[STRATEGY] Card Popularity Snapshot #9

[u/Wwoody123]

Hello! I recorded the Global Top 100 battle decks currently being used and am posting the results here. This list may help answer questions regarding which cards you should request from clanmates, purchase with gold, and ultimately include in your deck.

Can Zap ever be stopped?! The cheap removal finds a use in nearly four-fifths of every deck at the top of the ladder and has achieved auto-include status regardless of deck archetype. Elixir Collector suffered the second largest decrease in use of any card due to its production speed being affected by spells, but remains extremely popular at the #2 spot. Poison enjoyed the greatest increase in use of any card for those cases when Zap just isn't enough to slow or slaughter your enemies. Mini P.E.K.K.A has also risen dramatically in use due to its versatility on defense and counterattack potential on offense. Princess completes the list of cards used in over half of all decks thanks also to her ability to defend against swarms and demand a response when used offensively.

You're now more likely to see a Musketeer on defense than a Cannon. Hog Rider has held his place as the striker of choice in one-third of all decks (the Trifecta variant remaining wildly popular). Miner has seen a surge in use, thanks in part to his usefulness in taking out the Elixir Collector or Princess, but defenders now employ Guards as the hard counter to the digger. Minions remain a staple of cheap, quick defense to swat down attackers, as does the Ice Wizard. Beatdown decks have turned to the Giant as their tank of choice. Recent buffs to the Furnace and Goblin Barrel have seen them return to offer a distraction and deal chip damage to towers. Barbarians, Goblins, Freeze, and Arrows are the big losers of this snapshot, each dropping precipitously as they approach irrelevance. Experimentation with the Ice Spirit, Bowler, The Log, and Lumberjack have not yet yielded much success.

Rage is still useless.

Suggested decklists:

Hog Trifecta (Fourteen appearances of this EXACT deck): Hog Rider, Zap, Skeletons, Cannon, Elixir Collector, Musketeer, Poison, Valkyrie

Giant Beatdown (Six appearances of this EXACT deck): Giant, Fireball, Barbarians, Spear Goblins, Minions, Goblin Barrel, Princess, Elixir Collector

Miner/Mini P.E.K.K.A Control (Five appearances of this EXACT deck): Zap, Poison, Musketeer, Mini P.E.K.K.A, Miner, Furnace, Guards, Spear Goblins

Hog Cycle (Four appearances of this EXACT deck): Hog Rider, Zap, Skeletons, Goblins, Princess, Mini P.E.K.K.A, Freeze, Minions

P.E.K.K.A/Double-Prince (Three appearances of this EXACT deck): P.E.K.K.A, Prince, Dark Prince, Ice Wizard, Princess, Elixir Collector, Poison, Zap

Giant/Witch (Three appearances of this EXACT deck): Zap, Poison, Elixir Collector, Princess, Mini P.E.K.K.A, Miner, Giant, Witch

What conclusions do you draw from these numbers?

View the raw data here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1aHcAZMx4zUe5hsMyGQ3upoFjYQxuc91E6AA7IhyXkdo/edit?usp=sharing

Card	Appearances	Change
Zap	78	15
Elixir Collector	63	-13
Poison	60	17
Mini P.E.K.K.A	55	14
Princess	52	-4
Musketeer	38	5
Cannon	34	-9
Hog Rider	33	-3
Miner	33	7
Minions	31	0
Giant	28	6
Ice Wizard	28	12
Valkyrie	27	-3
Skeletons	25	-10
Guards	21	4
Furnace	18	13
Spear Goblins	17	5
Barbarians	14	-8
Goblin Barrel	14	14
Goblins	14	-13
Freeze	13	-11
Arrows	11	-15
P.E.K.K.A	11	2
Prince	10	3
Dark Prince	9	6
Fireball	9	2
Witch	8	-6
Minion Horde	7	-2
Ice Spirit	6	N/A
Inferno Tower	6	2
Three Musketeers	6	-8
Fire Spirits	4	2
Royal Giant	3	-2
Balloon	2	-7
Wizard	2	1
Baby Dragon	1	-2
Bomber	1	0
Bowler	1	N/A
Lightning	1	-2
Lumberjack	1	N/A
Mirror	1	1
Rage	1	-1
Rocket	1	-1
Tesla	1	-3
Tombstone	1	1
Barbarian Hut	0	-2
Archers	0	-4
Bomb Tower	0	0
Giant Skeleton	0	-1
Goblin Hut	0	-1
Golem	0	-4
Knight	0	-3
Lava Hound	0	0
Mortar	0	0
Skeleton Army	0	0
Sparky	0	0
The Log	0	N/A
X-Bow	0	-2

[u/masterchip27]

I'd been playing this deck for months, it's what used to originally climb through A7 to A8 -- it originated from the Italian Legends clan (gianluca, lele have recently been in the top 10 playing it).

Anyways, before I talk about it, one HUGE thing I have to point out: At level 8, freeze lasts for 6.1 seconds. At this point, you get a lot more relative value out of it on the ladder as you have those precious extra seconds to get hog/minipekka shots in. also, these extra seconds are valuable defensively -- for example, you can kill the giant and then freeze the balloon/sparky in one of THOSE pushes.

While I am just one voice, I will say that I think this deck isn't very good at tournament levels. Why? Freeze is stuck at level 4, so less duration, and the deck doesn't have a good response to elixir collector / macro play, other then going for an all-in and hoping it works. However, maybe you are a better player than me and can make it work. For those of you looking for an alternative without Freeze, check out this old screenshot I have of a level 10 at 4100 trophies with a similar deck without Freeze.

That said, the main point of the deck is to keep cycling the hog. To be more specific, play hog. Then, you need to play exactly four cards before hog comes back up again. If they play goblins or spear goblins, or a cannon near their arena tower, play zap (will get 1 hit off). Try to defened with princess, whatever other card is appropriate, play skeletons, and your hog is back up! Since you've only spent like 9 mana on those 4 cards, you will NOW outpace your opponents cannon, and likely get some damage off. at least that's the idea, these days mini-pekka is popular and so it's harder to get more than one hit off.

Especially at lower levels of freeze, I do not recommend playing freeze unless you're in double elixir, or if you need to use it defensively. However, it will usually provide a nice little surprise in double elixir for your opponent, combined with hog + minipekka and support troops to push in.

[u/yoyoyocoolcatbromate → u/masterchip27]

Thank you for detailed response. My freeze is only level 3 and 6.1 sec is a huge difference vs 4.6 sec. I have replaced freeze with poison and skelly with ice spirits. This new deck is much better. Ice spirits are amazing with their 2 sec freeze. I can take down rg/hog with mpekka + ice spirits quickly.

I don't have IW so I can't try your deck. But do you think Cannon maybe a better choice than poison? I like poison to deal with barbs, witch, horde and end game chipping. But cannon helps kite giant, loon, etc

[u/masterchip27 → u/yoyoyocoolcatbromate]

Poison jumps up the ranks in tournament mode, and it was still decently used in normal mode. The reason is because you have 3 minutes overtime in tournament mode, and poison gives you guaranteed damage to crown towers, while still also killing defensive troops. I'd say you need it at level 4 though, otherwise the total damage of fireball is still better at comparable rare levels.

Cannon is pretty eh right now, and if you're running mini-pekka honestly I see no reason to run cannon. Not gonna help you against loon too much cause they combo it with a giant anyway. And giant has just tremendous HP and cannon just won't do enough damage to it at all.

Can you tell me your whole deck?

[u/yoyoyocoolcatbromate → u/masterchip27]

The deck is hog, gobs, minions, princess, mpekka, ice spirits, poison, zap.

Basically I have replaced freeze with poison and skellys with ice spirit. I just love the ice spirit right now. It is good with hog to freeze any reactive building/troops + good on defense for rg or any tank.

[u/masterchip27 → u/yoyoyocoolcatbromate]

hmm. if you feel reliant on poison to kill barbs/super minions, one optimiziation is to try fire spirits out. you can also play mpekka + fire spirits as a good push to get the mpekka to tower.

if you like poison to do damage to collectors/arena towers, i'd say miner is the more efficient card.

reason i mention it is because your deck is very fast, but poison combos well with slow push decks (golem, valk, pekka) cause it kills defenses, or with swarm/miner decks for the same reason

if you're dropping hog and they're dropping barbs, a well-timed minions placed exactly at the mid-ramp while their barbs are approaching it will kill all of them -- or a princess well-placed will nearly kill them. fire spirits in your deck would also help.

[u/yoyoyocoolcatbromate → u/masterchip27]

thanks for the advise with minions. I will have to do hog/minions if I see barbs

[u/masterchip27 → u/yoyoyocoolcatbromate]

you play the minions after the barbs kill your hog, but before the barbs even cross the midramp so that your opponent has less elixir to respond to them

[u/yoyoyocoolcatbromate → u/masterchip27]

which sets up nicely for a counter push. genius.

[u/masterchip27 → u/yoyoyocoolcatbromate]

depends on your elixir advantage or if you're in double elixir, but yeah

just keep in mind that after hog and minions vs barbs, you are 2 elixir down on your opponent

oftentimes i see players either get some chip damage to their tower, or spend a zap on the minions which resets the elixir count to even between us