How to play the X-Bow

The X-Bow deck is one of the popular decks in Clash Royale. It was widely used in the early months but has been forgotten since the nerfs it received through the previous balance changes. Thanks to the recent King’s cup challenge, which includes the X-Bowler deck, a lot of players have been reminded how fun and strong the X-Bow can be. Now with the addition of new cards and changes, the X-Bow has found its way to becoming usable again, and it’s refreshing to see the X-Bow back in the competitive scene!

Introduction

The X-Bow single-handedly destroy the enemy crown tower if left unattended. It has the longest range in the game, 11.5 range next to Mortar (11 tile range) and Princess (9 tile range). All both three of them can outrange the crown tower to deal damage.
It has a deploy time of 4 sec, giving time you 4 more seconds to earn elixir to support your X-Bow but also buying your opponent enough time to prepare for a counter attack.

It also has the fastest attack speed in the game at 0.3 seconds but having a low damage per second to balance its

power. It attacks the nearest target within range and only targets ground units.
It has a decent amount of hit points. It can survive from spells like Fireball, Lightning and even the highest damaging spell, the Rocket. It just shows that the X-Bow can perform well and won’t be easily countered by spells.

Deck Building

The X-Bow deck can be built depending on your liking but it is important that you must have higher level cards for the X-Bow deck to perform at best. If you only have level 1 X-Bow and below level 6 common cards, I’m sorry to say that there are other stronger decks for you. But if you really want to pursue your X-Bow deck, below are the most important cards that it goes along with it.

Inferno Tower
The Inferno Tower is the best building that goes along with the X-Bow. It counters any tanks in the game, especially when facing Lava Hound decks, Golem decks, and Royal Giant decks. As we all know that the X-Bow is useless if it focuses its damage to the tank, the Inferno Tower can eliminate the threat and support the X-Bow and your crown towers.

Ice Spirit and Fire Spirits

Both these spirits are the best cards to any deck which need a fast card rotation cycle. Because of its cheap elixir cost with strong card effects, you can counter many cards in the game and gain elixir advantage.
If the X-Bow is not yet available in your cards at hand, you can put down the Ice Spirit to get better card combination and cycle your deck over and over while waiting for the right card to use against your opponent.
Ice Spirit is really a great support card which helps delay opponents from destroying your X-Bow, coupled with Fire Spirits to counter flying troops, which the X-Bow won’t be able to take out.

Mega Minion
The Mega Minion is really a well-rounded flying troop because of its high health and damage. It’s not fragile as the Minions and able to support the X-Bow better against any damaging troop.

Coupled with Ice Spirit or Fire Spirits, the Mega Minion can easily destroy mid hit-point troops.

The Log
The Log is the perfect spell for X-Bow decks, as it counters a lot of cards that the X-Bow can’t handle. Because of its cheap elixir cost and push back effect, you will never go wrong with the Log spell.

It counters the Princess, eliminate ground swarm troops (Skeleton Army, Goblins, etc), pushes back ground troops like Giant and Mini Pekka to delay their damage from hitting the X-Bow, and has a long range of duration which even damages the crown tower behind!

Fireball/Rocket
An X-Bow deck won’t be complete if it doesn’t have a strong damaging spell to finish low hit point tower. You can choose Fireball or Rocket, whichever fits your play style or which has a higher level. I personally prefer the Rocket because of its high damage. You can also use the Rocket against the Three Musketeer, Elixir Collector, Sparky and any strong push.

Skeletons/Skeleton Army/Guards
This last slot is for a swarm troop. Swarm troop can be used effectively because of its ability to distract pushes and counter single target units. Some of the best swarm troop for the X-Bow deck is the Skeletons, Skeleton Army, and Guards.

The Skeletons can fit well because of its 1 elixir cost, giving you an even faster card cycle rotation. Skeleton Army is a great card for defensive attacks from tanks like Giant, Royal Giant, Hog Rider and Minter. Guards also fit well for the job, which is similar to both the Skeleton and Skeleton Army.

Tips

Placement
Before, I’ve seen players place the X-Bow at the center beside the river and target the crown tower. It’s very ineffective any easy to counter. Now, the placement of X-Bow has become vital. The X-Bow must be on the side of the lane behind the bridge where the end of the range of the X-Bow can hit the crown tower.

The placement allows your X-Bow to be safe from melee units because it will be in the range of your crown tower. It won’t also give you too much area where the X-Bow can be distracted easily or targeted by long range troops like the Musketeer. It gives you some space to deploy distractions and make them cross the bridge so you can target them better with the Log or the Rocket.

Defending
Once you’ve already destroyed one tower or reach its hit points where the Rocket or Fireball can destroy it, it’s time for you to get into defense mode. This is a safer strategy, especially if you’re in a tournament, to secure your win. You can place your X-Bow in the middle part between your crown towers so that it will attack troops that are within range. The X-Bow is an offensive card but can be turned to defensive once you’ve secured destroying a tower. It’s going to be a hard time for your opponent if you’re X-Bow becomes defensive. It even becomes stronger when used in combination with Inferno Tower. Two buildings, which both have good hit points and duration will be hard to penetrate, not to mention the low-cost troops like Ice Spirit and Fire Spirits which also support your building and towers.

Final words

The X-Bow is extremely fun to play and you’ll extremely enjoy it when you see how the X-Bow deals damage to your enemy’s towers. Just always remember that you shouldn’t put it if there is a tank in the way, go to the opposite side where the area is clear and your X-Bow can target the crown tower.

You can always try out different cards with the X-Bow and find which works for you. You can share your own X-Bow deck in the comment section below.