Clash Royale meta decks

This page describes the strategies, hints and tips of meta decks in Clash Royale.

Meta decks are those decks played by many top 200 players, and that show consistent win rates against several deck archetypes.

Royal Recruits Hogs Fireball bait

Meta deck - royal recruits hogs fireball bait	Three variants using the same base (see Deckshop.pro)

Base strategy

• Deck containing many fireball bait cards. Always play them to AVOID giving opp fireball value.

• Play machine in the middle (so that P tower can't be hit).
• Split hogs.

• Usually play hogs after recruits, so that they tank for the hogs.

• All fireball bait. Goal is to never give any value to opp fireball, like always play flyingmachine in the middle (to avoid damage on towers). Then also always split troops on both lanes (eg. when recruits are tanking for the hogs).

2.6 hog cycle deck

Meta deck - 2.6 hog cycle deck

A well-known meta deck. Started playing with this deck during 2nd Clan War season. Very difficult to play but would help better understand / master the game. Guides: new 2.6 Hog Cycles! (Kick Ash - statsroyale.com) new 2.6 Hog Cycle - Most Informative and In-Depth Guide to the Most Popular Hog Cycle Deck (Electro Wizard 2016 - reddit.com) new Clash Royale-2.6 Hog log Deck In-Depth Guide to the Most Popular Hog Cycle Deck (Kpid 2017 - gamestroops.com) new IN DEPTH 2.6 Hog Cycle Guide (Klerx69 2020 - Hypixel.net) Youtube: YersonCz YouTube channel

Base strategy

• 2.6 elixir tips [1]

• Tip 1: Push smarter but not harder.
• Tip 2: Cycle with purpose.
• Tip 3: Protect your musketeer.

• General goal is to distract all units and avoid taking any damage on the towers, and never be too low in elixir (to defend rapidly with many units at once).
• Unit role:

• hogrider can push the icegolem. Do this when cycling fast, to still keep value of golem.
• ice spirit: to slow down balloon or hog rider, avoid them to have a hit against tower or cannon. Reset attacks (but not sparky), so icespirit + icegolem are very interesting to re-aggro an attacking opponent. ALWAYS play spirit first! (to freeze opponent and reduce damage)
• log: also defensively, to push forward units, to protect eg. musk against pekka/prince or cannon against hog. Reset attacks (charge).
• icegolem: will also kill some units (skeletons) and slow them down on death.

• Placement:

• skeletons:

• 1-3 (eg. very effective against ebarbs).

• cannon:

• 3-3 or 3-2 (Ouahleouff [2]) for cannon.
• 4-3 against golem
• 4-2 or 3-2 against hogrider (3-3 or even 2-3 will NOT aggro!).

• musketeer:

• 7-3, then icespirit at 3-3 to attract troops from bridge (and get defense from both towers).

• Learn spell cycle magic numbers:

• 6 cards needed to play 3 spells (fireball (4)-log (2)-icegolem (2)-icespirit (1)-skeletons (1)-fireball (4)) and score 663 (lvl 14) / 501 (lvl 11) damage on tower.

• Against MK, activation:

• hogrider at 2-4 when MK crosses the bridge, then after MK jumps icespirit at 8-3 [3]
• skeletons at 4-3 (when MK is at 1+-), then when MK jumps icespirit at 8-4 [4]
• skeletons at 4-4 (when MK is at 1+-), then when MK jumps icespirit at 7-4 [5] (here MK was coming from middle).
• cannon at 4-2, then icespirit at 9-4 [6]
• Cannon at 4-3, and icegolem at 1-4 (other lane), then skeletons at 9-4 when cannon is down [7].
• More activation by YersonCz here.

• Against 2.6:

• On hog rider alone, cannon at 4-2.
• Against musketeer, cannon at 5-2, so that it is not sniped by musk. Try to protect cannon with skel, ice or golem.
• Log the icegolem.

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TODO: Watch CWA video on this deck (gameplay from YersonCZ) against lavaloon: On lava: hog opposite lane always (if needed, cycle aggressively, like with spirit or golem at bridge). Against 1st balloon: cannoon at 4-1, then cycle (log on tower, golem 7+0 to be under lava when he pops, spirit under loon to slow it down a bit) and then 2nd cannon at 7-3 to activate king tower. Against balloon at 0-0: cannon'' at 0-2, then fireball to push back balloon, trying to hit puppies as well. Against ground troops: skeletons at 0-4. against lavaminer: Against minipekka: icegolem at 4-3, or skeletons at 0-4!!! Against miner: cannon at 4+1!!!, and icespirit. Against babydragon: cannon to distract, then icespirit. On lavahound: icegolem at 0++, then hogrider at 0++ also, then skeletonsat 0+- opposite lane (skeletons are for minipekka distraction) On single tower: when opp tower is around 600, time to cycle fireball and/or musketeer. Against hog-earthquake: when minipekka is out of hand: hogrider at bridge. we can force minipekka play when our musketeer is full health, we protect her with icegolem. This will allow later to play hogrider. King activation against Marcher: icespirit at 7-2 when Marcher is finishing crossing bridge, then immediately log at 1+0 to push Marcher a bit [8]. Against mortar-hog: K tower activation on mortar: when mortar at 0-2, play skeletons at 9-3 (right in front, against k tower edge). Against mortar: icespirit 5-4 (ie. opposite lane), then icegolem 5-4 again. Against mortar at border: musketeer at 3-x can shoot mortar. Against naked horde: only icegolem or kite with hogrider. icespirit also good to weaken them. Against sparky: Cannon played middle to defend the tank, then icespirit, skeletons and log to distract the sparky, and also defend the musketeer. On sparky play, match with icegolem same lane. Against elixirgolem-healer-nightwitch: icegolem behind K tower, then when it reaches P tower upper edge, musketeer at corner. then Cannoon at 0-3 to distract golem. Then fireball when all troop together (on golem, electrodrag...). Then log to push night witch, and finally icegolem again opposite lane to kite witch away, and finally hogrider to pull ennemy further back. icespirit at bridge regularly to chip more damage.

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TODO: Watch CWA video on this deck (gameplay from LucasXGamer CR) General advice: NEVER play cannon or musketeer first because opponent may react. Only play these cards in reaction to opponent's play. Against golem: Play aggressive first 2 minutes (go with icegolem, pushed by hog, covered by musketeer). This takes tower if undefended. Then defend when one tower down. cannon at 3-3 as defense. Against hog: cannon at 1-2, no damage taken; at 3-2, no damage taken either. at 2-2, also good. Against miner: cannon at 5-0 or even 6-0, to deal with the miner. Alternatively, icespirit on the miner, then icegolem or even (better?) skeletons to aggro the miner!