This deck has a 71% win rate in grand challenges and today Ian is going to be sharing TWO grand challenges using this insane deck! This would be a great deck to use in the up coming global challenge. Archers are reliable to use on defence and can help you make some positive elixir trades. You also have triple spells which means you also have a counters in cycle for those spam and bait style decks and it also cycles just like the original 2.6 hog cycle. The inferno tower is a great defensive tool to use against those bigger pushes such as lava hound and golem. You also can use archers and snowball which are a solid counters to hog rider, ram rider and battle ram or you also have the inferno tower to use defensively and kite their troops. Try to play passively until you have a good three or four elixir lead then you can punish your opponent. Against miner decks try to catch the miner as much as possible with your skeletons or ice golem. Punish them with ice golem hog at the bridge when possible and have your spells ready to support if needed. Against beat down decks like golem cycle hogs early game then when they place their tank use your ice golem hog combo opposite lane. You’ll rely on inferno tower for defence here. Against Royal Giant decks you should punish opposite lane if they RG in the back and also apply pressure when furnace is out of cycle. Earthquake is great at taking out the furnace along side the hog.
Barbarian barrel is a spell card with huge potential because he can tank damage for your hog and no he’s also great against bait decks. Because it’s a two elixir card it is a cycle card to however just like all your units try to place them to ensure you get maximum value from them.
Hog rider is your main win condition and should be used to counter push after a successful defence or when your applying opposite lane pressure against golem or lava hound players. One of the main counters to hog riders are buildings like tombstone or canon, however with the earthquake you can help take out their units while also getting tower chip damage. Use the hog to kite units to such as knight, Valkyrie and mini pekka away from your tower after they’ve crossed motocross your side of the arena.
Ice golem is a good cycle card but he’s also a glass tank which means you can rely on him to tank for your hog rider or he can also protect your inferno tower from ranged units. Playing in centrally can kite units into the opposite lane for a positive elixir trade. His frost nova can synergies very well with snow ball to help take out units like minions or goblins etc.
For opening plays Ian likes to go aggressive with he hog rider, if this unit isn’t in cycle then you can also split the archers behind your king tower. You can use you skeletons to cycle too or even play the barb barrel at the bridge. It’s very important to manufacture positive elixir trades early game through defence and counter push at the right times when you know their main hog counters are out of cycle.
During double elixir you can start to support your hog rider more, a lethal combo to use is hog, earthquake and snowball, this almost guarantees your hog a few swings on their tower due to their units been slowed by the spells. Check out the video to see live grand challenge game play and see how Ian handles some of those more annoying matchups.
