Ultimate Guide to Deck Archetypes

Hey, Nitrome95 here and today I am going to show you my ultimate guide to Deck Archetypes in Clash Royale.

When it comes to choosing a deck archetypes, which is a style of play, it comes with a few advantages when playing.

1. Your cards will be much higher level because you focus on specific cards relating to your archetype.
2. You will get really good at one type of deck and push higher and win more tournaments.

A style of play usually consists of the archetype and the main card (known as the win condition). The objective of your win condition is to get to the tower. The archetype describes HOW you are going to get to the tower.

In this guide, I will be listing archetypes with descriptions, and win conditions that commonly are found in these archetypes(in a separate guide). Here, I will describe the most important ones from easiest to hardest to play in more detail. So without further ado, let’s jump into to the deck archetypes. (Note: No one archetype is better than the other, rather they take a different type of person to play.)

Clash Royale Deck Archetypes

Cycle Deck

IMO the easiest archetype to play. Use cheap cards to send mini pushes at the opponent, while leaving yourself enough elixir to defend the enemy’s pushes. If you use too much elixir in a push, your opponent can easily counter it, then cripple you with their own push.

Remember, your goal with this style is not to cripple your opponent with a big push, but rather to keep the pressure up to prevent your opponent from forming a big push, as well as chipping at your opponent. Some common support cards for this archetype are: Ice Golem, Princess, other cheap troops, Inferno Tower, Tombstone. If you want to learn more about cycle decks, check out M4son on Youtube.

Spell Bait Deck

This archetype’s main goal is for the opponent to waste their spells, and then overwhelm with hordes as their win condition. This is the only archetype that uses such win conditions, as they are usually easy to counters. You will have several win conditions in this deck, usually including Skeleton Army, Minion Horde, and Goblin Barrel. Inferno Tower is commonly used in this archetype because zap counters Inferno, allowing you to send a push with your horde troops.

In the beginning of the game, you will want to put down a Goblin Barrel to:

1. Bait out a spell.
2. Get chip damage.
3. Instill fear in you opponent to be careful with their spells.

If you plan on defending with your horde troops, make sure that they don’t have a spell. This can be deadly for your opponent, as most of the horde troops will survive and set up for a powerful counterpush. Bait decks will usually contain Knight, Miner, or Hog Rider, not as a win condition, but as a quick tank. There are tons of guides on Clash Royale Arena if you want to learn more about bait decks.

Beatdown Deck

Similar to a cycle deck, a beatdown deck is a very aggressive deck. Beatdown used to be one of the easiest decks to play with giant, elixir collector, poison, and Mega Minion being op at one time. However, know I think it’s at a good spot. In the first 2 minutes, you will want to build up the elixir advantage via positive elixir trade defending (Orange Juice :)) and/or Elixir Pumps. You will want to probe their counters with low risk pushes in the first 2 minutes also so you can get a feel for your opponent’s card rotation. Then once you hit the double elixir mark, send in a slow push, usually from the back, but a defense to offense combo also works. You should be able to overwhelm your opponent that way.

Keep in mind that you should still seize any opportunity to take the tower in the first 2 minutes, and at many times this will be the case.

These decks often use Poison, Fireball, Bowler, Lightning, Mega Minion, Tombstone, Graveyard, and Ice Wizard to support your win condition. The Youtuber, phonecats, is a pretty good beatdown player that you should check out if you want to learn more.

Spawner Deck

The nightmare of every arena 3-6 player, but don’t learn this as a main style. There are so few people in arena 9 that use this style, and the people that do have much higher potential than they are because they are holding themselves back. Not to insult any spawner players, or anything, but it’s really hard to be successful with spawners with all of these spells, as well as Bowler hard countering spawners.

Spawner Deck in action

Three Crowns

Pretty much a beatdown on steroids times 1000000. You will use the same techniques as beatdown, except your defensive tools will be weaker and your offensive tools will be much stronger. You will trade more tower damage for larger elixir trades and pump like there’s no tomorrow. When double elixir time hits, unleash hell and overwhelm your opponent with all your might.

On a more serious note, if you make one tiny mistake, you won’t be able to build a push big enough for the three crowns. These decks include these cards to support the win condition: Golem, P.E.K.K.A, Mega Minion, Sparky, Inferno Dragon, and other high risk, high reward cards. When you get to really skilled players (3500+), it comes down to getting a one crown with one push. Colton, the runner up of the king’s cup, uses a Golem Graveyard deck that follows a similar strategy.

Control Deck

My favorite archetype to play. It is almost like a more expensive cycle deck. It uses the same idea of chipping down the opponent and quickly punishing mistakes, while still relying on solid defense with elixir advantages to overwhelm your opponent. Mainly a hybrid between cycle and beatdown. Why do I make this sound so good, yet also list it as a more difficult archetype to play? Control decks require tons of practice to play and get the feel for, and relies heavily on your fundamentals and advanced tech. In fact, this deck relies most on elixir advantage out of all of the decks to dictate the match the way you want it to go.

These decks often use Furnace, Tombstone, Ice Golem, Ice spirit, ice wizard, Skeleton Army, Fireball, archers, and sometimes goblin hut. You can mix up the way you play your deck in some cases depending on your opponent’s deck. (Again, my favorite Youtuber), you can check out M4SON for more control insight, or my favorite video that inspired me to play control:

Siege Deck

Yup, now we get to those decks that almost no one uses. I like to say this- only 1% of Clash Royale players use siege, which is X-Bow or Mortar. Of that 1%, 10% think it’s the most op and trolly thing in the world. The other 90% are absolutely amazing at this deck. Play an X-bow user with high trophies and you will know what I mean. The goal of this archetype is to get an offensive building down (X-Bow or Mortar) and defend it from your opponent as it wastes away at your opponent. However, this strategy is hard to play because

1. It requires you to predict your opponent and think five steps ahead to outsmart your opponent with only a second of reaction time.
2. Once you lose a tower, it is much harder to win because your opponents can place their troops on top of the offensive building.

Be patient and learn your opponent’s cycle to win against your opponent.

This archetype often uses the support cards: Mega Minion (you get the pattern?), Ice Golem, Ice Spirit, Skeleton Army, fire spirits, and sometimes rocket. Check Patriots34, Woody, and John Cena all from Reddit clans to learn how to play this archetype.

Rocket Chip Deck

I can already hear your groans through the computer screen about “no skill Rocket”, but I just want to ask you one question; “Have you ever played rocket?” Chances are, if you are complaining, then you should try to play Rocket; it is the one of the most infuriating decks to play. You have to defend constantly to gain the elixir advantage, only to watch it go away in the form of the Rocket for 500 or so damage. Then rinse and repeat. You will always be at an elixir disadvantage and open to an all out push if you are not careful with when you send your rocket.

One Rocket misplay, and you might as well leave because you WILL at least lose a tower, if not 3 crowns. However, if you can successfully play Rocket chip, you will have several major advantages:

1. Your opponent will not be able to penetrate your defenses and you can sit back and Rocket.
2. Rocket can obliterate any push as a panic button.
3. It makes people really salty when you beat them.

You will want to check this guide as a beginner to make a rocket deck. I don’t know any famous players that play this style, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get good at it.

Final Pointers

Wow! That was a pretty long guide. Be sure to practice these a certain archetype a ton to get good at it. At first you might lose battles, but it will help a lot in the long run. Don’t be afraid to mix up these archetypes to make new strategies (Spawner Three Musketeers is a deadly combo).

Comment below if you want to see a guide about win conditions, or a guide about how to counter these decks.