Today one of the best CRL Asian players, Benzer Ridel, is sharing some replays with us of his number one deck! Watching the replays you can see that he will use the cheapest option in cycle to help defend against the opponents pushes when applicable. A great thing about this deck is you can switch up what you use as your win condition, the miner or mortar, depending on what the opponent is playing. Mortar is a good counter to hog rider decks, when possible use a high mortar placement so you can still kite the hog and then start targeting their tower. I would say this deck needs to be played fairly aggressively, playing the miner can stop to opponent from building a large push if they have their win condition in cycle, also playing him when their win condition in out of cycle makes it harder for them to punish you on the counter push. Spear goblins and support you mortar very well, they can be played opposite lane to help support defensive mortars or they can also help defend if you have he rascals down too.
Miner is your secondary win condition, you can also play him to snipe the princess if she is out of range of your barbarian barrel. If you play him against and elixir collector then be sure to pressure at the bridge too, this will make it more difficult for the opponent to defend. In double elixir you can synergies the miner and snowball together just like you would a miner and poison. If they have units that are susceptible to the snowball be sure to pair them together! If you have swarm units crossing the bridge then placing the miner behind their tower can kite units to the miner which opens the path to their tower potentially allows you to get some good damage off their princess towers.
Barbarian barrel can be used to help protect your mortar from swarm units. You can play it predictively once you know what your opponents cycle is. This is also a great counter card to princess and goblin barrel. It works well against the witch if you time your placement correctly so it takes out the skeletons just as they spawn.
Rascals are a great defensive unit and have good counter push potential because the boy can help protect your mortar or even tank some tower damage for the miner while your girls get some shots on their tower. Although they’re getting a nerf they should still be viable to use on ladder and also in challenges.
Early game you can start out the match with spear goblins at the bridge or you can even play miner into the safe spot. Against beat down deck you should be looking to be going into double elixir with the damage lead, the to play aggressively to keep forcing the opponent to defend, aim to get small chip damage, don’t over commit and leave yourself with no elixir to defend.
In double elixir you can start to support your miner more with the snowball if you know what the opponent has in cycle. Keep applying pressure even if you have already taken a tower. Remember against graveyard decks try to keep switching lanes to force the opponent to split their tower damage.
