What’s up fellow players, it’s me Norbysweg again, and today, after a very, very long time of silence, I can say that I’m back with a blast: probably the best deck (and guide!) in the current meta.
Trust me, after you read this post, you will be more motivated to play it than you might expect.
X-Bow Cycle Deck
Pros
- Defends easily with both splash, slow, tank and point damage
- Only uses two legendaries, level-independent
- Easily counters most meta decks including Log bait and MK Hog, and also Golem decks! Counters every deck made of mostly low-HP troops
- Honestly overpowered in terms of cards and playstyle
Cons
- Hard to learn, requires deep defensive skills and game interactions knowledge
- Hard countered by Surg’s Golem Rocket deck (yet I won 3 out of 3 matches xD)
- Can be boring and repetitive when trying to get 6 minute draws in challenge (it’s better than losing tho)
- Can deeply be predicted or outplayed by a very skilled opponent
I played with this deck in Grand Challenges first to practice: Starting off with lousy 8,9 wins, I’ve managed to get 4+ of 12 wins overall! I played in CCTS, several Gamebattles matches and a few clan raids, getting a 26-1 record with it! And after lots of practice, I’ve managed to get 20 Wins, on the second try in the Crown Championship Finals Challenge!
This deck is very popular on high ladder at the moment: Many people got to first place with it, including som333, sencer, TNT and more!
Hands down it’s my favorite deck right now. It is stable, defends well, cycles super fast and can easily beat any type of deck!
My favorite aspect of it is that you only need one good X-Bow, and (if your opponent’s deck isn’t made to break through the X-Bow) you can just place a defensive X-Bow and start Rocket cycling!
Cards Breakdown
X-Bow
Your main win condition of course, the placement I usually go for is one tile from the side of the Arena and one from the Bridge!
Against Golem and Giant, you want to do the 4-4 opposite side plant, with the X-Bow four tiles from the River and four tiles from the Arena Tower the Golem is facing!
Counterpushes with this Badboy are insanely valuable, and insanely powerful with the new 3.5 seconds delay!
Usually when playing X-Bow, you want to protect it the most you can and get it to lock on, while here: you kind of want to do both of them!
Remember: each deck you’re facing requires a different approach in order to win (e.g. against Golem you want to Cycle your X-Bow so you can get it to lock on before they place the Golem, but against Hog Decks you want to build a bigger fortress around it so cheap stuff can’t take the Bow out easily!)
Ice Wizard
Key defensive card, slows everything down and offers lots of value when used with Tornado.
When defending, you want to use him so spells like Poison don’t get value (e.g. not placing him close to the X-Bow), and mostly use him as a card that sets the pace, slows everything down, and helps defending easier!
Mega Minion
Second key defensive card, I mostly use him as a support killer by placing him in the middle of the push, while the Ice Wizard slows and the Ice Golem tanks, but you should use him as a tank killer in some cases (e.g. a lone Giant).
A lone Mega Minion’s chip damage is almost a Rocket!
Ice Golem
#1 support for the X-Bow, Great card to tank the Mega Knight, great to kill Bats, great for everything it’s supposed to do!
Skeletons
Quick cycle card, adds more point damage to the deck overall
Log
Best spell to use with X-Bow
Tornado
Used to pull Hogs, Goblin Barrels, Giants, to the King Tower, and also in synergy with Ice Wizard and Ice Golem to defend against swarmy pushes.
Rocket
Your second win condition!
Always Rocket troops whom cost 4 Elixir or more, and in Double Elixir you can just Rocket anything close to the Tower!
General Gameplan
Before we go in-depth about this deck, let’s understand the cards that make an X-Bow deck successful, what’s your goal, etc.
A Classic X-Bow deck hovers around protecting your X-Bow as much as possible, with the cards available, most often medium-cost ranged troops supported by tanks and quick flying units.
There’s a defensive building and a Pump most often, but Tornado can take their place nicely.
Your goal is to build a large Elixir advantage and beat your opponent down with your X-Bow only.
An X-Bow cycle deck involves letting go of pushes when necessary and cycling back to it with your opponent’s counters out of hand.
They mostly contain 2 cycle troops, a control card and Rocket as a second win condition.
They have the chance to play defensive X-Bow and Rocket cycle their opponent out when needed.
The Basics of X-Bow Cycle
Your strategy and your decisions matter the most here.
Examining your opponent
First up, one of the most important steps is examine your opponent and try to figure out what deck he has, and from there on, you should decide of you can handle it and Rocket cycle at the same time. (or not).
For example: You just dealt 1000 damage with your X-Bow and it’s the middle of the game. Your opponent plays Log Bait.
The Question: Can you hold still with defending and Rocket cycling at the same time or not?
Of course you can, Log bait is mostly made of small-HP troops like Princess and Goblin Gang (defensive X-Bow gives them no chance), and you also have two spells to deal with the Barrel!
In this matchup, you can just lean back after you hit them hard. Against a Golem deck – you should rely on the X-Bow more, because you’ll probably need the Rocket on defense!
Cycling
Smart cycling at the start of the game and even throughout requires patience and calm.
If you don’t have those, you can just read these few lines.
Skeletons at the back, Ice Wizard at the Back, Ice Golem at the Back, they don’t seem dangerous moves!
They don’t even need to be: You’re scouting your opponent out and waiting for their reaction, so you can build your push from there!
If you just drop down an X-Bow at the start of the game, chances are, you’ll be hit by a Golem in front!
Defending
X-Bow, Ice Wiz, Mega Minion and Ice Golem: they all play important roles in defending a huge push!
X-Bow is used in the 4-4 placement like I said before, Ice Wiz at the side of the Arena, closer to the Tower, Ice Golem to tank the support troops and Mega Minion to kill them at the same time! If things get out of hand or seem so, a Tornado fixes everything! If their push consists of some tank and 3+ high-HP cards, you usually want to Rocket that.
Since the Competitive meta is very diverse right now, I don’t feel like writing a Matchups tab, also because this archetype works the same with almost every deck.
Replacements
Sooo… That was it guys! I hope you enjoyed my 14’th guide, because it was a very special moment for me: getting 20-1 for the second time!
I wish you guys good luck in the challenge, and let me know how this deck had helped you!
Bye!
Arena 10, Arena 11, Arena 12, Arena 9, Xbow
