Royal Hogs Heal Spirit

Introduction

Previously, this deck had Heal back when it was still in the game. Heal was widely considered to be a contender for one the worst cards (if not the worst), but I thought it would be interesting to go in depth on a deck where Heal actually has a pretty cool niche. Now that's it's gone and has been replaced with the Heal Spirit, the deck functions pretty similarly to before, but the Heal Spirit has a few minor changes and some major. I've since updated the majority of this page (and cut back on some of the redundant card stats).

Deck Information[]

Deck Created by: AesDragon

Minimum Recommended King Level: 9

Maximum Recommended King Level: 13

Arena Required: Rascal's Hideout (Wrong?)

Average Elixir Cost: 3.4 (Wrong?)

More Statistics: Go to Deck Builder

Card Roles[]

Royal Hogs: Your primary win condition and main synergy with the Heal Spirit. They function as a punishment card and cannot be ignored by the opponent. The typical placement is at the bridge as close to the outer edges of the arena as possible, in order to bypass any poorly placed buildings. Against heavy splashers like Mega Knight, you'll want to instead play them in the centre of the arena as they jump over the river and will split onto both towers. This will get you less damage overall, but may force your opponent to overcommit in a single lane, weakening the splash value that they get.

Barbarian Barrel: Your defensive spell. This card is best used to target distracted support troops on defense, defeat swarms, or to force a reaction out of the opponent by placing it at the bridge. The Barbarian can also be invested behind the King Tower to discourage offense in one land and to cycle your deck. You'll want to position it so that the Barbarian pops out right next to the troop you want to take out.

Mini P.E.K.K.A.: Your tank killer. This card is fairly polarizing, being easily countered by mere Skeletons but able to slice up Giants and Golems fairly well for 4 Elixir, in addition to "fireballie" support troops. Against a large push, you'll generally want to target the back end units first to minimize the offensive value they can get. Afterwards, the Mini P.E.K.K.A. will go for the tank. Besides defense, the Mini P.E.K.K.A. can function as a support card for a Royal Hogs push to discourage the placement of frail splashers such as Wizard on their defense.

Bomb Tower: Your defensive building. Bomb Tower has a good amount of health and deals respectable splash damage for 4 Elixir, and will pull building targeting units. While it doesn't target air, it can be placed in front of an enemy push instead so that its death bomb blows up on the push, which will deal over twice of its regular damage. Besides this, it will usually be placed reactively in the center of the arena due to its somewhat short lifetimer.

Zap: Your other small spell. For 2 Elixir, this cheap spell helps to cover what the Barbarian Barrel may have trouble against; air troops, and charging units. The spell has many applications; a retarget on building chasers, a stun on Sparky, a stun on an Inferno Tower, a quick option to kill defensive Bats and Skeletons... and the list goes on. It's also a cheap cycle card, just like the Barbarian Barrel. You'll want to gauge the situation and usually react or even predict enemy units with a Zap spell. It's effective against spell bait decks as long as you can deal with their tank that usually accompanies a swarm push.

Flying Machine: Your all around support card. This card synergizes better with the Royal Hogs as it can fly over the river fairly quickly, which makes up for its lower health and damage compared to a Musketeer. It will usually be placed on defense in a way that maximizes its range. Besides that, it can be placed at the centre of the bridge in a split lane attack to quickly whittle down buildings or defending units. It's weak to swarms, so have that Zap handy.

Minion Horde: Your main anti-air and support troop killer. The Minion Horde is a high risk, high reward air troop that can rack up a ton of value, but also disappear in an instant. They have enough health to survive the most common 2 Elixir spells, but will quickly die to Arrows. If they do have Arrows, you won't really want to be playing them at all until they get greedy and spell a different unit or wait until they have no Elixir to deploy the spell. They can DPS down both air and ground units alike, and can accompany a Royal Hogs push, split or not. Be mindful of giving your opponent spell value though.

Heal Spirit: Your primary win condition support. The Royal Hogs are swarmy, but tanky enough to survive a few hits before the Heal Spirit comes in to rejuvenate them. It can also function well with Mini P.E.K.K.A. or Minion Horde if the opponent has already exhausted their most efficient counters. You'll want to throw it down with a Royal Hogs push if the opponent doesn't have a spell to quickly take it out or a cheap unit to divert its healing effect. If they do have one of these, you can settle for investing it in the back or playing it at the bridge alone to try and get some chip damage.

General Game Plan[]

Single Elixir Time (3:00 - 1:01)[]

Wait for your opponent to make the first move. You can only really safely cycle your spells and Heal Spirit, all of which are pretty useful to have in hand as reaction cards, since the other cards are 4 or 5 Elixir. If they really aren't doing anything, feel free to cycle one of them.
Defend as Elixir efficiently as possible. This is important with all decks, but especially this one as it tends to overcommit on defense cost-wise to build up a counterpush, rather than building a direct advantage.
Don't be afraid to punish with Royal Hogs if you think they're going to build up an early, big push. The best offense is a good defense; they'll be forced to defend and have less Elixir for their push, or have to take a tower trade.
Be careful with your Bomb Tower placements, or just using it in general unless you have Mini P.E.K.K.A in hand as well. The reason for this is because if you use it to defend a non-building chaser, you won't have it in cycle when they do have a building chaser, such as a Hog Rider or Giant. Mini P.E.K.K.A can help defend these, but you'll need strict placement and timing to fully defend them without the building
Be careful about relying on Minion Horde to take out pushes. If you haven't fully scouted their deck, they may be able to demolish your Horde very quickly. Place the Horde at the bridge when you defend to make them harder to react to.

Double Elixir Time (1:00 - 0:01)[]

Here, you can be more committal with your attacks. You'll have sufficient Elixir to support a Royal Hogs push with more than just a Heal Spirit; you can combo them with a Mini P.E.K.K.A or Flying Machine if you're sure you won't need them urgently on defense.
Stacking Flying Machines is an effective strategy as they can easily rack up value over time with their aerial transport and long range. If your opponent spells them down, you can go in with an all-out Royal Hogs push.
Depending on their counters to Royal Hogs, it may be more effective to split your Hogs rather than sending them all in one lane. For example, if the opponent has a Mega Knight, it will be an over commitment to only use it to counter two Royal Hogs.
Be diligent with using your Zap and Heal Spirit especially. Often times you will get the bulk of your damage from one single push that spirals out of the opponent's control. For example, Zapping Bats that the opponent crutches on to defend a counterattacking Flying Machine can help you to achieve this win state.

Overtime/Triple Elixir[]

Continue playing like you have in Late Game, with a few exceptions.
You now have the option of placing Royal Hogs in the pocket to attack the other Princess Tower. For all four Hogs to go to the Princess Tower, place them on the second tile from the bridge, as close horizontally as possible. However, this is a little bit easier for the opponent react to.
- If you want to surprise your opponent, you can place your Royal Hogs as far in as possible along with a Flying Machine. The latter will instantly lock onto the opposing Princess Tower and deal massive damage with the Hogs tanking.
Don't spell cycle unless their tower is already at just a few hundred health. Zap is much better used in combination with a big push rather than being solely deployed on the tower. Often times, opposing decks will be able to out-damage it easily.
Keep your opponent from building a big push by always punishing with Royal Hogs, or even a Mini P.E.K.K.A since it's just a bit slower and its damage is more instantaneous left ignored. Usually, you can get by without it on defense thanks to the increased Elixir generation.

Deck Substitutions[]

Royal Hogs - As the core of this deck, this card can't be reasonably substituted. This card benefits heavily from being able to tank both lanes for support troops and also functions as a Fireball/Poison bait card.

Barbarian Barrel - Can be substituted for The Log or Royal Delivery. The former is more useful on offense with Royal Hogs at the cost of just a bit of defensive utility, while the latter is more useful against big pushes with a mix of ground and air units at the cost of reactivity and... cost.

Mini P.E.K.K.A - Can be substituted for Hunter or Lumberjack. The former adds an additional layer to the Fireball/Poison bait aspect of this deck, and can target air units. However, it's much less effective on a counterattack and lacks bulk. The latter trades DPS for a stronger counterpush, thanks to the Rage spell it drops on death.

Bomb Tower - Can be substituted for Tesla or Inferno Tower. The former doesn't splash, but has more DPS, and can be more reliable versus air units. The latter is very high-risk, high-reward, being able to get a lot of work done if you can protect it.

Zap - Can be substituted for Arrows or Giant Snowball. The former steps up a damage level and can take out Goblins and Minions while retaining similar reactivity, at the cost of... cost. The latter suffers more in the reactivity department but can be more effective on defense overall.

Flying Machine - This card can sway a ton of matchups solely on its annoyance factor alone (such as versus spawners), so I personally wouldn't recommend switching it out. If you want, you can use Musketeer instead, which is less threatening on the counterpush but more reliable on defense with its slightly bigger health pool.

Minion Horde - Can be substituted for Minions, Bats, or Hunter. The first two are cheaper, less committal swarms that still do a lot of work left unattended, and the latter doesn't immediately die to spells, but weakens counterpush potential.

Heal Spirit - It's an essential support card for the swarmy Royal Hogs and is just generally useful for keeping your "annoying" cards alive in a pinch (Flying Machine & Mini P.E.K.K.A), so you can't really substitute anything for it.

Key Offensive Synergies[]

Royal Hogs + Zap[]

Very effective versus Bats/Skeletons or Inferno defenses. If you have a Flying Machine backing the push up, you can take out Goblins and Minions in one shot as well. It's most effective to use this when all four Hogs are pushing in a single lane.

Royal Hogs + Mini P.E.K.K.A[]

This combo is most effective when the opponent's swarms are out of cycle entirely, as the Mini P.E.K.K.A is difficult to deal with for a good Elixir trade without defender's advantage (as the tower is distracted by the Royal Hogs). It also forces the opponent to be conservative with their "fireballie" defenses, such as the Wizard trio.

Royal Hogs + Flying Machine[]

This combo is best used with a split lane push where the opponent's go to defense involves frail units such as Musketeer, or if they defend with a building. The Flying Machine hides safely behind the Hogs and snipes enemy units for a ton of damage.

Royal Hogs + Minion Horde[]

Also most effective in a split push to spread splashers thin, this combo can devastate a tower if they can't deal with the Minions. You have to be sure they can't defend without overcommitting or else it may cost you the game.

Royal Hogs + Heal Spirit[]

Self explanatory. There's almost no downside to placing down a Heal Spirit with the Hogs, though it's more effective if they don't have The Log or Barbarian Barrel to deal with it immediately.

Mini P.E.K.K.A + Zap/Heal Spirit[]

This combo really just has one purpose; force Elixir out of the opponent, or beat them while they're down and have barely any Elixir in hand.

Key Defensive Synergies[]

Most of the time you can defend with whatever you have on hand, but there are a few synergies I think should be highlighted.

Flying Machine + Zap[]

This is very important when the opponent has Bats, as they are a cheap and reliable counter to the Flying Machine. You can get a lot more value out of your machine if they don't have anything else to take it out quickly.

Heal Spirit + Minion Horde[]

These cards can both "tank" for each other to varying degrees. For example, versus a Baby Dragon, you can place the Heal Spirit first to tank a shot while the Horde DPS's it down, or use the Horde first and have the Heal Spirit rejuvenate them just as the enemy troops dies.

Mini P.E.K.K.A + Zap/Barbarian Barrel[]

A versatile combo that is most effective against tank pushes with supports hiding really far back (like a Musketeer behind the river) or versus swarm support cards.

Gameplay Examples[]

Now that you've finished reading through those walls of text (or maybe you just skipped here, which is also fine), you can see a bit of this deck in action here. The battles were played in a Tournament, so while the stakes aren't too high, many players use them as a testing/training ground for higher level battles.