Barbarian Hut Deck [from 1200 to1900] No epics/legends

Fun Arena 4 Barbarian Hut Deck Clash Royale

A little bit of background first, I consider myself to be completely average at clash royale. I was a level 7 stuck in arena 4 (pekka's playhouse) for what seemed like an eternity.

I tried just about every strategy I could and my trophies would fluctuate from about 1150-1350 and I never made it to spell valley. Then one day I decided to level up my goblin hut and barbarian hut and see where it would take me.Next thing I knew I was in arena 6 with ease and only 7.5/5 cards.

Since then I have levelled up and peaked at 1905. Now I think it's time to retire the deck as I'm approaching royal giant and good elixir pump users territory I don't think the deck will be as strong as it was in arenas 4 and 5.

Cards Description: Barbarian-Goblin Hut Deck

Here is a small description of the cards used in this deck and what uses do they have.

Goblin Hut - The bread and butter of this deck, it is actually an extremely versatile card. It's like an elixir collector as it creates an advantage over time, it creates lane pressure normally forcing your opponent to target the other lane, gets reasonable chip damage and in double time it can act as a pseudo distraction for hogs/giant if needed.

I will play this card only when I have over 8 elixir and will almost always put it behind one of my towers (with the exception being in double time when I have to use it to soak damage or I have too many huts). I think this card is used best defensively to annoy your opponent and force them to target a different lane.

Offensively you really need it behind something for the goblins to get decent damage on the crown tower.

Barbarian Hut - A 7 elixir card that normally never sees the light of day but I love this card. First thing I want to say about the barbarian hut is that at lvl 7 it has 1760 hit points making it the most defensive card in the game.

It takes an equal level giant 12 seconds (8 hits)a hog 10 seconds (7 hits) to take down a hut, while this is going on the hut is popping out barbs and if placed right the hog/giant should be targeted by both towers.

I will always play this card in the centre of the arena where a hog or giant will get drawn to the hut no matter which lane they come from. This card should only be played if it's in your opening hand where you have 4 elixir to defend any immediate push, mid game when you know that the hut will comfortably handle your opponents offense (really great vs hog cycle decks as hog can barely touch it) and in double elixir.

The goal of this card is to again like the hut provide a defense and lane pressure while also building an elixir advantage. The best thing about the hut is two barbs can't be left unchecked which means player are forced to defend every few seconds meaning a) you are slowly gaining and elixir advantage and b) they can't invest a lot of elixir into their push.

Spear Goblins - Great card for cycling and keeping the deck cheap, just about everyone has used spear goblins so there isn't a great deal of insight I can provide they are used for distracting units, defending, cycling and backing up a push.

Arrows - Again a very highly used card. I mainly will only use it for countering minion horde or once I know that they don't have a minion horde I'll use it to kill their cheap units. This card could be replaced with zap but I like being able to one shot a horde but with archers, spear goblins and goblin hut I guess I may just be pedantic.

Hog Rider - Whats a deck with out a hog rider. A great again everyone who has been in arena 4 or above has probably used this card. my main strategy with hog rider is to send him in front of some spawned goblins or leftover troops from defending and chip away at a tower.

I only play him when I know I have an elixir advantage to force my opponent to defend and take tower damage. Unlike most hogs decks this deck isn't a hog cycle deck meaning that I may only play my hog a few times a match instead of every chance I get.

Archers - A cheap unit that can't die to arrows and is ranged and targets ground and air. Archers are so undervalued and they fit really well on the deck as they can comfortably sit behind something bulky and do ranged damage to whatever is thrown at them.

They are also great against people who will arrow down hordes of goblins and barbarians as they will survive which is the man reason why they were selected over minions.

Valkyrie - really a defensive all star, I normally will only use her defensively, really the only card that I can reliably drop on wizards/witches/bombers which can otherwise give my deck some real trouble especially when paired behind a giant.

Once she has defended I normally chuck a few spear gobs or archer behind her to force my opponents to decided between crown tower damage or to spend elixir on defence. This was previously a bomber but I found valk to be a lot more reliable even though it made my deck 4.1

Barbarians - Again another really standard card that I will use defensively, normally to kill giant/hog if I don't think a barb hut will help or don't have enough elixir or to kill the troop that a giant is tanking for bomber/witch/wizard ect...

How To Play Barbarian Hut Deck

If I had to put my strategy into one sentence I'd say- defend until overtime and then apply as much pressure as you can with your huts in overtime.

Always try to have at least one Hut up. Applying pressure is what this deck is about, you need your opponent to spend elixir defending or need them to try and push into attacks that you can defend.

Swap lanes. If I have taken tower damage I will build my hut in that lane to deter opponents from going down that lane. This helps stalling out until overtime.

Being offensive to be defensive. The old saying "the best defense is a good offence" really holds true with hut decks, sometimes you can't play passively because next minute you have a 13 elixir push coming your way with nothing much to defend with. Constant lane pressure forces your opponent into defending meaning they can't heavily invest in a push and the best part is often times the leftover troops get taken out by the spawned troops from your huts.

Double elixir is key. If I hit double elixir with a hut up and both my towers are over 1500 hp I know the odds of me winning are in my favour. huts become so good in double elixir I will normally defend and cycle to my huts and drop as many as I can. after about 30 seconds of this you can normally really overwhelm with offense and take a tower.

Spread out your huts. Especially before double elixir there is no point to have huts super close together. it's key that you don''t as it make fireball poison lightning and rockets a lot more useful.

Knowing when to draw. If you have a bad match-up there is nothing wrong with going on the defense and stalling for a draw. if a player makes a mistake or tries to gt greedy you can punish it to try and scrape a win but sometimes just playing full defense is your best bet.

Weaknesses Against Other Cards And Decks

While these cards don't automatically mean I lose they definitely make my match-up a lot harder.

• Valkyrie/Wizard/Baby Dragon/Witch/Bomber splash damage is gross and the worst part is it's not uncommon to see more than one of these cards on the same deck or even worse behind a giant. My goto for these is normally valks or barbs once they cross the bridge, if they are paired behind a giant always take out the troop behind the giant first before dealing with the giant. Baby dragon thankfully isn't all that common, normlly archers + tower damge will take it out pretty fast otherwise spear goblins once the dragon is locked onto something.
• Poison - Pretty gross card in general but it really destroys huts, normally vs poison decks I wont play barb hut until they poison my gob hut and again it's just a matter of stalling out until double time. As I mentioned earlier spreading out the huts helps a lot
• Rocket/Lightning- while I rarely see these cards once I know an opponent has them I will normally play only my goblin hut and actually play it in the middle so they cant get tower damage on the tower they want, this is a little harder with lightning.
• Bomber tower- The defensive building that gives a hut deck the most trouble. the best way to play around it is to drop a hog as soon as you see them deploy the tower to take it out as quick as possible. if you leave it there they can get huge elixir advantage fast.
• Other Hut Decks. While they can be a hassle normally matching their huts is the way to go
• Giant+Balloon- probably my worst matchup barb hut to drag giant + loon and then lock archer/spear goblins on loon is the best way I have to deal with it, be mindful of arrows/zap as that is normally what is followed with giant loon. Once I know they have giant loon applying pressure is the best way to beat them if I can't get a tower before double elixir I normally play for the draw.
• Early aggressive plays. While this is a problem that nearly every deck can face it is a lot more problematic for hut decks. Sometimes when someone sees a hut played they drop everything that they can to try and get a quick crown tower. often times you can defend for only a bit of damage which you can then counter push with but sometimes you just don't have the right cards and they can take a quick 1-0 lead which you will then have to work hard to get back.

If you have gotten this far, Thank you for reading!! Any thoughts/feedback/questions are welcome also I'd love to see other hut decks out there especially the ones that have made if to legendary arena!