okay if they’re not necessary to your deck (See above)

Tunnel Vision and Choosing Targets

HERE is where things get J U I C Y

This is all about how YOU and every player around you can only focus on a few things at a time due to how your brain works

You fall victim to this more than you realize (mainly due to you failing to realize… that you… didn’t realize…)

The idea of WinCons had become a major part of how you view the game. Whether you TRULY understand WinCons or not, you still have the concept that “this is a Hog deck” and “This is a Golem deck”

And as you play, these will always be the most important card on the field to you.

This is an often fatal mistake.

One just understand “Worldwide Counters”, or counters that are effective against your entire deck

Dealing with Worldwide Counters and WinCons need to be handled completely differently

• When defending against WinCons, the primary goal is to AT LEAST break even Elixir wise, or even better to make a positive trade, often along with a counterpush
• Reiterating on what I have said in previous post, negative elixir trades are of NO MATTER when to comes to a Worldwide Counter (Ex: I run a LavaMiner deck, often with fragile cards. One of the greatest Worldwide Counters is the Wizard. I have no problem with spending 7 Elixir, Fireball and Arrows, to remove him)
• Examining support cards over (or at least equal to) WinCons is often a game winning tactic. We’ve all seen YouTubers get SUPER excited over a single Mega Minion “DOING WORK”, ending a long life span with a single hit on the tower, because they assessed their support card themselves and saw it was extremely efficient

I have a post on super cards becoming Pseudo WinCons due to the ability to be ignored, which can be viewed here

How To Exploit Your Opponent

HERE is where the fun begins

Knowing how to exploit your opponents mindset creates an absolute devastating pattern of blunders and mess ups for your opponent

And the best part

They don’t know you are the culprit the entire time

But where do we begin?

Flips through Bible

Ah, that’s where

Eluding Your Opponent’s Expectations

A solid basis for this concept in general, learning to stop learning is an amazing trick, believe it or not

As each player progresses through the game, they form patterns in their mind. They see how a certain card is played, in certain situations, and commit it to memory (often subconsciously)

They THEN continue to document their findings of how to counter said card and/or tactic, so that they handle it better off when they come across it again

This is a subconscious reaction of every human being (And AI for that matter) who has ever played the game. And boy, can it be exploited.

And yet there’s somehow a single perfect example

Goblin Barrel Players

Yes, this wounded but still alive Archetype has some of the most solid knowledge on this matter, as those who have chosen to further their ability with the deck understand it is purely a psychological game.

Their game plays how ours should, by forcing their opponent to be under a constant burden to use a hard counter top their deck, even though they risk a Goblin Barrel attack afterwards. This pressure alone causes many mistakes on its own when facing any inexperienced players (or even the better of us)

They understand having massive changes to their card placement each time (or lack thereof) is important in winning the game.

Varying the placement of your Hog, pushing the other tower hard when the first is under half health, split pushing, all these tactics, when used throughout the game, mess with your Opponent’s “database” on how to counter decks, places then under psychological pressure, and leave you with a higher chance of entering the winners circle

Using Pseudo WinCons

If you do not bother to open the link provided above, do not fret! (Else you would be a guitar. Get it, puns) I shall provide a short summary here!

Certain cards will ALWAYS be underestimated. These are usually cards that are either underrepresented in the Meta (Cannon Cart), and others are simply background support that provide a solid flow of damage at all times (Flying Machine, Dart Goblin)

These cards are best know for simply providing light support, but they have an ability that is INCREDIBLY underrepresented.

They become locked into towers extremely easily, allowing them to provide constant damage while your opponent is mainly distracted by the WinCon or more dangerous cards (Freaking Sparky for all I care, I just know it works)

THIS is absolute exploitation. You take your Opponent’s Mindset, and you abuse it, bend it to help you.

Chipping your Opponent

This does NOT include Chip WinCons.

The main focus is small damage by small troops, until your Spell of Choice will ruin your opponent.

Almost any troop with a range

• >5 tiles

And

• <4 Elixir

is usually is able to do this, as your opponent will rarely have a solid positive elixir trade that they can justify

This is due to the counterpush flow of the game that gives incentive to not waste troops that can be offensively used within a push in a defensive situation where only ~300 tower health is at stake

The “gameplay database” simply fights against any type of “defend at all cost” mentality

On a side note, it is important to evaluate your Opponent’s hand at the same time, as it would be wasted to play Dart Goblin at the bridge only to be stopped by an opposing Executioner, leading into an Executioner+Hog push at the bridge that you are left with only seven Elixir to defend.

The game is extremely dangerous, but it IS learnable, and it DEFINITELY is valuable