STRANGE META P.E.K.K.A. MINER PSEUDO-BEATDOWN

“STRANGE META P.E.K.K.A. MINER PSEUDO-BEATDOWN”

Hey fellow citizens of clashroyalesville, Sage TheBatman here with yet another deck. Tell me this!! Did any of you guys started losing every single game after the latest balance update just because the deck in which you had expertise was heavily nerfed in every dimension?? If yes, then I know how you feel mate. If not, this deck will still help you. So without further ado let’s get started.

DECK

• P.E.K.K.A.
• Miner
• Poison
• Guards
• Zap
• Executioner
• Tornado
• Minions

OVERVIEW

I would like to add this deck to the category of Pseudo- Beatdown since it has P.E.K.K.A. but not as a win condition, but as a defense which, if required, can be effectively turned into beatdown push. On the other hand this deck is also played as miner-poison chip cycle. In this deck, nearly every card has offensive ability, even guards, about which I will talk very soon in this guide. For now, let me just explain in plain and simple terms. Defense is pretty strong with P.E.K.K.A. to take care of tanks and exenado to take care of swarms and guards for the situation as and when needed.

CARDS AND ROLES

I very great thing I found about this deck is that every card and I mean each and every card including spells has both offensive and defensive capabilities(except for Miner who is strictly for attacking purpose but if the situation comes to so, close your eyes and use it on defense. So the description of every card is as follows:-

• P.E.K.K.A. -> This 7 elixir monstrous beauty can work wonders when it meets the right thumbs to drop it. On a good day, every once in 2-3 matches, P.E.K.K.A. takes a tower herself with a big laugh. The main defense against high health ground tanks like golem or giant while also possessing the ability to single handedly turn a successful defense into a deadly single lane beatdown or dual lane trick shot at the tower. This can be done in the following ways:-
  1. The P.E.K.K.A. can easily kill a giant all while taking hits from its support units and can still survive with vast reserves of health left after push. This send you in an elixir advantage which leads to you have 2 choices:
  2. Send support behind P.E.K.K.A. or fool the opponent with a cheap miner minion push on the other lane. With the limited elixir your opponent possesses, he will only be able to stop 1 and that means at least 1500 damage on any one of the towers.
• MINER -> The semi-tank with the ability to pop up anywhere in the field in under 1.8 seconds. It is not a shovel, it is truly magic. With a miner on the other side, even a mere 3 elixir minion becomes a threat to opponent tower which demands immediate reaction. The best part is that when there is a lot of havoc during the 2x elixir, sometimes the opponent misses a miner and later finds out the damage. Moreover, you can play “Mind-Games” with your opponent by confusing him as to where you are going to place your miner. All in all, it really squeezes out value out of every low elixir card in a push. Use it wisely and your opponent will be forced to overspend every time or receive some damage on tower, win-win situation in both outcomes. When you receive even a small 2 elixir advantage, you can punish him with miner guards/miner minion push etc.
• GUARDS -> Oof. What can I say about these underrated cards? It is so much more useful than almost any other can I can currently think of and the reason is plain and simple:- SHIELD. During the new balance changes, the shield when broken under any inferno troop, resets its charge, giving everyone else a whole lot of time to live a happy life. If you find out that your opponent has inferno dragon/tower then just place guards in front of P.E.K.K.A. This will make the life of P.E.K.K.A. a lot easier. Moreover, let me put it this way, except for poison, guards are invincible to all spells. This makes it a very nice support for the miner. How do you ask? Mostly people send minions, goblins, etc with miner which are easily zapped or logged, but these don’t work on guards and they keep supporting the miner till the ship sinks!! Also don’t forget that it can perfectly stall any point damage card for as long as it takes to land 6 hits while the princess tower or any support even minions can kill it.
• POISON -> Before the lightning nerf, I considered lightning the best spell, but now since it’s nerfed to oblivion, poison is the king of the hill. Damage of fireball, radius of arrow and duration somewhat close to graveyard. The perfect slow death for the swarm troops. Heck a level 5 poison can kill a level 2 electro wizard too(don’t remember other interactions though) but I guess that much information is enough to show how strong a spell poison is. If it had its old ability to slow down movement and attack speed then the boy would it be OP AF!!. Your main job with the spell is to clear swarm around your miner and support. To do so, first analyse and then implement prediction poison. When you get it right, you will have taken atleast half the tower with simple miner guard push. Another strategy is applied when your P.E.K.K.A. is on the other side of map and you know your opponent will use swarm to deal with it. What you do is drop your poison in such a way as if you are poisoning your own P.E.K.K.A. What this does is that it creates a security ring around the P.E.K.K.A. and gives it a safe passage to the opponent tower. What more do you ask of a mere 4 elixir spell?
  

  The pictures say it all

  
  In this I wrecked his tower by catching him off guard even before the game ended half way.

• ZAP -> In a deck which contains P.E.K.K.A, not having zap is not an option. Zap is literally too useful in every aspect of offense and defense and has numerous creative ways in which it can be used. Golem not kiting to your tombstone/canon? If you are fast enough, zap him and he will go there! P.E.K.K.A. surrounded by skeleton army and don’t have poison in hand? Use zap! P.E.K.K.A. attacked by inferno dragon/tower? Zap to give it that much extra life to get 1 hit off the tower! Goblin barrel? Zap! Goblin gang? Zap! Minion horde? Zap! The best companion for you…….presenting ZAP. The best part of this spell is that it doesn’t have WOOSHHHH animation like rocket or any other spell card making its drop almost instantaneous which is really nice considering that even the half a second animation of arrows can sometimes be too late. And oh boy the rocket, it’s so damn slow but majestic. Uhm… back to zap. Since it drops so fast there is almost no need to predict position even though it has such a small radius. The only problem is that it is extremely level dependent, but since it is a common card…….then why not?
• EXECUTIONER -> Finally, my personal favorite card and about which I can proudly say “I have mastered this card”. This deadly card has many features which many people tend to overlook and I might as well point some out here. Some smart people say “Why to use executioner when the wizard does more damage for 5 elixirs?” A big clap for all such people. If others think “No one says that” then follow this  
  
  . This man makes good videos and I love them too but I disagree on more than half of THIS particular video. Well, don’t forget that where the fireball of wizard stops with approaching the target, the projectile of executioner keeps going and going all the way hitting everything and coming back hitting everything again. A wizard may take care of a lava hound better than an executioner, but what if:-
  1. Fireball
  2. Lava hound+any ground troop
  3. Lava hound+ any air troop placed wisely
  4. Lightning

In all these situations, a wizard fails and leaves you defenseless in a dire situation, which if you use tornado, might barely pull you out of situation (considering your wizard survives till then i.e.). An executioner not only takes care of support while destroying tank, but it also synergies the best tornado, more than any other card(close second is sparky)

• TORNADO -> Now you may think “3 spells!!”. I know but there is a big job or shall say job‘s’ which only this card can do. One such example is the famous king tower activation in early game. Other features include, unsplitting the split musketeer, making hog rider rather useless, making miner useless, lining up everyone for the group photo(executioner ;p) and what not. There is no end to the extent to which this card can be used. Moreover, this card does a good job in exponentially increasing the damage dealt by executioner in this deck, and by other splash cards in other decks. For more tornado mechanics check out this link https://clashroyalearena.com//deck-building/mega-pekka-exe
• MINIONS -> With a miner in the deck, this 3 elixir card is worth a lot more now. A minion, if of same or higher level than tower will require 3 hits to kill. This results in the death of 1 minion while reaching the tower and the other 2 minions deal a total of 728 damage to tower if left ignored. But why would one ignore a minion? Why not? With the spreading disease of spell bait, no one would want to waste arrows, zap in mere minions, and this is where they make the mistake. Once you add a miner? This push becomes a hell of a lot of scarier than it already was and demands quick reaction otherwise half the tower will be down before anyone evens knows. Minions can be used as a cycle card in the starting game and can be decisive in the later game so use it wisely. Along with that, minions are a hard counter for:-
  1. Graveyard
  2. Goblin gang
  3. Minion horde(requires kiting)
  4. archers
  5. Skeleton army
  6. (If distracted long enough) mega knight and P.E.K.K.A.(any one of them and don’t count on it too much though)

REPLACEMENTS

• MINER -> GOBLIN BARREL Plain simple, use goblin barrel with support troops, fool the opponent with different placements.
• GUARDS -> SKELETON ARMY this card proves that the best solution to everything is getting a few undeads and punching the hell out of everything.
• POISON -> ARROWS bad replacement but no problem
• MINIONS -> GOBLIN GANG quite a good value pack for 3 elixir

POTENTIAL PUSHES

This deck synergies extremely well with each other and a push can be easily formed with a combination of any two cards. Below I will mention about such pushes and give details about its use and when to use:-

• MINER+MINION -> Alone, both these cards are nothing, but together, they require a counter of atleast a half decent amount of elixir which is always nice with some chip damage off the tower. To use this, first drop “Minions”, not miner. Then immediately after that, drop miner too. If you pull it out right, what this does is it gives your opponent less time to react to the push causing more damage to tower before it gets countered. Another situation is when the opponent drops the infamous 3M or golem. Rushing the other lane becomes so much easier by this 6 elixir push and defending against such pushes will be discussed later in matchups section.
• MINER+GUARDS -> Boy does this shield give guard a new life or what. Basically the worst enemy of miner and cheap troops push is that they can be arrowed or zapped to make the push totally hollow. And here comes are bony shield. These dudes are literally invincible to spells except poison and they, even after being logged, zapped or arrowed continue to stab the tower with their tiny forks. For just 6 elixir, you demand a solid reaction from opponent otherwise you will get the tower. What more do you ask from these undead guards eh?
• P.E.K.K.A.+MINER+EXECUTIONER+MINIONS (aka The biggest push) -> Before I get into explaining about this push, let me clarify the order. So the order is like so- P.E.K.K.A.> EXECUTIONER> MINER> MINION. With this cleared let me explain the details now. This is practically the biggest and strongest push possible which CANNOT be defended no matter what. But it is not easy to set up this push. This requires a lot of pre planning and can only be successfully made in double elixir time. It so happens that this is an 18 elixir push and our bar is of only 10, so do not over commit since it would leave you very vulnerable in the opposite lane, though it would only result in then getting 3 crowns.

GAMEPLAN

This is the part where I give you step by step explanation of what to do at what time and how. Since i have explained quite a lot in the above sections, so this section would be rather small. So let’s get started:

EARLY GAME(3:00~2:00)

During this 1 minute time span, your job is to assess your opponent’s deck. Make a note in mind of what your opponent uses to counter your simple miner minion pushes. Since this deck has a natural affinity to creating a mini push every 20 seconds, so you can keep your opponent on his toes quite consistently and not give them chance to pressure you. Just remember to not waste elixir and do positive elixir trades. It will be hard just cope up with it. Even in this starting minute you can deal quite a lot of damage to the enemy tower since creating a miner push is very easy. A miner guard push requires 6 elixir but countering it definitely will require more than 5 elixir which will eventually put you in small advantages here and there. I do not want to pull this section any longer since I have explained pretty much everything here, so let’s get to next part.

MIDDLE GAME(2:00~1:00)

During this part, create constant pressure by making miner push every 20-25 seconds and spend the rest of the time defending. Defending is really not hard at all in this deck as you can turtle up pretty easily if the situation requires you to do so. Just remember to always have a backup plan and never be on 0 elixir. Zero elixir is the most insecure point at which you never want to be unless you use a hog chip cycle, and apparently you are not using it right now. Always keep atleast 2 spare drops of elixir in hand at all times since you don’t want the damage on your tower although you have the ability to catch up for it but why risk eh? But during this period, it is quite common for you to find opportunities to create a counter push. While I would normally say “hold your horse’s mate” but sometimes I would say “let em’ run”. Now this depends on the conditions when you are atleast 3 elixirs ahead then feel free to push even so soon. You might actually get a tower. I get towers every now and then like this, so will you. Main pushes are miner+ support and once in awhile P.E.K.K.A. executioner pushes.

LATE GAME(1:00~0:00)

This is the part where it all gets interestingly interesting. The speed with which you cycle miner and poison is very fast. Followed by constant executioner tornado combo defense and a P.E.K.K.A. in front of them, your opponent has to think fast or he will be overpowered soon. Once you find out your opponent’s counter for your troops, it becomes easy to predict and overpower them. Just remember that your opponent can also cycle fast too. Don’t get carried away. Main strategy is to “defend once and attack twice”. First attack should be the counter attack and second should be another fast attack, not letting your opponent gain the upper hand. If you can manage this, then it is gg. Defend against tanks with P.E.K.K.A. and use exenado to take care of support plus swarms. Easy as that. Once any of them survive, use them to create a fierce counter push by dropping miner and guards. The value increases exponentially whenever a miner acts as a tank, since it demands quick response or high damage, both of which are useful for us.

OVERTIME

If the game reaches this part, then this means only 2 things, either you are on the verge of winning, or sadly enough, losing. Remember to clear your priority and fight accordingly. If you feel you can win, chip at him with miner poison and go all out in last 20 seconds. This will get you the crown if you deserve it. If you are losing, turtle up, and I literally mean turtle up. Defending with this deck is so strong that, if your opponent doesn’t have rocket, then you can defend 500 hp for full 2 minutes with relative ease. Just remember to never leave the tower unguarded because a princess of a dart goblin can always wreck your plans. Use pekka for tanks and exenado for swarms. Moreover, bring minions and miner to the defensive arsenal as well. But do this only if you are 110% sure you cannot win against him by any chance.

MATCHUPS

This deck in right hands can easily obliterate any push ranging from extreme ground golem pushes to all air lavaloon pushes. I will explain all the situation and solutions below:-

• Hog rider  -> Easy. Tornado it to tower to activate the king tower and use next tornado to pull hog in middle of arena. He won’t get a single hit on the tower. Alternative is P.E.K.K.A. who will defend with around 1 hit on tower and will also take care of any support behind it. Alternatively, if a hog comes pushing a mini tank like ice golem or knight, then pekka is THE best option.
• Goblin barrel -> Easy. Use tornado to activate king tower then just keep zapping them. Free king tower activation for 100 damage
• Minions/goblins(all variants) with tank-> drop executioner and tornado all troops together and the push is nowhere to be seen.
• Giant push -> Many choices. P.E.K.K.A. can be dropped on giant. The support won’t be able to kill the P.E.K.K.A so the P.E.K.K.A will kill the giant and then support will be gone soon. Though I recommend saving P.E.K.K.A for bigger tanks and worse situation where you can get the most output of this card. You could use exenado to kill giant and support without a scratch on tower.
• Golem push -> The only best choice to destroy golem is P.E.K.K.A and her mighty swings. Moreover an executioner will be a good support to and an exenado combo can take out support plus golem such that tower only takes 1 hit and death damage.
• Lavahound pushes -> There is only 1 option in this deck for this push. Executioner+tornado  is enough for any push you can face. For extras, you could add minions too and also counterpush other lanes. Just keep in mind to line up executioner with the tower to deal maximum damage.

These were all the main situations I could find till now and this much data must be quiet enough for any sort of push. This deck requires practice

CONCLUSION

This game is all about overthinking and outsmarting your opponent with a combination of cards that leaves him with no choice but to lose and this deck is the one guys. Give it a try you will love it once you get a hang of it.