Hey guys! Its Blaze with my 25th Clash.World guide!! I am super excited! Continuing the streak of writing milestone guides related to my favorite card Poison (and Miner too) I will be writing this guide, The Ultimate guide on using Poison!
Poison is hands-down my favorite card in the game, be it ladder or tournament I always try to add Poison in my deck as much as I can. Currently, its almost lvl7 on my main account so you know how much I like it and well how much experience I have with it since I am using it since Trifecta w/Poison was the meta!
So, let’s start without any further delay!
Ultimate Guide To Using Poison
Overview to Poison
Poison is a 4 Elixir Epic Spell card which is unlockable from Arena 5 (Spell Valley).
In basic terms, it is a cross between Arrows and Fireball i.e. moderate damage of Fireball (bit more than Fireball) with the long radius of Arrows as well as having the Damage Over Time aspect to it.
Poison lasts for 8 seconds and has 8 ticks i.e. one tick per second.
At Tournament Standards, it deals 75 DPS (30 to Crown Towers) so, in total 600 dmg (240 to Crown Towers).
All these factors make it one of the best spells in the game in terms of its ability to provide high value (more value than The Log, mainly because it can also hit air) for just 4 Elixir.
Earlier, Poison had the slowdown ability just like the Ice Wizard. However, due to it Poison became too over-powered and it was nerfed. After that nerf, Poison dropped from the Top Tier to the Bottom most tier and needed two more buffs to actually be back in the meta like the one now.
Poison’s interaction with other cards:
At equivalent levels, Poison interacts in the following manner:
- It takes 1 tick to kill
- It takes 2 ticks to kill
(Lava Pups)
- It takes 3 ticks to kill
- It takes 4 ticks to kill
- It takes 5 ticks to kill
- It takes 8 ticks i.e. its whole duration to kill
- It cannot kill but severely damage
- It is a great counter to spawner buildings:
- It denies 5 Elixir out of 8 Elixir from the
Synergies w/Poison on Offense and Defense:
Poison + Ice Golem:
Poison takes time to deal damage so many a times, troops escape its radius before it can completely damage them.
Ice Golem can distract the troops for some seconds so that they remain in the radius and its death damage can kill the troops which survive with a sliver of health.
Its Slowdown effect after death has overall a similar kind of effect with Poison as Poison’s pre-nerf slowdown.
This is actually very good when couple with Hog Rider as the Poison + Ice Golem’s Frost Nova can slowdown cards like Barbarian allowing Hog one more hit and later on kill the Barbarians as well.
Poison + Ice Spirit:
Just like Ice Golem, Ice Spirit also helps troops to prevent escaping.
It can stun a bunch of troops for 1.5 second that is it can ensure at least 2 ticks of Poison and with his damage kill troops which survive with sliver of health.
This combo is cheaper than above combo, but Ice Spirit can die rather quickly before actually stunning troops due to his low HP so Ice Golem is a bit safer option.
Poison + Ice Wizard:
The third member of the Frozen Trio.
Like I said above, Ice Golem’s Frost Nova gives a similar effect like Poison’s pre-nerf slowdown.
What if you had constant slowdown? That’s right! Ice Wizard is a great defensive combo to do with Poison.
Even after rebalancing, Ice Wiz takes too much time to deal damage, but with Poison you don’t have to worry about damage! Poison can deal all the damage while Ice Wiz slows down troops and makes them stay longer in the Poison’s radius.
This is a great combo on defense when you have strong beat down push coming, especially when your deck also has Inferno Tower/ Dragon.
Poison + The Log:
The Log can push back troops back into Poison’s radius as well as deal decent amount of damage thus making sure that most troops don’t survive.
Only downside is that you can’t push air troops :P.
Poison + Tornado:
With this you can pull troops in the Poison’s radius.
For e.g., let’s say opponent splits 3M in the back. You can pull all 3 in one lane and then kill them together, damage the Tower with +2 Elixir trade. Value!
This is also useful when using Graveyard (as in Splashyard decks) where you can pull troops in the Poison radius so they die quickly and GY deals good amount of damage. One problem is that this combo cost 7 Elixir so use it whenever you get good value.
Poison + Zap:
Aside from its ability to stun and damage the troops so they die completely, Poison helps in situations where a low HP troop (Minion Horde, Minions, Dart Goblins, Archers) become pretty annoying when you have good push going.
Zap instantly kills them and thus, your troops are free to damage.
However, as I said above, this tactic should be used only when you have a good, strong push going.
Poison + Valkyrie:
This is a pretty good offensive combo when you can pair the Valkyrie with a troop that can push her like a Battle Ram.
This is kinda like a Beefed-up Ice Golem + Poison combo. Instead of waiting for Ice Golem to die and Poison completing its duration, Valkyrie can quickly kill swarms like Barbarians (even Elite Barbarians) when they are used for defense and clear the way for your win-condition.
Poison also kills any air swarm like Minion Horde when they are used for secondary defense when the first one failed.
Poison + Inferno Tower/ Dragon:
Poison helps to clear out any cheap low HP units which are send to distract Inferno Tower/Dragon and makes it easier to kill the tank.
owever, in case the opponent sends troops like Barbarians, you may have to use another troop along with these cards.
That’s the reason I said that Poison + Ice Wizard + Inferno Tower/Dragon is a pretty strong defensive combo as Ice Wizard can help kill distracts as well as slow down the Tank and the support units.
*Poison + Bowler is a good combo as it’s boulders push back troops back in the Poison. But most troops which are effected by the push back generally die to Poison + The Log which also has pushback and Bowler being costly, generally I recommend using The Log*
Special Tactics and Placements:
Always use your Poison to gain value and not for Tower damage.
For e.g. If opponent splits 3M in the back, Poison the Tower with 2M and not the Tower with lower HP.
Value > Tower Damage
Predicted Poison / Pre-Poison:
Pre-Poison is the most important tactic that you should learn as a Poison user. This tactic can give you loads of value if you master it.
In this tactic, you basically place your Poison beforehand on the arena where you think opponent most likely will drop a card. The effect of this is that the dropped will die quickly and won’t get enough time to do much damage. This tactic not only helps on offense but also on defense. Many a times, opponent ends up placing many troops and giving you more value.
For example,
On Offense: Opponent always counters your Bandit with Tombstone. Any Skeletons that spawn will die so Bandit can dash straight to the Tombstone and the death-spawn Skeletons will also die to Poison so opponent will need to drop another card say Goblin Gang to counter the Bandit or they will get damage. The Goblin Gang will counter the Bandit but they will die themselves due to Poison. Overall, you ended up getting -1 Elixir trade but for 240 dmg to Crown Tower which isn’t a bad trade.
On Defense: Opponent always supports his Giant Witch push with Minions to distract your Inferno Tower. Poison the Giant Witch as well as the area near the Inferno Tower where most likely Minions will be dropped. Poison will kill the Minions as well Witch’s Skeletons along with severely damaging her before they can distract the Inferno Tower. Giant and the Witch will die to Inferno Tower along with help of your Crown Tower giving you +4 Elixir trade which is huge for defense against 1 push.
In order to successfully use this tactic, you need to learn to read your opponent, understand his playstyle and his moves and manipulate him in order to make him drop particular card and give you value. This skill will only be learned to battling more and more and will improve as you become more experience.
Passive Poison:
When using Poison passively i.e. just to kill a single troop and not as support for offense or defense, place your Poison in such a way that as soon as you drop Poison, the troop walks in the radius.
Don’t drop the Poison on the troop even if it is a low HP troop like Princess or Archers.
There are two reasons behind it:
- When the troop walks in the Poison, it receives dmg by all 8 ticks so the Poison can fully deal its damage
- If opponent wants to drop another troop he won’t be able to do so because the new troop will also be damaged.
It is also possible that since you didn’t drop Poison earlier, opponent may drop another troop (or even a building) just as you place your Poison giving you more value.
Countering Furnace:
Poison is a great counter to Furnace.
Generally, when you use Poison, 1 Fire Spirit still makes it to your Tower.
Now, I will tell you a simple technique so that 0 fire Spirit will make it to your Tower which is pretty beneficial as each Fire Spirit deals lot of dmg. Instead of placing your Poison as soon as they drop the Furnace, wait for 3 seconds and place your Poison (or just enough late that at least 1 of the spawned spirits is damaged by 1 tick).
The reason behind this is that, Poison lasts for 8 seconds while Furnace spawns 2 Fire Spirits after 10 seconds. So, if you place Poison as soon as they drop a Furnace, Poison’s duration will be over before the next wave. If you wait for some time and drop Poison just enough that 1 Spirit is damaged, the Poison will last just long enough that 1 fire Spirit from the 2nd wave will be damaged. So, you don’t have to worry about 2 waves of Fire Spirits as the Crown Tower will kill them before they go Kamikaze mode. 1 fire Spirit less can be considered almost as 1 moderate spell more to finish off Tower.
Using its Large Radius:
Poison has a large radius as you know. Always try to utilize this to the maximum to give maximum value.
For e.g. Due to its large radius, Poison can damage to Elixir Collector (or other passive buildings as well) if 1st is placed in front of King Tower near to left Princess Tower and 2nd behind left Princess Tower besides the King Tower. So, you will end destroying the 1st Collector denying 5 Elixir of the 2nd Collector as well as dealing 240 damage to the Princess Tower. Only care should be taken that you place it precisely and pay attention to it. Many a times, your finger might slip and you may end up activating the King Tower.
Poison for Ladder Play vs Tournament Play:
Even though, I use Poison on Ladder, I face many problems which doesn’t make it the best choice for ladder. Mostly, Fireball dominates the ladder.
On the other hand, Poison is actually a pretty good choice for Tournament Play where Fireball isn’t seen as much.
Poison is an epic card so it is difficult to level it up. And in the format where there isn’t a limit to over levelling of commons, Poison has a harder time than compared to Fireball (a rare card which can be levelled up in short time, if not as easily as commons).
Poison takes significantly longer time to kill the troops which sorta gives the feel that troops survive infinitely long in the Poison.
In Tournament Play though, due to level restrictions, Poison does a good job at dealing damage even better than Fireball as at equivalent levels, Poison does more damage. Also, its slow duration and control aspect makes it better choice for the long Tournament play.
Most strong Ladder win-conditions don’t have a strong synergy with Poison and thus Poison doesn’t do well for Trophy Pushing except for certain cases.
Most strong Tournament win-conditions have a strong synergy with Poison and thus Poison does well for getting wins consecutively.
Best Win-Condition to use with Poison:
As I said above, Ladder win-conditions don’t do well with Poison and Tournament win-conditions.
Since, strong Ladder win-conditions are mostly Commons and Rares while Tournament Win-conditions are Epics and Legendries, Poison can be said to do well with Legendary and Epic win-conditions than Rares and Commons.
Miner:
Of course, I would have to start with this. My first legendary Miner!
Miner Poison is pretty strong tactic for Tournament Play and can actually be considered Tournament Meta.
Their synergy is pretty simple and effective making it a beautiful combo. Miner is killed mostly by swarms and Poison is one of the best swarm clearing cards.
Use them together and you can easily damage. Poison guarantees Tower damage while helping Miner to do more hits together chipping the Tower.
This deck type has a lot of variety and I will be doing a guide specifically on this deck type very soon!
P.E.K.K.A.:
The meta tank and tank killer!
P.E.K.K.A. as you know can easily be distracted and killed by swarms so like above, we have one of the best swarm killer: Poison!
Some may argue that generally P.E.K.K.A. even though being win-condition in general, isn’t actually treated as a win-condition in most P.E.K.K.A. Poison decks. But since their synergy is pretty strong I decided to include it here.
This combo is best used along with Miner, Hog Rider or Battle Ram as win-conditions.
Graveyard:
Graveyard and Poison have an insane synergy like they were created by Supercell to complement each other almost perfectly.
Poison protects the Graveyard for 8 seconds out of 9 seconds of Graveyard’s duration thus enabling Graveyard to deal relatively more amount of damage.
Battle Ram:
Battle Ram has a pretty strong synergy with Poison which can be proved by the dominance of Bridge Spam couple of months back.
Poison takes care of all swarms (yup, you will find this word lot of times here) which threaten Battle Ram and giving it the opportunity to charge straight toward the Tower and deal tons of damage.
Giant:
We have Goison!
For those of you new players who didn’t play CR almost a year back, Goison was the meta during that time. And by far IMO, the most annoying meta. You all know how annoying it is to face RG and EB, but we admit it they are seen in like once in 5 battles on average. Goison was faced by us in almost every other battle. How annoying would that have been. This combo was so strong that Poison had its slowdown removed because this combo broke the game.
Enough of history, this combo works because Poison gives control and constant damage over a large area enabling the support to kill the defences while the Giant tanks.
Hog Rider:
Hog Rider + Poison wasn’t seen much for a long time until the recent P.E.K.K.A. Hog deck started dominating in Tournaments. This combo was actually a pretty strong combo and the meta before the Goison Meta. It was the Trifecta Meta!
Trifecta = Hog + Valkyrie + Musketeer. This combo dominated the game for a pretty long time and may occasionally crop even now after 1 year!
Poison is a swarm clearing card and does helps Hog. But since the current meta Hog decks are more fast paced, especially for Ladder, Fireball seems a better choice in general.
Golem:
Not seen much in a long time but still viable. Goison is OP? What bout this stronger Goison?
Golem Poison is pretty smart combo because Golem death damage along with Poison can finish of a majority of troops and deal loads of damage making the road clearer for the support to deal damage.
Currently, Golem is seen more with Lightning (due to removal of Poison’s slowdown and addition of stun effect to Lightning) and thus this combo is a rare sight.
Lava Hound:
Again, not seen much but a good combo is Lava Hound + Poison.
Lava Hound is basically countered with either Air swarms or Point Damage Glass cannons or Inferno Tower/Dragon.
Out of these, Poison can take care of the air swarms and Glass cannons. And you can add Zap for the Infernos.
However, as above, Lightning is popular choice as it can counter Infernos + Glass Cannons better and have Arrows for air swarms. But if using a Lava Miner deck, Poison is slightly better.
Best Poison Decks in the meta:
Finally, we have the best decks utilizing Poison in the current meta.
*You may not see all of the above-mentioned win conditions while see some repeated. The reason behind this is that not all of the win-conditions are the strongest options to use in the meta at the moment*
P.E.K.K.A. Hog Poison Cycle
P.E.K.K.A. Miner Poison Control
Giant NW Miner Poison Beatdown
New Meta Bridge Spam
Knightyard Poison Cycle
That’s all folks! Hope you guys enjoyed reading this long guide and have more success with Poison. Ask me about anything the comments section below!
Bait:
)which can fit in many deck archetypes.
