Today we have CARLTHELEGEND on the channel who is in my opinion the best lavaloon player in the world! Lavaloon is a strong deck and it has been prevalent in different metas for a long time. Your main aim is to build up a push behind your hound and overwhelm the opponent. Against golem decks you should apply pressure with the balloon and minions as soon as the opponent plays their tank in the back. The barbarians and tombstone are the only two ground units inside this deck so against bridge spam or siege decks you need to get as much value from these two cards as possible. You can support them with your spells and minions as well. Fireball and zap can kill pretty much hall medium HP units in the game when paired together. The fireballs knock back ability can be a useful on defence against hogs, royal hogs, ram rider, balloon and it can also be used to reset an inferno dragon. The zap spell will mainly be used to protect you balloon from bats or to reset an inferno tower or a sparky.
Hound should mainly be used a tank for your other cards in this deck. The hound itself will do minimal damage to a tower so you should always try to have support cards behind her. Just like golem decks sometimes you need to tower trade in order to win a match, this is important against siege archetypes and also some graveyard decks.
Balloon is a good card to use to apply opposite lane pressure when you need to force your opponent to spend elixir defensively. It can also be used to bait out air defence units that could be used against your lava hound. You can also apply dual lane pressure if your opponent uses all their air counters against the lava hound. Remember this card has death damage which can kill minions, goblins and also chip away at the opponents tower.
Mega minion is my go to card in most defensive situations, it can be paired with the tombstone to help defend against most things your opponent can throw at you. It also has a good counter push opportunity behind the lava hound too because it can help keep her alive for longer.
Early game you should play fairly passively, Carl doesn’t recommend starting out with the hound straight away. You can start out with tombstone, minions or mega minion however you should wait for the opponent to make the first play.
Once you hit double elixir you can start ramping up the offensive pressure and fully supporting your lava hound. Unless your going for the tower trade always have units ready to defend before playing the hound. Keep cycling those balloons and using your spells to support your pushes. Goodluck with this deck everyone!
