Mmm it's-a Orange Juice
Hey everyone, this is yarn from Orange Juice
We'll be talking about Zap
It's a low cost spell with instant cast time that inflicts damage in a small radius
It stands out from the rest of the spells because it can stun troops and buildings
Unlike arrows, it has a much smaller radius
It does require precise timing
With a much smaller margin of error
It can't take out a large area of troops
Experienced players that know you have a Zap will stagger their troops
It's still an effective spell due to its low cost
It can 1 shot Skeletons, Goblins and Firespirits
Zap is the hard counter to the Goblin Barrel
At tournament standard levels, it's a positive elixir trade
However, if the Goblins are 1 level higher than the Zap
They'll survive with a sliver of health
Zap is great against Minion Horde
It won't 1 shot the Minions, but for the cost of 2 elixir
It renders them very vulnerable
It's justifiable to zap 3 Minions
If you Zap from across the river
A Minion will still land 1 hit on your tower
If you Zap from your side
You can prevent them from reaching your tower
This requires precise timing
You have to Zap the moment, right before your tower is about to lock onto a Minion
If you react too slowly, the towers Princess will begin to draw her bow for the 3rd shot on the same Minion
This interrupts the Arena towers final startup frame
Allowing 2 Minions to get a shot on your tower
That's over 100 damage to your tower you could've prevented with proper technique
Every little detail counts
Having Spear Goblins compliments the spell very nicely
With it's unique mechanic, the spell isn't always about positive elixir trades
The Zap enabled the Goblins to kill the Princess
Left alone, she would've been strong support, and it would've been much more costly to take her out
The stun protects troops for 1 second
It can be utilized to allow hard hitters to squeeze in 1 extra strike before dying
If you have a Hog that needs to rush the tower
A stun can disable the troops, allowing the Hog to strike the final blow onto the tower
The Zap is also great at killing Goblins
Combining these 2 principles
The Hog can dominate the tower
This doesn't have to be limited to specific units
Here the stun prevented the Mini PEKKA from killing the Hog
There're infinite scenarios where the Zap stun can change the entire game
You have to identify the situation
Use your judgement and play it correctly
With a Zap, it stunned the Dark Prince in his startup frame
He was about to strike, which would've killed 2 Goblins and the Hog
The results were devastating
Taking out the tower from full health in 1 push
Against the Ice Wizard
The stun prevented the Ice Wizard from slowing down the Mini PEKKA's attack
Allowing it to strike the tower, then take out the Ice Wizard
When playing a card that's easily countered with low cost units such as Mini PEKKA
It's good practice to hover Zap around the expected area
Every small detail contributes to your overall victory
The stun resets charge attacks
Sparky's attack takes a full 5 seconds to charge up
Zapping her resets her attack completely
Sparky has startup frames where she has to turn to the direction to initiate attack
So the Royal Giant was planted, then the Zap was quick dropped onto Sparky
Stunning a Prince or Dark Prince resets their charge attack
This is great if you have Goblins or Archers
Since the Dark Prince's regular attack doesn't kill them in 1 hit
The stun also paralyzes him in the kill zone where both Arena Towers could target him
He couldn't even kill 1 Archer
The Dark Prince's charged strike has a 360 degree area of splash
If you stun him with a Zap, you can quick drop Skeletons to surround him
It can also force buildings to retarget the nearest troop
The stun caused the Arena Tower to retarget onto the Miner
Vice versa, it can persuade the Royal Giant to retarget the nearest building
Zap can deny the Collector from pumping 1 elixir
As well as deny 1 wave of Barbarians and Fire Spirits from spawning
Knowing this, if you have other crowd control cards in your deck
It's not entirely a bad idea to Zap two passive buildings while damaging their Arena Tower
Against a Furnace and Goblin Hut, try to kill 1 wave from spawning as well
The stun is an invaluable mechanic that can change the outcome of the game
If there were a ranking system it would be an S-Tier card
The Princess can kill Minion Horde in just 2 hits
But she has a 3 second attack speed
The Zap stunned her allowing Minions to take down the tower at critical health
For the cost of 2 elixir, it provides insane value
Stunning the Princess, it won the game
Timing the stun is critical
The stun disarmed the tower and the Princess
Allowing the Goblins to deal hundreds of damage to the tower
If they try to counter your Princess their Princess
Zap can change the outcome of the duel
The opposing Princess was about to take out my Princess
The Zap stunned her WITH the Arena Tower
This brought down the health of the Princess and the Arena Tower to die in 1 shot
If your opponent plants a Cannon reactively against your Hog
It takes 3 swings to take out the Cannon
But if you Zap the Cannon, it reduces this to 2 swings
And preserves your Hog for 1 extra second
Long enough to strike their Arena Tower once
Knowing Zap allows the Hog to take out a Cannon in 2 shots
The Zap provides insane value
Stunning the Cannon and damaging the Minions
If not for the Zap that 1 Minion wouldn't have survived
That single Minion hit the tower 8 times inflicting over 600 damage
I can't stress how important the timing is
The Inferno was about to output maximum DPS
The Zap stunned the Inferno long enough for the Hog to take it out
This enabled the Royal Giant to tank for 20 seconds
When you're in a showdown
The stun gives you an edge
The 3 Musketeers output 600 DPS
So the stun disarmed them long enough to secure a victory
Zap doesn't have to be utilized exclusively on small units
The Zap dealt damage to the Barbarians
Allowing the Valkyrie to kill them in 2 shots
The stun mitigated damage done to the Valkyrie
Allowing her to survive and take out the Ice Wizard
Lets take a step back, if you look closely
The stun prevented the Royal Giant from killing the Cannon
Allowing the Cannon to get extra shots off
Finally the Zap cycled back in time to take out the Arena Tower for the win
In a showdown, it's valuable to deal chip damage as well as to stun the unit
The Zap dealt damage to the enemy tower and Musketeer as well as stun her
This allowed the Musketeer to deal much more damage to the tower
The Zap radius may be small
But when aimed properly, it can be used to its fullest potential
The Zap was very reactive and killed the Spear Goblins before they had a chance to deploy
It also clipped 2 Minions and put the Princess at critical health
That was a positive elixir trade
A really great spell to pair the Zap with is Fireball
Together they kill all these units
If you noticed your opponent is consistently using Barbarians to counter your Hog
You can use a prediction Fireball, followed by the Zap to finish off the Barbarians
Because of that combo, the Hog was able to deal over a thousand damage to the tower
One thing you want to note is that the Fireball has a kickback
This can cause you to partially miss the Zap
Ideally you want to cast the Zap right before the Fireball lands and causes the kickback
Another really strong combo are Fire Spirits paired with Zap
This combo can take on all of the units Fireball can
At a lower cost, but higher risk
The downside is that it has a smaller radius of splash
And they're susceptible to Zap and splash units
Alone Fire Spirits versus 3 Musketeers do nothing
The Musketeers are machine guns
What you need to do is quick drop FireSpirits
Followed by Zap with almost no delay inbetween
Here's a tip to pull that off, hold the Fire Spirits with your left finger
Hover over where the 3 Musketeers will be
Pre-select Zap with your right finger
Then tap with your left finger to deploy Fire Spirits and Zap in quick succession
9 elixir for 4
That's a huge positive elixir trade
The iPad is for demonstration purposes
It's very possible to do this on a mobile device
That's it for this video
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