EQ Cycle

Introduction

Due to yet another Spell Tower damage nerf bringing them to 30% damage, most decks that relies on cycling Spells to close out a game have taken a hit.

Interestingly, of all Spells that receive a nerf due to the need of consistency, Earthquake (and Tornado, but it heals the Tower in the first place) avoided the nerf for some reason, and therefore is now the most effective Spell for doing Spell Tower Damage.

So, it is only reasonable that some kind of Spell Cycle deck exist and use Earthquake in the place of whatever it was before.

This is a deck I’ve think of myself using this concept. It is far from perfect, but the general idea is obvious. Defend and throw Earthquake on you opponents Tower.

Deck Information[]

Deck Created by: SAMU G

Minimum Recommended King Level: 9

Maximum Recommended King Level: 9

Arena Required: Miner's Mine (Wrong?)

Average Elixir Cost: 2.8 (Wrong?)

More Statistics: Go to Deck Builder

Card Roles[]

Tower Princess:

Earthquake: You Spell that is neither small nor big. Sitting at 204 Crown Tower damage for 3 Elixir, it now surpasses Rocket at dealing most Damage to the Tower per Elixir. Unless you’re facing Spawners or Siege buildings, throw this on the weaker Tower to ramp up the chip damage and eventually win the game.

Mortar: Your offensive building that can also be used defensively sometimes. If you manage to get a Mortar lock onto the opponent’s Princess Tower, you odds at winning is much greater.

Hunter: You main air counter. Due to his short range and low DPS at maximum range, he requires proper protection and support to be effective.

Fisherman: The Meta man. Fisherman has seen a lot more play in this season after the buff he has received, making him a solid pick, since he also synergises with Mortar and Hunter.

Ice Golem: Ice Golem has been popular in Cycle decks. Its property as a building targeting mini tank, as well as his unique death damage cooped with his cheap cost makes him extremely versatile.

Skeletons: Skeletons are always a must have in Cycle decks. Although currently Heal Spirit is a lot more oppressive as it provides insane value on offense, Skeletons still remain as one of the best defensive cycle cards.

Giant Snowball: With the downfall of Bats, Balloon decks are bound to raise again. Giant Snowball is a great counter against Balloon and most medium size ground building targeting troops.

Royal Delivery: This one is the least certain card I have in here, but since it is a Spell cycle deck, being extremely defensive is a staple. Royal Delivery is known for being an extremely annoying defensive Spell, and even with the knock back removed I believe it is still more than capable at handling support troops in a bigger push.

Play Style[]

This deck is a defensive heavy deck that deals damage by constant EQ and potentially Mortar connection to the Princess Tower.

This deck plays very passive and always wait for the opponent to commit first (spending more then 3 Elixir in one lane). This is relatively simple to do, as you can cycle in the back and constantly throw EQ on their Tower. They will have to make a move or suffer damage without getting a lead on Elixir.

Due to EQ cheap 3 Elixir cost, it is not a huge commitment unlike Rocket, so it will not give you too much issue on defense as being down 3 Elixir is not devastating most of the time.

General Tips[]

If the opponent deploys a mini tank (e.g. Valkyrie) at the back, Mortar in the opposite lane if you know it is their only reliable ground counter. This can force them to use less optimal counters.
- You can deploy a fisherman next to the Mortar if you know your opponent will counter the Mortar with ranged ground troops (e.g. Musketeer). He will hook them into the Mortar blind spot, allowing a Mortar connection and killing the ranged troop with the help of the Princess Tower quickly.
  - If it is a ranged air troop, the Mortar will still get 1 to 2 shot on the Tower. Do not over protect your Mortar.
- If they tank it with a building (e.g. Goblin Cage) at the centre, feel free to EQ the building as well as the Princess Tower to take it down faster and potentially get a Mortar lock.
  - If they deployed the building at the bridge, you can block it with an Ice Golem or Skeletons then EQ to let the Mortar take it down. If it is an Inferno Tower, don’t worry about sacrificing the Mortar as it is still a positive trade.
- If they try to use a swarm, Hunter, Giant Snowball and Royal Delivery are always at your disposal.
  - Against Balloon, Hunter is enough to take it out. The Mortar will still get 1 shot on the Tower if there are no ground troops tanking.
    - If you really want to protect the Mortar, Snowball to knock the Balloon back to allow the Hunter enough time to shoot once more.
Against matchup without buildings, feel free to cycle it on the weaker Princess Tower. This is a Spell Cycle deck after all.
- Potentially you would want to save EQ for Three Musketeers. EQ will put them in range for Delivery to damage them enough, so that they can be one shot by the Recruit within. Defensive Mortar is also great at taking out 3M, two shells plus the EQ damage is enough to take out Musketeers in one lane.
- Against Spawners you could use both Mortar and EQ to counter. EQ is more reliable as Mortar is known for not hitting the troops spawned from the Spawner.
- There is no need to EQ defensive buildings, but feel free to do so if it get you chip damage on their weaker Tower.
- Against Siege buildings, it could be annoying as Hunter is terrible against them. Your best bet is to EQ, deploy Mortar at the centre and tank the Siege building with Ice Golem or Skeletons. The Mortar should take out the Siege building and even if it doesn’t you have another EQ in hand after playing one more card.
Always protect your Hunter. He needs to be close to do damage, which puts him into an vulnerable situation. Skeletons and Ice Golem are both great at distracting the troops he is trying to defeat, protecting him from damage.
- You can always Mortar with a counter pushing Hunter to the most value out of him.
Fisherman is great at King Activation against building targeting troops. He also pairs well with both Mortar and Hunter, being able to pull troops into the blind spot or close range for them to do their job.
- His hook stops units from charging, dashing or leaping. It does not make troops retarget onto him, so do not attempt to pull a Sparky as it will lock onto the Princess Tower first most of the time.
Delivery pairs well with Mortar on defense. Attract all the troops in with Mortar in the centre then trop the Delivery. It will most likely hit all the support troops, and paired with damage dealt by Mortar most troops will be taken out immediately.
- Delivery and Snowball together does enough damage to take out Flying Machine and Magic Archer, which is helpful against pushes consisting these units.

Game Plan[]

Single Elixir Time[]

Use this time to identify your opponent’s deck. See this blog for more information on that.

If you want to learn more about placement for Mortar, check out this blog.

If you have EQ in your hand, don’t be shy to just throw it on your opponent’s Princess Tower if you‘re not down on Elixir. Beside that, you should play passive and wait for you opponent to commit first.

Cycling Ice Golem at the back could be risky at times but mostly it won’t be fatal as long as you have another ground troop in hand.

Try to get an King Tower activation with Fisherman against decks that runs building targeting troops during this time. This will gives you an edge on defense later on.

Double Elixir Time[]

You can go in with Mortar more aggressively and EQ the Tower more frequently. If you’ve already taken a Tower, good job and continue to strengthen your defense or try to threaten their second Tower so that they can’t focus on building up a push.

Triple Elixir Time[]

You may now use Giant Snowball to Spell cycle their Tower as long as it is safe to do so.

Substitution[]

Musketeer: Substitutes Hunter. Although she does less potential DPS and have less health (die to Poison), her damage output is very consistent and her range is far superior compared to Hunter. She does not have as good a synergy with Fisherman, but the Hunter Fisherman synergy was kind overrated in the first place. If you’re not confident in using Hunter (don’t worry, me neither), definitely use Musketeer instead.

Fireball: Substitutes Royal Delivery. After the nerf removing its knock-back, it is no longer what it was before. Giant Snowball kinda filled that gap, but if you prefer double insurance, take Fireball instead. Also provide another Spell to throw at the Tower, but as the Spell Tower damage nerf it only does a pathetic 172 damage to Tower at Tournament standard, much less than EQ for 1 extra Elixir.‘

Creation Concepts[]

When I was thinking about a Spell Cycle deck, of course it would have EQ as the main damage dealer. However, it is not reliable if it is the only way to do Tower damage reliably. Therefore I’ve been thinking about different win condition in Mortar’s place, like Hog Rider, Royal Giant and even Skeleton Barrel. But then I realise that won’t be defensive enough, not even close.

What if, I think to myself, a win condition that also have usage on defense? That is when Mortar comes into my mind.

After that, the choice of Spells. Obviously the deck would need Spells other than EQ as it is mainly for offense. What are Spells that are defensive? Royal Delivery. I used to hate this Spell so much and I doubt I would hate it less even after the nerf, because seeing this card basically means facing a defense heavy deck. What about the removed knock-back? Giant Snowball.

At this point I’m swaying with what defensive building I should use, as these are the staple of defensive decks. Bomb Tower was what I feel like previously, as it has really good synergy with the Delivery. But having two buildings wasn’t really that great, so I try to see if there was any troops that can somewhat replace buildings places. Fisherman catches my eyes, as he has that hook for building targeting troops, as well as having synergy with Mortar. So naturally, Hunter fills for air counter as he also have synergy with Fisherman.

Finally a few cycle cards to make the deck “Cycle”. Since Hunter is there like a demanding baby yelling I need protecting, Ice Golem and Skeletons are the best choice here, or at least I believe.

So this is how I come up with this deck. I hope you enjoy getting into at my head lol.

Final Words[]

As I’ve said in the start, this deck is not something that has been play tested. It could be completely garbage and I wouldn’t be surprise, since it is just the embodiment of my theory.

If you are interested to test it in Classic Challenges for me and comment below on how it goes, I would really appreciate it.

Regardless, have fun Clashing!