In this part of the guide I am going to provide a walk through my personal deckbuilding process in 2vs2 but also some explanations how my deck is coordinated with Paperpancake's build. Paper is my regular and appreciated partner in tournaments and he may add the "making of" his deck in the future. The decks that are used as an example and shown below, are basically the ones we played in the Crystal Clash Championship. We ended winning the high competitive tournament with this build but made most of the time 1-2 changes according to our opponents and how the first round went in the two matches we faced every other team.

Paper and I generally use t2 and t3 spawners in competitive 2vs2 because t1 spawners are basically too weak for the endgame. Most teams in tournaments know how to defend well so it is very hard to play a rush deck consisting of small units successfully.
The majority of my decks have a tank unit as spawner. While other players may not see this as a necessity, I think they are very important for covering the own damage dealing units.
In this case I play the rootdood as our team's tank, it is also my favourite t2 tank. I make use of its rooting ability by healing/enchanting with giant growth, surge of light and later in the game by pulse of the forest. All these spell activate the rootdood's ability to root enemy units. This is especially helpful to stop enemy tank units, because they can't move for a while when effected, while the rootdood can attack them from some distance. The rootdood has also a decent amount of health to withstand attacks.











My second spawner is a ranged damage dealer, which will be chosen accordingly to the actual balance that is going on. I chose the Crescendo because of its range but also fast attack speed which is helpful against smaller units. The crescendo is our main spawner against enemy air units. As Paper is playing MOAG and Conductor (with their missiles) we have enough splash and aoe damage from his side for dealing with mobs. Having AOE is a must, otherwise you can't stop mobs effectively. I may have used the avengers as a spawner alternativly here but this would lead to other changes in the deck as they are vulnerable against anti air like the missile turrets or the airdominating oppressors.

It is important to have units and spells available from the beginning on, otherwise you'll get overrun easily. Therefore, t1 cards in a deck as summoner are a necessity. A t1 melee unit is important to attack enemy damage dealer like ballista, marksmen, etc. directly. T1 units are also needed for the first fight about the middleground. I chose the monk here because it is very strong in the first fight about the middleground, due to its stunning and annihilation ability. It has also another function, as it is my protection/relief against enemy status effects. The monk's potion ability is a cure and removes status effects like freeze, roots, grounded and so on and gives immunity to further status effects consequently.














The second t1 unit is a ranged damage dealer. Here I play the stone weavers. As you can see above, Paper has drones in his deck for ranged damage. With them we can defend against flying units but also summon them behind and in cover of our towers, when we fall back and have to defend. The stone weaver also have another very important task because they have SIEGE damage. Siege quadruples the damage dealt to fortified units and buildings. Accordingly, in a team's deck there should be at least one unit with siege because otherwise you will have a way harder time against buildings, Aegis or the granite guardian.

My t1 spells are Giant growth (GG), Surge of light and Light pulse. As mentioned, I play lots of GG and Surge of light on the rootdood, especially in the beginning. GG basically adds 160hp to a unit and gives some regeneration but imo this effect can be neglected most of the time.








Every time Surge of light is played to heal a friendly unit for 200hp, it gets a counter and saves up 40 damage for each until released on an enemy unit. If the opponents play marksmen it is a good way taking them out, otherwise I save all counters for t3 to have a big shot at a legend in the end game.







Light pulse is used to take out opponent's high damage units for a while (incapacitating them for 3 seconds and they miss 50% of their attacks), until we can reach and destroy them. It will also heal Atlas when used around him.








Paper is using Atlas as tank which I will also try to keep alive longer with these spells. As Atlas heals itself when spells are cast around him, my relatively cheap and early available t1 spells help in boosting him constantly. Of course these spells can also be used to increase hp or safe any other of our units and they will be used that way when it comes to t3.

From t2 on the spore and Pulse of the forest (Potf) become available. A flying unit like the spore is important, as one has to be prepared for the aimbot, which only flying units can discover. There are some spells that can help uncovering the aimbot, as well, but I prefer having a flying unit in my deck to have that covered directly. The spore has also other important functions: It is a protection against the frostgoyle factory and can help in bringing opponent flying units - literally - down for melee attacks. When the spore dies, it will generate a field (10s duration) that grounds other flying units. A situational summoned (and dying) Spore can therefore be a quite strong counter. The same field is also a health bath, adding 25hp per second to each friendly unit within the field.








Pulse of the forest is a strong spell for boosting especially already high-hp units because it will increase 30% of the effected unit's current hp + 50. As we are using only t2 and t3 spawner our units bring at least a medium amount of hp to the table.

For T3 I used 2x lothar & brratu or 2x lothar & the guardian. Lothar was very strong at the time and got nerfed since but he still is a playable legend imo.
All these big units (+ Paper's Atlas) benefit strongly from the spells and enchantments in my and paper's decks. Starting with GG on either of them followed by Potf they will get a massive health boost. Because of Lothar's heavy armor (30% damage reduction from ranged, 20% from melee units) he can be kept alive quite some time that way, dealing massive damage with each strike.














Brratu gets 500 additional health for each enchantment, he can be really pumped up this way because with gg, potf, frenzy and stonecircle we have four enchantments together. Next to the direct hp effects by gg and potf it will get therefore another 2000hp extra. :) A so enchanted Brratu can be used as a damage soaking sponge to rally own units behind and is also a massive threat to enemy towers and buildings (min 400 damage to buildings because of siege).



















The guardian can be a good alternative to Brratu (or a Lothar for that matter) because of its extra landing and general aoe damage. He is helpful when you have to bring mobs down and do not face too much siege.

Below is a recorded and commented match from the Championship Finals by Paperpancake, where you can see our deck combo in action. Paper provides very good insights and informations for the gameplay. Have a look! You will also see basic strategies like defending at the own towers or building waves, which will be explained in the next part of the guide, as well.












Go back to part 2
part 2 - Units

Go further to part 4
part 4 - Gameplay