Unique Mortar Barrel Hybrid Deck

Welcome, dear clashers, to my first ever guide to a deck.

I’m Lord PJ of lol, on my second account Lord LV of lol and in arena 10 with both.

Today I would like to discuss my deck. It is really solid if mastered, and keeps surprising. A few hours I learned it had ‘Great’ in every category when tested on deckshop.pro.

It’s a medium speed siege-control hybrid deck.

The idea is to defend your Mortar, and counterpush with the leftover defensive troops accompanied by a Goblin Barrel.

It was designed for the arena 10 ladder meta.

History:

The origins of this deck lie in an old Inferno Dragon deck that had roughly the same defense. (Which I personally like to call the PJ defense!)

I played this deck for a long time on ladder, and got very frustrated because of the difficulties I had with reaching the Tower.

I then changed the deck so that it no longer needed to get to the Tower, its win conditions being Mortar and Goblin Barrel.

It hasn’t had any great changes since then. I tried switching Musketeer for Archers, or Guards for Ice Spirit, but the current decklist proved the most effective!

Cards

Mortar: Primary win condition. Needs little explanation.

I just want to note that there are four major Mortar placements that I will sometimes be referring to in this guide:

• The basic placement (at the bridge, in the middle of the lane)
• The advanced placement (at the bridge, but one tile to the outer side of the arena. If I don’t name the placement, I refer to this one)
• The center placement (at the river, in the middle of the arena)
• The turtle placement. (like a defensive building).

Musketeer

Air defense, great behind a Knight and good at pulling troops. I often play Musketeer in the back to gain more Elixir (Elixir bar + Elixir on the map) and to hold the lane.

Mega Minion

Almost the same as a Musketeer, but is better at tanking for Goblin barrels and whacking down Hogs.

Mega Minion can also fly over the river and has a higher DPS.

Knight

This guy does it all: tank, defend, invest,…

He is one of the key components of many decks.

In this deck he is an allround superstar that only doesn’t comes in handy against air troops.

Goblin Barrel

If your leftover defenses are crossing the bridge, throw a Goblin Barrel, gaining insane value! Or not, if they have a Log.

You can rush the lane with this card, forcing your opponent to adress the damage. Knight-Goblin Barrel WILL take the Tower!

Ice Spirit

Great for just that extra nudge or that one card that was not in your hand already!

Zap

Needs no explanation.

Lightning

324 HP on your Tower? I don’t think so! Great at finishing towers, taking out support troops and destroy spawners.

Bonus points if you can hit the Tower!

General Gameplan

In every deck, the gameplan changes as the battle progresses. That’s why I’ve broken it up in several chapters:

Early game

When the battle starts, both you and your opponent don’t know each others decks.

It is extremely important with this deck to scout first.

Don’t play your Mortar yet (because your opponent will easily adapt) unless they try rush in with a surprise Hog.

You could put a Mega Minion, Musketeer or Knight in the back and see how they react.

What I also do is throw a Goblin Barrel-Ice Spirit combo. This can catch them off guard, but it can also trigger their counter. As soon as you know what it is, adapt to it!

Midgame

If you have a feel of the opposing deck, adapt, and play carefully.

Keep your head in the game, and try to make good decisions.

The idea is to Mortar when you’re not likely getting punished. Or if you have enough Elixir to defend it.

Mitigate every attack in your defensive troops or Mortar, and use those troops to counterpush.

Even a half health Knight can be a threat if you throw a Goblin Barrel behind.

Overall you should try to work your way through three quarters of the towers hitpoints.

If you get lucky and take a Tower early, go for the other one. This might not be the best option if your opponent has a strong offense.

Sometimes you have to take a Tower and turtle up for the rest of the match.

Double Elixir time

This is where it gets exciting.

Both you and your opponent are now cycling cards faster than ever! Defend with all you’ve got!

If the Tower isn’t isn’t in spell-cycle range, constant pressure!

I managed to take 1300 HP off a Tower while my opponent couldn’t get to my last 600!

If the Tower is in critical health, use your heavy spell: the Lightning! Extremely helpful to get rid of support troops as well! Take every opportunity you can to Lightning them in this last phase!

Overtime

Super intense! It’s a base race! Or sometimes a great, great wall on your side of the arena.

Adapt, play smart, and be victorious!

Common Matchups

Golem beatdown

In the early game, heavy beatdown players avoid playing Golem, and that’s where you have an advantage.

Try to take as much HP off his Tower as possible, and don’t get punished too hard by the other cards.

Once he plays Golem, you can either rush the other lane, or prepare for some master defense. This by cycling to a favourable hand, placing one or two cards in the back to invest, or placing your Mortar in the defensive position.

During overtime, the great Golem has the advantage. Master defense!

Heavy control: Difficult matchup.

The big P.E.K.K.A. kind of hard counters your Mortar, and Mega Knight in itself is very stoppable, but the support troops make it difficult.

I noticed that a MK that crosses the bridge, won’t jump on a center-placed Mortar when played correctly. In other cases Knight-Mega Minion can usually deal with him.

Hog Cycle

If you play your Mortar reactively, this is a pretty easy matchup.

It’s funny to see a player rush his Hog, watch it turn to your center-placed Mortar and not being able to stop two of its shots.

I’ve had times where a Hog player threw an entire Rocket to my Mortar because it annoyed him.

Try to keep up with the cycle though! And make sure that you’re not constantly defending.

Balloon cycle

You have a defensive Building and two hard counters to Balloon.

As long as you save either your Musketeer or your Mega Minion, this archetype shouldn’t be a problem.

Elite Barbarians

An annoying archetype.

Try to have at least 2-3 Elixir during the match and save your Knight.

You can actually overcommit on countering the Elite, because you can use all leftover troops to counterpush.

In desperate cases, use Lightning!

Other siege decks

Play smarter than your opponent!

I’ve played against siege decks that were easy to beat, and against siege decks that proved a real nailbiter!

The optimal playstyle against siege depends on the opponents deck, but usually it doesn’t differ from the basic gameplan.

Three Musketeers

Just Lightning. Don’t Lightning the Pump though!

Log bait

If they have Inferno Tower, you’re screwed.

You can try to bait it out, but if they place it right at the river, you can’t even Lightning it.

If they also have a Log or overlevelled Zap there is not really much you can do. Outcycle, I guess?

If you have no way of damaging the Tower, turtle up and mitigate as much as possible. A turtled Mortar can counter Princess very well.

Also a Goblin Gang or Knight have difficulties getting through. Goblin Barrel is usually very annoying, so save your Zap, use Knight or Mega Minion if necessary and don’t Lightning!

If you can afford it, Lightning the Princess Tower. You need eight Lightnings to take it out. Don’t try. It costs 48 Elixir.

If you want to defend like a pro and throw 48 Elixir at the Tower, you will not succeed.

If they only have one of the two, focus on one of your win conditions.

Miner chip

I don’t play against it that often and it TRIGGERS me.

If you use your Knight and spells correctly, you should be able to handle this archetype.

Sometimes you need to waste an entire Miner on a Mortar, while it still gets off shots!

That was it for this guide! I hope that this inspires people to give it a try or build another deck.

See you next time!