Ultra-Effective and Fun Hog Cycle for 2v2

Hello guys, it’s PeakCell. I’m now coming up with a guide about an incredible deck you will love.

As you guys may know, I’m more of a 2v2 player, and I play 1v1 rarely. As you also probably know, I like stats, and I only play decks I like to play, looking more for funnier decks than more effective ones. I don’t play meta decks, so don’t expect this one to be meta.

Since I like stats, let me talk about it in the intro : This deck, I’ve played it for 29 games and I have a 72.4% winrate with it, against maxed cards generally. It should be enough for you to trust its power !

Before I show you the deck, I’d like to write about general things about this deck and the 2v2 mode.

What’s the goal of this deck ?

Obviously it is to win and to have fun while doing it, but in fact the goal isn’t limited to that!

This deck is designed to put you to the top of the game players!

You will carry your team, and feel you do everything by yourself. Even a bad ally can not prevent you from winning and having fun.

Good opponents? You’ll feel you are destroying them two by yourself.

Now, how to do that? Well, you’ll have to use some of the best cards you can play in 2v2..

What are the best working things in 2v2?

I want to talk about it because it shows you I didn’t make my deck randomly.

What can we say about the best working cards in 2v2?

First we can tell that there are 2x more player, which means potentially 2x more cards to stop in a push, and 2x more defenses against your cards.

Now logic makes us understand something huge : Spells are top tier cards in 2v2, because they can potentially destroy 2x more cards in a single cast !

But.. Are we using the fireball, lightning or rocket then?

No. We’ll be using an instant control spell: Freeze.

This spell is extremely powerful because it is instant and doesn’t damage troops, but automatically puts them out of fight!

With that, we’ll use the only spell which can damage+control an entire lane: The Log, because it can then greatly help dealing with the troops we froze + potential other ones meant to make a huge push.

Now, OK, spells are top-tier. But what other things work? We don’t only have spells in our deck, do we?

Of course not!

Since I play a lot of 2v2 with random allies, my deck needed powerful and extremely versatile cards! As well as a dynamic gameplay to always be able to do something when your ally can’t!

So we are playing the Ice Spirit, and the Fire Spirits, which are cheap and versatile. Then we use two low-cost anti-tank units, Goblins and the Skeleton Army.

Then, what can we use?

Ranged units are extremely powerful in 2v2 when they can attack the two lanes. The Dart Goblin is potentially ultra versatile and effective so we’re playing him !

Why don’t we use a building?

Because we don’t need that. Our deck is so versatile that it will most of the time complete your ally’s deck perfectly. If it does not, you can still use the Freeze spell to control a push !

Last thing, what win condition will we use?

The Hog Rider is extremely powerful when played with the Freeze spell.

In 2v2, people will often stress out and send many things to stop your Hog, making the Freeze spell even more effective.

Also, it is a great punishing combo, which is perfect in 2v2 where people will often make mistakes.

The Deck

Hog Rider

Your win condition is the Hog Rider.

The goal is to be a real douche and to play him without thinking about your ally: Let your ally defend alone, he will do it, send a Hog + Freeze on the other lane, you’ll take a Tower most of the time because they are focusing on their push too much.

Also, when your ally pushes, you can also try to push on the other lane while they are trying to counter them.

Pig push by placing your Hog on the side, so he will not go to the buildings.

The deck cycles pretty fast so you can easily outcycle some of your counters (like the Tornado which is very commonly used). You have many choices to build your pushes, so you can counter many of the Hog’s usual counters without even having to outcycle them.

The ideal moment to land a Hog push is either when you have 4 elixer and your opponents just spent all of their elixer, or when you have 7 and have the Freeze available, or when you have more elixer and some support to add with your Freeze + Hog combo.

Keep in mind that you will gain 1 Elixir by the time the Hog Rider reaches the opponents’ Tower, so you don’t have to wait to have enough Elixir to do this combo.

Freeze

The Freeze spell is literally the cheatcode of the deck.

By that I mean you will generally deal A LOT of damages because of it. Of course you will generally use it to support your Hog, but you can also help your ally with it, like, if he has a great push prepared.

When you will push on the lane your ally is not attacking, however, you might do even more damages, not only because they are not focused on your push, but also because they might lose elixer by defending too much against your ally.

Then they will have some trouble defending against you, and the little they place as a defense can be frozen.

Don’t forget to be perfect on your timing and to Freeze the good things ! A late Freeze is a shame and an early Freeze is totally the same.

You can predict with a Freeze tho, like when you know your opponents will place Ebarbs, put the Freeze and the surprise will be even greater !

The Log

A control spell, but also a spell you can use in a LOT of conditions.

While in 1v1 you still have to be careful about the way you use it, in 2v2 you can spend those 2 elixer without problems, so this spell is even more enjoyable.

I don’t have much to add about it, except it works great with the Dart Goblin because of the fact that it helps him do more damages.

Also, this spell can destroy Goblins so it’s very useful to play it with the Hog.

Dart Goblin

This guy is extremely powerful.

He can defend the two lanes, but needs some help (Log, Ice Spirit) and is a little fragile.

Generally you want to place him far away from the ennemies to kill, even behind the king Tower if you want to counter a Graveyard.

You also want to play him to counter air units, since he is your only ranged attacker.

Little tricks to remember while playing the Dart Goblin: You can play him with an Ice Spirit quickdropped in front of him, it is sufficient to deal enormous damages if your opponents do not react quick enough.

Also, when you took a Tower, you can alternate Hog at the bridge + Dart gob in the middle, Hog in the middle and Dart at the bridge, it sometimes is sufficient to take a Tower because your opponents will target the Hog and the Dart Goblin might have time to do enormous damages meanwhile. Oh and he can destroy the buildings.

Goblins

Goblins are simply a support to your Hog, and an anti-tank as well as an anti-support troop card.

Just use them this way, but you have an other option of gameplay which is to send Goblins to lower-level opponent towers, or Goblins + Ice Spirit to same/higher level towers.

You can also use them to distract Minions and other problematic troop-targeting troops.

Skeleton Army

Same role as the Goblins, but you may use it differently: Mainly use the Skeleton Army on tanks or support, and land a lone Skeleton Army on a lane only to pig push the other lane when your ennemies are out of Elixir.

Take care tho, the Skeleton Army is zappable.

However, it can enhance a push greatly if used well, for example in the above case your opponent may not be able to defend the 2 sides as effectively, or an Inferno Tower could target the Skeleton Army when it should target the Hog, or your opponents would defend the Skeleton Army with freezable Minions, etc.

Also, when a Tower is destroyed, you can play a Skeleton Army in the middle to destroy potential buildings.

Fire Spirits

Fire Spirits are one of the best cards in the game in terms of fun!

They will take care of small units, bridge Princesses when you don’t have the Log, or Goblin barrels in the same case, but they will also be a great support to your Hog, preventing your opponents from just dropping Minions, or Goblins, without anything else.

So it forces them to use Elixir, and if they have an Elixir disadvantage it can be enough to destroy them.

Ice Spirit

The Ice Spirit is also a great support unit because it will temporize for you to land an easier Freeze/Log, but it also will damage some units AND tempo for your Dart Goblin ! Also an Ice Spirit can destroy a lone Valkyrie with the help of Fire Spirits if you kite her. Same goes for the Mini P.E.K.K.A, Knight, etc.. The Ice Spirit complements the deck pretty well, because it is versatile AND is a cycle card.

Matchups

Ok I generally play it with random people, so I can talk about the ally matchups as well

I also played many similar decks so I know these things pretty well.

Best Allies:

Hog decks

They generally are a great synergy because you have more great occasions to Freeze. If your ally is synchro with you,  you will be able to delay your hogs to put their counters out of cycle, and send 2 hogs at the same time when your opponents don’t have anything to deal with them.

Miner decks

Generally they have a great defensive capacity, so they are great to play with too: Your deck is more of an attacking deck after all. Miner decks generally have a building/a tank for your Hog (Miner at least, but sometimes also the Knight) and great spells (like Poison). Those things complement the deck pretty well.

Air decks

Incredibly strong synergy! Your opponents will generally be disturbed by the air+ground attacks and it is pretty rare to see a perfect defense against this kind of attacks. Use your ally’s hound to take the focus so the Freeze spell will be even easier to land !

Beatdown decks

You want to play a bit differently with these ones: When your ally is pushing a lane, you should most of the time try to destroy the other ! Your opponents will generally have a hard time countering a Hog + Freeze on one side plus a beatdown push on the other.

Worst Matchups

Several buildings

Generally several buildings are hard to deal with, even with your ally helping you. You can try to outcycle them, but if each of your opponents have at least one building, if won’t be easy.

Well-prepared RG players

Because everything you can defend with will be Zapped, Logged, Fireballed. It happened to me to place my Goblins, who were killed by a Log, then my Skeleton Army, killed by a Zap, then my Dart gob killed by Arrows. Huh. This matchup is however winnable just by landing better attacks against your opponents than what they do against you.

Hog decks

Well this Hog deck has some trouble against other Hog decks, because it has nothing to deal with them easily, since everything is destroyable. The solution is the same than against RG decks, you must defend and do better than your opponent by landing a perfect Freeze spell.

Tank + Balloon

A nightmare. Because a Balloon cycle decks isn’t much of a problem, but a tank in front of it can’t be destroyed fast enough and you don’t have any building. Against those, you should even use your Freeze spell defensively.

Conclusion

I hope this guide will make you win a lot with this ultra fun deck. I tested many things and this is the one I have the best results with for now. Keep in mind that the good use of the Freeze spell is the key skill of playing this deck.

See you in the arena !