Winning Strategies for the Bats Card Challenge
Hi guys, I’m here to talk to you about the newest card in Clash Royale – BATS! Below you can find some tips on effectively using Bats, as well as cards that go up or down in value assuming you (or your opponent) will have Bats in your deck. For more tips on how to increase your overall winrate in draft challenges, check out my post Draft Challenges, Luck, and You – How to win more games.
Bats – the Card
Bats are somewhat unique for a new card because we’ve already been seeing bats in the game for a little while now because of the Night Witch (who spawns bats periodically and again on death). These are the stats for tournament standard (level 9) bats – As you might have noticed, they’re also unique as a new card that happens to be very similar to another unit – skeletons. Their DPS and hit points are the same as skeletons, but there’s some key differences –- 2 Elixir (instead of 1)
- Very Fast Speed (instead of Fast)
- Targets Air & Ground (instead of just Ground)
- Flying (can’t be hit by units that only target ground)
- Spawns 4 (instead of 3)
Using Bats in Your Deck
If you end up with Bats in your deck in this challenge, you’re going to want to understand how to use them effectively. Bats work great as a fragile but cheap support unit that can put out a surprising amount of damage for low elixir.Bats are great in your deck WITH…
- Tanks – Bats excel with tanks that can soak up a bunch of damage like Giants, Golems, and Lava Hounds. These cards are expensive and hard to take down, and bats offer a TON of extra DPS and work to support your tank, pecking away at any defense they try to put down against you
- Shock Troops – Bats having Very Fast speeds means they can apply pressure FAST. Dropping bats behind a unit like eBarbs will give them just enough support to quickly bust through the cheap defenses opponents will often use to distract them (like skeletons and goblins). Likewise, if you use Bats to defend a small push, a Miner is an amazing way to pop up a surprise tank on their tower while your Bats destroy it with their high DPS
- Air Swarms – Air decks want to have a critical mass of air troops that tests an opponent’s ability to have many answers for air units. Doubling down with even more air troops lets you overwhelm your opponent’s defense.
Bats are great in your deck AGAINST…
- Slow troops that don’t target air – Tanks and strong ground units that can’t target air will find their health quickly diminish against a small fleet of bats
- Air troops without splash – The Mega Minion is the perfect example of an air troop that will be easily distracted and taken care of by a defensive Bat swarm, for +1 elixir
- Ground swarms – The attack speed of 4 bats will quickly clear swarming ground troops like Skeleton Army
Swatting Down those Bats
Ok so now you know Bats are a cheap quick troop that gives you a lot of value for only 2 elixir, so what are you supposed to do when your opponent has them?Cards that are great AGAINST Bats are…
- Fast attacking troops that target air – Archers and similar units will make quick work of bats then move on to support a push or chip your opponent’s tower
- Low cost spells – Zap is the perfect example to make quick work of bats for an even trade, but Arrows will work in a pinch, especially if you can manage to hit some other susceptible units
- Splash troops – Like Wizard and Executioner will decimate Bats. Even if they’re behind a tank you should be able to easily position to take them out. You should also end up with a great troop still on the board for a brutal counterpush. EWiz is the best of both worlds, since he’s basically a zap on a stick