Due to the communtiy's outcry, Supercell inadvertently over-buffed the Elite Barbarians that made the card appear in virtually all decks in the game - as the EBs can easily punish an aggressive push or even serve as your win condition in most matches. Despite its huge buff, there are still several cards that can be used to make positive Elixir trade for the EBs but nothing comes close to this insane strategy demonstrated by one player using Tornado and Bomber.
How to Counter Elite Barbarians
One user demonstrated a strategy that can effectively counter the Elite Barbarians by simply using Tornado and Bomber. The combo uses 6 Elixir in total which makes it on par with the cost of EBs but what makes this strategy stands out from the rest is that, it also obliterates any supporting troops in conjunction with the EB drop (e.g. Hog Rider) making huge positive Elixir trade. What's more, you'll even have a Bomber for your enemy to worry afterwards!
In this GIF, we can see that the enemy counter pushed with EB and Fire Spirits when the user instinctively dropped Bomber and used the Tornado Spell to drag all of the siege troops right at the center of the field where they were all vulnerable to both Crown Towers and the Bomber's splash damage; ultimately leading to a positive Elixir trade.
What's great about this strategy is that, your Bomber can serve as a counter push right after the combo if your enemy won't cast any spell to take the unit out. And even if the enemy player does so, he's going to be in a very bad position as he's most likely depleted all of his resources.
One more thing, Tornado works really well in the current meta especially after the recent buff that the card had received during the last patch update. It is now considered as one of the best counters to the EB thanks to its amazing pulling power which can be used together with any other splash units. Be creative and you can easily work around the Elite Barbarians easily!
