Magic Archer

“Not quite a Wizard, nor an Archer - he shoots a magic arrow that passes through and damages all enemies in its path. It's not a trick, it's magic!”

The Magic Archer card is unlocked from the Spell Valley (Arena 5) or a Legendary Chest. He is an area damage, long-ranged troop with moderately low hitpoints and damage. The Magic Archer shoots arrows which go linearly to damage the his target and any other units in the arrow's path. A Magic Archer card costs 4 Elixir to deploy.

Strategy

The Magic Archer is excellent at countering buildings in the opponent's territory due to his long range while also surviving spells like The Log, Zap and Arrows.
When he shoots a Princess Tower, his arrow goes through the Tower. This can be used to hit troops behind a Tower, although it is very unlikely the opponent will deploy a troop behind a Tower whilst the Magic Archer is attacking it.
Due to his fast hitspeed and his arrow's ability to go through other troops, he can defeat swarms such as the Goblin Gang and Skeleton Army. He can also completely destroy a Minion Horde with the help of a Princess Tower.
A Fireball or Poison can completely destroy a Magic Archer for a neutral Elixir trade, but hitting other targets with the said spell will make the move even more advantageous.
He is a very effective counter to the Graveyard, as he shoots rapidly and his arrows can hit multiple Skeletons at once. Also, his range allows him to be placed behind the King's Tower, where he cannot be touched.
When a troop or building is in front of a Princess Tower, you can play the Magic Archer directly in front of it to damage both the said troop or building, and the Princess Tower. Thus, when countering him at the bridge, never place a unit in front of him because he will shoot through that unit, chipping the Tower too. With that said, it is much more efficient to deploy a unit next to him, so his arrows will not pierce through that unit and hit the Tower.
The Magic Archer can be effectively used with the Tornado to cripple or even defeat large groups of enemy troops. The Tornado will group up all the troops, and the Magic Archer will constantly shoot them, dealing quite a bit of damage, all due to his ability to pierce multiple troops with his projectile. Use his long range to your advantage, as well, because the enemy troops will most likely be unable to attack him if placed far enough away.

History

The Magic Archer card was added to the game on 2/3/18.
On 25/4/18, a Balance Update increased the Magic Archer's projectile speed, making him less likely to miss faster moving troops.
The 20/6/18 Update moved the Arena to unlock the Magic Archer from Electro Valley (Arena 11) to Hog Mountain (Arena 10).
On 5/11/18, a Balance Update made the Magic Archer's first attack much slower (0.4 secs to 0.9 secs).
On 7/1/19, a Balance Update made the Magic Archer's first attack faster (0.9 secs to 0.6 secs).
On 28/1/19, the January 2019 Update moved the Arena to unlock the Magic Archer from Hog Mountain (Arena 10) to Spell Valley (Arena 5).
On 5/8/19, the August 2019 Update increased the Magic Archer's damage by 16% but decreased his hitspeed by 0.1 sec (from 1.0 secs to 1.1 secs).

Trivia

The Magic Archer often says “tulta” which means “fire“ in Finnish.
The Magic Archer has the smallest splash radius out of all cards that does area damage, at 0.25 tiles.
It used to be the case that a troop is placed right for defense against the Magic Archer, the Magic Archer could hit and activate your king tower due to his long range. A bug fix update has removed this.