Arena 7 Clash Royale Common Cards Deck (2700+)

2600+ trophies with level 7 commons deck.

Hello guys. I'm lyingroyale and I'm back again with another deck but a very similar one to the 2300+ one. You can also check out my 2000+ and 1500+ guides if you're interested but after the balance patch, those decks could be not as viable as they were, so take that into account before trying out.

I have a lot of spare time to write this guide so I'll not only go into detail on how to use this deck as usual but on a larger scale, how I build my decks. You can use this to build your own deck.

Background

I know so many people have been waiting for a guide after the balance changes and I've experimented a LOT. Unfortunately, I don't have Rage, Balloon, Freeze so any decks using those three was out of an option. I don't like playing with X-Bow/Mortar and beatdown decks because PEKKA vs PEKKA was very boring since half the game is waiting while dropping Elixir Collectors. I wanted to build and use a unique deck of mine that focuses on counter-playing with a control type deck.

Before the balance changes came, I've theory crafted a few decks using Inferno Tower and Hog Rider. But after the balance changes went live, those decks were not as good as I anticipated.

The main reason was not being able to deal with hut decks with Inferno Tower and Inferno Tower forced me to use arrows instead of zap because of Minions being dropped right as PEKKA crosses the river. Hog Rider felt like it would work better with Freeze/Lightning and the absence of Prince gave me troubles with Wizards, which led me to using Valkyrie but Valkyrie was too slow on killing Barbs if there are Barbs in front of PEKKA to soak damage from Inferno Tower.

So I've tried other things such as Witch(too slow at killing things), Three Musketeers(countered easily), Royal Giant(still too weak), Valkyrie(quite good), Inferno Tower, Dark Prince(a weaker version of Valkyrie with charge), Archers, etc. But after not having much success with other cards, I find myself coming back for Prince.

I've tweaked a few cards here and there for testing which resulted in a deck very similar to the last one even though I wasn't intending to do so. Maybe it's just the way I play the game or that I'm just too familiar with this deck but who knows. This deck gave me the best results.

The Deck

Although I'm level 8, I've upgraded too many cards that I don't currently use for testing so my cards are pretty low on levels compared to my level.

After passing the 2500 trophies mark, I've started seeing opponents with level 10 commons, level 8 rares, and level 5 epics which gave me a hard time climbing. After my Wizard finally reached level 5, it can now one-shot level 8 Minions so I've used it in a lot of decks and it replaced Musketeer.

While experimenting, a deck I've had a bit of success with used Valkyrie and Mini-PEKKA instead of Barbs and Prince. Its playstyle is similar to the current deck but whereas Prince worked both as a tank and a win condition due to it's high damage, Valkyrie would be the tank and Mini-PEKKA would be the win condition in this deck so pushing with only one of them were too weak. If you play both of them on the push accompanied with a Wizard the push becomes very vulnerable to fireball. I could see Valkyrie/Mini-PEKKA working better if Hog Rider or Elixir Collector is used in place of Rocket.

If you have Freeze, Hog + Freeze and Balloon + Freeze is quite strong right now. Rage has been buffed a lot and I've seen some people running Three Musketeers + Giant with Rage which will destroy your tower in seconds. PEKKA+Double Prince is still strong and a lot of high level players (also P2W players with both legendary cards) play this deck.

Currently my highest trophies is 2620 and I'm getting a lot of draws since the level difference is too large for me to win easily. I can get a crown when I get lucky or the opponent makes a mistake and you punish them for it but otherwise, playing flawlessly can often result in a draw.

The Cards

It's the same cards except for Wizard but I'll talk about how to use them according to the balance changes and the shift in meta.

Average elixir cost: 4.1 (a bit high I know)

Commons : Level 7 (one card at 8)

Rares : Level 5

Epics : Level 3

Spear Goblins (2 elixir)

Who taught these guys to throw spears?!

Even after the Archers buff, Spear goblins are still good as they put out decent damage which targets both ground and air while also being a meat shield against PEKKA/Giant Skeleton/Prince. You'll want to put these green guys in the middle to lure them but drop them in front of your Cannon so your Cannon can live longer to deal more damage.

Most of the time you'll want to counter the enemy's Prince with Barbs but when you don't have them, Spear goblins + Cannon can also work and it will be an equal trade in elixir. It's important to use spear goblins to soak the charge damage from Prince.

These guys are too squishy to go for a push and will be a waste of elixir but you can play them offensively IF you know your opponent can't react to your push. When played correctly, Spear Goblins will do significant damage onto the tower. Can also be used alone to put that extra bit of damage to finish the tower off with you Rocket.

Generally, it's a good idea to start the game with ranged troops in the back to see what your opponent plays first and Spear Goblins are the best card to start the game in this deck.

Zap (2 elixir)

Poof. Where did my army of skeletons go?

Minions, Goblins, Skeletons. Just zap them and they'll be gone in a blink of an eye. Except for Minions cause they'll survive but whatever.

Excellent at countering Minion Hordes (+3 trade w/ tower), Goblin Barrels (+2 trade w/ tower), and Skeleton Armies (+2 trade).

Also very good at getting rid of things that distract your Prince such as Spear Goblins/Goblins/Skeleton Armies. When placed just right, you can one-shot the whole Skeleton Army and your Prince will be healthy enough to take out half of the tower's health.

One thing you should be careful with is that when they have a tank to distract your tower, zapping Minion Hordes/Goblin Barrels won't take them out so you need to play something else for those. Wizard/Minion Horde is a great in those situations.

The stun is very useful for buying time for your Prince to do that one additional hit on the tower or stopping Double Princes' charges.

Since Three Musketeers became popular now, a good way to counter them is by dropping Minions/Barbs right on top of them and just as they're being deployed, Zap the Musketeers for the stun/damage and your troops will take them out in seconds.

Cannon (3 elixir)

I want to live longer...

Yes I know there was a nerf. and yes I know there are other towers in this game but Cannon is just too good and no other defensive structures can quite fill the role cannon can. Tesla is now similar in dps with less health and more expensive. Bomb tower is great against huts with a very long duration but struggles against PEKKA/Golems. Inferno tower is good at shredding tanks but suffers to deal with everything else. It's also too expensive for it's duration compared to bomb tower.

Cannon deals a lot of sustained damage against tanks and can take care of small troops against hut decks as well. It's cheap and it can counter Giant Skeleton(+3 elixir)/Hog Rider(+1)/Dark Prince(+1). Also good against Valkyrie since I see them more often after the balance changes. Even if they have Freeze, you can just drop Barbs/Minions for quick damage before their Hog Rider can even reach your tower. It's also a cheap way to lure troops towards the middle so your other tower can also shoot arrows at them. Good troops to lure are PEKKA/Golems/Giant Skeletons.

Since its life time is 10s shorter now, you should NEVER place a cannon first and wait for the opponent to make the first move. If the opponent plays Elixir Collector you'll be 5 elixir short when their push crosses the river. Instead, you should only use Cannon reactively. Try to drop it right as the enemy troops cross the river as long as you're not full on elixir.

Rocket (6 elixir)

Personally the best animation in the game

Being the highest elixir cost card in the deck, you should be very careful with how you use this card.

It's best to shoot a Rocket at the enemy troops that would result in a positive elixir trade for you. Especially great against Three Musketeers as it will instantly take them out whereas Fireball will leave them with a sliver of health which could become a problem if a Giant is in front of them. When facing a beatdown deck, let's say you didn't (or couldn't) Rocket their Elixir Collector so they have +2 elixir on you. They dropped PEKKA with Wizard and Musketeer which will be a 17 elixir push. In this case, you'll take their Wizard and Musketeer out with Rocket and drop Spear Goblins/Cannon/Barbs for PEKKA. Now, you can go on a counter push with the rest of your Barbs with an additional Prince/Wizard to back it up.

You can also wipe a 5 elixir card(Elixir collector, Witch, Wizard, Barbs, Huts) out while also damaging the tower. But it's only good to do it if that'll result in something positive for you. If they're Elixir Collector is higher level than your Rocket, it will still generate 1 elixir resulting in +2 elixir for the opponent. It's the same as just leaving them but you'll get 400 damage on the tower. However, now you won't have an option to Rocket their troops so consider the circumstances and choose what is best.

Minion Horde (5 elixir)

Imagine what it'd be like if these guys were armored !

The tank shredder. Excellent against pushes like PEKKA + Double Prince or Prince+Barbs as they'll quickly take them out as long as you have Cannon/Barbs/Prince/Spear Goblins to tank to avoid taking damage on the tower. If they played PEKKA + Double Prince, they'll be out of elixir to arrow your Minions but if they push with less elixir to save up for Arrows, you should try to defend with other troops.

Minion Horde shines against Freeze decks since there's a lot of Freeze decks now with a buff to Balloons and Hog + Freeze is still strong. In case of Balloons, drop Minions at the front far enough from the tower to avoid being frozen and they'll quickly take the Balloon out. This could bait Arrows in which it will result in a +3 elixir trade for you. Against Hogs, drop Cannon first to bait out Freeze than drop Minions/Barbs.

When your Zap can't kill the enemy Goblin Barrels, use Minions to take them out if your tower is frozen / distracted by their tank.

Also can be used offensively if your opponent used all the AoE options they have.

As explained above, Minions can take out Three Musketeers coupled with a stun from Zap.

Prince + Minions is a very strong push comp that is hard to counter. I'll go into detail about this in the Prince section.

Wizard (5 elixir)

How do you like your goblins? Well done?

While being one elixir expensive compared to Musketeer, his fireball will roast anything from Skeletons to Barbarians. Very good on both defense and offense.

Usually, Wizards is used for defending against Barbs/Goblins and sometimes Baby Dragons. Often times, you'll want to go on a counter push with Prince/Spear Goblins if your Wizard survives the enemy's push and it should. Wizard + Spear Goblins can surprisingly do a lot of damage if uncontested.

The reason I don't use Witch or Baby Dragon in this place is because their DPS is too low to defend against beatdown decks in this type of control deck.

Barbarians (5 elixir)

The hybrid of Knight and Minions

Four beefy muscles with high DPS. They shred tanks while being quite tanky. Excellent at countering Prince and can deal a lot of damage to tanks(and sometimes lure) such as PEKKA/Giant Skeleton/Golem.

It's vulnerability against splash damage means you'll need to take those out with Rocket or play Prince in the backline of the enemy's push to tank and take them out.

Because of their slow movement speed, they're very unlikely to get a chance to even scratch the tower with their swords. Mostly used for defense purposes but when you have a large elixir advantage, drop these to back up your push to soak tower damage and deal a lot of damage on the towers.

If your opponent is unable to play any form of Minions, Barbs+Prince push can be very devastating and hard to react to.

Valkyrie played a similar role in this spot as for countering Prince and being a tank with AoE damage but its low DPS and being a single troop meant a lot weaker at defending against PEKKA/Golem. Inferno Tower or other small troops(Goblins/Skeletons) should be present for Valkyrie to be used.

Prince (5 elixir)

Slower doesn't mean weaker !

I won't say its nerf in charging speed is negligible. However, its strength still remains in being a unit that is able to take a tower down on its own. It's tanky enough to survive any spells and strong enough to deal significant damage on to anything.

Because of its ability take a tower alone, it has a lot of counters and that's why Zap is essential in this deck. However, Zap won't take out Barbs so look for an opportunity when they don't have Barbs to counter.

Prince is played defensively to tank and take AoE damaging troops out against beatdown decks to protect your Barbs/Spear Goblins/Minions. If there are Skeletons/Goblins in the way, Zap them so your Prince can devilishly pierce the Wizard's heart.

Prince + Minions / Prince + Wizard is probably the most used push comp for me. They can quickly destroy a tower if they don't have the right cards to counter them. Sometimes I will start off the game with Prince+Minions and if the opponent played Elixir Collector, most of the time you're guaranteed a tower. However, it's a gamble to play this at the start as it can backfire if they have Arrows and Barbs.

Game Plan

Start off the game with Spear goblins(most preferred)/Wizard in the back and see what the opponent plays to counter it. If you're feeling lucky or see an Elixir Collector going down, Prince + Minions push will get you a crown. Spear goblins + Wizard can do a lot of damage so use them when you're low on elixir to play a Prince.

You should always be aware of what cards the opponent has and keep track of what card you must hold onto to counter those. Try to punish the opponent for making mistakes. When they over-extended and you're higher on elixir or they've played a core counter card offensively, you should play aggressively to take a tower.

Because of the fact that this is a control deck, your crowns will usually come from you successfully defending and going on a counter push while the opponent is low on elixir. There are exceptions, and one would be when they play an Elixir Collector and you can play a Prince + Minions comp as I've said before.

Think about

• What is the opponents' win condition ?
• What cards you should hold on to to counter their win condition ?
• What cards do the opponents have that counter your cards ?

Against Popular Decks

Golem Beatdown

Option 1. When they drop Elixir Collector, rush with Prince + Minions to take the tower. Afterwards when the push comes, take out their backline with Rocket and deal with the Golem. If they don't defend at all and just keep on building the push, aim for a three crown.

Option 2. When they drop a Golem, rush with Prince + Minions to take the tower. Rest is the same as option 1.

Option 3. When they drop Elixir Collector, Rocket it and defend the push comp as effectively as possible. After defending, go for a counter push.

PEKKA + Double Prince

Same as above but you won't be able to Rocket their backline because there is none. Take a tower via option 1 & 2 and defend afterwards. You'll want to put a Cannon down and Spear Goblins in front of it for PEKKA/Prince to target and stop the charge. Drop Barbs behind their troops to make them walk back and then Minions to take them out. The order you drop these troops don't matter much as long as your Cannon is safe.

Hog + Freeze

Option 1. Drop cannon. After freeze, drop Barbs/Minions.

Option 2. If you don't have Cannon, drop Barbs and Minions after Freeze.

Balloon + Freeze

Option 1. Drop Minions out of Freeze range.

Option 2. Drop a Wizard out of Freeze range.

Option 3. If you don't have Minions/Wizard in hand, drop a Cannon to tank and Spear Goblins to take it out.

Option 4. If you don't have any of those, Rocket it. You'll be down an Elixir for that but it's better than getting your tower destroyed. However, this is not recommended so try to hold on to Minions if you know they're running Balloons.

Huts

If a Goblin Hut goes down, rush the other lane with Prince + Minions. Ignore the lane if there's only one Goblin Hut as they'll do very little damage to your tower but if there's anything more than just a Goblin Hut, drop Cannon/Wizard depending on what's played. Cannon can hold its ground against two Huts fairly well. Rocket their Huts if you can target both of them. Sometimes you'll get a chance to Rocket a Wizard along with one of their Huts and a tower.

Giant + Three Musketeers (often with rage)

Option 1. Rocket the Musketeers. Take the Giant out with Cannon + Minions/Barbs/Spear Goblins.

Option 2. Zap + Barbs/Minions to take out Musketeer. Take the Giant out with Cannon + rest of your troops.

When using Rocket, missing one or two Musketeers can be game changing so be careful with your aim.

X-Bow/Mortar

After the range nerf, Cannon can single-handedly take out both of if they're left alone. If they're protected with other defensive buildings, Rocket all of them and go for a push on the other lane.

Deck Building Strategy

Okay. If you've been following my guides, you may have noticed the deck has some sort of an order. When I was theorycrafting and looking at other people's decks, I sort of found a pattern in them so I tried to build a deck around that pattern.

However, this method works only if it's a control deck and many beatdown decks as well but not siege decks such as X-Bow/Mortar.

A deck has 8 cards and I try to visualize them by putting them in order in which I created to understand how this deck is similar/different from other decks. I will number the slots from 1~8 like this.

So for example, in this deck, 1 will be Spear Goblins, 2 will be Zap, 3 will be cannon and so on.

Now I'll explain what each slot's role is.

Slot 1 is for cheap ranged troops such as Spear goblins, Archers, Ice Wizard, and Princess. If you have enough ranged troops, just normal melee Goblins or Knight can fill this role as long as it's cost is 3 or lower. Often times the troops in this spot will have to tank PEKKA depending on what kind of defensive structure you have (or none).

Slot 2 is for your primary AoE spells such as Zap, Arrows, Poison, and sometimes Fireball. Most of the time this will be Arrows.

Slot 3 is for your defensive structure. Cannon/Tesla/Inferno Tower/Bomb Tower. Sometimes Elixir Collectors fill the spot and for non-structure decks, ranged troops such as Musketeer/Archers/Ice Wizard/Princess work too.

Slot 4 this spot is like a joker. It can be anything you want but most of the time it will be your control spell/secondary win condition. Control spells are Lightning/Rocket/Mirror/Freeze/Rage and sometimes Fireball. For decks that uses this slot for a secondary win condition, they'll use Goblin Barrels, Hog Rider, Dark Prince, or Balloons in this slot. Except for control spells, this slot can serve a similar role to slot 6 with secondary win condition/AoE troops. I had a bomber in this slot when I was 1500.

Slot 5 will be your big guy killer. It will be something that can counter troops with high health. Minion Horde/Skeleton Army/Tombstone/Goblins/Minions.

Slot 6 is the opposite of slot 5, the small guy killer. This will be something that is ranged and can take out small troops quickly such as Bomber/Musketeer/Baby Dragon/Wizard/Witch/Princess/Ice Wizard. It can also be a secondary win condition if you AoE damage cards on other slots. For example, bomb tower in slot 3, Princess/Ice Wizard in slot 1, Valkyrie in slot 7. Secondary win conditions are Goblin Barrel, Hog Rider, Balloons.

Slot 7 is your tank. It will be a melee troop that can counter prince or just a big guy. Barbarians / Valkyrie / Knight / Golem / PEKKA / Giant / Giant Skeleton and sometimes just goblins for countering prince.

Slot 8 will be your primary win condition. Prince/PEKKA/Golem/Giant/Giant Skeleton/Hog Rider/Balloon/Goblin Barrel/Mini-PEKKA anything that can deal a huge amount of damage onto a tower. Although I said slot 4,6 can be secondary win conditions, they can act as a primary win condition and slot 8 can just be another tank like Knight.

Of course, this is by no means an absolute rule to follow as you can find many decks in TV royale that don't fit into this criteria. However, this type of thinking has helped me build a successful deck so I wanted to share it with you guys.

Also, after you've made a deck with this principle, you should think about how you're going to counter popular decks in the meta. Let's say the only multi-unit card in the deck is slot 1 and if you're not running Inferno Tower, you'll have a hard time with PEKKA decks. Think about how you're going to counter Balloon + Freeze, Hog + Freeze, Prince, Baby Dragon, Princess, Three Musketeers, etc. You should at least have some way of dealing with these popular cards.

If you've read all of this, congrats you've gained +1 knowledge in Clash Royale !!

Thank you for reading and any questions in the comment section I will try to answer. I won't answer things that are already in the post so read this wall of text before playing the deck and asking comments. Feel free to ask me anything. (Doesn't have to be post-related).

EDIT: There are REPLAYS for this deck w/ commentary so check it out if you're interested.

EDIT: Formatting