Arena 7 to 8 deck – Legendary Hog Freeze

This is pretty much the only deck I’ve found at Reddit that really works for me at Arena 7 pushing Arena 8. When I first started using this deck I got 5 straight wins around 2000 trophies, and with some modifications I’ve been able to push even higher with this deck.

The guy who originally posted the deck is JustinRiverNg, leader of the US clan The Elite. He got to Legendary Arena 8 with this deck as only a level 8 player, so it’s really good. I’ve made one modification to this deck that enables me to do more damage, but it’s very close to the original version.

The cards.

As you can see we only have one epic card in this deck, the Freeze spell. Without this spell the deck won’t work, so find another deck in that case. The Hog Rider is also 100% necessary. The deck is a low elixir cost deck at 3.3, this lets you cycle through the deck fast and use your Hog Rider and Freeze whenever you have a good opportunity.

Hog Rider.
Prince is and has always been an awesome card. In my original version of the deck, this place was taken by the Hog Rider, that is a arena 4 card however, so in this version we will use the Prince. The Prince is the first real tower killing card most players get access to, and you can use this card all the way up to Legendary Arena. What is nice with the Prince is that you can even defend with it in emergencies. Usually you’ll use it to kill one of their crown towers when they are low on elixir however.

Freeze.
Instead of Tesla we will use Bomb Tower in this version of the deck. In this version of the deck the Bomb Tower works really well due to elixir costs and combinations with other troops. The Bomb Tower has a ton of HP, and even if it can’t shoot down flying troops it will still distract them while your other towers take them down. You’ll place this in the middle of the area in front of your king so it can cover both lanes.

Spear Goblins.
These guys are in most of my decks, I actually ranked these #3 for all time best cards of Clash Royale. They are cheap and decent at taking out enemy flying units. You also use these together with the regular Goblins to distract incoming troops until you can deal with them.

Goblins.
The original version of this deck had Skeletons in them. I choose to replace the Skeletons with Goblins as they do way more damage. Just like the Skeletons the Goblins do a ton of damage for the elixir they cost. This works really well together with freeze as their HP doesn’t matter as long as no damage are dealt to them. Goblins can also do a lot of damage to enemy towers.

Fireball.
This deck doesn’t use arrows, so a fireball is really needed then. You use this to take out minion horde, goblin barrel and other annoying cards. Both Arrows and Zap work as replacements, but Fireball is much better. Most often you will use this on incoming Barbarians, preferably with other troops mixed in there as well.

Tesla.
The main reason for the tesla is to have a good way to deal with air troops. The deck is in general a bit weak versus air troops, with only the Spear Goblins being able to target air. Tesla deals really well with air troops, and is also a great way to distract troops like Hog Riders, Golems, Pekkas, etc.

Cannon.
I’ve not used the Cannon in many decks before, but in this one it works really well. At arena 6 and 7 you will often face players with high level Pekkas or Golems, the Cannon works really well in distracting and taking these troops out. Also, you will face lots of X-Bow players, the most annoying opponent out there. The Cannon is great at tanking damage from the X-Bow while your other troops take it out.

Knight.
The Knight is a great card for value. For only 3 elixir you get a fairly strong tank that does a lot of damage. The knight is versatile, often you will use it to soak up damage while your troops and towers takes out enemy troops that are attacking you. It can fill the same role in offence, tanking the damage from the towers while your other troops take it out.

Card replacements.

There are some cards here you can replace, but to get the most out of the deck the only card you should play around with is Goblin versus Skeletons.

• Hog Rider and Freeze can not be replaced.
• Tesla can be replaced by Inferno Tower.
• Cannon can be replaced by Bomb Tower.
• Fireball can be replaced by Arrows
• Spear Goblins can be replaced by Minions.
• Goblins can be replaced by Skeletons.
• Knight can be replaced by Barbarians.

Opening. (0:00 – 0:30)

My preferred option is to open with Tesla in the area in front of my King Tower. Placing it 4-5 tiles above is a good idea, so that enemy troops that hit it will also face fire from my Crown Tower. Tesla deals well with both air and ground units so I’d rather have that down first if I’m able to chose.

The second best opening would be the Cannon. The Cannon should be placed 3-4 tiles above the King Tower. Often you will then later then place a Tesla in front of it. Once you have both these defences down it’s very hard to get to your towers, especially when you have a Fireball ready to cast as well.

The third best opening would be the Knight. The knight does well against most troops alone and can also do some damage to the enemy crown tower if he is not stopped. The combo with Goblins or Spear Goblins behind him work really well.

My last choice of opening would be the Spear Goblins, I’d rather save them to deal with air troops if possible, but they are better than the other choices for opening. I’ll place the Spear Goblins far back behind one of my towers. If possible I’ll follow up with a Knight in front of them when they reach the bridge.

Midgame. (00:30 – 2:00)

During the middle of the game the idea is to successfully counter push with your Hog Rider and if possible other troops as backup. Remember to have enough elixir left in the pushes for the freeze however, it really makes a huge difference.

When you are close to 10 elixir and nothing is happening drop your defensive buildings. Most of the game I will have both the Cannon and the Tesla up as you can see in the image above. This setup works great as it covers both sides pretty well and the Tesla in front stops air troops from hitting the Cannon without being hit back.

Once you have repelled one of your enemies attacks and have elixir left, it is time to go for the push.

In the situation above I had just stopped one of my opponent’s attacks and the Knight is on his way towards the left tower. I then place the Hog Rider behind him to push him forward into the defending Goblins. This is great, because the Knight will deal with the Goblins while my Hog Rider can go straight for the enemy tower unharmed.

Here my Hog Rider is reached the enemy tower and he drops Barbarians. Now it’s good that we didn’t Freeze too early, because now we will get the Barbarians in the freeze and let the Hog Rider deal out lots of hits unharmed.

It’s important that you don’t freeze too early, as you will miss the troops your opponent is dropping then. At the same time freezing too late after your Hog Rider is dead is even worse, so it requires some skill to get this right. Keep practicing

Now the Freeze has landed and we got everything in it, awesome! Now the Hog Rider will be able to dish out tons of damage over 5+ seconds while my opponent have to watch in frustration.

My opponent dropped Archers as soon as he could to stop my Hog Rider. Even so, my Hog Rider took his tower down to less than 1000 HP before dying. In some situations it’s good to drop a fireball afterwards to deal with all the troops that have gathered around the tower.

Here you can see the result of this last Fireball. The Barbarians are down to “one shot HP” and the tower is down to 764 HP. Unfortunately I missed the Archers, but you can’t get everything.

You don’t necessarily need to kill any of the enemy towers during the mid game. What is important is that you cause more damage to one of your enemy towers than he causes to any of yours. In the situation above we have one enemy tower down to 298 HP which is a great spot to be in.

Try to have both Tesla and Cannon up at all times, it makes it so much harder for your opponent to counter-attack. Most games are won by taking out one enemy tower while successfully defending your own. You do this by being patient and avoid making stupid mistakes.

Endgame. (2:00 – 3:00)

Hopefully you have brought one of the enemy towers down to 500 HP or lower during the midgame. If you have, you should focus almost all of your effort in defending at this point in the game. That means Cannon and Tesla up at all times and keeping Fireball ready at hand for taking out incoming troops.

Whenever you’ve successfully stopped an enemy attack, try to get your opponent’s tower down to where your fireball can kill it in one hit. Then you can just defend and launch a fireball or lighting at the last second of normal time to take out the tower. I would say at least 20% of my victories come from taking out the enemy tower at the last second.

If you on the other hand have a lot of hit points left on the enemy tower, or even worse, he has killed one of yours already, your gameplan changes a lot. In this case you have to take more risks. Often is this case you will go for all in attacks, that means Hog Rider together with goblins, knights or whatever else you have, in combination with freeze. You can see that in the image above.

General tips.

• Always be ready for the comeback. Even if you lose one of your crown towers early in the game, keep playing, this deck can turn the match around really fast.
• Wait until you are at 10 elixir to trop building, if you drop them too early you are wasting the lifetime of the building.
• Use Goblins and Spear Goblins to distract incoming troops while your buildings take them out.
• Figure out what troops your opponent has and save the Fireball for where it does the most damage. If they have both Barbarians and Minion Horde, use it on the Barbarians and let the Spear Goblins and towers deal with the minions.
• If you place your Hog Rider behind a Knight it can push him forward, this is shown in the example from the midgame.
• Pay attention to what your opponent has dropped and how much elixir he has left. When he is low it’s time to do the Hog Freeze attack.
• Be careful with your Freeze timing, don’t freeze immediately when your Hog reaches the building. Wait till the Hog is around half health and hopefully you will get troops dropped in the Freeze as well.
• Remember that you can use Freeze defensively too. Especially against tower killing troops like the Prince and Mini Pekka a Freeze will work much better than a Fireball.
• If your opponent has Lightning, try to only have one defensive building up at a time. You loose a lot of elixir if he takes out both building with one Lightning spell.
• Don’t wake up the King too early if it looks like you have to take out both towers to win. Once you take out one tower, the king wakes up and you have to deal with him when taking out the next one. It’s often better to leave the first at low health and then take out both towers around the same time later in game.

Countering decks.

Spawner decks.

These are kind of tricky to deal with. I’ve not played against many spawner decks with this deck, but what you should do is to try to get as much value as possible out of your Fireball. Target both troops and buildings at the same time. When you push against them you can use more troops than you otherwise would, and make sure you time the Freeze perfectly.

Pekka decks.

These are not too hard to deal with. As soon as he drops the Pekka you drop your Hog Rider in the other lane and be ready with your Freeze. Your opponent won’t have enough elixir left to defend this and you will end up doing a ton of damage. Your defensive buildings and Goblins will deal with the incoming Pekka.

Golem decks.

Golems decks are very similar to Pekka decks. When they drop the Golem or Elixir collector you attack with your Hog Rider. You can drop a Knight behind the Golem to tank other enemy troops while your smaller troops take it out.

Prince decks.

I haven’t had too much trouble dealing with these decks. You just want a knight or a defensive building to tank the incoming charge. Then you drop your other smaller troops behind the princes to deal damage and take them out. The best is to take out the Dark Prince first if you can, as the regular Prince is easy to distract with goblins.

X-bow or mortar.

I hate the X-bow, and always have a hard time dealing with it. I just posted and article with a video showing how to do it, and I’m getting better at it however. Often the X-bow player will keep attacking on one side, and that is where you have to place your defensive buildings. In these matches you always want to stay high on elixir so you’re able to place down buildings and troops quickly where they need to be.

Conclusion.

At the moment I am switching back and forth between two decks that are really good. The deck I’m playing the most is my Arena 4 deck, but the Hog Freeze deck I’m playing more and more as well. Often when you switch to a new deck it takes a while to play it well, but with this deck it went pretty quickly.

As I stated at the start of the post I had 5 straight victories when I switched to this deck, so it is quite easy to learn. After the modification and getting more experience with it, I keep up a pretty good win rate at Arena 7 with it. If you have any questions or comments please let me know, thanks!

Best Arena 2 deck

This deck is based on my very popular Arena 4-6 deck, but everything has been modified to fit with Arena 2 players. We only use cards from Arena 2 and lower in this deck, and even when only using these cards we are still able to make a really good deck. If I was going to climb from Arena 2 to Arena 4 or 5 right now, this is definitely the deck I would be using. I even play this deck in Arena 7 every now and then, and the win rate is high.

If you decide to try out the deck I’d love to hear how you’re doing. I’m sure there are way to improve the deck, but this is the best Arena 2 deck I’ve come up with after around 1,000 or so Clash Royale games.

The cards.

We do have 3 epic cards in this deck, and I know many new players do not have all these epics yet. When putting together the deck I chose the best possible cards from Arena 2 and lower. However, there are lots of options for replacements, I have suggested replacements for all cards here.

Prince.
Prince is and has always been an awesome card. In my original version of the deck, this place was taken by the Hog Rider, that is a arena 4 card however, so in this version we will use the Prince. The Prince is the first real tower killing card most players get access to, and you can use this card all the way up to Legendary Arena. What is nice with the Prince is that you can even defend with it in emergencies. Usually you’ll use it to kill one of their crown towers when they are low on elixir however.

Bomb Tower.
Instead of Tesla we will use Bomb Tower in this version of the deck. In this version of the deck the Bomb Tower works really well due to elixir costs and combinations with other troops. The Bomb Tower has a ton of HP, and even if it can’t shoot down flying troops it will still distract them while your other towers take them down. You’ll place this in the middle of the area in front of your king so it can cover both lanes.

Baby Dragon.
The Baby Dragon is one of my favourite cards and is an important part of this deck as well.  The Baby Dragon made #1 on my recent post about the Top 10 cards of Clash Royale. The reason this card is awesome is because it is both flying and deals splash damage, which makes it awesome at taking out enemy barbarians and minion hordes. It can also do decent damage hitting the enemy tower solo.

Archers.
Archers fit really well here in this deck. They keep the average elixir cost of the deck down and are really useful in taking out opponent’s flying troops. Archers are mostly used in defence, say you drop them when your opponent has locked focus on your towers to take them out. Archers can also be used in offence however, if they are hiding behind your Knight, Prince or Baby Dragon.

Fireball.
This deck doesn’t use arrows, so a fireball is really needed then. You use this to take out minion horde, goblin barrel and other annoying cards. Both Arrows and Zap work really well as replacements. Arrows is obviously a good replacement id you don’t have Fireball.

Lightning.
Lately I’ve become really fond of using lightning to take out enemy witches, musketeers and wizards. You do this when they are just next to their crown tower to make it a profitable play. Lighting is also a great counter to X-Bow and building/zoo decks.

Knight.
The Knight is a great card for value. For only 3 elixir you get a fairly strong tank that does a lot of damage. The knight is versatile, often you will use it to soak up damage while your troops and towers takes out enemy troops that are attacking you. If can fill the same role in offence, tanking the damage from the towers while your other troops take it out.

Spear Goblins.
These guys are in most of my decks, I actually ranked these #3 for all time best cards of Clash Royale. They are cheap and decent at taking out enemy flying units. I also often use them to distract enemy tower killing troops until I can deal with them.

Card replacements.

Everyone always asks about replacements, so here are my suggestions for replacements. For replacements I only use Arena 2 and lower cards. If you are have access to higher cards, you could take a look at the Arena 4 and above version of the guide.

• Prince can be replaced by Giant.
• Bomb Tower can be replaced by Tombstone.
• Baby Dragon can be replaced by Witch.
• Lightning can be replaced by Arrows
• Spear Goblins can be replaced by Minions.
• Fireball can be replaced by Arrows.
• Archers can be replaced by by Minions.
• Knight can be replaced by Mini Pekka.

Opening. (0:00 – 0:30)

My preferred option is to open with Spear Goblins behind one of my towers. Spear Goblins are cheap at only two elixir, and I will have almost all my elixir left to react to whatever my opponent is opening with. I place them behind my towers so that I can place tanker units in front of them before they reach the bridge.

If I don’t have Spear Goblins in my opening hand I will go for the Bomb Tower. The Bomb Tower doesn’t hit air units however, so you want to place it so that your towers can hit flying troops that are attacking it.

I will place the Bomb Tower in the middle of the space in front of my king, not too close to the river to prevent opponents flying or ranged troops from shooting at it from a distance.  I want my crown towers to shoot at the enemy flying troops as they are hitting my Bomb Tower. The Bomb Tower is great at taking out swarms of small troops like goblins, archers, even barbarians.

The third best opening for this deck is the baby dragon. The baby dragon is moving slowly and does well on it’s own even without support. It is very hard to counter the baby dragon and come out on top.

My last choice of opening would be the Knight. The knight does well against most troops alone and can also do some damage to the enemy crown tower if he is not stopped. The combo with Archers or Spear Goblins behind him work really well.

Midgame. (00:30 – 2:00)

During the middle of the game the idea is to successfully counter your opponent and gain elixir advantage. Keep defending with Bomb Tower, Baby Dragon and Archers. Make sure you place your Bomb Tower so that the annoying buildings like the X-Bow will hit it instead of your crown towers.

Once you have elixir advantage you want to make a push on one of his towers. Try to not be the one to push first, most games I’ve lost has been because I overcommitted in a push and got countered hard. The Prince backed up either by Archers or Spear Goblins is a very strong push when he is low on elixir.

In the situation above my Prince and Archers completely destroyed this crown tower. The Prince will do so much damage if he is not dealt with quickly.

You don’t necessarily need to kill any of the enemy towers during the mid game. What is important is that you cause more damage to one of your enemy towers than he causes to any of yours. In the situation above we have one enemy tower down to 667 HP which is a great spot to be in.

Try to have a Bomb Tower up at all times, it makes it so much harder for your opponent to counter-attack. Most games are won by taking out one enemy tower while successfully defending your own. You do this by being patient and avoid making stupid mistakes.

Endgame. (2:00 – 3:00)

Hopefully you have brought one of the enemy towers down to 600 hp or lower during the midgame. If you have, you should focus almost all of your effort in defending at this point in the game. That means Bomb Towers, Baby Dragons, Archers and Spear Goblins.

Whenever you’ve successfully stopped an enemy attack, try to get your opponent’s tower down to where your fireball or lightning can kill it in one hit. Then you can just defend and launch a fireball or lighting at the last second of normal time to take out the tower. I would say at least 20% of my victories come from taking out the enemy tower at the last second.

If you on the other hand have a lot of hit points left on the enemy tower, or even worse, he has killed one of yours already, your gameplan changes a lot. In this case you have to take more risks. Often in this case I will go for attacks in both lanes. Elixir is increasing at double speed so players get more stressed and often miss defending the lane they are not currently focusing on.

A general rule is that more behind you are in the game, the bigger risks you should take. In same cases you will ignore defending your tower or castle completely if you believe there is a chance you can take out the enemy tower before your tower is dead.

Comeback.

Always be ready for the comeback. Even if you lose one of your crown towers early in the game, keep playing. There are so many times I’ve lost a tower early and yet come back to take the game. Many players play bad when they are ahead and think they will get an easy victory. Take advantage of this, turn the match around and win the game.

Conclusion.

This is a fun deck to play that doesn’t really have any extremely difficult math-ups. I would recommend this deck to any players that are struggling with climbing the rankings. I still use a modified version of this deck at Arena 7, and I’ve gotten comments from lots of players that also have success with this deck.

Best Beginner Deck (Arena 1 to 5)

After the global launch I’ve put together lots of different decks with Training Camp and Goblin Stadium cards, and this is the best deck I have come up with. I remember how hard it was to decide on a deck starting out with the game, and hopefully this guide will be useful to new players. I’ve used the same format as my Arena 4 – 6 guide, take a look at that if you’re pushing arena 5, 6 or 7.

This deck is built up around countering and taking advantage of your opponent’s mistake. From arena 1 all the way up to arena 5, most players make lots of mistakes. The most common mistake I saw as I was testing out decks, was opponents playing too offensively. This deck has lots of good defensive troops to stop your opponents push and then take out crown their tower in a nice counter-attack. It’s also a low elixir cost deck at 3.6, a good thing for new players as well.

The cards.

Lightning and baby dragon are the only two epic cards in this deck. The rest of the cards are mostly lower level cards, so they are not that hard to get. Most cards can also be replaced while without effecting the deck too much.

Archers.
Archers are one of the most underrated cards in Clash Royale. They are great in defence dealing good damage to both air and ground troops. They don’t die to arrows or the same level and will deal a lot of damage to enemy crown towers if protected.

Prince.
Prince is and has always been an awesome card. It’s the first real tower killing card most players get access to, and you can use this card all the way up to Legendary Arena. What is nice with the Prince is that you can even defend with it in emergencies. Usually you’ll use it to kill one of their crown towers when they are low on elixir however.

Baby Dragon.
The Baby Dragon is one of my favourite cards and is an important part of this deck as well. The reason this card is awesome is because it is both flying and deals splash damage, which makes it awesome at taking out enemy barbarians and minion hordes. It can also do decent damage hitting the enemy tower solo.

Valkyrie.
Valkyrie is not a card that is used a lot, but especially for beginning players she is a very good card to have in your deck. Bomber would be a good alternative, but the Bomber is much harder to play. Valkyrie is really hard to misplay, just use her to counter enemy ground troops and you will do fine. She can also be used to tank while your archers and spear goblins are hiding behind her.

Fireball.
This deck doesn’t use arrows, so a fireball is really needed then. You use this to take out Minion Horde, Barbarians Goblin Barrel and other annoying cards. Lets say they drop a giant, they will often follow up with a Witch, Bomber and Archers. Your fireball will take out all the troops behind the Giant and they are the ones that cause the most damage.

Skeleton Army.
Skeleton Army is in here to deal with Prince and Hog Rider mainly. However, it can also be used to swarm other troops like Pekka, Mini Pekka and the Golem.

Knight.
The Knight is in the deck for defending primarily. It will take out a Wizard, Musketeer and Witch one on one and still survive, which will give you a nice elixir advantage. The Wizard and Witch costs 5 elixir to the Knights 3 elixir, a 2 elixir advantage! The Knight can also distract a Baby Dragon while your tower takes it out, and will even take out a Giant Skeleton.

Spear Goblins.
These guys are also in most of my decks. They are cheap and decent at taking out enemy flying units. I also often use them to distract enemy tower killing troops until I can deal with them.

Card replacements.

Here are my suggestions for replacements. Most new players don’t have all the cards yet, so as long as you don’t replace more than 2-3 cards the rest of the guide and play style should be quite similar. I’ve also used cards from higher arenas in the replacements, as I’m sure many player reading this guide are higher than arena 1 already.

• Archers can be replaced with Minions.
• Prince can be replaced by Hog Rider or Giant.
• Baby Dragon can be replaced by Witch or Wizard.
• Skeleton Army can be replaced by Tombstone or Tesla.
• Spear Goblins can be replaced by Minions.
• Fireball can be replaced by Arrows or Zap.
• Knight can be replaced by Minions.
• Valkyrie has a great replacement in the Bomber.

Opening. (0:00 – 0:30)

My preferred option is to open with Spear Goblins behind one of my towers. Spear Goblins are cheap at only two elixir, and I will have almost all my elixir left to react to whatever my opponent is opening with. I place them behind my towers so that I can place tank units, like Knight, Valkyrie or Baby Dragon, in fromt of them before they reach the bridge.

If I don’t have Spear Goblins in my opening hand I will go for the Baby Dragon. The Baby Dragon is moving slowly and does well on it’s own even without support. It is very hard to counter the baby dragon and come out on top. If there are no other threats to deal with I will often place Archers or Spear Goblins behind it once i reaches the bridge.

My third choice of opening would be the Knight. The knight does well against most troops alone and can also do some damage to the enemy crown tower if he is not stopped. The combo with Archers or Spear Goblins behind him work really well.

The last choice of opening would be archers, they don’t do too well against enemy towers alone, but if I can get a Knight, Baby Dragon or Valkyrie in front of them before they reach the bridge they are great. Versus most troops the Archers also do well alone, it’s hard to kill them efficiently and gain an elixir advantage.

Midgame. (00:30 – 2:00)

This decks is built around defending efficiently, and then use your elixir advantage to counter-attack. When you play, be patient and don’t overcommit on an attacks. That is what your opponent is going to do, and you are going to sit back and kill his troops in front of your towers. Then, once you have your opponent at an elixir disadvantage, attack!

The Prince with Archers behind him works really well. The Archers can both do good damage to the towers and take out any defensive troops your opponent might place. In this situation he placed Minions to defend, and my Archers took them out.

Especially in lower arenas players keep attacking and attacking without letting their elixir reset. Don’t do this, it’s a big mistake. Anyways, this means that you often will have enough elixir to counter-attack in the other lane while still holding back your opponent’s attack.

In the screenshot above you can see such a counter attack. I don’t need all my elixir to defend so I can counter-attack in the other lane while my opponent is out of elixir and is unable to defend it. This Prince can easily take out the rest of the tower as my opponent will spent too long time waiting for elixir before he can defend.

Endgame. (2:00 – 3:00)

How the endgame goes depends on how much damage you have managed to cause in the midgame. Hopefully you have brought one of the enemy towers down to 600 hp or lower. If you have, you should focus almost all of your effort in defending at this point, that means no pushing with the Prince unless you’re 100% sure your opponent is out of elixir and unable to defend.

Whenever you’ve successfully repelled an enemy attack, try to get the enemy tower down to where your fireball or lightning can kill it in one hit. Then you can just keep defending and launch a fireball or lighting at the last second of normal time to take out the tower.

If you on the other hand have a lot of hit points left on the enemy tower, or even worse, he has killed one of yours already, your gameplan changes a lot. In this case you have to take more risks. Elixir is increasing at double speed so players get more stressed and often miss defending the lane they are not currently focusing on, if you’re lucky your Prince can take out a crown tower solo without your opponent noticing.

A general rule is that more behind you are in the game, the bigger risks you should take. In same cases you will ignore defending your tower or castle completely if you believe there is a chance you can take out the enemy tower before your tower is dead. This is especially true during overtime, the first one to kill a tower wins the game then after all.

Offense tactics.

Here I will discuss some common situation where this deck really shines and gives you a nice elixir advantage if you play correctly.

Counter attack.

Here my Archers first take out the enemy Hog Rider in defence. If you use Archers to defend against Hog Rider it will only be able to hit the tower two times.

Once the Archers reach the bridge I place my Knight in front of them. I also place my Prince behind the Knight so it will push the Knight forward to tank the damage for everyone else. The Valkyrie also joins in for the big push.

My opponent tries defending with Minions and Archers, but the tower is still taken out with one of my Archers surviving. My opponent was too low on elixir to defend the push and also misplaced his Tesla.

Fireball to kill Swarms.

If your opponent plays Minion Horde, Barbarians or any combination of weaker troops together Fireball gives you a real nice elixir advantage. Both Minion Horde and Barbarians cost 5 elixir to play, and taking them of with Fireball will give you a one elixir advantage. Barbarians might still survive depending on level, but it will leave them low enough for your tower to take them out without taking damage.

If you kill two cards worth of troops with your Fireball you can get an even larger elixir advantage. Often I’m able to kill 8 elixir worth of troops like Witch and Archers with one Fireball. This is huge, a 4 elixir advantage like this enables you to do tons of damage to their towers.

Defence tactics.

Here I’ll describe some common situations you will face with this deck, and how to defend them. Please let me know by leaving a comment if there are any other situations you’d like me to discuss.

Defending the Giant push.

I noticed that pushing with Giant in front is really popular in the lower arenas. I guess that is because most players really struggle stopping this push. The Giant push is placing a Giant at the far back of your towers and place weaker DPS troops behind it once it gets to the bridge. Then the Giant will tank the damage while the DPS troops will deal the damage.

It can be hard to stop this push if you don’t know how to do it, as you will often end up in a situation where all your troops are hitting the Giant while the enemy troops are shooting at your troops without taking damage.

What you ideally want to do is to take out the troops behind the Giant first, and then deal with the Giant. Fireball is a great spell for this, it will often take out all the troops behind the Giant. Lightning is another option of they use troops like Witch or Wizard behind the Giant.

If you don’t have spells ready or the right situation for them, you have to use regular troops. Depending on what troops they use behind their Giant you want some or all of your troops behind the Giant to deal with them. In the image above you see that the Knight and Baby Dragon is placed behind the enemy Giant to deal with the troops there. Here I also had Fireball ready, but I had to use that to deal with the Goblin Barrel.

Defending against Prince and Hog Rider.

Hog Rider is not common at lower levels, but you often have to deal with the Prince. If you don’t stop the Prince he will deal a ton of damage to your tower. The main card for dealing with Prince and Hog Rider is Skeleton Army. Playing this as soon as you see the Hog Rider approaching will take him out without any hits landing on your tower. Dealing with the Prince you can play it even later, as long as it lands before he hits your tower the skeletons will swarm around him and take him out.

If you don’t have Skeleton Army ready you are in a bit of trouble. Spear Goblins or Archers can do the job though, Archers will take out a Hog Rider before it can land more than two hits to your tower.

Comeback.

If you do some errors and get behind from the start of the game, don’t give up. This deck gives you a good chance at a comeback if your opponent makes errors, and he will for sure. Players makes error all the time, and the winner is usually the player who makes the least amount of errors.

Conclusion.

This is a very active and fun deck to play, and from my experience it does really well against all other decks. I did not find any specific deck type I had a big problem with.

It is also a great deck to learn the game with in my opinion. You learn which troops counter which and how to use your elixir advantage to as much damage as possible to the enemy towers.

Please let me know how you’re doing if you’re using this decks. Also if you have any suggestions on how to improve the decks I’d love to hear that as well, thanks!

Best Arena 4 to 6 deck

UPDATE: This deck has now been updated for the March 2016 patch based on feedback from lots of players. Minion Horde was changed to Archers, due to the ease of countering Minion Horde with Arrows and to lower average elixir cost from 4.3 to 4.0. I still use this deck at Arena 7 now at 2000+ trophies, it’s the deck that has given me the highest win rate of any deck I’ve tried.

This is the deck that took me as a level 6 player from arena 4 to arena 6 in just a couple of hours of gameplay. I’ve tried lots of different decks while being stuck at Pekka’s Playhouse. Changing to this deck made a huge difference for me, that’s why I’m writing this detailed guide on it. Anyone struggling getting to Royal Arena should definitely check this deck out.

I’m currently at Royal Arena and have yet to find any decks that work better than this one. I’m not sure how far this deck will take me, but I believe this deck will work well up to mid 2000s as well. I’m currently level 7, but I got all the way to Royal Arena with this deck at level 6.

The cards.

Lightning and baby dragon are the only two epic cards in this deck. The rest of the cards are mostly lower level cards, so they are not that hard to get. Most cards can also be replaced while without effecting the deck too much.

Tesla.
The most important card in this deck is the tesla. You can replace it with inferno tower if you don’t have it, but tesla is way better. Tesla is both better at taking out swarms of enemy troops and much harder to kill. You place the tesla in the middle of your towers, so enemy troops from both sides will be distracted and shot by it.

Hog Rider.
The hog rider is very popular these days. It has a decent amount of hp and is great at making quick counter attacks killing enemy crown towers. The hog rider is used in the main push of this deck, which I talk more about below.

Baby Dragon.
The Baby Dragon is one of my favourite cards and is an important part of this deck as well. The reason this card is awesome is because it is both flying and deals splash damage, which makes it awesome at taking out enemy barbarians and minion hordes. It can also do decent damage hitting the enemy tower solo.

Archers.
With the March 2016 update Archers was put in the deck instead of Minion Horde. Putting in Archers lowered the average elixir cost of this deck from 4.3 to 4.0, which is good. Archers still do a lot of damage and are a lot harder to counter than Minion Horde.

Fireball.
This deck doesn’t use arrows, so a fireball is really needed then. You use this to take out minion horde, goblin barrel and other annoying cards. Both Arrows and Zap work really well as replacements.

Lightning.
Lately I’ve become really fond of using lightning to take out enemy witches, musketeers and wizards. You do this when they are just next to their crown tower to make it a profitable play. Lighting is also a great counter to X-Bow and building/zoo decks. Even though I prefer Lightning, I’ve had success replacing this card with Freeze, and many players prefer that.

Barbarians.
Barbarians are simply great value, four troops that have enough hotpoint to survive a fireball is awesome. Barbarians are used both for offence and defence in this deck.

Spear Goblins.
These guys are also in most of my decks. They are cheap and decent at taking out enemy flying units. I also often use them to distract enemy tower killing troops until I can deal with them.

Card replacements.

Everyone always asks about replacements, so here are my suggestions for replacements.

• The best replacement for the Hog rider is the Prince, it fills a very similar role. It can also be replaced with Balloon, Giant or Royal Giant. That makes the deck bit different, but it’s still a good deck.
• Tesla can be replaced by Inferno Tower or Cannon.
• Baby Dragon can be replaced by Witch or Wizard.
• Lightning can be replaced by Rockets or Freeze, both of these options work really well.
• Spear Goblins can be replaced by Minions.
• Fireball can be replaced by Arrows or Zap.
• Archers can be replaced by by Minions.
• Barbarians can be replaced by Knight. I’ve also tried replacing them with Pekka, which makes for a weird deck, but it worked well.

Opening. (0:00 – 0:30)

My preferred option is to open with Spear Goblins behind one of my towers. Spear Goblins are cheap at only two elixir, and I will have almost all my elixir left to react to whatever my opponent is opening with. I place them behind my towers so that I can place tanker units in front of them before they reach the bridge.

If I don’t have Spear Goblins in my opening hand I will go for the tesla. With the recent changes the tesla is an amazing defensive building. It is cheap to build, has decent amount of hit points and your opponent can’t kill it with spell when it’s not active.

I will place the tesla in the middle of the space in front of my castle, not too close to the river to prevent opponents defensive buildings or ranged troops from shooting at it from a distance. Placing it further back also means opponent troops have to walk through my towers fire to get to it. The tesla is awesome at taking out enemy hog riders and giants.

The third best opening for this deck is the baby dragon. The baby dragon is moving slowly and does well on it’s own even without support. It is very hard to counter the baby dragon and come out on top.

Midgame. (00:30 – 2:00)

During the middle of the game the idea is to successfully counter your opponent and gain elixir advantage. Keep defending with Tesla, Baby Dragon and Barbarians. Make sure you use the right troops at the right place, I guess you can see what I did wrong below.

Once you have elixir advantage you want to make a push on one of his towers. Try to not be the one to push first, most games I’ve lost has been because I overcommitted in a push and got countered hard.

In the screenshot above you can see I’ve overcommitted with swarm troops close together, don’t do this. After that fireball hit I lost all my troops and one of my towers to his counter push.

You don’t necessarily need to kill any of the enemy towers during the mid game. What is important is that you cause more damage to one of your enemy towers than he causes to any of yours. Most games are won by taking out one enemy tower while successfully defending your own.

In the screenshot above we are 600 hp ahead at the end of the midgame. This is good situation to be in. Just keep playing the same way the last minute of the game and you will win the game.

Try to have one tesla up at all times, it’s so easy for enemy hog riders, giants, prices and other tower killing troops to run in if you don’t. If you don’t have a tesla out or in your hand, make sure you have other troops you can use to defend with.

Endgame. (2:00 – 3:00)

Hopefully you have brought one of the enemy towers down to 600 hp or lower during the midgame. If you have, you should focus almost all of your effort in defending at this point in the game. That means Teslas, Baby Dragons, Barbarians and Spear Goblins. Minion Horde is risky as it’s often taken out by Arrows or Fireball which can cause you to loose your tower.

Whenever you’ve successfully repelled an enemy attack, try to get the enemy tower down to where your fireball or lightning can kill it in one hit. Then you can just keep defending and launch a fireball or lighting at the last second of normal time to take out the tower. I would say at least 20% of my victories come from taking out the enemy tower at the last second.

If you on the other hand have a lot of hit points left on the enemy tower, or even worse, he has killed one of yours already, your gameplan changes a lot. In this case you have to take more risks. Often in this case I will go for attacks in both lanes. Elixir is increasing at double speed so players get more stressed and often miss defending the lane they are not currently focusing on.

A general rule is that more behind you are in the game, the bigger risks you should take. In same cases you will ignore defending your tower or castle completely if you believe there is a chance you can take out the enemy tower before your tower is dead.

Comeback.

If you do some errors and get behind from the start of the game, don’t give up. This deck gives you a good chance at a comeback if your opponent makes errors as well. The screenshots below are from one such game.

Here I first overcommit on a push in the right lane. Because of that I’m not able to counter my opponent’s Hog Rider right away.

My opponent’s Hog Rider deals 700 damage to my left tower before I manage to kill it with my barbarians. At the same time my opponent places a Prince in the right lane. This is a huge problem, because I’m low on elixir I’m not able to counter that either.

I finally get the enemy Prince taken out with a Tesla, but not until it has taken out 1500 hp from my right tower. This leaves my really far behind, and it would have been easy to give up on the game at this point. However, other players make mistakes too and instead of giving up I decided to focus and try to turn the game around.

Turns out my opponent overcommitted too on an attack in the right lane. Then he puts the tombstone down too late which enables my Hog Rider and two Barbarians to reach the enemy tower and take it out.

After this my opponent makes lots of mistakes and I keep counter pushing while defending with Tesla. In this game Tesla really shines taking out countless Hog Riders and Princes.

Just before the end of the game I take out his last tower while he takes out one of mine. A game where I was really far behind got turned around to a two crown victory.

Strongest push.

The last thing I’d like to talk about is the strongest push of the deck. There are lots of way for this deck to take out the enemy towers, but my favourite way is to use the Baby Dragon together with Barbarians and the Hog Rider.

You start out with a normal defensive opening with your Baby Dragon behind one of your towers. Here I place it behind the left tower to take out the enemy Spear Goblins coming out of the Goblin Hut.

Once your baby dragon reaches the bridge it’s time to decide if you want to go for the push. If your opponent has played something it’s more beneficial for you to counter, you do that instead. In this case all my opponent had was the Goblin Hut, so I decided to go for the push.

Place your Barbarians in front of your Hog Rider. The Hog Rider will push the Barbarians forward making them reach the enemy tower faster. The Hog Rider will also stay out of harms way for longer and thus be able to do more damage to the enemy tower.

My opponent chose to defend with Baby Dragon and Wizard. These are decent counters, but he let my troops get too close before defending so it didn’t turn out too well for him.

Here his first tower falls just 36 seconds into the game, which leaves my at a huge advantage. Usually this deck will take longer to take out a tower, but every now and then you find the right situation for a all-in push like this.

Conclusion.

This is a defensive deck that at the same time has ways to make strong pushes. The deck does well against all other deck types I’ve faced so far, and can give you a very good win rate at arena 4 and 5. At arena 6 it does well up to 2000 or so as well. If you’re struggling to get up to the Royal Arena, definitely check the deck out.

Also, please let me know if you enjoyed this format of deck guide and if you have any questions.

Chief Pat ranked #2 global Clash Royale deck

Chief Pat is a famous Clash of Clans and Clash Royale YouTuber and Streamer, and found this deck in his recent Ask me Anything thread on Reddit. I am currently testing out this deck and it is working great so far. The information here will be based on my own experiences with the deck as well as information from his thread at Reddit which you can find here.

General play style.

The way I am playing this deck is holding back and countering whatever my opponent is playing. As you can see from the deck list below, the deck consists of counters for almost anything your opponent can play. Once I know I have an elixir lead I go in for the crown tower kill.

The cards.

Lightning and baby dragon are the only two epic cards in this deck. Most of the cards are accessible at lower arena levels, so it is actually not that hard for beginner or F2P players to put together. I’ve had access to these cards for a long time and I’ve only spent around $30 on the game.

Hog Rider.
The hog rider is very popular these days. It has a decent amount of hp and is great at making quick counter attacks killing enemy crown towers.

Baby Dragon.
The Baby Dragon is one of my favourite cards and it is nice to see it used in this deck as well. The reason this card is awesome is because it is both flying and deals splash damage, which makes it awesome at taking out enemy barbarians and minion hordes.

Inferno Tower.
The inferno tower is great at dealing with enemy golems, hog riders and giants. It can also be used to take out X-Bows that are placed poorly.

Tombstone.
According to Chief Pat the best card in the game at the moment, and I totally agree. I use the tombstone in all of my decks. The reason is that it’s a great counter to so many cards your opponent can throw at you. By it being a great counter I mean that you take out opponents troops costing 4 to 5 elixir by only spending 3 for your tombstone.

Fireball.
This deck doesn’t use arrows, so a fireball is really needed then. You use this to take out minion horde, goblin barrel and other annoying cards.

Lightning.
Lately I’ve become really fond of using lightning to take out enemy witches, musketeers and wizards. You do this when they are just next to their crown tower to make it a profitable play. Lighting is also a great counter to X-Bow and building/zoo decks.

Archers.
I don’t really like archers, but they do work pretty well in this deck. You need some more anti-air and they also work well for countering small pushes.

Spear Goblins.
These guys are also in most of my decks. They are cheap and decent at taking out enemy flying units. I also often use them to distract enemy tower killing troops until I can deal with them.

Card replacements.

• Hog rider can be replaced with balloon, in the newest replay where Chief Pat plays xSCWx he is doing this replacement.
• Inferno Tower can be replaced by Cannon or Tesla.
• Baby Dragon can be replaced by a Witch.
• Lightning can be replaced by Rockets.
• Archers can be replace by Musketeer.

Card level and player level.

To reach #2 global you obviously need to level up the cards, Chief Pat mentioned he has spent around $4k on Clash Royale so far. He is currently a level 11 player who consistently beat level 12 players. From his latest replay these are the current ranks of the cards in his deck:

• Fireball: Level 9.
• Lightning: Level 7.
• Inferno tower: Level 9.
• Tombstone: Level 9.
• Spear goblin: Level 11.
• Archers: Level 11.
• Baby dragon: Level 7.
• Hog rider: Unknown.
• Balloon: Level 7.

You can find lots of videos of this deck being played at Chief Pat’s YouTube. Also please leave a comment and let me know if you’d like me to go over more of the top players’ decks.

Arena 7 deck – Royal Arena

This is a Free to Play deck I started using a while ago and have had lots of success with. I’m not strictly a free to play player, but I’ve spent less than $30 on gems so I’m close to it. This deck contains only two epic cards, the baby dragon and freeze. The baby dragon is a low level epic card which most free to play players have access to.

Freeze is a bit harder to get, but you can replace this with other spells. Other useful spells would be fireball and freeze, they will deal damage to the towers and surrounding troops.

General play style.

What you do playing this deck is to counter your opponent’s plays and then make a strong push when you are ahead. The hog rider pushing with the valkyrie in front is really strong. The valkyrie will take most of the damage and kill opponent’s troops while the hog rider goes in for killing the tower.

The cards.

As you can see this is a pretty cheap deck to build. There are two epic cards, 3 rare and 3 commons.

Hog rider.
The hog rider is the main card used to kill your opponent’s crown towers. A really nice way to play this is to put it behind the valkyrie on the bridge. Playing it this way it will push the valkyrie forward into enemy troops. The valkyrie is awesome at dealing splash damage and will also take damage for the hog rider. This lets your hog rider reach the enemy crown tower and deal damage.

Valkyrie.
In addition to tanking and leading the charge ahead of the hog rider the valkyrie makes great defence as well. The valkyrie is great at killing enemy goblins and other smaller troops.

Tombstone.
I’m really fond of the tombstone and keep one of these in almost any deck. Even after the nerf the tombstone is pretty good. It deals well with both the prince, balloons, x-bows and hog riders. It is a decent card to start out the game with, then you place it in the middle of the open area in front of your crown castle.

Spear goblin.
Spear goblins are awesome as well and have many purposes. They can be used for anti-air killing enemy balloons and other flying troops. They can be used to slow down enemy princes and giants. The last thing is that they can also be used to kill enemy crown towers hiding behind your valkyrie or baby dragon.

Minion horde.
Minion horde deals a lot of damage quickly to any enemy unit you place them around. They also do a lot of damage to your opponent’s tower if not dealt with.

Baby dragon.
This card is a great combination of splash damage and tank. It’s also really nice to have a unit that deals splash damage to both air and ground troops, your valkyrie will only damage enemy ground troops after all.

Arrows.
Even with a lot of splash damage the arrows will come in handy, but you can replace these with fireball or lightning of you have any of those at higher levels.

Freeze.
Freeze is really useful both for defence and offence. It has saved my towers many times and also have enabled me to kill the enemy tower and win me the game.

Arena 5 deck – The Hog Hut deck

UPDATE: As of March 2016 this is not my favourite deck anymore for Arena 5 and higher. This deck still works, but if you haven’t already, definitely check out my Arena 4-7 deck as well. My win rate with that deck is much higher than with the Hog Hut deck.

This deck is great for play for free players and the only high level card needed is the hog rider, and that is just a rare and it’s not that hard to get. It’s been tested and it shows that it works really well on arena 5 and 6. If you don’t have the hog rider you can replace it with a giant or prince as well. The only epic needed is lighting, but replace this with fireball is definitely a good option.

The cards.

Hog Rider.
When you have elixir advantage you can use this card to split push. Put the hog rider in one land and the rest of your troops in the other. Other times in the game it’s best to save it to kill X-bows and other immediate threats.

Goblin Hut.
The other card I’ve used to name the deck is the goblin hut. This card is great for keeping some pressure in one lane while you focus on the other one. It can also be used to distract troops, but generally you want to use the tombstone for that.

Lightning.
Lightning is used both to kill tower and strong enemy troops. For instance if your opponent pushes with wizard or witch behind barbarians you can use lightning to kill two barbarians and the witch / wizard.

Tombstone
The tombstone is used as always to distract troops like the prince, balloon, hog rider, etc. You can also use the card to open cheap before you see what your opponent does.

Arrows
Arrows are great to take out swarms of your opponent’s troops. I usually find room for arrows in all of my decks.

Archers
Archers are squishy so you better know how to use them. They work great sitting behind your tower killing melee troops.

Barbarians
The barbarians are your tanks. It works really well to push with these with archers and / or spear goblins behind them.

Spear Goblins
Your spear goblins are used to take out enemy air troops. If your opponent doesn’t have many air troops you can use them to push behind your barbarians.

How to play the Hog Hut deck.

The Hog Hut decks is a reactionary deck that should be played defensively from the beginning. The means usually starting out with one of the cheaper troops like tombstone and spear goblin and then see what your opponent does from there.

Take note of what air your opponent has early, if they have a lot of air you should save up your archers and spear goblins to keep them ready for when they push with a lot of air troops.

The goal of your play style should be to get elixir advantage and then push with your hog rider in one lane and the rest of your troops in the other lane. With and elixir advantage in this situation your opponent will have a really hard time defending and you will seriously damage or destroy a crown tower with this push.

Royal Arena cards (Arena 7)

UPDATE: Lots of changes were done to this arena in the March 2016 Clash Royale update. This arena is now Arena 7, and all the cards have been replaced. The cards you get access to here are awesome now, so do try to get to this arena as soon as you can. You now need 2000 trophies to get to the Royal Arena.

Royal Arena is the last arena in Clash Royale at the moment. You get access to 3 more cards here, but those are kinda disappointing really, only the golem is kinda fun. I use four tiers to rate the cards: great, good, ok, bad. I also write about which roles they fill and how to use them.

	Dark Prince. Tier: Great Role: Tank, splash Elixir: 4 Comments: Very good combination of tank and splash damage. This is the best new card from the March 2016 update.
	Princess. Tier: Great Role: Splash, ranged Elixir: 3 Comments: Nice splash damage and a huge range, she can actually hit the towers without being hit herself.
	Royal Giant Tier: Good Role: Tank, DPS Elixir: 6 Comments: Just like the regular giant apart from that he has a huge gun. The Royal Giant can kill the enemy tower from a distance.
	Three Musketeers Tier: Bad Role: DPS Elixir: 10 Comments: You get three musketeers for the price of 2.5, too expensive unless you’re certain you’ll do enough damage with them.

Builder’s Workshop cards (Arena 6)

The Builder’s Workshop is the new arena that came with the March 2016 update of Clash Royale. Basically this arena just takes the place the Royal Arena used to have. With the update they moved the Royal Arena to 2000 trophies, and made it into arena 7, and they place the Builder’s Workshop as arena 6.

When you reach the Builder’s Workshop you will get access to the same three cards that used to be in the Royal Arena. The golem is an ok card, but the others are pretty bad.

	Golem. Tier: Good Role: Tank, splash Elixir: 8 Comments: Very good combination of tank and splash damage, but too expensive in my opinion.
	Mortar. Tier: Good Role: Splash, defensive Elixir: 6 Comments: Nice splash damage but hard to find room for in a good deck.
	Elixir Collector. Tier: Bad Role: Defensive Elixir: 5 Comments: Produces elixir and can be used to distract opponent’s troops, still it’s pretty useless.

Spell Valley cards (Arena 5)

UPDATE: Spell Valley will now give you access to five cards. Two new cards were added to the Spell Valley arena in the March 2016 update. The new cards is the Ice Wizard, a legendary card that it is really hard to get, and Poison, an epic spell.

Reaching Spell Valley you will only get access to another 3 more cards. One of the cards is one of the best ones in the game though, namely the Wizard. I will still use these four tiers to rate the cards: great, good, ok, bad. I also write about which roles they fill and how to use them.

	Wizard. Tier: Great Role: Single DPS, splash, air target Elixir: 5 Comments: The wizard is awesome, taking down hordes of ground and flying troops in no time.
	Ice Wizard. Tier: Great Role: Crowd control, splash, air target Elixir: 3 Comments: The ice wizard great costing only 3 elixir and both freezing and damaging incoming troops.
	Poison. Tier: Great Role: Splash damage Elixir: 4 Comments: This new spell is another great card, does damage over time in a huge area.
	Mirror. Tier: OK Role: Spell Elixir: Depends Comments: Mirrors the last card you played and costs the same amount of elixir, fits in certain special decks.
	Zap. Tier: OK Role: Splash, spell Elixir: 2 Comments: Better options for damage spells out there.