Battle Ram Hog Rider Cycle Deck for Arena 8+

Hello guys, its $wag Money, back with another fun Battle Ram deck on Clash Royale Arena!

I’m an avid Battle Ram user, and I’m here to contribute some of my own decks featuring Battle Ram.

Battle Ram Hog Rider Cycle Deck

I have posted a 3.4 Elixir Battle Ram Chip Deck on CRA before, but today I’m here to introduce a Battle Ram deck featuring a completely different playstyle.

With this Hog Battle Ram Cycle Deck, there is twice the number of win conditions. With both Battle Ram and Hog Rider as go-to cycle cards, its easy to maintain constant pressure on your opponent.

Some first things to notice are its average elixir cost. Normally, a deck 3.0 average elixir or less is considered a “true” cycle deck. However, assuming your Hog Rider and Battle Ram are spaced out evenly in your cycle, you only need to toss out 2 cards to get to your offensive-win condition.

Cards Breakdown:

Battle Ram:

I’m starting with the Battle Ram, because I feel like it’s still underrated compared to the Hog Rider. I have copy pasted my notes on Battle Ram from my last Battle Ram deck because they are helpful info to know. [Battle Ram] also moves slower when not charging, and pops when it lands a first attack. This makes it vulnerable to Tombstone, Cannon, other buildings, Log, Electro Wizard, Zap, and everything else that can successfully take down a Hog Rider. However, Battle Rams damage is not to be sniffed at, and it also provides extra power and beef in the form of two Barbarians.

The Barbarians spawn vertically, so if it hits the Arena Tower, one of the Barbarians will not be in range to attack the tower. This may cause a reduction on DPS, as only one Barbarian may be targeting the tower while the other one goes after a Knight or Musketeer.

Battle Ram is also decent on defense, providing a quick meatshield to soak up damage, then Barbarians to help clean up. It makes a quick counter for dangerous ground troops like Bandit, Elite Barbarians, or Mini-P.E.K.K.A. With the last two, it is better to also pull them to the center, like how you would pull troops with Ice Golem. This is extremely important, because there is a lack of swarm troops in this deck.

The Battle Ram and Hog Rider cycle synergy works because of two reasons:

• First of all, you are cycling to another offensive threat with twice as less cards than other Hog decks, so its easier to catch an opponent off guard. Did they just counter your Battle Ram with Cannon? They don’t have Cannon now for your Hog Rider. And vice versa.
• Second, when both troops are sent in together in a Double-Elixir push, especially when opponent counters are down, results can be devestating. Battle Ram tanks for Hog Rider first (Ice Golem in front of both Battle Ram and Hog even better), drawing focus fire. If it connects with a defending building, it weakens it for Hog. The two Barbarians can then take down defending troops, along with your spells. Hog Rider can then tank for the Barbarians once they pop, allowing for devestating damage if not defended correctly.

Hog Rider:

The other win-condition of this deck. Some advantages of the Hog Rider is his naturally faster speed, not requiring a charge.

Hog Rider also supports better Hitpoints and Damage than a Battle Ram, not taking into account the Barbarians spawned. However, both cards are threats which shoundn’t be ignored.

Its also easier to do a Pig Push now with the Hog Rider, so Hog Rider’s effectiveness is increased.

Both Hog Rider and Battle Ram can be paired up with Ice Golem and/or Ice Spirit, combined with spells, for basic and simple pushes.

I have never tried to use Hog Rider to kite troops, but if Battle Ram can do it, Hog Rider can probably too if you are desperate.

There isn’t much else to add on to why this card is used, because its mostly explained in the Battle Ram section.

like to consider Hog Rider to be the secondary win-condition, because I’m biased and like Battle Ram better, but it alternates between which one is more effective against a given opponent throughout a match. Normally people try and counter Battle Ram harder than they do Hog Rider in my experience.

Ice Golem:

(This section was also shamelessly copied from my previous Battle Ram deck)

Whats not to love about this guy? The perfect mini-tank comes with utility, beef, and a death nova slows and kills Skeletons.

On offense, he goes in front of your Battle Ram, so Ice Golem takes the brunt of the damage from defending units and towers.

Ram will shove Ice Golem forward when charging, just like Hog.

Upon death, his death nova is great for clearing out Skeletons that may take down the Ram or distract the Barbarians. On defense, he can redirect troops such as PEKKA and also take focus fire from supporting troops.

Hes a quick option for defending against Graveyard as well and other Skeletons.

Ice Spirit:

The other one elixir troop is also used for the same purpose. Cycling and defense. However, he can also be used in offense to help freeze some defending units and buildings.

Ice Spirit plus Zap should be able to take out Minion Hordes. Toss him in with Hog Rider to do a pig push, toss him in with Battle Ram should help allow Battle Ram to connect with the tower easier. A pretty standard choice in cycle decks because of its utility, effectiveness, and cheap cost.

Inferno Tower:

Cycle decks biggest weakness is that they often lack solid defense and can’t deal with a big push built up. They avoid this situation by playing the game to their own tempo, outcycling and pressuring their opponent to prevent them from building up a big push.

But what if it does happen?

Well, Inferno Tower is a solid defensive option, able to shred any tank 1v1 for a positive or equal elixir trade. Inferno Tower is your core go-to for tank shredding, without it, you’ll have a hard time dealing with tanks. Inferno Tower also is great against Hog if thats their only win-condition, as Inferno Tower has a nice chunk of hitpoints to deal with Hog and Ice Golem and Ice Spirit pushes.

May not be needed if you are a good cycle deck player, but I run it just cause I love the solid defense it gives.

Mega Minion:

Another solid defensive unit against air troops.

Normally in cycle decks Musketeer is used, but I run Mega Minion to take out supporting troops behind a tank. Because of this, I take Mega Minion over other air defense troops like Minions or Musketeer. Mega Minion is primarily used on defense, but it can be turned into a offensive support troop that helps take out some defenders and provide more beef to tank for your troops.

Zap:

A bread and butter spell. It has some advantages over its counterpart, Log.

Being able hit flying troops, being instant, and resetting Inferno Towers and Sparkys is the reason we take it in this deck. Helpful for quickly demolishing a Skeleton Army completely before they can take down your Hog Rider.

Log can also do that and take down Princesses as well, but this will leave our deck slightly weaker to Minion Horde, which is why I run Zap. Zap also helps reset Royal Giants to switch targets from Arena Tower to Inferno Tower.

Lightning:

The other spell of our deck, it’s great for taking out the more beefy defenders on the enemy side. Use it to shut down Inferno Towers and/or other defensive buildings, as well as take out another defending troop along the way.

Its counterpart is the Rocket, and even though I love the Rocket because it can take out Executioner, I take Lightning because it is easier to land.

In addition, its mini-stun is also helpful for resetting Inferno Towers and Sparkys as well as force the Arena Tower to switch from attacking a Barbarian to a Hog Rider. On defense, its great for taking out supporting troops.

General Gameplan

In the early game, its best to figure out how your cards were randomly organized.

If you have Hog or Battle Ram ready, you can do a mini-push with them, either by themselves or paired up with an Ice Golem/Ice Spirit.

Defend against whatever counterpush they form, and by this point, your other win-condition should just be up in cycle.

Perform a mini-push with that win-condition, if Hog Rider was sent first, now its Battle Ram.

If your opponent has another different counter ready, take in mind what counters they have, so in the future you can use spells to take them out and deal damage to the tower.

Always immediately rush push if they put down a heavy investment card, like Golem, Elixir Collector, or Lavahound. Make sure you always have some elixir to defend.

In double elixir, there is no difference, except you might be cycling faster.

When the time is right, you can send out both Hog Rider and Battle Ram at the same time to overwhelm your opponent. This usually will destroy and defending buildings they might place, and spells can help you clear the way of defending units. Even if you don’t manage to reliably land shots off their tower, constant Lightning chipping might give you an edge during overtime.

Threats and how to Deal with:

Executioner: This one is at the top of this list, namely because Deckshop.pro says it will be hard to counter this troop with this deck. Inferno Tower and Mega Minion will take care of it on defense, but Lightning won’t be able to take it out on offensive. If you are having trouble, try switching for Rocket. If Executioner is sent in the back, rush push the other lane.

Graveyard: Their also isn’t a high DPS troop like Minions to deal with Graveyard. To best deal with this card, Ice Golem can tank shots from the Skeletons, while Zap and Mega Minion can help clear some out. If you constantly have trouble versus Graveyard decks, consider switching Mega Minion with Minions. Doing so will solve the problem, but will lead to problems with Executioner. No deck is perfect.

Heavy Tank+ Lightning Deck: The best way is to place Inferno Tower near the bridge to prevent them from Lightning the Tower and your Arena Tower. However, if they have E-Wiz, this will pose a problem. Just make sure to distract them long enough with your pushes so that they can’t support their own, as with most cycle decks. Mega Minion or Lightning the E-Wiz if thats the case.

Lavahound Balloon Decks: Don’t let them pull this off in the first place. But if it does come into this, Inferno Tower to redirect and take out Lava Hound, Mega Minion to take out the Balloon, which is the higher priority troop.

Other Cycle Decks: This cycle deck does not fair well against other cycle decks, due to not having solid counters that can stop Hog Rider except Inferno Tower, which itself is a 1 elixir loss. Play for the tie is the best option, but if you see an opportunity, Hog and Battle Ram can overwhelm their defending building, and Lightning will take out their priorty DPS unit.

Spell Bait: One cheap spell and two splash units are fine. If you consistently have trouble versus  these, replace Log with Zap to better deal with Goblin Barrel and Goblin Gang. Ice Golem and Ice Spirit should help take care of their other spell bait troops like Minion Horde and Skeleton Army. Don’t ever Log a Princess unless you catch another swarm troop with her, cause Princess isn’t a priority target to Log. Mega Minion her when she gets close.

I think that covers most of it. Thank you for reading, and see you in the Arena!

Don’t hesitate to comment If you have any advice! Please help us improve CRA by testing the decks xD