Mmm it's-a Orange Juice
Hey everyone this is yarn from Orange Juice
Elixir Collector's and spawners are passive buildings that allow you to build an elixir advantage over time
A direct advantage is gained overtime with an Elixir Collector
An indirect advantage is banking elixir by planting a spawner on the map
Using a pump forces your opponent to address it, otherwise if it's left ignored
They risk being at an elixir disadvantage
This advantage allows you to punish them with high cost combos, or rapid cycle cards
Placement of the pump is critical at being able to pump up effectively
Placing the pump behind your arena tower is good against decks that don't have miner
It's also a very good placement if they have poison
Planting it in the back limits the range they can poison your side of the map
It gives you more options to place defending troops without being captured by poison
Always plant the elixir collector near the tower with higher health
This can force your opponent to attack the other side
If your opponent ignores it, you’ll be able to passively build for a strong push
When planting it beside the King’s tower, the most likely positions the Miner is coming from will either be here, or here
Planting your defending card here is best to counter the two most likely miner positions
This is the Miner gamble position, if the Miner is planted there, and you leave him alone, he’ll activate your King’s Tower
If a Miner is planted on any of these positions, and you want to push the other side with a Musketeer
She has the range to reach these tiles
This placement is good at protecting the pump from the Miner
He’ll be targeted by both towers
Rocket won’t be able to target both the crown tower and elixir collector
But this position is vulnerable to poison
It allows your opponent to poison your pump, tower, and front of field to support their push
The Elixir pump can also allow you to double pull cards that target buildings
If the elixir collector was low on health
You don't lose much elixir
You also gain an opportunity to manipulate your opponents units to activate your King's tower early
This doesn't work if the elixir pump is 1 tile in the other lane
If you're in a pinch, you can use them to distract or pull units away from your tower
Knowing when to pump is critical for great pump play
If you're at an elixir advantage
Or you know your opponents counter to your pump is out of rotation
It's a good time to pump
You shouldn't pump if you don't have any units to defend
Generally after a huge positive elixir trade, it's safe to pump up
Shoutout to MRacing for discovering you can counter Triple Musketeers with Guards & Ice Spirit
Spells are another common way to deal with the collector
However, it can leave you with an elixir or card disadvantage
If that's your only way to attack the pump
Miners are a direct counter to the pump for a positive elixir trade if you have one
Be mindful to always switch up your placement so it's always harder to counter your Miner
Spawner cards are a great way to get constant pressure onto a lane
Your opponent will need to address the spawner
Or face chip damage dealt to their tower
You can also use spawners to apply pressure to both lanes simultaneously
They can be difficult to deal with if you don't have the correct cards in your deck
Splash units such as Bomber do well against spawner decks
Like the Elixir Pump
Placement is key when using spawner type cards
To pressure a certain lane
You'll want to plant your spawner in the middle and offset it towards the lane you want to pressure
If you have one spawner in the lane, and you're able to cycle to a second one
You should place the second one behind the crown tower so they don't get easily countered by spells
Poison and lightning are your greatest enemies
The Tombstone can be used like a defensive structure
In most cases you can treat the Tombstone like you would a Cannon
For example you can pull a Giant with a maximum distance using a 4 - 3 plant
Its great for distracting single target units, slowing down their push so you can mount your defence
Each Mortar attack is very slow, but strong
A single Skeleton can distract the Mortar
The Skeleton spawns are also amazing at absorbing Sparky blasts
It's also great at distracting the Princess
You can also perform a surprise defensive tombstone by placing it directly under the enemy
By doing this, you can push the unit out of range and also surround them with the Skeletons that spawn
You can even push back the Royal Giant with the Tombstone
You can't even do that with a Cannon
Or it can simply be used to force a Musketeer to retarget, for a positive elixir trade
If you couldn't plant the Tombstone in time to pull the Hog, it's effective as a clutch defense
Planting it last second, the spawned Skeletons deal quite a bit of damage to the Hog
Shoutout to Woody the Mortar Mauler from Reddit Alpha for these tips
Volunteering his time to help me compile the script for this video
For those of you who don't know him, he's one of best Mortar and Tombstone players in the game
You can catch him on Twitch by following the link in the description below
Hope you enjoy his replay
Thanks for watching
Stay tuned, for more quality OJ