Clash Royale Decks - which cards will give you victory?

Clash Royale is a game, where you use cards to drop your units onto the arena. The number of cards is fixed. You choose the game, and you head into each game with a predefined card setup. It is why creating an all-rounded, universal deck is crucial, because you have to be ready for everything. In this guide, we'll try to break Clash Royale Decks down for you.

Clash Royale deck guide

As a Clash Royale player, you have two options:

- Create a deck from scratch,

- Copy a deck.

Usually, the second group of players copies whatever the first one creates, and is working well. However, the first group consists of players who know what to do, and who doesn't. The latter will choose random decks, and go to battle with them, not knowing their strengths and weaknesses. Hereby we'll try to aid you with some deck-building basics.

"Why would I need it? I can always copy a deck."

Sure, you can, but there are a few downsides to copying a deck.

First and foremost, if meta changes suddenly, you're stuck with an outdated deck, that may not work anymore. You will have to wait for someone to come up with a working deck once again so that you can copy it.

Second, the deck that you copy might rely on cards that you don't have maxed or even a high level. 

Third, popular decks, if powerful, can be countered sooner or later. With a deck built yourself, you are less likely to be countered, and more likely to surprise the enemy.

Offense and Defense

As they say: "If something is good for everything, it's good for nothing." In the gaming world, it's called a "hybrid tax." Taking it onto the Clash Royale ground, some units are good on defense, others that thrive attacking with mediocre defensive capabilities. Also, some units can do both.

There is no reason to attack with defenses or to defend with pushing cards. It's possible but highly inefficient.

Air and Ground

There are several types of units in Clash Royale. Some of them are flying, and some are ground. Some of them can target only ground troops. Others are versatile. You need to be mindful of it when planning your deck. Of course, your Crown Towers are capable of attacking both air and ground, but you don't want to rely on these in defense.

Also, some cards will attack the enemy units and buildings whenever they can reach them. They will aggro onto the closest one and stay on it until it dies or breaks aggro. These are, for example, Miner, Knight, or Musketeer. Other ones are the buildings-focused troops like Golem, Giant, or Hog Rider, resembling of units targeting defenses in Clash of Clans. They will not engage onto enemy units. Why is it important? If you are trying to stop the enemy push, you will not be able to distract the buildings-oriented troops with other units. They will only go after structures. The exception for this rule can be the Cannon Cart, which becomes a building after the Cart is broken. 

Slot Method

Generally, over the years, the best players, the top of the top in Clash Royale, have worked on solutions that are pretty much universal. It's the Slot Method. As we mentioned, your deck has limited spacing, and each of them has to contribute to the overall goal of bringing down the King's Tower. There are a couple of functions that your cards will more or less fill.

Slot 1 - Main Condition

Slot 1 - Win Condition #2

Slot 1 - Main Condition Support

Slot 1 - Runner #1

Slot 1 - Main Defense (Ground/Air)

Slot 1 - Cycler

Slot 1 - Spell

Slot 1 - Versatile Response Spell.

You can make some minor adjustments, but overall it will be close to this blueprint. Some people do swap Main Condition Support for another Runner. Both works in different conditions.

The terms used:

Main Condition - it is the core of your deck, the card that you base your whole push and strategy on. The usage of this unit will determine whether you make it to the King's Tower, or not. The main condition can be a tank (high HP, high cost), semi-tank (medium HP, smaller cost than a tank), AD-tank (lots of HP and damage), building (stationary, good Elixir investment), and so on. 

Win Condition #2 - this card is usually used as an addition to the main win condition, or when the main one is down. You want to keep the pressure on your enemy, which is why you need another card that is hard to deal with. It can be a Balloon, Three Musketeers, Sparky, or Goblin Barrel. You will rarely use it simultaneously with the main condition due to the Elixir cost. 

Main Condition Support - It is the card that's job is to assure that the Win Condition does his job. As we all know, no unit is invincible in Clash Royale. Splash damage suffers vs. heavy tanks, heavy tanks suffer vs. swarms, swarms die quickly to splash damage, etc. The support card is to counter the counter of our win condition. If we have a tank, we want to protect him from swarms. If we have a swarm, we want something to gather the splash damage focus first. If we go airborne, we want to keep the skies clear. Whoever uses their support cards better, grabs the win.

Runner 1/2 - this one can fill in for the Main Condition Support in some scenarios. This card can work on both ends. It is able to do damage offensively, as well as stop the enemy's push. You may drop it as a support for main Win Condition, as well as a counter push. These cards can do you a lot of good, but they will have a hard time working as a main WC. It can be a Mega Minion, Bomber, Bandit, or Princess.

Main Defense - you need to stop the enemy push whether it's ground or air, buildings-focused, or a regular one. You can go for Main Air Defense and Main Ground Defense independently, but it takes two slots and burns more Elixir. On the other hand, hybrid cards that can stop both air and ground, are not specialized in either, and thus sometimes they may fail. You have to use it always as a counter to the enemy push, and never drop it as a cycler or push. These cards are Guards, Royal Guards, or Barbarians, for example.

Cycler - It is, most of the time, a low-cost card used for the sheer purpose of shifting the cards you have on hand. However, some cards brin in priceless utility if you look at their cost. The most notable examples are the Ice Spirit, Ice Golem, Fire Spirits, or Skeletons.

Spell - it is a must, period. You can use it to support the push, defend, counter the push, and overall force a positive Elixir trades. Mostly, these are the splash damage spells like Fireball, Lightning, or Rocket. They can be heavy on Elixir if need be.

Versatile Spell - this spell is used as a support and to counter the enemy. It revolves around wiping the opponent's cycle cards, clearing swarms, crowd control, etc. In some situations, one well-placed and well-timed response spell can turn the tides of the game.

The "individual thinking" method

Probably you may not have bumped into this one during your research. It's the least popular way of building your deck. However, it has the highest requirements of all.

It involves having a well-working brain and using it.

Smashing your hand against a brick wall will not work, no matter how hard you hit. If you copied a deck, and it doesn't do well in your trophy range, it will not magically start working the next day. Partially, the most efficient decks are created with a trial and error method. The best Clash Royale players are testing new solutions, and as they face an unintentional counter card in someone's deck, they adjust accordingly, taking all factors into account. There are two possible outcomes, then. Either the deck will work against everything, or it doesn't work at all. In a game where you have to set the deck up before the match, you can't allow yourself a "what if" win condition. Basing your success on "if he doesn't have Fireball, I win" condition is setting up yourself for failure. 

Let's stick with the Fireball example. Say that you built a perfect deck, but you struggle against the fiery projectile, that sends your Graveyard Skeletons back to the graveyard. You have to adjust to it or get used to losing. For a Fireball, you have a possibility to bait it out with a bait card or wait for the enemy to cycle it.

Then again, if you prepare your deck for the scenario where your enemy has Fireball, and you have resources to play around it, there might be another weakness exposed, that you'll need to fix.

The bottom line is that you can't mindlessly copy someone else's solutions and follow it blindly. Never stop thinking and analyzing. Clash Royale is more of a strategic-based than a mechanics-based game. Of course, precision and timing help, but if your deck is blatantly worse, you're set up for failure. Avoid it. You can fix a bad deck, but you won't fix a bad player.

Deck types

There are many different deck types in Clash Royale revolving around different play styles and win conditions.

Beatdown

The name comes from beating down the lane until the success. These decks rely on a heavy tank like a Golem, P.E.K.K.A., Giant, or Lava Hound for the air alteration. As you can probably see, these units are mostly buildings-focused. They will head straight for the towers, which is why you need to protect them with support troops. If you manage to keep them tanks alive while dealing damage, you will eventually push all the way to the King's Tower.

Control

The Control Decks are focused more around not allowing your enemy to win rather than winning yourself. The frustration that's building up in your rival's mind combined with a well-prepared deck can give you an easy win. The main premise is to counter his moves with cheap and fast cards for constant positive Elixir trades. Ultimately, you will have tons of pink resource, while your opponent's tank runs dry. 

In some cases, especially when using cards strong defensively and offensively, you can set up a counter push, which is a very powerful strategy. Playing correctly around it can nail you many trophies.

Siege

This one is built around buildings. The thing with buildings is that they exist and work towards your win until they're destroyed. Spawners produce units and overall give you a positive Elixir trade. Defenses eliminate enemies' troops, again, for a positive Elixir trade. Instead of going for your Crown Towers, the opponent has to deal with these buildings first, which costs Elixir. Meanwhile, you can focus entirely on advancing your own strategy. 

Bait

Bait decks revolve around the one card that will give you a win, but you need to bait the enemy's deck first. If you don't, your win condition might get wiped. The Log bait is probably the most popular one.

Cycle

The Cycle deck has cheap cards as its base. Cycling them over and over again can be overwhelming in some scenarios. The correct usage of each card is crucial here. You will not burn much Elixir with this deck, which allows you to come on the top most of the time. However, you will not have powerful, heavy units at your disposal, which is what you should keep in mind.

Example decks

Before copying any deck, you have to know what "deck strength" is. Deck strength is the overall average level of your cards. Since Clash Royale is a sort of gathering game, the cards' levels matter. Each level gives you more hitpoints, damage, abilities damage, etc. We've divided these decks into five categories depending on your progression level. We bet you find something useful for yourself here.

Deck Strength 9.0

Deck Strength 10.0

Deck Strength 11.0

Deck Strength 12.0

Deck strength 13.0 (max)

Challenge deck

Summary

There you go. We provided you with a quick, dense Clash Royale knowledge so that you don't have to Google it yourself. In the meantime, we've split the valuable information from trash, not to waste your precious time. The trophies won't collect themselves, right? Whether you're a beginner, or a seasoned Clash Royale player, you can take something for yourself out of here. We did our best not to include meta-shifting data because we all know that the next balance update would turn it all the way around. 

FAQ

What is a deck in Clash Royale?

Deck in Clash Royale is a specific card setup that you go into the match with.

How to build a good deck in CR?

The more you are prepared for, the better the deck. You need a win condition, support, defense, filled with spells. Each card should cover other cards' weaknesses.

What is the best deck in Clash Royale?

There is none — the meta changes. What's good in this season may be bad in the season to follow. It is why we'll go with an answer - the best deck is the one that suits you.