Countering bait decks without zap or log

Hello Guys, this is Psych0++ from the Misfits Gaming clan,

I have been using off the meta deck for a long time and I love to use it.

I have the following in my deck:

Tesla Tower, Goblin Gang, Fire Spirits, Poison,
Inferno Dragon, Dark Prince, E Wiz, Bandit

Sometimes I play with Mega Knight (MK) instead of inferno dragon for fun like in old days.

I would like to give some hints to counter bait decks without zap and log which is not common. As you know, fast cycle bait decks could be pain when underestimated. Yes, they are annoying as they are fast enough, requires more concentration as your opponent never stop sending troops, no break during the war! My opponents always think and believe that they will beat me when they realize I don’t have Zap or Log in my hand and they thank me in first minute of the game for their “potential win” 🙂

But it’s not that easy to beat me off the meta deck. I can counter very well and most times I am not losing the game even if I can’t win the match and I go for draw, not lose thropies.

Log bait players mostly choose Princess, Knight, Goblin Barrel, Log, Inferno Tower (or Rocket), Hog Rider, and supports them with zap… Their winning plan is to chip away your princess tower slowly by using goblin barrel, hog rider or with the princess or even starting rocket cycle if the game stuck in the middle and you can’t touch their tower and gave them elixir advantage, how poor! 😊

Here are the tips to counter them.

First of all in first minute try to understand if they have a bait hand, log bait or zap bait. Easy to understand if they play Knight,  Princess or Barrel at the beginning without waiting your move first, that gives you the hint.

How to counter the goblin barrel:

In general, players counter the princess by using cheap 2-3 elixir troops and keep the log for the goblin barrel.. As I don’t have a log I counter the barrel with Fire Spirits just placing them behind the princess tower in time; as soon as you hear goblin barrels launching sound or see its first image! Only one of three goblins can touch your tower and only once in the best case for your opponent, that’s it. If you don’t have fire spirits in hand then use Goblin Gang behind the princess tower; they will distract two of them quickly but maybe not the one in the front of your tower, means you will get one hit. Try to counter them with fire spirits as it is positive elixir trade and arrange your cycle accordingly. If you even don’t have gangs in hand then you can use Dark Prince but it requires extreme timing and placing to waste all 3 goblins just before they land over your tower. This is such an exciting, charming move when its done flawlessly as DP kills them by one swing of his weapon but so difficult to time it. In my deck when I had Mega Knight instead of Inferno Dragon sometimes I even used him to counter barrel that also requires extreme timing to kill all goblins. He jumps on them just before they are spread around your tower in the air and its such a great joy to watch it and grin 🙂

To summarize, apply the following cards to counter from most desired to least. Always try keeping spirits in your cycle for the barrel unless you see a better opportunity to use them to counter something else such as minion hordes etc (not in most case). I am not mentioning arrows or using the tornado to activate your main tower as they are already known commonly used methods.

1. Fire Spirits
2. Goblin Gangs ( Guards are the same)
3. Dark Prince
4. Mega Knight

One exceptional situation, some crazy players play barrel just after rocket to hide it in the smoke of the rocket. 😊 First of all you should keep the sound of your mobile on to hear launched goblin barrel otherwise you might not see the barrel in the smoke of rocket. Once it happened to me and I lost the game in last 15 seconds and my opponent could not stop grinning, laughing which he deserved all my appreciation 😊 So the solution is still you can use the fire spirits but timing and where to place them is more important not to waste them in rockets damage. Put them a little bit further away from where you usually drop them, which could be near your main tower, further back.

How to counter princess:

Even its 1 negative elixir trade poision princess and chip away their tower. This will destroy their game plan as an unexpected move and if you countering gobling barrel with fire spirits then the gained 1 elixir can be spent to use poision to kill the princess.

The second option is to counter princess with bandit but you should be very careful that your opponent could place their knight in front of their princess (if they are wise not to leave their princess alone with your bandit). A bit better way is to wait until princess reaches the bridge and use your dark prince one side and you can support him with bandit or e wiz. You will kill both of them and then dark prince will not die and will once charge toward their tower together with a bandit (or in front of e wiz). Elektro wiz could be better as they can prepare to use their inferno tower however this depends on them, once you can try bandit then second-time e.wiz. However, they can zap them or log them. Depending on the situation you can use your gangs. Don’t over commit and don’t give elixir advantage especially early times, try to play equal an balanced.

How to counter Hog Rider:

Always keep your tesla tower for him as its equal elixir trade and it will stay alive after killing hog rider for several seconds which gives you time to complete elixir or which lets you even damage/kill their knight or swarms with the help of towers. If your opponent sends other troops together with the hog then don’t hesitate to split your goblin gang in front of the tesla tower which is placed 3 tiles away from the river (In some cases you should place tesla 4 tiles before the river when opponent has dart goblin or musketeer etc but here its more guaranteed to distract hog rider this way).

Until you reach the last minute you try not to get lots of damage from your opponent. When you reach double elixir time then you can start your big push, deploy your MK behind main tower and wait and see how your opponent react. This gives you time. You can neglect their goblin barrel once and even their princess who is about to lock in your tower. You can support mega knight with bandit behind him as she will strike every troop behind him and MK will get mad and jump everywhere and meanwhile from other lines you can start pushing same time with Dark Prince supported by fire spirits (in case you ignore using them once and keep for your big push) and also gobling gang. When this attack is properly applied it can leave less HP on one of their princess tower (700-900hp) that you can start poision cycling to win and not using MK to fast cycle poison. They can be surprised by this big push as it is not expected to move. As they have only one tank killer and a building to defend (if rocket instead of inferno tower then it would be even more difficult to defend) they will have difficult times. When you have inferno dragon instead of MK then game could end with a draw.

When it comes to other fast cycle decks, 2.6 hog rider deck for example, as hog rider is their only win condition it is not possible for your opponent to beat you I ensure you. They need a proper tank and more win conditions to win. Miner version is also not that strong, once you kill miner then your push will be stronger than theirs as you have strong&fast light tanks such as dark prince and bandit. I consider the bandit as a light tank as she can deal with executioner in your side of arena and wizard in both sides of the arena.

Instead of Tesla you can use Tornado. Also, you can use battle ram or even ice golem to tank your dark prince or bandit which makes your deck bridge spam deck nearly and stronger in counter-attacks but I prefer Tesla as lots of heavy beatdown decks are still common in the meta such as giant& double prince, golem beatdowns, lava-balloon beatdown. Besides, air defense of tesla is great against minion hordes, baby dragon and baloon while tornado is a bit risky.

Hopefully, this article will help for those who do not keep log or zap in their decks