Hello people, today I(HS) will introduce you to a superb xbow deck that got me 12 wins(classic) and a lot of trophies! This deck is really well known, so I don’t know why there are no guides on this cool deck. Also, a lot of pros used this deck ladder and challenges, so you have more proof that this deck rules. Be aware though, this deck has a high skill cap, just like any xbow deck. So if you aren’t familiar with xbow, then I would advise you to stick to your normal deck. Enough talking, here comes the guide!

CARDS

Xbow: what would a xbow deck be without it? This building is your main win condition, and if locked onto the enemy’s tower, it will deal a lot of damage, perhaps take out the tower all by itself! Now, I will explain some of the basic rules of xbow.

1. Do not place it in front of the bridge alone and expect good results. Most Xbow decks rely on making positive elixir trades and overwhelming the opponent, thus making the Xbow connect to the tower. But if you play the deck rashly, the opponent will counter it with a single hog or bowler or some other card for a positive trade, and they can now also counterpush, while you just wasted your valuable win con. Play archers or skellies at the back. Those are all nice plays. If you don’t have anything to put down, use your spell. If your opponent does not make a move, then place troops at the back to start your experimental push(anything but xbow). To sum it up, this deck is more suited for counter pushing, not going aggressive.
2. If your opponent wasted their elixir or placed something big at the back(6 elixirs or more), punish with a quick Xbow. about 65 percent of the time, people tend to get nervous and throw whatever they have at the xbow, wasting elixir. Protect it from their small counters, and it will connect to the tower. And you can take out the tank with your Tesla, resulting in a positive trade!
3. This is related to rule number one. Bait out their counters before you actually try to take out their tower. Xbow, as you noticed, is quite costly, sitting at 6 elixirs. To make your elixir count, you need to bait out their counters. It is great if you can pull that off with a positive trade, but sometimes you just have to out cycle their counters by splitting skellies, archers, etc. this isn’t too hard to do, as this deck’s average cost is 3.0.

And you can just use it to attack and not save it for their tank pushes(beatdown), you have Tesla for that. That is the main reason I find this deck more comfortable than the ice wiz rocket cycle deck.

Knight/ice golem/mega minion: with his amazing mustache, he can slay any foe in his path! Just kidding. He is your main ground defender and the Xbow protector, due to his amazing health per elixir ratio. Same can be said for ice golem. Both do a good job protecting the Xbow, but the knight is better at taking out the cancer combo on the ladder, while ice golem is cheaper, can eliminate swarm, and allows you to cycle faster. To sum it up, knight for ladder and ice golem for challenges. But if you are overleveled, ice golem is good on the ladder too. And as for the mega minion, he performs his defender/protector role in a different way. He has insane burst damage, enabling him to quickly eliminate glass cannons such as bandit and miner. He can even target air, which helps against air decks such as lavaloon. But he doesn’t have much health, so he isn’t suitable for long fighting. The choice is entirely up to you.

	Archers: those ladies are capable of taking down air troops, meaning they are your main air defense! Archers can do many more things besides taking out air troops, though. They can be split at the back for an excellent starting play, and can also take down swarms(skarmy) with their multi-attacks(two arrows at once), and much more. They also can support your Xbow just fine, so don’t exclude them during a Xbow push. For more information on how to effectively use archers, click this.
	Skeletons: your cycle card. It spawns three doots that pack a surprising amount of damage that can take out hog while allowing the hog only 1~2 shots for a positive trade. You can also use it to kite single targeting troops, and you can just place it at the back to get yourself a nice hand.
	Ice spirit: its role is similar to that of skeletons, except it can be used to clear swarms, such as pesky minion horde.
	Tesla: our secondary building/defender. Just like any other defensive building, it is used to aggro the push and take out the tank while other troops clear the supports. But if the situation calls for it, you can also use it to clear swarms, such as goblin gang and minion horde.
	Log: use it to clear ground swarms, save it for gob barrel if you are facing bait, otherwise try to get value and chip damage out of it. If you find air swarms so annoying(bats), you can replace it with the zap.
	Fireball: use it to take out glass cannons. Try to get value and chip damage out of it. If it turns into overtime match, you can also play defense and fireball cycle to win.

REPLACEMENTS:

Xbow: maybe mortar?

Knight: ice golem, mega minion

Archers: ice wizard

Log: zap

Skellies: gobs

Tesla: inferno tower, mini Pekka

Fireball: rocket

GAMEPLAY

First Minute

Just like any other deck, play carefully and look out for their counters to your Xbow. remember rule number 1, never use Xbow at the bridge alone during the first minute unless rule number 2 happens. However, you are allowed to build up a small push from the back to draw out their counters and get the feel of their deck. If it is log bait, you can defend much easier, and is possible to fireball cycle. However, when facing beatdown or fast control, you can never let your guard down. To sum it up, play passively.

Second Minute

At this point, you should have enough knowledge of your opponent’s deck and counters to Xbow. then you can start to attempt medium sized pushes to chip their tower down. There are two things to remember: don’t be too ambitious, and positive elixir trade. You should know when to support a Xbow or abandon it to gain elixir for the next push. Usually, I abandon Xbow when I am sure they will finish it off with a heavy spell(get to know their deck first!), or when they drop a hard counter such as RG or golem. But when you are dealing with hogs and low hp glass cannons you can kill with the fireball, try to support it. And it isn’t time to go all out yet, so keep making elixir advantages(ex: killing minion horde with ice spirit and tower), and you’ll be fine.

Double elixir and overtime

About 10 or 8 seconds before DE(double elixir), start building up a push in the lane your opponent is going for. This way, you can prevent any punishments by your opponent. Of course, if they have rocket, it might be wise to space your troops out a bit and not rely on stacking troops. Once your troops reach your tower and DE hits, place the Xbow and go all out! If your push fails, there are two options: turtle up and aim for a draw, or try to set up a counter push. I would say go with the first one, since it is much safer and naturally fits with the siege idea, but if you are ambitious, then try not to spend more than your enemy, and control the card placements so they can actually help your Xbow in your counter push(for example, place Tesla near the river to defend and enable it to snipe melee troops trying to destroy your Xbow).

Conclusion

Well, that was it clashes, I hope you enjoyed the guide! This guide was a bit rushed, so I couldn’t include as much as I would have, including specific matchups.