New Lava Clone Deck – Anti-Meta, Surprising and Devastating Deck!

Wassup guys, Norbysweg here, coming to you today with a brand new deck, along with a brand new guide!

Since P.E.K.K.A and Mega Knight decks are dominating, I decided to go for the strict counter – Air decks! Lavaloon isn’t really my style, so I decided to go throwback baby! Today I’m sharing this Lavaloon deck I’ve been testing for the past week, snatching up some good results in Gamebattles, and got second in a 20$ bracket tourney!

If you’re playing in a bracket where you know who you’re facing, you can easily catch them off guard with the surprise Clone! It’s just endless possiblilities with this deck!

Lava Clone Is Back!

Cards Breakdown

Lava Hound – Your main tanker!

Lava Hound is one of the best cards that you can Clone, because the cloned troops add to the Zap/Spell-bait factor!

Think like this – they have to Zap the clones, the Cloned Lava pups which break free, and the Regular Lava pups later!

Mega Minion – Your stable support card, the Mega Minion offers great stability, decent HP and decent Damage from the cost of 3!

Behind the Hound, it easily takes out E-wizzes, Minions, Archers, and other Air-Targeting cards!

Doesn’t die to spells, and it offers great defense!

Minions- Another great stable card, very good in defense, they easily counter Graveyards, chip away Hogs, Giants, Pekkas, and they’re very versatile and can be used in almost every situation.

You can easily counterpush with a Miner or Bandit if you have them left from defense!

Miner – Your offensive minitank, the Miner will mostly be used to tank all those pups, Minions, clones, bandits, and everything you might have in that push!

Always switch up your placements if you’re trying to get damage, but most likely you will want to place your Miner on his defensive troops, so he kills them&tanks the pups after!

Bandit – This girl works pretty well with Clone, cause her charge doesn’t reset, and gets good value when hitting something, especially defensive troops!

Think about it, you attack with Lava Hound at the bridge, he defends with E-wiz, you place a Bandit at the bridge, and Clone everything! The Tower’s gone dude.

(this was a foolish scenario, there is basically no way you’re 10 Elixir ahead of your opponent, it’s just to prove how cloned Bandit can work against defense)

Tombstone – Good control card, and offensive building!

One Tombstone placed before pushing with the Hound helps you put more pressure with the Skeletons walking down, distracting Inferno Towers, stabbing Musketeers, E-wizzes, Archers, dealing damage.

Also adds nicely to the baity factor of the deck.

Clone – Obviously!

Zap – Usually used for Bats or Minions, but also at resetting Infernos!

General Gameplan

Getting the Tombstone down

With this deck, like any other Lava Hound deck, you have to get that Tombstone down first. It offers very good value when pushing, especially when coupled with Bandit.

Think this way: You have a Lava Bandit push, with the Tombstone behind. He places a Bandit to defend yours, but it dashes on a skeleton! Our Bandit survives with Half HP and dashes on the Tower!

Setting up the push

With Lava Hound, the tank in the back isn’t a bad move! I mostly do it at the start of the game, so I find out his counters.

Tip: Don’t Clone at the Beginning, only if he misplays or you have a great opportunity!

Think this way, you attack with Lava Hound, you place a Mega Minion for support, and barely make it for the Clone. He just places a Minion Horde inside and you get rekt! 13 Elixir for 5! Worst case scenario, he might tank the Mega Minions with an Ice Golem, and Minion Horde after! Not only it’s 13 for 7, but he gets to counterpush with the Horde!

Essentially, the Clone is the surprise factor of the deck! You should play it in the best possible case scenario, but we’ll talk about in a bit.

If you’re doing a Hound push in the back, and he goes opposite lane, your best bet is the Tombstone you placed earlier!

After that, your best bet is supporting the Lava Hound with the Mega Minion, the best Lava Hound support. It deals with Glass Cannons, Executioners, Minions, Goblin Gangs, and anything you want!

If you support it with Minions or Bandit, they can get easily countered. Knight can very easily counter Bandit, and a Mega Minion can counter Minions, and start chipping the Hound!

When & How to Clone

Tip: You Should Always Clone the shadow of flying troops

• The Clone should be used when you take down a Tower, and your opponent doesn’t respond to the leftover push. I got 3 Crowns many times when there was Lava pups and a Bandit left, cloned it, and boom. You could also use the Miner to tank the leftovers, depending on your opponent’s hand. (For Example, if he has Executioner in hand, you’ll most likely go Miner to distract and kill him. If he has something like Mega Minion, you better Clone, so the more, the better. If you’re in Double Elixir, it’s very risky to Miner&Clone, so it’s some kind of double-tanking! Very very very risky!
• The Clone should be used in offense after the Tower is focused on the regular Hound! ALWAYS DO THIS, SO THE CLONED HOUND WON’T DIE INSTANTLY
• Clone is most valuable in Double Elixir, but it can be used effectively in 1x too, just make sure you know your opponent’s counters (for example, don’t Clone when they have Ice Golem, E-wiz, Poison and Zap in hand. You have to Clone in the best case scenario.
• If they have a pretty hard counter, try to fake a Lava Hound push on one side, and make sure they spend more than you. If they do, rush the other lane with Miner Bandit Minions Clone and whatever you have. It might work out, cause it’s your only chance.

Dealing with Hard Counters

When I’m talking about hardcounters, I mostly focus on Clone, and Lava Hound Counters. Essentially, one counters both.

Worst hardcounters can be Executioners, Poison, Tornado, Ice Golem.

Executioner is most valuable against pups, being able to take them out instantly.

Poison destroys Clone completely, as well as Tornado, while also dragging everything back.

Essentially, Bandit and Miner are the ones that make this deck less weak to these above. Bandit dashes and quickly kills any air splash troop like Exe, while also coupling very well with Clone (Two Bandits Insta-Kill almost every air defense glass Cannon, for example Musketeer, E-Wiz, etc.)

Miner is just there to kill air counters in a quick push, and tank the pups beautifully. He can revert an Executioner, he can kill Archers, E-wizzes, Musketeers, and all that bargain!

If you notice that he places his counters in front of the Tower, you can just go with Bandit.

Baiting out the counters

A good strategy that paid off many times, is that I go with a Mega Minion one side, and place something like Minions or Bandit fast, like I was cycling for my Hound to place it at the bridge!

Once they drop the Executioner, Wizard, Bomb Tower, whatever it be, rush the other lane with Lava Hound and try to cycle back to one of your air supports, just be aware that you pretty much have to use the Clone in this push, since it’s the only time you’ve baited out their counter!

Replacements

• Bandit – Mini P.E.K.K.A – I like the Bandit more because she’s cheaper and has the dash mechanic that synergizes better with the Clone! You can use the Mini P of you don’t have her, but always use Bandit in any other situation
• Minions – Archers – Minions are better with Clone, but Archers can be used if you have them Higher level or like them more!
• Mega Minion – Inferno Dragon – Not very recommended
• Minions – Bats – They are pretty vulnerable to Zap, so I wouldn’t really recommend this.

Ending word

Soooo, That was it guys! Hope you enjoyed my special guide, because it took a lot of time to write and think through, me being pretty new with Clone at the time I made the deck! Hope you can use these tips efficiently, and see you in the next one!

Norbysweg out!