5 best Clash Royale decks for beginners

As a beginner, it can be hard to wrap your head around a game like Clash Royale, as it requires an immense amount of strategic decision-making to win a match. But any strategy starts with a good deck and efficient elixir management.

You can make a deck full of heavy cards, yet you will find it difficult to win a match. To help you overcome the hurdle of assembling good cards, here is a comprehensive guide to the best Clash Royale decks for beginners.

What are the best Clash Royale decks for beginners?

Before we dive any further, it is important to know that these decks are crafted from cards from Arena Seven or below in Clash Royale. It is safe to say that any player who is above that arena level is not a beginner anymore.

1. Giant Balloon deck (Average elixir: 3.6)

• Giant
• Balloon
• Knight
• Minions
• Arrows
• Tombstone
• Archers
• Musketeer

This is a Clash Royale deck for dominating the battlefield from both the ground and air. On offense, make sure you use the Giant and the Balloon together, as they will overwhelm the enemy. Remember that your Giant is your tank, so make sure he is leading the attack. You can boost your attack with Minions, and keep the Arrows ready for a surprise move from your opponent.

For defense, make sure you place the Tombstone at the center of your area to divert the enemies towards it. Now you can place the Archers or Musketeer behind the tower, or two-tiles below the Tombstone, to make a perfect defense. Since any tank is busy taking out the Tombstone, you can use the Knight or Minion, depending on the situation, to kill or distract any supporting troops.

2. Giant Double Prince deck (Average elixir: 3.6)

• Giant
• Prince
• Dark Prince
• Minions
• Fireball
• Tombstone
• Zap
• Mega Minion

This is the most explosive deck that a beginner can try in Clash Royale, as the combined damage of both Princes is huge. For offense, deploy a Giant behind the king’s tower, as you can collect elixir as he walks to the bridge. Now put both Prince and Dark Prince behind him for a tremendous push. Make sure to keep your finger on the Zap spell, as a big push can only be countered with a Skeleton Army or Inferno Tower.

If your opponent uses Minion Horde to counter it, don’t use Zap or anything else, as these mini-troops are air units and cannot divert the attention of the ground units that are involved in your push. Your opponent has to use several cards to counter your push, which will put him at an elixir disadvantage, and hence you can easily pile up another attack while he still suffers from the elixir shortage.

For defense, put the Tombstone on the center of your area and let the opposing units come and attack it. Now use Mega Minion on the support units to kill them, or use Fireball to almost finish every one of them. You can also use the Prince and Dark Prince as your defensive pieces to further strengthen your defensive prowess. You can also use the Giant as a distraction for the enemies to buy some time. Make sure not to use the Prince against any mini-troops like Skeleton Army, Goblins, etc.

3. Giant Hog deck (Average elixir: 3.1)

• Giant
• Hog Rider
• Skeletons
• Minions
• Fireball
• Goblins
• Zap
• Musketeer

This is the most versatile deck in Clash Royale in terms of attack for beginners. On offense, use your Giant as a tank and build up your push by adding support units like the Musketeer, Minions, or Goblins. You can use the Hog Rider as an attack, but make sure to keep an eye out for a Skeleton Army or a Tombstone. A good strategy for attacks will be to use a Giant push in one lane and a Hog Rider in another lane to do a double-lane attack. This type of strategy works a lot, and puts immense pressure on the opponent.

Defending a push can be tricky here, if you overly rely on buildings for defense. In order to defend a push, use a Musketeer from behind the tower or at the center of your area. Put a Giant in the middle of the arena and make sure it starts walking towards the enemy push. By doing this, it will distract the enemy troops.

Now let the Musketeer damage the enemy units, and if possible, put Minions or Skeletons on them to neutralize the push. If you’re desperate, you can use a Fireball on the support units to push them back and damage them.

4. Giant Mini P.E.K.K.A. deck (Average elixir: 3.3)

• Giant
• Mini P.E.K.K.A.
• Skeleton Army
• Archers
• Fireball
• Spear Goblins
• Fire Spirit
• Musketeer

This deck in Clash Royale is overall good for both defense and offense, as it includes Mini P.E.K.K.A. in your repertoire, which is a great versatile card. For an attack, use a Giant as your tank and a Musketeer or Archers as your support units. Do not deploy both Archers and Musketeer cards together, as they can be killed by a Fireball or Rocket, which can result in a negative elixir trade. You can also use Spear Goblins to do chip damage to the enemy towers, as usually opponents do not use any elixir to counter them.

For defense, use the Musketeer behind the tower and put Skeleton Army all over the enemy push, as long as the enemy does not have Valkyrie or any splash damage troops. Put Spear Goblins in the center of your area to divert the enemy push and put fire spirit over the support units. You can use Mini P.E.K.K.A. to kill the tank or you can deploy it to the enemy support units to weaken the enemy push. Fireball is also great choice to push the enemy back as a last resort.

5. Hog Goblin Barrel cycle deck (Average elixir: 3.3)

• Hog Rider
• Goblin Barrel
• Skeleton Army
• Zap
• Fireball
• Inferno Tower
• Fire Spirit
• Musketeer

You have to use this as a cycle deck in Clash Royale, as one single push is unlikely to take down the enemy’s tower. This deck does not contain any tank cards; however, it does have two win condition cards in Hog Rider and Goblin Barrel. For attack, you can use both Hog Rider and Goblin Barrel to pressure the enemy. Remember, it can be easily countered if it is not supported by any other cards. For instance, use the Fire Spirit behind the Hog Rider to take down any mini-troop that has been deployed by the opponent.

You can also split attacks with Hog Rider on one tower and Goblin Barrel on another to do double-lane pressure. Keep your Zap ready if there are still any mini-troops left. Also, don’t focus too much on attack, as it might put you at a elixir disadvantage. Keep cycling your cards to perform multiple attacks on your opponent.

For defense, use a Musketeer in any of your usual spots and put an Inferno Tower in the center of your area. Make sure both the Inferno Tower and Musketeer are not in the same place, and that the enemies are heading towards the building. Use a Skeleton Army to neutralize or slow down the support troops. Quickly deploy the Fire Spirit to finish off any critical enemy units.