Air pushes — Lava Hound plus Balloon, Baby Dragon support, Minion Horde swarms — punish decks that only defend on the ground. Building real air defense means covering both the tanky flying win condition and the smaller air support riding behind it, since a deck that only answers one half of a Lavaloon push still loses the tower to the other half.
Inferno Tower and Inferno Dragon
Inferno Tower is the standard answer to high-HP air threats like Balloon and Lava Hound: its ramping damage output means it can survive a hit and still burn through a huge health pool before the tower takes real damage. Inferno Dragon does the same job on offense-minded decks — it flies, it targets the Hound directly, and it can’t be jumped by ground troops trying to get past it.
Skeleton Dragons
Following a splash-radius buff, Skeleton Dragons became one of the strongest budget counters to Lavaloon specifically, since their area damage clears the Lava Pups that spawn on Hound death while still chipping the Balloon itself. They’re cheap enough to cycle back for a second wave if the first push doesn’t fully die.
Mega Minion and Minion Horde
Mega Minion is a reliable single-target answer to a lone Lava Hound when backed by tower damage, while Minion Horde brings enough simultaneous damage to drop a Balloon quickly — just watch for a Fireball or Lightning answer, since Minion Horde dies to a single well-timed spell.
Fireball as an Air Answer
Fireball isn’t just a building-and-swarm spell here: its knockback interrupts a Balloon’s attack timer, buying your tower and any remaining anti-air troops the extra second they need to finish it off before it drops another bomb.
Tornado: Redirecting Air Threats to Your King Tower
Tornado pulls Balloon (or any single air unit) away from your active tower and toward the King Tower instead, which both wastes the push’s remaining distance and activates your King Tower as a third defensive shooter for the rest of the match.
Positioning Tips
Stack anti-air troops behind your tower rather than out at the bridge, so they’re already in range when the push arrives instead of getting caught mid-rotation. Keep those troops spread out, not clumped, since a single well-placed Fireball or Lightning can erase a whole cluster of defenders in one card. The core defensive principle holds regardless of matchup: punish slow beatdown buildup with fast, cheap aggression on the other lane, then clean up whatever gets through with spread anti-air rather than one all-in answer.