Celestial Tiger King
Are you obsessed with value?
Who am i?
Hello, I'm HappinessLTD! I am a consistent top 50 player with a somewhat unique playstyle. I enjoy the silly things of the game and do what I can to get boards that make people ask "why?"
I am the self proclaimed best Celestial Tiger player in the world. I may have the most celestial tiger games in the last two months and also the mosts firsts. I am currently sitting at a 3.08 average placement over 129 games.
We're going to dive right in with the good stuff. The treasures.
Ranking of Treasures
S tier -
1. Treasure Map/Locked Chest - This is the dream, the bread and butter, the whole point of tiger. Map is +4 on treasure and locked chest can get treasure map and a 3 cost in on go making it an immediate 7.
2. Ancient Sarcophagus (try spelling that 5 times fast) - This just outputs too much damage to be ignored. If you can get this before level 4 there is a good chance you will beat up the lobby and be able to play whatever you want late game. It is good with an already strong midgame in Evil Queen/evils as well as leading into pumpkin or everyones favorite unit burning tree.
3. Merlin's Hat/ Crystal Ball - These are a little interesting. Hat is actually just pretty good on its own here where ball is not. But the combination of the two will almost always result in a first if you get it before level 5. Taking hat first is what I like to do because you can get some free exp or 1 cost wishes to get to those trees faster. You also get some free buffs and lightning bolts becomes free.
4. Shepherd's Sling - this makes you an monster early game until level 4.2 or so don't underestimate the extra 1/1, it also allows you to pickup some risky scaling units without being beat up too hard, think shadow assassin or spellweaver.
5. Fairy Tail - this is one of the best treasures to get before 4.0 it makes most things trade. It makes range units great; it's such a high amount of tempo that usually can lead to getting to 6 with 25+ hp just on its own tempo
6. Noble Steed - This has become one of my favorite treasures. While it gets a little weird with cinderella not being able to get you a 2 but right at 3 with brave princess getting a 5. This mixes with runestones for quick 7s as well.
A tier -
1. Dancing sword - While obviously only good in certain places this is a great treausre to pick up early. This adds into our strongest midgames and makes somewhat bad opening shops with just minotaurs and billy's not bad. I am never sad to see this around level 3.
2. Fountain of Youth - This ones not quite as good as dancing sword however if you want to play some sort of royals midgame or maybe try some non evil animals (I dont suggest this) you can take this. It makes things like unicorn and sureshot great and makes court wizard kind of a house but feels more linear. I am still not unhappy to get this one early at all but cutting yourself off of sarcophogus isn't the best feeling.
3. Sting - Sting is great and may be moved up to S soon. Sting can make any unit trade at least 1 for 1 outside of getting ranged and if you have a black cat or a spellweaver something like that in slot 1 it will help keep the hp high for that midgame lull if you dont hit other good treasures. This treasure actually holds up into late game as well. It makes burning tree a (bigger) monster and makes tweedle annoying, wombats annoying. You can see where I'm going with this. Never sad to take sting.
4. Spinning Wheel - Wheel is another great pick, this isn't a get ahead or a comeback treasure its both. It's great at all times and I never
5. Runestones - This is just a 2 cost normal treasure map. I tend to want to get at least a 5 out of it but going for a 4 isnt terrible because of Sky Castle
6. Tell-Tale Quiver Super underrated makes any ranged units save you hp basically, if sarco all the non sureshot ranged units on 2-3 are evil as well you will be crazy strong with these 2 treasures
7. Dark Contract - I like contract a lot but it can lead you to some weak boards. If you do take it do what you can to not fall into the trap of buying things like cutpurses or creepers to win one round but try to still make a cohesive board and use this to push through the tempo that way instead of spending 10 gold to win 3 fights then have a bad board. This is better to use on things like mummy/vulture/black cats/sporkos.
8. Fancy Pants - The fancy pants buff makes it a very high priority for me. You want to have range units on tiger anyway because they are so good at stabilizing so you can do busted things this allows you to buy some giant range units real quick, can allow you to buy things like greedy or nutcracker to try to get some tempo that way. This buff was one of the best things for tiger.
9. Cloak of the assassin/Bad Moon - These are extremely powerful on Tiger. I do not like slay right now because its early game is really hard to navigate and then its lategame doesnt match up with trees very well. If you get an early Ogre Princess or a big Vain Pire and can lead this into some dragons then youve got yourself a comp but I take these somewhat low.
B tier the situational-
1. Eye of Ares - This treasure can be really good but if you are playing something like animals or trying to play court wizard comps. With a peep or 2 and some range units I take this highly but I prefer to not take this one if possible as right now gepetto and early game cat/mim is still very popular.
2. Ring of Meteors- I now take this very highly due to the nature of the game. I still tend to avoid HLT early on Tiger but even just getting a creeper and some unicorns putting together a random board is much better than it used to be. We've discussed animals to a large extent in early game and if you build your board right you can just meteor out the front half of their summons and usually win that way.
3. Bounty Board - So this one is strange because it might actually be the second most powerful 2 cost treasure however, this require a lot of luck to set up and usually doesnt do anything until level 4. What I mean by this is you need to slay with either cutpurse or Brave Princess early and if you are in those situations you are usually behind or ahead depending on the luck of the slays. If you are somewhat strong and can get mermaid dragon this is busted however I overall will avoid this (im sorry econ lovers)
4. Monster Manual - Manual is one of the most fun and with Oni King being moved to 5 is actually a little higher priority. Getting an early mummy helps the fights go well, getting an early fiona can print some econ and then the ranged supports with friendly spirit can just lead into 5 really well.
5. Secret Stash - This is a fine catchup mechanic but its just some extra gold and HP. I dont take this too highly because I want to use permanent treasures to continue my push but this is still better than some treasures. After this is about everything else, I would almost always take the lists above over any of the other 2s and 3s that I didnt mention.
Early Game Level 2
Here we're going to talk a little bit about what to do with early boards and units and how I gauge the strength on how to stay above 20 hp.
Yays
Cinderalla - This is the unit you want to see in your opening shop the most. Finding this as well as a genies lamp or any castable spell on 2 is huge tempo.
Lonely Prince - Its a little bit risky so I dont tend to just take naked frogs but if theres a sureshot or a Cinderella in the shop I will be more than happy to pick this fella up. If theres no good options, like if the shop is tiny crafty frog im not too sad to take frog but would take the other Yays on this list over him.
Baby Dragon - I am very high on baby dragon. The early game right now is a lot of people trying to build strong boards with supports and taking exp to get to trees. Being able to snipe a Mim thats supporting a black cat is a free fight win. It also leads into Dragon's Nest actually just being an insane treasure.
Black cat - I take cat super aggressively even without mim. If you can get both of those you are in a great spot because it can carry you into level 3 and makes Evil Queen so good. Which again leads into sarc and strong boards to give you time to do the busted things tiger wants to do.
MayBays
Billy Gruff - Billy is just.. fine. He can generally trade with some early units and even beats some of the bad cat starts or people greeding poly and blind mice. It leads into queen as well. Not thrilled to take it but not unhappy.
Wizards Familiar - Its ok, tiger is a great hatball hero and wants to cast spells with cindy anyway. Chances are you wont double it and itll sit as a 5/5 for most midgame but its easily replaceable and if you get it to 3/3 to 5/5 by level 3 you are in an ok spot.
Rainbow Unicorn - I like unicorn a lot. A unicorn lets you make some less good treasures like fountain of youth and ring of meteors do a lot of work. It trades with a black cat thats got a mim behind it and lets you put some sureshots behind it for maybe an extra shot. Really happy when this is what I end up with.
Minotaur - I sort of value mino early because it actually makes black cat a little better if you dont have mim and makes billy trade with most things
Kitty Cutpurse - I am now a believer (thanks YuhBoy) and think with dancing sword out now cutpurse is actively good and can catapult you really early into an unbeatable tempo/snowball. This is a risky pick and always will be but wanting to pick up mims and minos already I have come to take this pretty high.
Nays
Three blind mice - Just dont buy this. If theres two in your shop and you have runestones still dont buy this. This unit is a waste shop slot on tiger DON'T GET BAITED/
Happy Little Tree - This one is a bit closer. I dont take it on Tiger because of the way that it requires certain units on level 2-3 to make it any good. If you take this then dont hit things like mim or creeper you end up with a horrible unit and overall on tiger its not worth the time. Trees are powerful enough that you dont need to scale the Happy Little Tree and it usually ends up getting replaced by burning tree anyway
CONTROVERSIAL OPINION INCOMING
Polywoggle - Just dont take it. Its not great if it slays on 3 unless its specifically ranged supports or greedy if you have meteors. Its a highroll or die unit on a highroll or die hero. If youre first shop is mim poly tiny just take the mim and let the shop go. Dont do it.
Humpty Dumpty - Don't be an egg gamer on tiger. The point of egg is usually to save you hp to get to your late game at the expense of econ but tiger wants to get to lategame by maximizing gold at the cost of hp not at maximizing hp to get to late game and the cost of gold. Just avoid it.
Honorable mentions
Im adding a small section here for the units not talked about. Baby root/Tiny/Chicken basically they are all in a weird spot. Tiny is almost unbuyable UNLESS you have some baby roots already and baby root is only buyable with tiny and mino. Chicken is just chicken you dont really want to hold 2/2s here but its not like its terrible to pick up.
Early Game Level 3
Biggest Yay
The White Stag- Stag is imo just the best 3 cost unit. Dont fret to put this on one and hit a brave princess or a sureshot or even a poly if you had to. This units almost always an autobuy.
Yays
Brave (COPIUM) princess (before 3.1)- yes I know. Usually you might have one or 2 treasures and hopefully you got sling or Fountain of youth or even boots to make this a little more manageable. I think tiger can get her to slay pretty commonly and the payoff is so much higher than most heroes, if not all.
Lucky - I am a big fan of lucky but its a risk reward assessment as it always is. If the rest of your board is still tiny and minotaur and a donkey or something then you might have to consider rolling for something stronger. If you are at 35-40 hp you can think of lucky as lose 5-10 hp to gain 6 gold and its worth it.
Princess Peep - Peep is real nice here, she synergizes with almost all the good treasures you want anyway and makes some bad ones good (eye) and lets us lead into court wizard comps or animals comps and is generally just decent anyway.
Queen of hearts -Again situational but with a single cat and a mim/billy etc you can make a really strong board at 3. If you have sarc this becomes the best unit in the entire early game for you and can get you to 6 easily cleaning up whatever sarc doesnt. It also sort of leads into Trees, Bearstein or Pumpkin. One of my favorite units.
Wretched Mummy - This has a few caveats to make it either a mega yay or a maybe. This allows monster book to not be dead and actually becomes sort of a meme comp with it with ogre princess and this. This unit also makes dark contract an auto fight win on pickup, its great with sarco and queen however it can just be bad if you dont get some support with it. I think I take it every time I see it still.
Maybays
Heartwood Creeper - IF you have the set up for it ( baby roots and some ranged units, early spellweaver unicorns) and ring then its actually one of the best possible units. But LET THIS HAPPEN DO NOT FORCE IT even if you get ring before 3-0 I wouldnt pick it up without the other supporting cast.
The support witches - These are fine, use them to support some mummies or some cats, I like the evil witch much more but good witch can help a copium princess or be part of the ring comp. They are easy to triple as well.
Prized pig - this ones pretty basic, you can value it more highly than most heroes outside of the huge early game heroes like pants/ fallen angel/ loki. But overall I dont like taking it even when strong, you cant really play two so tripling it has a unit on the bench and its not worth the risk of helping the lobby get stronger at your own risk.
Romeo - Romeo is fine, can lead into the Court Wizard comp mentioned earlier, is strong with juliet stand alone but neither of them really excel off of tiger doubling powers so im not that high on picking it but not sad if its my only 3 on 3.0
Shadow Assassin - This is actually on of the high picked maybes. If you did get an early vainpire and get a slay or 2 this becomes a decent pickup, if you have a strongish board and some 3 pairs quiver makes it very good. I dont buy this as my first 3 but am never sad to see it on 3.2 or so
Nays
Not a long list but just dont take Trojan Donkey Princess wight Dubly. Wight isnt worth the tempo loss on tiger even if it might pay off, you have to buy bad units and you dont want this on this hero. Donkey just is bad without something like Helm but even then having to play it in 1 is awkward and it doesnt have any late game use.
Mid Game Level 4-5
Trees
Its pretty clear that trees are king/queen right now. Burning tree may very well be the best unit in the game. Ive got some good news for you, TIGER LOVES TREES. Tiger has the second or first best access to 7 treasures and round table or Excalibur is almost a guaranteed first right now with trees in the current state/ Magic sword is also crazy with burning tree. The ability for tiger to convert treasures into level 5 power spikes like sting for Burning Tree or ring of meteors creeper if that comes together leads to this really well. I tend to play Evils early game then on 5 you can start picking up burning trees and on 4 its not awful to pick up a heartwood if you are a little bit healthy. Late game dream is upgraeded ashwoods + upgraded Burning Trees and some echos. Any mixture of this is a recipe for success.
Mages
Oh hatball. Tiger is pretty good with hat ball because of the innate 'fork' ability with the crystal ball. Less power but two spells and you dont even have to pick up those pesky mice or nutcrackers. However I like sporko a lot in this comp as is so if you get fork still take that very highly. This comp is always weird to get because of having to contest with map. If you triple a spellweaver and already have a familiar and have an option of map and ball I would still take map because it can be black prism at any early stage. However if you get ball first this is still great to play. You can play the Aon version or the full spellweaver slam spells.
Evil/Evil animals
This one plays out the same as it does any other hero. Priority on black cat/ mim but black cat hippo is fine and even just a few billy goats is ok. This allows for 3s to be the evil support and queens and if you get sarco grats on the top 3 even if you afk.
without sarco though we get to play a good game, most 4s wont replace any 3s but we do prioritize ring of rage extremely high. Ignore almost all other 4 treasures though units however we get to get sporko and wolf in sheeps clothing to push our evil strength even more. on 5 we should still be decently strong and can pick up nian cats and exp
Slay
Tiger is a great slay hero, be it if you want to play dragons or even vainpire if you get a cloak or a bad moon you can usually go off. You can go a few different routes depending on your level 3. If you managed to pick up an early vain and maybe a dancing sword you can just slay into 5 get lance and babas then end up in jorm. If you somehow got bad moon on 3.0 then buy every dragon and mermaid you see and win the game. All lines really lead to jorm but Lance is a viable option if you hit as well.
Dragons
Ok so I go this nearly everytime I get dragons nest before 4.0, now I know what youre thinking why lean into this as a comp? Well dragons nest + 2 baby dragons basically solidifies your midgame "but happy Soltak is in the game and makes your dragons bad!!" ok cool so your dragons have a 2/3 chance to hit a soltaked unit, then still be attacked into by another tree and trading with it. You also dont have to put baby dragons in slot 1 and 2. While this doesnt really matter for lightning dragon the thing is only 2-3 people are going to be playing trees and against anyone else the dragon midgame is great. You can go a couple of ways with it, just dragons all out frontlines with lightning in slot 1 and 2 with a lady behind them or just have some ranged units in the back and trade off with the dragons to clean up with some nice wizards in the back.
Monsters
If you get a real early monster book and a mummy or two this can actually be a decent scaling and very fun comp to play. If you manage to get monster book and a sarc and just buy mummies/queens this can lead you right into pumpking very easily. I wouldnt try to force this one but highly suggest giving it a shot if your first set of 2 treasures are like ring of regen piggy bank monster manual its not actually that bad. This comp got a lot better with oni to 5 you get to stabilize and go into pumpkin or the late game tree pivot.
End Game
Well the end game is still the end game, you don't have much to change however some of the 3 treasures end up being good, sting can let you play good boy or doombreath pretty easily, ring can help angry if you feel the need to stay dwarves. Otherwise not much to talk about here thats a guide for another day!
Tips Tricks and FAQS
"Ok I have map and have an option to get a 6 cost treasure do I take it or greed a 7" - Random HappinessLTD enthusiast. This happens a bit and from lots of games I have stopped greeding for the 7. While the 7 is almost always going to be more powerful there are about 4 treasures on 6 that can win you the game nearly on the spot or get you to level 6 and you can rebuild. Those treasures are Embiggening Stone , Ivory Owl , Pandoras Box and Spear of Achilles. Getting any of these almost ensures a top 3 and I have found to be worth it. So if you get map and have Cinder-ella on 1 just take the spell and go for the 6s. If you miss you probably end up with a singing sword or wand of weirding and thats usually just fine as well. Sword being even better now that Burning Tree is in the game.
"I have hermes boots, how speed am I?" - Avid HappinessLTD watcher. Boots basically work in tiers. To put it simply tiger with boots has 2 priorities, tiger mimic boots has 3 priorities and will outspeed anything not named lightning dragon. This does include Sad dracula with mimic and boots.
"It's 4.0 and I dont have any treasures!!?!" - Person who doesnt watch enough HappinessLTD This is going to happen, a lot. You just stay alive until about then and thats when the treasures are still doing decent work. You will spike and start hitting all the tree playing dummies pretty hard, and you can usually have enough stats to beat the animal players as well. Dont panic.
"Lets look at a list of how awful a lot of the 2 and 3 costs treasure are which makes tiger horrible" definitely not JebasSBB Ok so Jebas actually has a point here. There are a lot of bad treasures and sometimes Tiger games can feel bad. But overall theres likely to be a good treasure in 6 looks and you can really take advantage of those and even some of the bad treasures are ok here like Ring of Regen and such. I dont by any means think tiger is the best hero but it is solidly B+ A- tier.
Scenarios for fun and thought
Scenario 1
Ok so say this is your opening shop what do you take here? In priority order of a normal champ it would most likely be tiny or goat then cat. On Tiger I take goat here everytime. The reason being on this is that sarco is one of tigers best outs, its slightly more likely to win than Tiny and it also leads well into a queen comp that makes us buying dark contract a little more exciting to do. Its not the biggest edge but think of our 3.1 when we have queen and tiny with dark contract instead of having the extra power of an evil unit for queen and the great feeling of having a unit to cycle away for dark contract shenanigans.
Scenario 2
This is the same game. We got a billy pair and a cinderella and we’re feeling pretty good. This shop pops up on our 5 gold what would you do here? This one is very interesting because the impulse decision is to see a 3 cost pair, an evil one at that. That could be sarco or map! However this is where I see a lot of people do something I highly disagree with and thats just pair chase and then blame tiger for not being good enough. Even though were on 3 evil units the play is clear here for me. Stag is the best 3 cost in the game without any help, so as a standalone unit were happy to take it, we want spells for cindy and +4 hp on minotaur is actually a respectable unit. In this spot I am happy to take stag cast spell and roll once for the billy pare. Passing the range unit is something to think about considering how powerful that makes quiver but in the spot we would be locking and denying ourselves two slots since we still actively dont want creeper.
Scenario 3
Lets just continue with the game. It was an interesting one. This is the third scenario. As we talked about we got our queen, still got our billy and have been losing fights but not by too much. We got our map and are faced with this position, we have a pair of stags, can buy the familiar or buy the goat with 1 gold leftover. Taking a six at this position is fantastic, there is two chances for us to immediately top 3 the game on 6 being embiggening stone and even ivory owl in this spot. Its important not to greed for the 7 every time even with multiple pairs, even at 30 hp here I would take this goat every time.
How it ended
Closing Thoughts
I do not think Tiger is the best hero in the game, i do think it is the most fun hero in the game and that I dont even think is close. Overall I really hope you enjoyed this and if you have any comments or thoughts that I could touch on please let me know. You can catch me over at Twitch.tv/happinessLTD