“Three ruthless bone brothers with shields. Knock off their shields and all that's left are three ruthless bone brothers.”
The Guards card is unlocked from the Spooky Town (Arena 12). It spawns 3 single-target melee troops with low hitpoints, medium damage, and shields. They appear to be somewhat bigger skeletons with black helmets, blue (team-colored in-game) spears and wooden shields. Guards cost 3 Elixir to deploy.
Strategy[]
- The Guards function similar to Skeletons with triple the cost, but are more reliable defensively thanks to their shields improving their resistance against enemy spells or any other powerful attack, as any excess damage is negated.
- Their defensive potential marks them as a low-risk, high-reward option. They can eliminate ground troops like groups of Skeletons and can distract air troops like Minions, making them a good pick against an incoming enemy push for gaining positive elixir trades. They don't have much damage or pushing power for 3 Elixir, so they should be rarely used on offense - They could even fail to take out tanky troops like the Royal Giant quickly.
- The Guards can be used effectively to counter a lone Sparky. With their shield, they can withstand a blow from the Sparky and destroy her before she shoots a second time. For better results, surround her by spawning them directly on her so only one Guard gets hit with the blast. They will quickly destroy Sparky with the help of a Tower, leaving the player two Guards with shields and one without.
- The vast majority of single-target troops or those with slow attacks can be easily countered by Guards, including Prince, P.E.K.K.A and Mini P.E.K.K.A. Conversely they can be demolished with splash cards as well as aerial units like Wizard and Baby Dragon.
- The Guards can be countered with area damage troops or buildings. Cards like Fire Spirit, Bomber, and Barbarian Barrel are most effective, but the Wizard, Valkyrie, Dark Prince, Witch, or the Bomb Tower are also good (but expensive) alternative options.
- Ice Spirit can be used to counter them, freezing them and allowing your Crown Tower to finish them off.
- The Log and the Barbarian Barrel can make short work of the Guards since it knocks off the Guards' shields, making them weak enough for the Crown Tower or Barbarian to finish them off respectively.
- Should Guards be used against a push, Arrows can be used to completely take them out, due to the 3 volleys of arrows being capable of taking their shield out and finishing them off simultaneously.
- The Guards are a good alternative to Barbarians if the player needs to keep their deck cheap as they cost 2 less Elixir. The trade-off is that the Guards have all-around lower statistics except for speed.
- Guards' shields can survive a Zap up to 2 levels higher.
- Guards are great for defending against the Graveyard, since they are more durable than regular Skeletons and have a longer range. For similar reasons, they are also effective at countering the Miner, capable of tanking multiple hits from him.
- When the Three Musketeers are coming to a Crown Tower without support, once the player's Crown Tower targets the Three Musketeers they can do a quick drop of Guards then Ice Spirit. The first Guard can negate three simultaneous hits and then the Ice Spirit will freeze them for 1 second which is enough time for the 2 remaining Guards and Crown Tower to finish off the Musketeers.
- Guards are actually able to slightly outrange some troops because of their spears, similar to the Prince. Because of this, they can poke at a distracted Valkyrie without taking any damage, setting you up for a counterpush.
- The Guards' shields allows them to be a great meatshield against an Inferno Tower or Inferno Dragon. These two cards will reset their charge after they destroy a shield, being distracted for longer.
History[]
- The Guards were added to the game on 3/5/16 with the May 2016 Update.
- On 18/5/16, a Balance Update increased the Guards' hitpoints and damage by 8%.
- On 21/6/16, a Balance Update removed the pushback when their shields break.
- On 12/12/17, a Balance Update increased the Guards’ hitpoints and damage by 5% and their hit speed to 1.1 seconds (from 1.2 seconds).
- On 2/6/20, a Balance Update gave the Guards a new 0.1 second deploy stagger from each other.
- On 9/12/20, a Balance Update decreased the Guards' hit speed to 1 sec (from 1.1 sec) and decreased their hitpoints by 26%, making their hit speed and hitpoints without the shield statistically identical to Skeletons.
- The 2021 Quarter 2 Update moved the Arena to unlock the Guards from Royal Arena (Arena 7) to Spooky Town (Arena 12).
- On 6/9/21, a Balance Update increased the Guards' damage by 12%.
- On 27/10/21, the 2021 Quarter 3 Update added the level 14 Guards.
Trivia[]
- The Guards is 1 of 13 cards associated with Skeletons, including the Bomber, Skeleton Army, Witch, Tombstone, Bomb Tower, Giant Skeleton, Balloon, Skeleton Barrel, Graveyard, Wall Breakers, and Skeleton Dragons.
- They seem to have an underbite, similar to the Giant Skeleton.
- The Guards, Royal Recruits, Dark Prince and Cannon Cart are the only 4 cards to have a shield along with their own health.
