Lava Hound

"The Lava Hound is a majestic flying beast that attacks buildings. The Lava Pups are less majestic angry babies that attack anything."

The Lava Hound card is unlocked from the P.E.K.K.A's Playhouse (Arena 4) or a Legendary Chest. It is a building-targeting, short-ranged, flying troop with very high hitpoints and low damage. Upon death, it bursts into 6 spread out Lava Pups which have no preferred target and deal the same damage as the Lava Hound but each have much lower hitpoints. It only attacks buildings, has high hitpoints and splits into smaller units, similar to the Golem. The Lava Hound appears to be a flying, burning rock beast with an underbite, short wings, small rocky dog ears, and small limbs. A Lava Hound card costs 7 Elixir to deploy.

Strategy

 * Lava Hound is a good air tank with high hitpoints, so it is best used as a shield for air troops with higher damage like Minions, Mega Minion and the Inferno Dragon. It's ineffective to use the Lava Hound as a shield for ground troops, as the opponent can ignore the Lava Hound and counter the ground troops.
 * Sending the Lava Hound alone is futile unless your opponent completely ignores it.
 * The Lava Pups cannot deal much damage without a tank, so a Knight, Miner or Hog Rider could tank for them long enough to take a Crown Tower. The Lava Hound can also tank for the said units, then they return the favor by tanking for its pups.
 * If timed correctly, a Zap can hit and stun all its pups. You need to zap the Lava Hound just as it dies. Arrows are a much better alternative as they have less room for error with its larger area of effect and it kills all the pups.
 * Pairing the Lava Hound with Lightning is a good option since it will cripple an Inferno Tower and take out high-damage but low-hitpoint defensive units such as Wizards, Musketeers, and Mega Minions.
 * The Tornado and Executioner combo is very effective in destroying the Lava Hound and its support troops. The Tornado brings all the the troops to the same spot so the Executioner can hit all of them at once.
 * The LavaLoon is a popular strategy where the Lava Hound tanks for a Balloon while it wreaks havoc on Towers.
 * However, this strategy is easily countered if the troops have no support, as the Balloon can be destroyed before the Lava Hound. For example, the Minion Horde can easily destroy the Balloon before it deals damage to the tower and proceed to destroy the Lava Hound.
 * It can also be easily defeated by the Wizard. Place the Wizard correctly so that it targets the Balloon. When the Balloon dies, support the Wizard with other troops to finish off the Lava Hound and its pups.
 * Like the Golem, the Lava Hound does little damage on its own, but much less than that of the Golem. Offensively, support it with high-damaging units that can use the Lava Hound as a meat shield.
 * The Inferno Tower is an excellent counter to the Lava Hound, as it deals high damage to the Lava Hound while it doesn't take much damage from the Hound in return.
 * Back the tower up with a Musketeer or use Arrows to finish off the Lava Pups.
 * Despite this, the Lava Hound may not be powerless. Send Minions to distract/destroy the Inferno Tower and the Musketeer. This will allow the Lava Hound to continue its job!
 * Zap may also help with dealing with the Inferno Tower since its stun effect will make it retarget the Minions, as well as resetting its damage.
 * However, the Inferno Tower will not stop a Lava Hound + Balloon push by itself if the opponent uses Zap or Ice Spirit.
 * If the Lava Hound is paired up with another tank, the targeted Crown Tower will likely target the other tank after killing the Lava Hound. If this happens, have an area damage spell like Arrows ready, as the Lava Pups will deal incredible damage.
 * A Lava Hound is often more useful than a Golem. The Lava Hound costs less Elixir and cannot be targeted by high-damage ground troops like the P.E.K.K.A. or Prince while the Lava Pups have higher damage overall than the Golemites. The Lava Hound also has a one second deploy time as opposed to the Golem's three second deploy time.
 * However, one disadvantage in using the Lava Hound is its difficulty to obtain and upgrade because the Lava Hound is a Legendary card. It also cannot be targeted by troops that cannot target air - such as Barbarians, which means it cannot distract them. It also has less health than the Golem both at Tournament standards and at max level. Its most glaring flaw when compared to the Golem, however, is its extremely low damage output and lack of death damage.

History

 * The Lava Hound was added to the game with an update on 3/5/16. On its introduction, it was the first Legendary made unlockable to the player, at Arena 4. Now, the Inferno Dragon is also available at Arena 4.
 * On 18/5/16, a Balance Update increased the Lava Hound's hitpoints by 3% and Lava Pup's hitpoints by 9%.
 * On 21/6/16, a Balance Update increased the Lava Hound's damage by 28%.
 * On 30/11/16, a Balance Update decreased the Lava Pup's hitpoints by 1%. This was to fix a rounding error where a level 12 arena tower should've been able to kill level 4 lava pups in two shots.
 * On 24/1/18, a Balance Update increased the Lava Hounds hitpoints by 5%.

Trivia

 * It functions just like its Clash of Clans counterpart. A difference is that when the Lava Hounds get upgraded, the Clash Royale Lava Pups increase in stats, while Clash of Clans Lava Pups increase in numbers.
 * The Lava Hound, Night Witch, and Golem are currently the only troops that spawn more troops after dying.
 * TMD YAOYAO won the King's Cup Tournament using a Lava Hound, Mega Minion, and Lightning deck.
 * The Lava Hound has the highest hitpoints of any air troop.
 * The Lava Hound is one of the two air troops that target buildings, with the other being the Balloon.
 * It is currently the only Legendary card to originate from Clash of Clans.
 * When the Lava Pups spawn, they will forcefully push air troops aside.
 * It is one of the eleven cards who are cheered for by the audience upon spawning and booed when killed. The others include Sparky, Night Witch, Royal Giant, Giant Skeleton, P.E.K.K.A., Giant, Electro Wizard, Bowler, Inferno Dragon, and Golem.
 * Unlike in Clash of Clans, where it has the most hitpoints in the game, the Lava Hound in Clash Royale has the fourth-highest hitpoints in the game, after the Giant, P.E.K.K.A. and Golem.

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