Hog Zappies – The Fireball Bait Deck!

Hey guys! It’s NebulaNoodle back at it again with another deck guide. Today I’m going to be sharing a great Hog Zappies deck.

Now, a lot of you have been talking about how bad Zappies are, but if you can use them right, they are a really strong defensive card.

Here’s homage to the underrated Zappies!

Pros

Cons

The Hog Zappies Deck

Hog Rider

Your obvious win condition.

After the nerf he is still good, because his damage and HP didn’t get decreased (PHEW!)

If you’re a Hog lover like me, it’s very good that he only got a hit speed and first hit speed nerf.

There is no tank for the Hog here, but you will want to be using primarily to punish your opponent for spending a lot of elixir or figuring out your opponent’s counters at the beginning of the game.

Zappies:

These cute little Zappies need some love!

I’ve been hearing many CRA members saying Zappies are trash and they are completely useless.

Sort of like Sparky.

But they just need to be used properly.

They have a really good stunning ability which you can use to the full potential when you place them at the back.

They go to a line, meaning the first one attacks, then the second in line attacks, then the third attacks. This combines for almost an infinite stun, which is very strong against any glass cannon (even Bowlers, whom other glass cannnons cannot kill.)

This makes them very good at killing tanks.

Go check out Mew_Pur_Pur’s guide on Zappies as well!

They are very good counterpushing units, like the Hunter.

Combined with another tank killer they are an extremely strong defensive wall.

It’s not really about the damage so much, the stunning ability is the firepower of the Zappies.

Their big flaw though is that they can’t hit air.

But you need to bait out the spells because of the low HP- which brings me on to the next three cards….

Minions

This is one of your arrow/fireball bait cards.

They are more popular than Goblins now, and probably just as good as Guards in this meta.

They are a regular in Golem decks along with the Horde, but here’s a Hog deck with them (frankly, there are a lot of Hog+Minion decks.)

The Minions have great DPS and overall super good.

Hog+Minions is a very strong punishing combo. Only 7 elixir, leaving you to only gain back elixir (which will be easy if they are using beatdown.)

Minion Horde

These six little blue menaces of the sky have one of the highest DPS’ in the game, and will be used to support your Zappies.

But make sure to space the Zappies and Minions out to avoid Fireball value.

You could simply use the Horde at the bridge to bait a spell, if you know their win condition is out of cycle.

Use with Hog for a crazy quick push to make your opponent cry (if they used their Arrows/Fireball!)

Ice Wizard

One of my favorite legendaries at the moment.

I used to think he was really bad but as I used him more I realized how much of a beast of a defensive card he is, especially with Tornado.

Use him to complement your Minions on defense.

You could replace the Arrows in this deck with Tornado, which would make it just as good.

He is your strong anti-air unit, use him wisely!

Ice Spirit

Synergizes literally with anything in this deck.

Chip damage/splash control/freeze/cycle/distract.

All for one elixir!

Poison

I picked Poison over Fireball because of the greater splash control, and even though you don’t get the quick damage, you get more outright damage as well.

Plus, it’s safer to use a pre-Poison as Poison does damage over time. If you miss a pre-fireball, you opponent can go E-Barbs Minion Horde Rage.

RIP!

Zap

How could you not have Zap? Ice Spirit works perfectly with Zap, which is why I didn’t use Log.

Plus, since I recently upgraded my Zap, I’ve been using it a lot more in my decks.

The stun ability is really valuable with any deck.

Replacements

Gameplay

First, BM like crazy.

(Just kidding. Don’t. It’s a form of cyberbullying.)

But in all seriousness, let’s get on to the juicy bits…

Best starting moves: Ice Spirit/Ice Wizard in the back, Minions/Minion Horde split at the back (to defend both lanes), Hog (to figure out counters)

Out of everything, Ice Wizard in the back is my best starting move.

Doesn’t commit, it’s a passive move, and it only costs 3 elixir so you will have plenty to defend with.

Single Elixir

You will want to defend, then go on the quick attack, knowing when your opponent has used their spells wastefully.

You could send in a lone Hog Poison, which works very well, because it keeps everything out of the large radius, leaving your Hog with a nice large forcefield.

Unless, of course, your opponent is using a tank to counter.

Keep getting chip damage out of the Hog, and you will want to be using him as a tank for everything else, as the Minions are fast and can keep up, meaning even if your opponent uses something for the Hog, the Minions can clean that up, and if you have timed everything right, the Hog will still be alive and tanking for the Minions.

Similar to the Miner.

You will want to keep counterpushing, in order to catch your opponent off guard with the wrong counters.

With this deck, you will need to capitalize on mistakes or you won’t get damage early.

You want to open with a bang right from the start.

Double Elixir

This is where you want to go crazy.

Cycle cycle cycle back to your Hog, while playing smart. Playing smart is the key to this deck.

You have to stay patient in single elixir, and punish until you get the opportunity.

In Double Elixir you can easily defend and then go attack.

Keep using your pre-Poisons, but make sure you know their counters or else you’re just gonna waste elixir which you could have gotten value on if you had played your Poisons right.

Zappies are also great with Hog when in a line, they stun buildings (notably Inferno Tower) so the Hog can freely swing on the buildings! But not as a quick push (Zappies have medium speed) but as a counterpush.

Keep cycling your Hogs for the win!

Hopefully you will be able to keep applying pressure and you will start to break down your opponent. 🙂

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Matchups

Lavaloon

Cycle Minions like crazy, but don’t give them spell value.

Deal with everything else behind with a Poison+Zap combo. Ice Wizard is great for neutralizing a raged LavaLoon (I’ve met so many of these.)

Golem/Giant

This is quite tricky, especially if they use Poison very well and don’t waste it. The most important thing is making sure to space everything out.

Minion Horde might die to the Golem death damage so always have a backup troop. Don’t be an idiot and put Minions just as the Golem is gonna die. The Zappies are very good as stunning the tank and you can cycle them for infinite zap!!

Bait

The important thing is using Zap against Barrel. If you have a low level Zap/afraid from taking Barrel damage, use Log/Arrows.

To go against Tornado variant, the nemesis of this deck is Rocket-Nado so be careful. Let them waste their Rocket then punish like @(*^#@$&#^*&@^!!!

Cycle/Control

Against Miner, don’t spend too much defending the pushes. Save more for offense.

Put your Zappies away from the Poison then go with a Hog. They will likely have PEKKA (Zappies/Minion Horde work very well) and E-Wiz (Ice Spirit to distract, Minions/Minion Horde to kill?)

Against Hog, try to keep on the offense and you’re going to keep up with the cycle, so don’t worry about that (unless it’s 2.6 Hog!) Most Hog decks have good core defense and build up their troops around the Hog, so Minion Horde will work perfectly, along with Poison.

Graveyard

This one will be tough. The Poison kills all your Minions (good graveyard counters) and if you don’t use your Ice Wiz right he will die too, so space him outside the poison range.

But always try to level up your Ice Wiz so he kills the equivalent Graveyard level skeletons!!!! VERY IMPORTANT!!!

Try not to let them build up enough elixir for a snowball push. The pushes can wreck your tower very easily!

Siege

Against Mortar, don’t give them rocket value. If they have Miner, just deal with the support first (Guards, etc.) Poison all the clumped up troops surrounding the Mortar.

It’s similar against X-Bow. Most variants have another building, so distract them with Minions/Minion Horde. Same with Mortar: Poison the Knight/Ice Golem, Bats, Skeletons, whatever. Gain elixir advantages so you can overwhelm them! Most components in this deck are squishy units.

That’s all from me. Hope you enjoyed the guide! This is a great deck, do please give me a shot and drop a line below.  See you next time!

I’ll be posting more actively, so watch for yours truly!

Goodbye from Nebula! ❤️

Here’s a little fun thing I did with my friend….it actually worked!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpnlTnhgCUs