Author's Recommendations

Before you read onward I would like to suggest that you wonderful readers out there check out the video linked to game-play of the deck on my own YouTube Channel. Doing this should give you insight into how I would handle myself in battle and I would also explain my thought process so that you understand why make the decisions that I do. Aside from deck guides (both written and video format) I also upload some videos which are casual, contain funny moments/montages (at the end of some videos not all) and I also give my insight into the game with quick tips etc when I have the chance. If you all do enjoy the deck and have success with it and you're interested in what I do then make sure to visit my channel and consider subscribing for more Clash Royale content. I hope that you all enjoy the deck and guide and have a ton of success and fun while using it!

Cheers everyone! 🍻

Overview

This Giant, Witch and Miner deck was a deck that I made myself during the “Arena Deck Challenges” as I decided from early on to make a new deck that could be played fairly early on in the game if one was pushing ladder from arena 4 and this deck was the result of that. I will acknowledge that most “new” decks may possibly have been used prior to someone claiming ownership so I wouldn’t be too surprised if others tried to claim they used it before I did but as far as outside inspiration goes I had none when creating this deck as it closely mimics other similar hybrid decks I would have used in the past when pushing ladder on alt accounts. Also as a side note, I had this deck appraised by pro player Saunadude who would have rated the deck to be very strong overall and he even went on to say that it was in fact one of the better deck builds he had seen. Other powerful variants exist so even if this deck doesn’t suit you well as is you can always adapt to suit what things prove to be most annoying or troublesome to you. The Poison variant of this deck is also very great if you don’t wish to use Fireball because it helps you out more readily against most beat-down decks such as Golem, Three Musketeers and Graveyard.

Anyways as you can see the deck consists of several notable cards, namely the Giant, Witch and of course my favorite, the Miner. Having both the Giant and Miner in one deck allows for versatile game play by means of switching play styles to suit matches against “hard counters” and also allowing for more strategic game play overall if the user is cunning enough to make use of the Miner to turn the odds in their favor in trickier situations.

The deck itself is composed of cards which aren’t too expensive which allow for faster cycles than most decks (excluding decks built to cycle such as Hog, Xbow, Mortar and Bait cycle decks) and in double elixir it becomes even easier to do this. If a player has an in depth understanding of card interactions and mechanics he/she can also manage to pull off some more complicated maneuvers and even address cards which the deck may not be ideally suited to handle. One such case of this would be the Valkyrie being used to take out the Goblins from the Goblin Barrel when this deck lacks The Log. From my own experience you can kill 2/3 Goblins by placing the Valkyrie in front of your crown tower just as the Goblin Barrel lands (provided that it was cast square on the tower). Game play has been shown on Youtube which suggests that the Valkyrie can actually kill all three Goblins in one go if she is place on the inner side of the targeted arena tower at a specific time much like how the Hunter and also Bowler can deal with a Goblin Barrel if used correctly.

Overall if you’re using this deck then you need to have a good understanding of how beatdown decks may work (refer to my golem guide for some good insights) and also know how to manage your elixir well. The deck can be played either aggressively or passively but after playing so many matches with it and getting as many wins as I did across multiple accounts using it for the challenge I only lost after being too aggressive which makes me believe that you should ideally play a bit more passively or rather reactively at times to ensure better odds of winning.

Offense

In this deck we would have two viable win conditions in the form of both the Miner and Giant. The Giant will obviously be used more as he is a much more efficient tank and can even be used to sponge damage and kite troops towards supporting units like the Witch and Mega Minion when the Tombstone or Valkyrie cannot be used. In more difficult match ups against decks which feature cards such as the P.E.K.K.A., Inferno Dragon/Tower and also the Hunter you can sometimes make use of cards such as the Miner to mess up your opponent’s defensive sequences. Against an opponent who uses P.E.K.K.A. that plants it in advance behind their crown tower in anticipation of your Giant or in response to it you can deploy your Miner on the inner side of the opposite arena tower as the P.E.K.K.A. strides next to the tower which should ideally catch its attention (don’t deploy the Miner exactly on the tile next to the tower but rather one or two tiles away so that it can fall in the PE.K.K.A.’s sight range) to pull her into the opposite lane. When pushing with your Giant/Valkyrie you may also use the Miner to be rid of any pesky glass cannons such as Musketeers, Wizards, Bombers and so on to prevent your opponent from getting a chance to mount a counter push against you after their defensive sequence is over. One crucial detail to be wary of is the usage of the Witch. Prior to her buff she was decent but after her buff she has proven to be a beast of a counterpushing unit with her improved skeleton spawn rate. When mounting a push always keep in mind the following:

• Always be aware of what spells the opponent has at all times. If they have Rocket or Lightning in hand you may want to avoid dropping the Witch in the back but should they run Fireball or Poison your Witch can survive it even if they combo it with Zap but a perfectly timed Poison + The Log combo can still annihilate a Witch. Sometimes you might actually want to bait these spells out to get the chance to push more freely on a counter push after they burn a Fireball etc.

• Try to keep in mind what you should be using her for. While she is amazing as a supporting unit there may be times she’d be better off being used to defend and then counter push rather than just being used in an offensive push right away. For example it would be much better to keep her handy if your opponent uses something “ swarmy“ such as a Minion Horde since after dealing with the Horde she lives on to push forward unlike a Fireball and at times when up against opponents with cards such as Prince/Dark Prince/P.E.K.K.A./Mini P.E.K.K.A. etc her gradual Skeleton spawns may be more useful than the Tombstone’s constant trickle of Larrys as the tombstone can be easily addressed with well-timed spells like Zap, The Log and Poison.

When pushing with the Miner you can also use the Zap spell to cause a lot of trouble for your opponents by sending in the Miner a bit closer to the tower than the approaching unit with leftover HP such as a Valk or Mega Minion to force it to switch targets. If done at the right time your opponent who would have thought they could ignore this soon to die troop would then be caught off guard and suffer a lot of damage because of their damage output being fairly high overall. Even as your Giant dies this can also be done if you need a fair amount of damage done on a tower to finish a match and if there are supporting units the Miner can be used as a secondary tank to buy the support more time to continue attacking the tower.

Defense

As mentioned before, defense is still pretty important in this deck despite it being a beat-down styled deck. This deck thrives on counter pushes so it’d be in your best interest to learn how you can handle things when you need to hold out just a little bit longer for the timer to run out to give you the win or even just draw out a difficult match up. The main defensive cards in the deck would consist of the Valkyrie, Tombstone and Mega Minion but the Witch should also be included in this as well because of her counter pushing capabilities. The Valkyrie by herself is enough to stop most ground support units an enemy can toss behind a tank and is a solid answer for dealing with troops such as Elite Barbarians on ladder (she should always be able to deal with Ebarbs that are roughly 2 levels above her once placed right) and she can even handle both a Prince and Dark Prince coming at her from either side of the arena. With this in mind you can definitely fare well against most incoming pushes by distracting building targeting units and most other tanks with the Tombstone while simultaneously dealing with the support by dropping a Valkyrie and/or Mega Minion.

If you see units such as a Golem/Lava Hound/P.E.K.K.A. etc (basically any big tank) coming down your lane it is usually a reasonable move to deploy a Witch for she would be able to distract units that didn’t target buildings specifically with her Skeletons and if the troop does target buildings but is on the ground then you can build up Skeletons to help DPS them down. This also allows a chance to keep the Witch on your end for a longer period of time while the tank is being dealt with so you can recuperate enough elixir to support her with things such as a Giant or a Miner etc on the counter push. Also as mentioned in the tips for offense if your opponent has a card that needs distracting but you can’t rely on Tombstone you should then use your Witch to allow multiple Skeleton spawns every few seconds. She is also very good to have around as she is a much better investment to deal with multiple air units coming your way such as a Minion Horde rather than a straight up Fireball.

Tips & Tricks

• Using the Miner strategically can change how effective some pushes may be. If matched against an Inferno Tower user you can sometimes send a Miner in there to attack the Inferno Tower directly as your Giant (which is being targeted by it) approaches and then zap it to make it switch to the Miner instead allowing you to get past the Inferno Tower with ease.

• Miner can be paired with basically any card to make something that isn’t even remotely threatening on its own such as a stray Skeleton or two from a Tombstone that expired into a real pain to deal with as the Miner tanks and they need to address it which can in some cases bait out spells such as Zap or The Log or even in rarer cases a Fireball!

• Giant can be used to kite troops into the opposite land if the Valkyrie isn’t available and Tombstone won’t cut it so that troops are lured closer to your support for them to deal with the threat.

• When defending against a Lava-Loon deck it may be a tricky match up but if your Tombstone placements are on point you can pull the Balloon in reach of the other arena tower which when paired with a well-placed Mega Minion can effectively shut down that push. If the Balloon escapes the Mega Minion’s reach you can always use Zap to hold it in reach of the second arena tower just a little longer to let another arrow or two hit it to go down. Once the Balloon is handed you can then either Fireball the pups that come after the hound or sponge damage with the Giant/Valk/Miner or simple try to address it using the Witch.

• If your opponent ever makes the mistake of dropping counters such as a P.E.K.K.A. in the opposite lane when you are not already pushing into it then it can be a good idea to push the opposite lane either lightly if you don’t have too much of an elixir advantage to cause them some trouble or heavily if you have more than enough elixir to handle the P.E.K.K.A. and a supporting unit or two. Be careful against users who also have Tornado in their deck as they can easily pull the Giant in sight range of the P.E.K.K.A.. The same applies if they have a building such as a Cannon or Tesla.