Lumberjack Dark Prince Cycle Deck at Legendary Arena! (What?)

Hi guys its Joven again, with my second guide for the Lumberjack Dark Prince deck!

Nevertheless, with the ever changing nature of the game my deck has once again changed; before this one I used a Barbarian Hut Hog control deck.

Before starting i’d like to say that i’m in 3900-4000 trophies and it is a pain using this deck in ladder with so much overleveling and the meta right now, but we’ll get to that later.

Lumberjack Dark Prince Cycle Deck

Card Breakdown

The deck has 3 legendaries (sorry about that), but don’t worry, 2 of them are completely replaceable if you don’t have them.

Dark Prince: This guy hasn’t been in the spotlight since the P.E.K.K.A. double prince meta, so this deck shows some love to it and complements very well what he does. He will play the role of win condition and area damage semi-tank. With the dank prince the deck is somewhat difficult to play correctly, so if you find yourself struggling or have a low level prince, try the Hog Rider instead. It’ll be easier to play, but the deck changes plenty, as itll be harder for you to defend some pushes and the deck will be more easily countered.

Replacements: Hog Rider, as stated above.

Skeletons: These guys are everywhere these days, and thats because they rule! For 1 elixir they offer so much, or even when they arent useful they speed up your cicle a lot.

Replacements: Ice Spirit. Whichever you like more.

Fire Spirits: Another cycle card, only that this guys will be more useful than the skellies. They are great against spell bait and will aid a lot of your pushes in this deck, also they provide some great chip damage for when you’re just cycling.

Replacements: Nope.

Lumberjack: Ahh sweet sweet Lumberjack. Outside of the meta Golem deck i dont think i have seen a deck that uses his abilities as well as this one. He synergies extremly well with the Dark Prince and his strong hits and speed will be extremly helpful on defense. Basically his role is main anti-tank, semi-tank and win condition #2.

Replacements: Nope (again sorry :’v).

Lightning: Your heavy-duty spell. You always need one in every deck or you’ll get rekt by Three Musketeers or any deck with Elixir Collector. Even when the opponent doesnt have those cards the lightning gives this deck a lot of defensive help, you just have to know when to use it.

Replacements: Posion or Rocket, but I don’t recommend it at all.

The Log: You also need a cheap spell in every deck or you will be beat a lot by spell bait. There really isn’t much difference between zap and log; in this deck in particular, zap is better offensively but i chose log only because it one shots goblin barrel.

Replacements: Zap, as stated above.

Mega Minion: There is not a more reliable air defense than the mega minion. He will be mostly defensive but if he manages to survive the opponents push he can support very well some offensive pushes. He can also aid againts ground tanks or tank an air-targeting troop.

Replacements: Nope.

Electro Wizard: One of the best support cards in the game right now, he can support nicely in almost every situation, mostly in defense, but if the opponent doesnt adress him he can do a lot of damage and support incredibly on offense.

Replacements: Musketeer.

General Gameplay

At the start of the match, test your opponent.

Defend efficiently and send low-risk high-reward pushes and learn how your opponent will defend them so you can plan ahead in the match.

An example would be defending a hog with your electro wizard and counterpushing with your wizard plus a dark prince.

You can’t really unleash the whole power of the deck at the beginning because you wont have enough elixir. Unless you are sure the opponent wont be able to defend your push, dont play too agressively because its not that easy defending everything with this deck.

In the middle of the match, you can try pressuring harder since you know what your opponent is playing and you know what they’ll do.

For example, if you know your opponent has a Lava Hound deck you can send a lone dark prince, because lava hound decks rarely have ground troops, and thats 400+ free damage to the opponents’ tower (in tourney standard).

When its 2x elixir time is when this deck really shines, since you can go full berzerk.

You can send absolutely crazy combos and then defend with the same cards because of the cheap cycle, and if your defensive troops survived then counterpush again very agressively, again with those same troops! This is basically the way to go unless its a tough deck matchup or you are against another really good player.

You just rinse and repeat until the counterpushes are way too much for your opponent to handle, then some troops will slip and –voilà!- that tower is yours!

But its not that easy as I made it sound right there. Since my goal was to keep versatility to a maximum you really have to be instinctive, know when to defend and with what, and thats not such easy task.

You have to play a while before you get a grasp of how to use this deck, because, in the wrong hands, your opponent will watch you play and say “what the hell is he doing?” stopping your pushes without much effort.

Hence the next section:

Common Matchups

Airfecta:

This isnt that hard of a matchup; you should be able to control the match and send good counterpushes overwhelming your opponent easily. Now if your opponent has Lightning, thats when the matchup gets tricky, pressure carefully (without overcommiting) and spread your troops acordingly so your opponent never has a chance to use his Lighning.

NOTE: LavaLoon doesnt apply to this advice.

Golem Beatdown:

You shouldnt have much problem facing golem decks, unless its the meta deck, in that case you have to bait out their Lightning (yes, that card is a pain to deal with), preferably with the dark prince’s shield, while also pressuring so you are not overwhelmed with an insane golem push.

Graveyard:

Do. Not. Overcommit. You will swear by this words facing any graveyard player, because, if you misplay offensively your push will get extiguished easily and then you wont have enough elixir to defend a graveyard, the elixir trades is what will win you the match. Also if its Graveyard Poison your best choice to defend is Lumberjack + Log and then counterpush.

Three Musketeers:

Save your Lightning for the purple-haired laides, even if it means you will tie the match. If you dont, trust me, things will spiral out of control and you will lose a tower, if not three.

Executioner Tornado:

My god… I never really understood why people always said royal giant was cancer. This right here is cancer. I’ve been a control/cycle deck user all my life and then this garbage comes over and easily wrecks any push you could do playing specifically those two archetypes. Play for the tie until they misuse their tornado. Only then can you do actual push on offense and maybe, maybe win the match.

Hog cycle:

If you can out-cycle your opponent this matchup shouldnt be very hard. However, if their cycle is very cheap, play carefully, making all the right elixir trades and very slowly gain the advantage. If the opponent is very skilled the matchup might be a tie or be defined by who uses their spells better.

Anything with P.E.K.K.A.:

You really have to develop your split pushing and pressuring skills, since a lone P.E.K.K.A. can demolish any push you send as long as everything is on the same lane. Pressure and out-cycle, but if the cycle is cheap, split push as much as you can without overcommiting.

Royal Giant:

This is the easiest matchup! No royal giant has beaten me using this deck, because you defend their giant (mostly with Lumberjack) and then the counterpush is always too much for them! Cancer my balls.

LavaLoon:

Pressure them into not sending their balloon (NEVER overcommiting). If they do send the balloon you have to switch into full-defense mode specifically to destroy the balloon, then take care of everything else. Most of the times you will use your Lighting to defend those annoying balloons.

Side Note

When I say that this deck is a pain to play in ladder I mean it!

Unless you can easily overlevel your cards you will find yourself playing uneven matches all the time, more often than not facing (in my trophy range) level 12-13 knights, level 12-13 Elite barbarians, level 9-10 Valkyries or level 9-10 Ice Golems and those cards will result in a raging headache every single time you face them if you dont have the level to match up.

Also I couldn’t have created this deck in a worse meta than this one, with so much [swear word] Executioner Tornado and so much OP witch.

Whats the point of even playing if the game is plagued with only two or three archetypes? If any meta ever becomes like this again (Example: OP Elite Barbarian meta) do not play this deck.

This warning is for your own health and your phone’s health.

I hope you enjoyed this guide, and comment what you think!

Remember, don’t get discouraged if you lose the first few matches with this deck, that’s natural when trying anything new. Plus it is not that easy to play and its not for everyone.

See you next guide!