Spell Bait (v2)

Deck Information[]

Deck Created by: GrandWiz05

Minimum Recommended King Level: 8

Maximum Recommended King Level: 15

Arena Required: Electro Valley (Wrong?)

Average Elixir Cost: 3.3 (Wrong?)

More Statistics: Go to Deck Builder

Card Roles[]

Princess: Your value generator. As a slow moving units that have 9 tiles range and AOE damage, you would want to multiple copies of her on the board when they insist on saving The Log or Barbarian Barrel for Goblin Barrel. Also capable of getting chip damage onto your opponents Tower when deployed at the bridge.

Goblin Gang: Your ground swarm. Similar to Princess, they can bait out counters for your Goblin Barrel. They are capable of gaining immense value on defense due to their high combined DPS and unit count.

Goblin Barrel: Your primary win condition. Has the potential to do serious damage if not countered properly.

Knight: Your mini tank. For 3 elixir, this alpha male is almost unable to be killed on your side of the board. After defending, he can tank for your Goblin Barrel.

Ice Spirit: Your cycle card. Can be used to tank Goblin Barrel, freeze troops, reset charges or chip Tower.

The Log: Your small Spell. Decent chip damage on Tower, kill most ground swarms and can knock back and cripple all ground troops.

Inferno Tower: Your tank killing building. While it works wonders against high hitpoint troops, it could be distracted by swarm or reset by stun effects.

Rocket: Your big Spell and secondary win condition. If your Barrel is not getting any damage, Rocket cycle paired with a solid defense is a great way to clutch out the victory.

Deck Introduction[]

As the name of the deck suggested, this is a deck that has been around for quite a long time, and still viable to these days, much like 2.6 Hog Cycle and 2.9 X-Bow.

This deck have one of the most sturdy defense. Its air defense might seem lackluster at first glance, but it is strong enough to defend even the heaviest air deck.

If you like to play defensively and winning by slowly chipping your opponents Tower down, Log bait is the deck for you.

Cycle Plays[]

Split Goblin Gang at the back
Princess behind your King Tower
Ice Spirit behind your King Tower or at the bridge
Goblin Barrel on their Tower
Log at the bridge

Knight at the back is also acceptable, but he is your only mini tank so you risk being rushed.

General Tips[]

Princess, Goblin Barrel and Goblin Gang are the three main bait cards in your deck. They bait for each other, and when one of them is spelled down, the other two are free to do their job unless your opponent has mirror.
- Princess’s main role is to be invested and gain value on defense.
- Goblin Barrel’s main role is to get Tower damage.
- Goblin Gang‘s main role is to be ground DPS on defense and as distractions. With that said, Gang and Princess are more than capable being an effective offense tool in specific situations.
Invest Princess at the back to see what big spell they have at the start of the game.
- If your opponent used The Log or Arrows to take her out, you can abuse their lack of spell and send in a Goblin Barrel.
- You can protect your Princess as she gets near the bridge to potentially force out a spell or more troops at the bridge.
- If your opponent doesn't have a spell or a cheap swarm to take out your Princess, deploying her at the bridge can force out a response, get chip damage and mess up their card cycle.
Whenever they invest a troop that is 4 elixir or above and dies to Rocket, always Rocket it with the Tower.
- Only exception is when you know they have something that you must save Rocket to counter, such as X-Bow or Sparky.
You can rush with Knight + Goblin Gang to force a response or punish investment. This combo can force a bad trade from your opponent if his used his spell on Goblin Barrel or Princess and have no splash damage in hand.
- Make sure the Knight is in front of the Gang, so he can be pushed and tank for the Gang.
- This combo can also be used to force out a Log, but puts you at risk as you used both of your core defense cards.
Ice Spirit + Gob Barrel is a quick and effective combo that can heavily chunk your opponent’s Tower if they ignore it. Good for a punishing investment.
- The Log will wipe out this combo, but will also free up Gang for defense.
Switch your Barrel placement according to your opponent’s counter.
- If they use splash troop, always Barrel in the center to surround the Tower.
- If they use single targeting troop, Barrel to the side opposite to where they deploy the troop.
- If they use swarms, Barrel to the front of the Tower and prediction Log.
- If they use spells,
  - Barrel behind their Tower or to the side if they use The Log or Barbarian Barrel.
  - Barrel in front of their Tower if they have Arrows.

All other spells can be dodged by any of these placements. Barrel at the outer corner if they have Tornado. This is harder for them to activate King Tower.

Against most tanks, place an Inferno Tower 4 tiles from the river and 1 tile from the center opposite to where the tank is approaching (also known as the 4-3 placement). This will cause the tank to walk farther.
- If the tank already crossed the bridge, it can be risky to use this placement.
- If your opponent has Lightning, you could place the Inferno Tower 2 Tiles up. This will avoid Lightning value, but watch out for swarm at the river.
- If your opponent resets the Inferno Tower with Zap, you can Log the tank to buy it more time.

The following building targeting troops will not be attracted by the 4-3 placement.

Hog Rider, Ram Rider, Royal Hogs at the bypass placement.
Battle Ram that was deployed at the edge.
Balloon, Skeleton Barrel and Lava Hound that is deployed at the edge of the arena.
Placements that are 4 tiles from the river and 2 tiles from the princess tower on the side where these troops are approaching are needed to attract them (or the 4-2 placement).

Game Plan[]

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

In single elixir time, you would want to figure out what deck they are and most importantly, what spells they are running. To identify a deck, see here.

Never overcommit on offense during this time. You must always ensure enough elixir in hand for an Inferno Tower, as well as having Gang or Knight in hand for ground defense.

Constantly chipping with Barrel and Ice Spirit and occasionally Princess at the bridge is recommended. Be patient and do not try to go all in unless you are sure they won’t be able to counter push and overwhelm you.

Losing a Tower as Log bait is a death sentence. Like Graveyard, Log bait is not good at two Towers games. Defense always come before offense, as you have advantage at spell cycle against most decks.

Double Elixir Time (1:00 to 1:01 in overtime)[]

You can use Rocket a lot more aggressively, whether it is to Rocket a tank, a cheaper unit, or even just the less healthy Tower if you’ve gained a lead on elixir.

Your main focus should still be to defend as well as possible unless you know that they can execute your Tower with spell before overtime. If that’s the case, you could pressure the second Tower to hopefully force them to use spell on troops instead or lose a Tower. Alternatively, you could Rocket their Tower in return to get the damage lead.

Triple Elixir Time (1:00 in overtime to Tiebreaker)[]

Rocket cycle and defend like you do in double elixir. Could also try hiding your Barrel behind Rocket.

Levelling Sequences[]

This deck is relatively F2P, as most cards are common and the ones that are not are not really that level dependent.

Goblin Barrel. Barrel can be countered by a Zap 1 level above, which will make your game extremely tough if that is the case. Maxing Barrel first also gives you an advantage, as Goblins 1 level above the Princess Tower will take it 3 shots to kill, meaning if your opponent ignores it, it will be way more punishing. This is the only Epic card in your deck, so it shouldn’t be too difficult to max if you focus trade tokens on it.

Goblin Gang. Similar reason to Barrel, but having your Gang Zapped on defense is devastating. It is a common, so this should be what you are requesting first.

Rocket. Leveling up a Rocket is very rewarding, as it have very high base damage. It is also good to have it leveled, so against X-Bow and Sparky matchup you can rely on it and not needing too much extra card and elixir spent to counter them.

Knight or Ice Spirit. Depends on what aspect you want to focus more.

Leveling up Knight first gives you the advantage on defending and counter pushing, as it will have more health remaining after defense, so can tank for the Barrel longer.
Leveling Ice Spirit first gives you the advantage on chip damage, as Ice Spirit can only chip Tower if it is the same level or above your opponents Tower level. It doesn’t change too many interactions on defense however.

Personally I would suggest Knight. Having a solid defense is the ground of Log bait, so I think Knight is higher priority.

Inferno Tower. If it is too underleveled, it could get one-shot by a Lightning immediately, which is devastating to your defense.

Princess and Log. Neither of them are too level dependent.

Log will take out Goblins 3 levels above, so a Level 11 Log is enough most of the time. Level 13 to prevent mirrored Goblins. Log will take out Princess, Dart Goblin or Rascal Girls 1 level above, so Level 13 is the ideal level for F2P player, not considering mirrored troops.
Princess will die to Zap 4 levels above, so Level 11 Princess is enough to limit her counter to Log and Barbarian Barrel only.

Personally I’d suggest Log. Again, defense is the ground of Log bait so being able to counter more troops is higher priority than gaining value with Princess.

Substitution[]

There are a ton of substitutions on the Wiki, and honestly most of them are viable. I’ll just list some variations that are considered a Classic Deck.

Prince Log Bait[]

Princess <——> Dart Goblin

Inferno Tower <——> Prince

Knight <——> Rascals

As you can see, this version is as F2P friendly, less defensive but a lot more offensive.

There is now 2 more cards that bait Log — Prince and Rascals. As the Rascal boy has much more health and Rascal girls can bait Log on defense, they are great at defending and then tanking for a Barrel.

Prince is now the DPS against heavier tanks, the payback for sacrificing a building is gaining a much more threatening counter attack, since the Prince Barrel combo is extremely effective if your opponent is low on elixir.

Dart Goblin has much higher DPS and move speed, meaning it will gain value faster but also move out of your side of the board faster, unlike Princess who theoretically gains infinite value if not countered.

This deck is much weaker against heavy decks that have light removals, as your air counters are much less reliable (both Rascals and Dart Goblin can be spelled down).

Hunter Log Bait[]

Inferno Tower <——> Hunter

Final Words[]

As a relatively F2P deck that is defensive heavy, this deck does not have the best reputation. Still, many people plays it because it is fun, skill dependent and have a lot of good matchups. Tricking people with a juke Barrel is one of the best experiences in CR, even to this day.

I highly suggest you to try this deck out if you have some of the key cards already leveled. If you want to learn more about defensive placement, elixir management and timing for offense and defense, definitely give this deck a go on ladder or in Classic Challenges. Have fun clashing!

(You might find the style different from my previous guides. I’m trying to keep them short and precise, and leave some room for readers to explore the deck themselves. I used a lot of the formatting from AesDragon’s Royal Giant Earthquake deck, so shout out to him.)

footnote: if you remove the vowels from the word log bait it will say LGBT.

History[]

2017

The Spell Bait deck could be created from as early as Goblin Gang's release, which happened on 24/2/2017.

2019

On 3/6/2019, the Spell Bait deck was featured in the Classic Decks.
On 1/7/2019, the Spell Bait deck was removed from the Classic Decks.

2020

On 3/2/2020, the Spell Bait deck was featured in the Classic Decks.
On 3/3/2020, the Spell Bait deck was removed from the Classic Decks.
On 6/7/2020, the Spell Bait deck was featured in the Classic Decks.
On 3/8/2020, the Spell Bait deck was removed from the Classic Decks.
On 19/12/2020, the Spell Bait deck was featured in the Classic Decks Challenge as a Classic Deck.

2021

On 26/4/2021, the Spell Bait deck was featured in the Classic Decks Challenge as a Classic Deck.
On 7/6/2021, the Spell Bait deck was featured in the Classic Decks.

2022

On 1/8/2022, the Spell Bait deck was removed from the Classic Decks.

2023

On 7/8/2023, the Knight was allowed to evolve.
On 4/12/2023, the Ice Spirit was allowed to evolve.

2024

On 3/6/2024, the Goblin Barrel was allowed to evolve.