Balloon (5 Elixir Cost)
- As a beefy flying unit that deals massive damage to buildings, the Balloon can be tricky to deal with. There are two ways to dealing with Balloons – luring and killing. To lure, use any structure in front of your tower, to get the slow Balloon to waste time going out of its way to kill it. While it is flying, drop down your ranged troops and hope you have enough time to take it out before it one-shots your structure and then attacks your tower. I prefer to straight up kill the Balloon, which requires having a high damage troop that can hit air (basically Musketeer or Minion Horde). Your opponent will most likely drop the Balloon as close to the river as possible on the edge of the arena. You should drop your Minion Horde/Musketeer close to the river as well, never behind the tower if you’re in arena 5 or up. The reason is many Balloon decks also run Freeze and if your Minion Horde or Musketeer get frozen, then your tower is dead. If done correctly, the Balloon should pop before it reaches your tower. Be careful of a preemptive Arrows on your opponent’s second Balloon attempt if you use Minion Horde to counter the Balloon the first time.