Electric Hog – 2.5 Hog Cycle Deck for Challenges

Hey guys what’s up it’s me Zigge here back with another guide for you guys. First I just wanna say that I took a break from deck building and writing guides but from now on I’ll try to be more active and write guides for you guys. I also wanna say that I’m only gonna post decks that I personally use, so it’s mostly gonna be Hog decks and sometimes a Giant or Miner deck.

Electric Hog Rider Deck

Also this will be a very different guide from my other ones. I’ve learned a lot about the game, been trophy pushing a lot, exploring the Meta and such, so this guide will be a bit longer and consists of  two parts, the card breakdown, which will itself be divided into 3 parts and the basic gameplan. But without more talking, let’s get into the deck!

Offensive Trio –  The Frozen Hog Combo

The Hog Rider, Ice Golem and Ice Spirit are in every true Frozen Hog deck. They’re the core of the deck and the main offensive cards. Here I’m gonna go through each of the cards and how to use them in combination.

The Front line – Ice Golem

This is the tank for your Hog Rider. It will absorb up to 1047 damage from your opponents’ Arena Tower (at tourney standard). It will also kill a Skeleton Army, bring down Goblins or Minions to zappable range etc, and that’s part of the reason why Ice Golem pairs so well with Zap and why you should try to always have the Zap in hand when going offensive with the Ice Golem.

The Ice Golem is a very unique card, and therefore hard to replace, but if you don’t have it, try a Knight, it’ll work basically the same way just that he doesn’t target buildings only.

Here are the reasons to why it’s so unique;

• It’s a slow moving troop
• It only targets buildings
• It’s one of the cheapest cards in the game
• It’s rather tank.

In conclusion this basically means that the Ice Golem is the best card in the game for kiting, because;

• You’re able to place it early because of its slow movement speed, it won’t walk out of the opposing troops’ sight range.
• It won’t attack the units you’re trying to kite
• It’s cheap, so you don’t lose much Elixir

With its rather high HP, it can survive anything but a Sparky blast or a Rocket

But, because of how versatile it is, this has actually become a problem for many decks, especially Hog decks, because you want the Ice Golem both defensively, which makes you not able to pair it with your Hog Rider.

For more about the Ice Golem, click here.

The Meat – Hog Rider (pun intended)

Hog will be the meat of your push, the one who will deal damage to your opponents’ towers. If you have the Hog Rider and any other cheap support like Ice Golem, Ice Spirit or  Zap in hand, just go for it. There’s a big chance your opponent won’t have their ideal Hog Rider counter in hand and that’s in your favor. A Hog Rider Minions push could also work, but only do this once you knows your opponent’s deck. Chances are they have a Fireball or a Wizard, which both are really hard counters to Hog Minions.

It’s very situational when to use the Hog, but I’ll try to explain.

Always use your Hog when;

• Your opponent plays an Elixir Collector
• Your opponent places a tank in the back (attack the opposite lane, just to apply pressure
• You know your opponent is low on Elixir
• You know your opponent doesn’t have a counter in hand

In x2 Elixir, you can start to out-cycle your opponent. This deck is such cheap and you can quickly cycle through the 1 and 2 cost cards, so try to have your cycle like this;

1. Ice Golem
2. Hog Rider
3. Ice Spirit
4. Zap
5. Skeletons

When going into x2 Elixir. This is a cycle of 10 Elixir, so you should be able to execute it in <20 seconds.

Note: I will later explain what to do if you can’t get to the tower with your Hog, can’t out-cycle them or when they have multiple counters.

The Icing on the Cake – Ice(ing) Spirit (pun intended)

The Ice Spirit has been one of the best cards in the game since release. I remember people saying it needed a buff, but its first change was a nerf. What people forgot was that this card costs one Elixir, one Elixir. It can tank one and shut down these cards for a positive Elixir trade;

• Spear Goblins
• Goblins
• Archers
• Mega Minion
• Fire Spirits
• Dart Goblin
• Minions

And it can almost shut down these cards;

• Musketeer
• Minion Horde
• Baby Dragon
• Inferno Dragon

Against a Furnace, let you Arena Tower kill one Fire Spirit, and let your Ice Spirit absorb the other one, then your Ice Spirit will run and kill the second wave. And now we’re only talking defensive, the Ice Spirit will, like the Ice Golem, bring down Minions and Goblins to a zappable range, but also Archers, because the Ice Spirit deals more damage than the Ice Golem. Ice Spirit can also be used to pig push, if you place the Ice Spirit right before the Hog, next to the stone.

Defensive Duo – The Stunning Cannon (pun intended)

Electro Wizard + Cannon will be the main defensive combo that you use against basically any push your opponent makes. The Cannon will deal high damage while the Electro Wizard’s spawn zap will take out any swarm and his constant stuns will allow the Cannon to deal more damage.

Main Defense – Cannon

The perfect defense against enemy Hog Riders or Giants. Deals high damage while not being vulnerable to Zap. Do the 4-3 plant against a Giant or Golem and the 3-2 plant against a Hog Rider, just to make sure it gets pulled.

Fun fact: The Hog Rider has the longest sight range in the game, at 9.5 tiles, this actually allows you to do a 5-3 plant against him. Although I don’t recommend doing this because if you fail your tower will be almost done for.

The Cannon + Ice Golem combo is very strong because of the Cannon’s low HP, the Ice Golem can tank up to 1047 damage for your opponents units while the Cannon takes care of them. Cannon + Ice Golem can take out any of these troops/combos;

• Elite Barbarians
• Hog + any cheap troop
• Giant + Executioner
• Graveyard + Ice Golem
• Prince
• Sparky
• Barbarians
• Witch

The Cannon is so easy to use I don’t think there’s much more to say about it.

Thundering Support – Electro Wizard (pun intended)

This shockingly good ranged attacker is one of his kind. He is the only troop in the game that drops a spell before the actual troops comes out and the only card that will attack two cards at the same time. He can take out Minions and will only take a few hits from them and then you can counterpush with him. His fast movement speed makes him ideal to use with Hog Rider and the stun mechanic works well with Miner. This makes him more of a support card in chip cycle deck than in beatdown decks.

The Electro Wizard also works well with Ice Golem. Together they can take out all of these cards;

• Minion Horde
• Elite Barbarians
• Valkyrie
• Prince
• Dark Prince
• Executioner
• Barbarians
• Bowler
• X-Bow

Distraction & Cycle cards

These are the last cards in the game that don’t fill any specific function or are just standard cards.

Cleanup Crew – Minions

These guys are mostly for cleaning up ground targeting enemy defensive troops that they’ve used to counter your Hog Rider. Examples of these are Barbarians and Skeleton Army. These flying Goblins work so well with the Ice Golem that they can take out almost any card in the game, four examples are;

• P.E.K.K.A – Use Ice Golem to kite and Minions to chip away.
• Lava Hound – Use Minions to chip and Ice Golem to tank the Lava Pups.
• X-Bow – Use Ice Golem to tank and Minions to chip
• Battle Ram – Use Minions to take it out and Ice Golem to tank the Barbarians.

They also pair well with Hog Rider unless your opponent has a Fireball, Wizard etc. to counter.

Bone Pile – 1 Elixir Skeletons

The 1 Elixir Skeletons are my favorite card in the entire game. They can easily distract a Mini P.E.K.K.A or completely kill a Prince with the help of almost anything. They’re also good for cycling your deck and can deal lots of damage to your opponent’s building targeting troops like Giant or Hog Rider. They also pair very well with Ice Golem because he can tank hits from a glass cannon like Wizard while the Skeletons chip away at him.

Lone Skeletons can counter all of these cards; (on your side of the Arena)

• Knight
• Fire Spirits
• Goblins
• Spear Goblins
• Dart Goblin
• Princess
• Minions (by kiting)
• Mega Minion (by kiting)
• Ice Wizard
• Miner
• Musketeer
• Inferno Dragon
• Electro Wizard
• Minion Horde (by kiting)
• Guards

So yeah, if you haven’t figured yet the 1 Elixir Skellies are one of the best cards in the game, especially now that they’re four, instead of three.

Zap

I bet you all know how to use Zap, so I’m just gonna say that it’s great for resetting the Prince’s charge, Inferno Tower or to instantly take out a Skeleton Army from your opponent.

Zap is great to use vs. all these cards;

• Goblin Barrel
• Skeleton Army
• Minion Horde (if alone)
• Minions
• Spear Goblins
• Goblins (if your Zap is one level higher)
• Goblin Gang (same as above)
• Fire Spirits
• Prince, Dark Prince, Battle Ram, Inferno Tower (to cancel charge)

Basic Gameplan

This is a really aggressive Hog Cycle deck so always keep the pressure on. When I play a Hog cycle deck this is my mindset:

”I always get behind in Elixir, I always spend more than my opponent, but I never get to pay it back because the match ends in time.”

And I think that’s how you should think when playing Hog cycle, especially in this Meta with the popularity of defensive buildings. Having the Elixir lead with a Hog cycle deck is almost never, ever, ever important. Damage on your opponents tower is way better for you.

Also note that the Cannon and Barbarians are the hard counters to this deck. You have no Fireball or Poison to kill the Barbarians and Cannon is obviously always the hardest counter to Hog. Bowler is also a counter but it’s much easier to out-cycle, same goes with Inferno Tower. But if you’re having trouble out-cycling these cards, there’s an easy way to counter them.

Against Bowler, you place your Ice Golem at the river, then the Hog in the middle, and place Minions (or even better Electro Wizard, only if they don’t have Fireball) behind your Ice Golem. The Minions’ high DPS will quickly demolish the Bowler. If you decide to use the Electro Wizard its stun effect will constantly interrupt the Bowler’s already slow attack speed by 30%.

If you are new to Hog cycle or haven’t played it before, I recommend you try a little bit more expensive Hog control deck (3.3 – 3.6). Then you can move down the average cost to 2.9 – 3.1. When you feel comfortable playing that you can try this deck. If played well you should be able to reach 8-10 wins in Grand Challenge. You might even get to 12 wins if you are crazy good.

This deck is mostly made for Challenges because I use Electro Wizard in the deck but if you have an Electro Wizard which is high enough level to play on the ladder, go ahead and try this deck. If you want to use this deck on ladder but your Electro Wizard is not high level enough you can try replacing him with Musketeer.

If your opponent places an expensive troop in the back, like a Golem or P.E.K.K.A, always, I mean always rush the other lane with Hog + Minions + Ice Spirit (or something similar). This will force them to split up their Elixir, not allowing them to support them tank as well, if at all. Then you can easily defend their tank with Cannon + Skeletons.

That’s it for my guide. Hope you all have a great day and clash on!