Old-Fashioned Giant Rocket Cycle Deck for Arena 5+

Hey everyone, it’s SgtBananaPants (Overleveled Zap FTW or My Log FTW in the comments) back again with  my third deck guide: A Giant Beatdown Cycle deck!

This deck got me from Arena 5 to what was my record for a while, 2852, back before it was Jungle, about a month or two after the Sparky/Lava Hound/Miner update.

As such, some of the cards are somewhat outdated, but the deck remains able. I’m a little short on Gems at the moment, but I won 6 straight Classic Challenges and got 10 wins in a Grand!

Without further ado, here is the deck.

Giant Rocket Cycle Deck

Card Breakdown and Substitutions

Giant- Your main tank. His role is simple: Either start him in the back and spam troops behind him, or stick him in front of surviving defensive troops for a scary counterpush.

As his cost is only 5 Elixir, he is very low risk- pretty decent reward.

He was my only tank from Arena 3 (where I first remember the decks I used) all the way to Frozen Peak, into Jungle.

No replacements for this deck, except for maybe- haven’t tested it because I hate the card but maybe- Royal Giant.

Musketeer- This is a very versatile card for support and defense.

It is pretty scary behind a Giant, and it deals a decent amount of damage, making it a card of choice for defense, because this deck lacks DPS. If your Barbarians go down, this should help.

Although I didn’t think about it when I made this deck in Spell Valley, this deck has 4 cards’ worth of Fireball bait. This is the first. She can be replaced with Electro Wizard, although I wouldn’t really recommend it.

Bomber- Although this card is not used much now, I loved him back when I used him.

He dishes out high DPS, and it’s splash. This makes him an alternative tank killer like the Musketeer, for when your Barbarians fail.

The fact that he didn’t hit air didn’t matter much when I used this deck, as the Lava Hound had just recently been released and Lavaloon wasn’t yet a thing (at least not big enough that my nooby Arena 8 self knew about it.)

This is your second Fireball bait card. This can be replaced with Witch, Wizard, Bowler, or Executioner, but I wouldn’t recommend it due to the Elixir cost.

Ice Wizard– I have a really funny story associated with this card, as a matter of fact.

I was sitting in my school’s cafeteria in the morning on September 12, 2016. I was using Witch in this slot at that time, and I was in Builder’s Workshop. I had noticed that I was not using Witch barely at all, due to her high Elixir cost and my opinion that she didn’t have much use in the deck. (I didn’t realize how powerful Giant Witch was at the time.) At this point, only 5 Legendaries were out (and I had none)- Lava Hound, Sparky, Miner, Princess and Ice Wizard, and I had only battled against the Ice Wizard a few times, but it was enough to realize that the Ice Wizard was extremely powerful with his slowing abilities. And so that morning was the first time the concept of putting the Ice Wizard in that slot occurred to me. A few minutes after that, I went to my first period math class. After my work was done, I played some games and got my crown chest. Before I opened it, one of the other CR players in my class said, “You’re gonna get a legend.” I opened the chest- and behold, it was the Ice Wizard. I put it in my deck immediately for the Witch.

A month or so later, I got my first Legendary Chest offer, when I was in Frozen Peak. I was really excited for my next legendary. Five dollars later, I had gotten myself- another Ice Wizard. I was really disappointed, but then realized how powerful my lvl2 legendary was.

Anyway, this is just used to support pushes and slow down opposing pushes. It can be replaced with Witch (definitely viable) or Electro Wizard (very much not recommended.) It’s also your third fireball bait.

Spear Goblins– This is the versatile response card of this deck.

In situations where you need to distract things, these are your Skeletons. In situations where you need to take care of that pesky Mega Minion, this is your card. In situations where you need to cycle to that game-winning spell, this is your card.

These can be replaced with Goblin Gang, Goblins, Archers, or Skeletons.

Barbarians- This is your defense card. Great for shredding win conditions of all kinds (save for air) and distracting things in a pinch. Sometimes can be counterpushed with as well. Just an all-around strong card. Another fireball bait.

Arrows- These don’t need much explanation. Kill swarms. Finish off towers. This can be replaced with Zap.

Rocket- This spell is very meta dependent.

When I first made the deck, Zap was in its place. When that super-terrifying legendary that no one knew how to counter came out, called Sparky, I faced it a couple of times and got my @$$ whooped, and then decided to put Rocket in this slot. (Actually, an interesting coincidence- the day I substituted Rocket in was the same day I got the Ice Wizard out of that crown chest.)

This is used to finish off towers, obliterate large pushes, and take out defensive Executioners and Inferno Tower (the -1 trade is worth it in this case), and, of course, to wreck those pesky Three Musketeers.

This spell is VERY important to use strategically because of the prevalence of heavy beatdown that you can rocket for large elixir trades, as well as bridge spam. If you don’t use it strategically, the low DPS in this deck won’t be able to take down a large push.

This can be replaced with Fireball.

General Gameplan

Starting Moves

• Spear Goblins at the bridge
• Musketeer in the back
• Bomber in the back
• Ice Wizard in the back
• Giant in the back (if you have nothing else of the above)

3:00 to 2:00

Make mini pushes with Giant and one or two of Musketeer, Bomber, Ice Wizard, and Spear Goblins. DEFINITELY do not overcommit.

Either make small offensive mini pushes or counterpush by sticking a giant in front of surviving defending troops.

Get a sense for what your opponent’s running.

1:59 to 1:00

By now you should have a sense of what your opponent’s deck is. Keep steadily increasing the size of your pushes if you’re confident you won’t get punished.

Try to take only a little tower damag.

0:59 to 0:00

Now you can unleash the full power of this deck.

Put your Giant in the back.

If your opponent rushes you, defend it, but if they don’t, keep spamming things behind your Giant.

My personal best is a 2 Giants, 3 Musketeers, 2 Ice Wizard, 1 Bomber, 3 Spear Goblins push. (from counterpushing a fairly big push.) But if you put your Giant in the back when they place a heavy troop, keep spamming things, and then defend their lone tank with Barbarians since they will be forced to defend.

Overtime

Keep making large pushes and trying to take that last Tower, while preventing damage from your opponent.

Matchups

Hog- Barbarians should make this an easy matchup.

If for some reason you don’t have your Barbarians in your hand, use your Bomber, who is actually not a bad Hog counter due to his high damage.

Golem- The way you battle this Deck depends on what other cards your opponent is running.

If they’re running that Golem Baby Dragon Mega Minion Deck, use Barbarians on the Golem and Musketeer and Ice Wizard on the support. (Or Rocket everything, if you get value.)

If they have ground support, use Barbarians on the ground support and Musketeer and Bomber on the Golem, with Ice Wizard to slow everything down.

The only difficulty in this matchup is Lightning, since they can get huge value since you have Musketeer, Bomber, and Ice Wizard.

P.E.K.K.A- use Barbarians or Spear Goblins and Musketeer or Bomber for the P.E.K.K.A.

Lava Hound– Your most difficult matchup, due to Lightning.

Once again, Rocket is your best friend. You can either Rocket the entire push and use Spear Goblins to finish off the Balloon or use Ice Wizard to slow everything and Musketeer on the Balloon, if they don’t have Lightning.

Miner- You can use Spear Goblins or Barbarians on the Miner, assuming they don’t have another win condition requiring the Barbarians.

Bait- This will be a hard matchup. Save your Arrows for when you really need them and use your Ice Wizard, Bomber, and Spear Goblins to take out the swarms. Barbarians for the Knight or Hog that usually ends up in these decks.

3 Muskies- Easy. Rocket everything. Or if they split push, Rocket the 2 and use Barbarians on the 1 and support.

Royal Giant– Put Barbarians on him. If they Fireball, try to use Bomber and Musketeer.

Siege- This will be your third hardest matchup.

If they have X-Bow, try to use Giant to distract and support or Barbarians to take out, then counterpush.

If they have Mortar, try to use Musketeer or Barbarians, then counterpush with Giant (since the Mortar would shoot over the Giant.)

So anyways, there’s the Deck. It was pretty strong a while ago, and it is strong again. Don’t be discouraged by the off-meta cards. Give it a try!