User blog:Positive Elixir Trade/My Thoughts and Strategies with the Skeleton Barrel

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I personally think that when using it on offense, the Skeleton Barrel is a gimmicky card.

It can't really distract the largest range of troops, so more planning will have to be put into this bad boy before you can take it to the arena.

Strategy

 * The Skeleton Barrel is good to use for a tank and spank combo. Left alone, it can tank 4 hits from a Musketeer, then the residual Skeletons will tank 8 more shots.
 * The Skeletons at tournament standard will hit a Princess Tower 21 times, so guarenteed, it won't be left unchecked.
 * The Barrel can help distract an Inferno Tower from targeting your tank, but there's a 1-second window between when the Barrel pops and when the Skeletons actually appear, so you'll still need a Zap just so the Inferno Tower won't deal massive damage to your heavy tank push.
 * Because this card is the second disposable glass-cannon, you can use this card to tank for heavier hitting units. This is even more dealier with a Lumberjack since he drops a Rage spell when he dies. And like a Knight, if this is your tank for a Goblin Barrel, you need to drop the Skeleton Barrel down first to ensure it tanks for the Goblins.
 * When using The Log or Zap to take out the Skeletons, unlike a Goblin Barrel or a Lava Hound, the residual Skeletons from a Skeleton Barrel don't appear immediately, so you'll need to cast the Zap a bit later to ensure the Skeletons aren't missed.
 * Since the Skeleton Barrel can fly over the river, it shares the same sight range with the Balloon, at 7.7 tiles. That means the Skeleton Barrel's pull factor is exactly the same as a Balloon. For a primary placed Skeleton Barrel, you need to place the building 4-1 to pull it. For a secondary placement,  the maximum building placement is 4-2. With  a tertiary/outer edge placement, the biggest pull strength can be made with a 3-3 plant. When the Skeleton Barrel is placed at the quaternary/middle of the bridge placement, you can do the usual 4-3 plant and so on.
 * With highly disposable units spawning from the Skeleton Barrel, this adds another card to use in a Zap bait or Log bait deck. For players to not take the bait, they will need to play one of their combo cards, possibly forcing them to break their beatdown combo. It's a great card to use in a chip cycle deck as well. It doesn't have to be combos, so you can use the Skeleton Barrel to constantly apply chip damage to their Princess Tower since this card only costs 3 elixir.
 * The Skeleton Barrel can also be used to distract a Minion Horde because the Skeletons are fast and they run away from the Minions. The Barrel can also ensure that your Inferno Tower will lock onto your opponent's Royal Giant and not the distraction unit.
 * Just like a Flying Machine, it can't distract a Mini P.E.K.K.A. or a Prince since it's flying. The Barrel is actually worse since it won't attack the Prince.

Final Words
The Skeleton Barrel should be better used on offense. It can't distract most troops since it's flying, but we should see less spawner players once it's released.