Hey guys, its Blaze back with another guide for you all. Today, I will be breaking down the Royal Recruit and Hogs dual lane pressure deck.
Deck:
Royal hogs, royal recruits, earthquake, barb barrel, zappies, flying machine, gob cage, electro spirit
Card Breakdown:
Royal Hogs:
Royal Hogs are the main win-condition of this deck. Even though they deal quite less damage per hit, their quick hit speed and 4x count makes up for it. You can place them at the bridge as quick spam attack or place them in the middle of the river and split them for dual lane pressure.
Royal Recruits:
Although the piggies are the win-condition of the deck, IMO the Royal Recruits are the core of the deck. It is a low skill card, as even though they cost 7 elixir, you can plop them down and opponent can’t really punish you. You can perform a 3-3 split or a 4-2 split depending on your need and keep applying the dual lane pressure. They can act as tanks for your piggies and support troops as well as do a great deal of work on defence.
Earthquake:
Earthquake is used to take out buildings which are used to distract your piggies. It can also act as your secondary win-condition due to its high Crown Tower damage to elixir cost ratio in case you cannot get your piggies to connect.
Barbarian Barrel:
Easily the strongest cheap spell in the game at the moment. For 2 elixir, you can clear out ground swarms and have a barbarian to take out the higher health support troops. ‘Nuff said.
Zappies:
Zappies are the main part of your defence. They can almost perma-stun enemy troops which can do wonders on defence. They can also be split 2-1 so you can again apply dual lane pressure. They can also bait our Fireball so that you can freely use your piggies or Flying machine. On defensive side of things, you can place them in the center so that they kite enemy troops like Prince, or place them towards the inner edge of your Princess towers so that they can get the maximum stun possible on cards like the Giant.
Flying Machine:
Flying machine is an amazing card to have in a deck as it can be extremely hard to take out due to its long range, without using a Fireball. This makes it an extremely strong card and a staple in fireball bait decks. It also has a weird shadow and does its often possible than the enemy misses their spell. It’s long range and sight enables to snipe buildings as well as lock on to crown towers when the opponent doesn’t expect it.
Goblin Cage:
One of two best buildings in the meta, completes the defensive trio with RR and Zappies. You can place in the center of the map to kite enemy troops while your Princess tower reduces their health, and once the cage is destroyed the spawned Goblin Brawler can finish them off. The Goblin Brawler can also put up a lot of pressure as it has a high damage potential, especially behind the Recruits and piggies.
Electro Spirit:
The final card of the deck, eSpirit provides lot of cycling ability. It’s chain stun attack can be useful on defense, in conjunction with the stun by Zappies. On offence, it can clear out small swarms placed to counter your piggies while also allowing the piggies to get a few extra hits with its stun. Since, you’ll be doing dual lane pushes a lot, the opponents tend to use a lot of defensive troops which really give the eSpirit’s chain attack a lot of value.
Gameplay:
Starting Play:
For the starting play this deck has a lot of choices. You can either split Royal Hogs at the river or Zappies behind your King Tower, you can cycle your Barb Barrel at the bridge or just plop down your Goblin Cage. Heck, you can even split your Recruits in the back if you don’t have anything else in your hand or the enemy doesn’t give you a choice to play anything else.
Don’t cycle Electro Spirits at the bridge in the start, or even anytime during the match as it gives your opponent a chance to active their King Tower, which puts you at a disadvantage.
Synergies:
This deck has three main trios or components: The Dual Lane Pressure trio consisting of Royal Recruits, Royal Hogs and Zappies; The Fireball Bait trio of Royal Hogs, Zappies and Flying Machine; and The Defensive trio of Royal Recruits, Goblin Cage and Zappies.
As you can see, majority of the cards perform multiple roles as well as synergize extremely well with each other individually as well as the three Trios. This is the reason why this deck works so well, other than the strength of the cards in the current meta.
In Single Elixir:
Your game plan would be to apply passive dual lane pressure and focus on defending and counter pushing in general. Don’t be afraid to play your Royal Recruits in Single elixir time as it is the card that holds this deck together. This a mistake I see many players make: saving their Recruits for Double Elixir. Take advantage of Fireballs used by your opponent.
In Double Elixir:
You should start actively applying dual lane pressure with your hogs and getting creative with your spells and Flying machine. Flying machine should most often be placed in the centre at the river so it can attack both of the enemy lanes from that position, but can also be placed at the bridge on so that it can kill enemy troops place towards the edge of the arena.
In Triple Elixir:
Try to overwhelm your opponent with dual lane pressure. In case you can’t overwhelm your opponent, you can instead go super defensive and start cycling as many EQs as you can.
Matchups:
This deck works well against most decks in the meta. The only two weakness I can think of our Lava Hound and Splashyard.
Against Lava Hound:
You don’t have any card that can directly go aggro on the Balloon when it’s behind the Hound, and even if you can get your Zappies on the Balloon, the opponent can Fireball then. You can’t get a lot of value of EQs or Barb Barrels as well since these both are Ground only spells against an Aerial deck.
Against Splashyard:
It’s difficult to connect your Hogs due to the high splash and Tornado activations. Your Recruits will most likely melt away as well and you can’t bait out Poison that well since the opponent can easily bring your troops together using Tornado.
That’s all folks! Hope you guys enjoyed reading this guide and have fun with deck. Clash on!
Sayonara,
Blaze Stone
