Create a deck based on this deck guide and my current levels:
Card Collection
Goblin Barrel
Lvl 12
41 / 100
3
Miner
Lvl 11
4 / 6
3
Prince
Lvl 11
2 / 50
5
Goblin Gang
Lvl 11
414 / 1,500
3
Spear Goblins
Lvl 11
1,203 / 1,500
2
Mega Knight
Lvl 10
0 / 4
7
Sparky
Lvl 10
0 / 4
6
Electro Wizard
Lvl 10
2 / 4
4
The Log
Lvl 10
0 / 4
2
Giant Skeleton
Lvl 10
21 / 40
6
Witch
Lvl 10
32 / 40
5
Baby Dragon
Lvl 10
16 / 40
4
Poison
Lvl 10
36 / 40
4
Skeleton Army
Lvl 10
7 / 40
3
Barbarian Barrel
Lvl 10
3 / 40
2
Goblin Hut
Lvl 10
183 / 400
5
Fireball
Lvl 10
27 / 400
4
Hog Rider
Lvl 10
54 / 400
4
Royal Giant
Lvl 10
292 / 1,000
6
Bats
Lvl 10
44 / 1,000
2
Inferno Dragon
Lvl 9
1 / 2
4
Phoenix
Lvl 9
1 / 2
4
P.E.K.K.A
Lvl 9
12 / 20
7
Balloon
Lvl 9
12 / 20
5
Guards
Lvl 9
1 / 20
3
Wall Breakers
Lvl 9
19 / 20
2
Wizard
Lvl 9
5 / 200
5
Inferno Tower
Lvl 9
185 / 200
5
Giant
Lvl 9
55 / 200
5
Mini P.E.K.K.A
Lvl 9
51 / 200
4
Valkyrie
Lvl 9
134 / 200
4
Tombstone
Lvl 9
23 / 200
3
Cannon
Lvl 9
71 / 800
3
Knight
Lvl 9
119 / 800
3
Minions
Lvl 9
234 / 800
3
Bomber
Lvl 9
533 / 800
2
Skeletons
Lvl 9
202 / 800
1
Golem
Lvl 8
9 / 10
8
Lightning
Lvl 8
2 / 10
6
Freeze
Lvl 8
2 / 10
4
Rocket
Lvl 8
50 / 100
6
Royal Hogs
Lvl 8
25 / 100
5
Battle Ram
Lvl 8
24 / 100
4
Goblin Cage
Lvl 8
85 / 100
4
Musketeer
Lvl 8
63 / 100
4
Mega Minion
Lvl 8
8 / 100
3
Ice Golem
Lvl 8
50 / 100
2
Barbarians
Lvl 8
263 / 400
5
Skeleton Dragons
Lvl 8
177 / 400
4
Arrows
Lvl 8
338 / 400
3
Archers
Lvl 8
383 / 400
3
Skeleton Barrel
Lvl 8
59 / 400
3
Zap
Lvl 8
399 / 400
2
Goblins
Lvl 8
262 / 400
2
Electro Spirit
Lvl 8
110 / 400
1
Fire Spirit
Lvl 8
390 / 400
1
Ice Spirit
Lvl 8
109 / 400
1
Goblin Giant
Lvl 7
1 / 4
6
Electro Dragon
Lvl 7
2 / 4
5
Dark Prince
Lvl 7
3 / 4
4
Goblin Drill
Lvl 7
123 / 4
4
Three Musketeers
Lvl 7
28 / 50
9
Barbarian Hut
Lvl 7
5 / 50
6
Flying Machine
Lvl 7
22 / 50
4
Bomb Tower
Lvl 7
1 / 50
4
Battle Healer
Lvl 7
41 / 50
4
Dart Goblin
Lvl 7
41 / 50
3
Royal Recruits
Lvl 7
110 / 200
7
Elite Barbarians
Lvl 7
71 / 200
6
Minion Horde
Lvl 7
25 / 200
5
Mortar
Lvl 7
139 / 200
4
Tesla
Lvl 7
10 / 200
4
Giant Snowball
Lvl 7
192 / 200
2
X-Bow
Lvl 6
1 / 2
6
Hunter
Lvl 6
1 / 2
4
Zappies
Lvl 6
3 / 20
4
Earthquake
Lvl 6
18 / 20
3
Firecracker
Lvl 6
1 / 100
3
Furnace
Lvl 5
4 / 10
THE ULTIMATE DECK BUILDING GUIDE (FOR ALL SKILL LEVELS)
Disclaimer: This guide is about how to build your own deck, and things to consider while building one; it does not address deck archetypes or matchup theory in depth.

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Basic Terminology/Knowledge [Basic]

Where to Start/Deck Archetypes [Basic]

The Rest of the Deck/Card Synergy [Intermediate]

Do card levels really matter? [Advanced]

Advanced Knowledge & Techniques [Advanced]

Final Thoughts [N/A]

KEY:

* definitions/explanations

*** practical tips

Key information/Categories (bold text)

Section 1: Basic Terminology/Knowledge
(If you are familiar with card functions and roles, skip to section 2)

Cards can be grouped in many different ways. This guide will often reference the niche/role and function of cards.

niche/role: This term refers to the purpose a card plays within a deck. This can vary from deck to deck, but most of the time a certain card will always fulfill the same role. For example, in a golem deck, the niche, or role, of the golem is to tank for support units.

function: This term is more specific to the card than niche/role. While a card can have a different niche/role depending on the deck it is in, the function of a card will always remain the same. For example, the function of the musketeer is, and always will be, to provide air defense and a high DPS (damage per second).

A good way to distinguish between the two is to consider what a card literally does (the function) and how that gives the card a purpose in a deck (the niche/role).

Clash Royale boasts a large assortment of cards (who's hyped for #100!). With 99 cards, you could make billions of decks, all different from one another. But in reality, only a small number of these decks actually work. Going further, only a small number of those decks really excel in ladder. How do you distinguish "useless spam" from "meta*****"?

* meta: decks used by pros/top players on high ladder, due to their high card synergy and efficiency. The meta usually changes at least a little bit every season/month, due to seasonal balance changes.

Section 2: Where to Start/Deck Archetypes
(If you are familiar with win conditions and/or deck archetypes, skip to section 3)

One thing all good decks have in common is that they have a win condition (I will try not to disappoint you u/TweektheGeek). These are cards or combinations of cards that play the role of "tower destroyers". Win conditions can range anywhere from the speedy hog rider:

"Hog Ridaaa!"

to the toxic & disgusting royal giant (jk, but also not jk 😒):

Molt fans, wya?
Win conditions can also be a combination of cards:

"Mega Goblins"/MK Zap Bait
In the deck above, the "win condition" is the way the cards work together, instead of what a single card does. There isn't one card that deals most of the damage. Yes, you could argue that miner or skeleton barrel is the "win condition", however miner/skeleton barrel is not always the main damage dealer.

This deck, and others like it, are part of an archetype known as Bait. The bait archetype focusing on pressuring an opponent until they use a certain card, then overwhelming them with similar cards.

*** Baiting out cards is a strategy every player should utilize, regardless of the type of deck they are running.

Another common deck archetype is Beatdown:

Golem Beatdown
This archetype focuses on building a push (usually a tank with support units following behind) to overrun your opponent. Allowing a beatdown player to build up a big push is not a good idea. It is quite hard to deal with a full scale Golem push, especially for new players. Also note that the Golem card, by itself, is not the win condition. The Golem does not deal the majority of the damage; that comes from the support units. Win conditions refer to a strategy that players use to win a match, rather than a specific card.

Yet another deck archetype is Cycle:

Hog 2.6
This archetype utilizes quick, fairly inexpensive attacks to slowly chip an opponent's tower down over time. Cycle decks usually make use of cheap, high value cards, such as ice spirit, or 1 elixir skeletons. These cards allow Cycle players to quickly "cycle" back to their win condition and continuously chip away at towers, while still providing moderate defensive value.

Finally, we have Siege decks:

X-Bow 2.9
Siege decks do the majority of their damage from the safety of their side of the arena. Siege decks are, for the most part, countered by tank cards, which is why Siege decks are often Cycle decks as well. Having a quick cycle allows Siege players to "outcycle" tank cards.

(At this point, experienced players would expect to see Control. However, the Control archetype is so broad that it includes most decks. Due to how vague the Control archetype is, the list below does not categorize any decks as Control. In addition, this guide focuses on deck building, not deck archetypes. Knowing what the Control archetype is does not really affect the deck building process.)

Deck archetypes are not mutually exclusive, meaning that a deck can (and usually does) fall under multiple archetypes. However, Cycle and Beatdown are usually thought of as opposites.

The following list is win conditions grouped by frequency (how often you encounter them), as well as the archetype(s) a win condition is usually associated with:

Highly Common

Hog Rider ......................................................................................................................... [Usually Cycle]

Golem + Night Witch .......................................................................................................... [Beatdown]

Lava Loon ............................................................................................................................. [Beatdown]

Spell Bait ............................................................................................................................... [Cycle/Bait]

X-Bow .................................................................................................................................. [Siege/Cycle]

Pekka + Battle Ram ............................................................................................................ [Beatdown]

Somewhat Common and/or Meta-dependent

Lava Miner ........................................................................................................................... [Beatdown]

Graveyard ............................................................................................................. [Cycle or Beatdown]

Three Musketeers/Split Push ................................................................................. [Beatdown/Bait]

Royal Giant ...................................................... [Usually Siege/Beatdown, sometimes Siege/Cycle]

Giant + Sparky ..................................................................................................................... [Beatdown]

Mortar ................................................................................................................................ [Siege/Cycle]

Balloon + Freeze ............................................................................................................. [Usually Cycle]

Miner + Balloon ............................................................................................................................ [Cycle]

Elixir Golem + Battle Healer ............................................................................................. [Beatdown] (Again, "meta-dependent")

Miner Chip ............................................................................................................................. [Cycle] (This win condition is quite broad, it includes all miner-chip style decks)

Double Prince ...................................................................................................................... [Beatdown] (Usually paired with Giant or Golem)

Bridge Spam ........................................................................................................................ [Beatdown]

Less common/Lower arenas

Giant Skeleton .................................................................................................................... [Beatdown]

Clone ..................................................................................................................................... [Beatdown] (Usually paired with Golem + Night Witch or LavaMiner)

Spell Cycle .......................................................................................................................... [Cycle/Siege]

E-barbs + Rage ..................................................................................................................... [Beatdown] (Yes, I have included this meme combo)

Another disclaimer: These win conditions are what I see (6000-6500 trophies). This may not reflect extremely high ladder (7000+ trophies).

I believe I have covered all of the win conditions in Clash Royale worth naming. If I have missed any, or mislabeled a win condition, please let me know in the comments so that I can add them. (Any bridge spam/rush decks have been included in the [Beatdown] category.)

Section 3: The Rest of the Deck/Card Synergy
(If you are familiar with card synergy, skip to the Author's Note below this section)

So now you have a win condition picked out. What about the rest of your deck? The rest of the deck should be created to help your win condition succeed. Each card in Clash Royale performs well when used with a few select cards, but becomes less useful when used with any others. This is what we call card synergy.

*** You SHOULD NOT put a card into a deck just because you think it's "good".

High card synergy indicates that two cards complement, or boost, each other's performance. A good example of high synergy decks is Bait. Imagine a deck with no swarm troops, except Goblin Barrel. Almost any deck with a cheap spell will be able to hard counter (completely stop) your Goblin Barrel, simply by saving their spells for whenever you play your Barrel.

Now consider what happens when you add more and more swarm troops to the deck. Your opponent has to choose what to spell: your swarm units, or your Goblin Barrel. They can't spell both. This is how card synergy works. Adding swarm troops did not change anything about the goblin barrel; i.e. the level/stats/elixir cost of the goblin barrel all stayed the same. However, your Goblin Barrel is suddenly more effective because of the presence of other cards in your deck. The more swarm troops a bait deck has, the better it will be at "baiting" spells. Having more and more swarm cards doesn't make each individual card do more damage, cost less elixir, etc. It's the way they work together that makes bait decks so strong.

Is Pekka a powerful card? Absolutely. It will destroy Golem (at least, in a 1 on 1 situation). Does that mean you should put a Pekka in every deck? No! Remember that hog 2.6 Cycle deck from up there 👆? There's a reason it doesn't have a Pekka. Every time you switch out a card in a deck, it's a trade-off. There is no card that does everything. All cards have their strengths and weaknesses. If you're thinking about switching out a card, think about what your deck is about to lose, and compare it to what your deck is about to gain. Putting a Pekka in hog 2.6 increases defense. But it also cuts back on the deck's ability to cycle, which is what makes it so strong. Not using Pekka in Hog 2.6 is the better choice overall.

Another example of this is the zap card. Zap is especially helpful in Beatdown decks, as inferno tower/inferno dragon is a very good counter to tanks. Zap allows Beatdown players to mitigate a fair amount of the inferno's efficiency. However, graveyard players tend to avoid using zap. Why? Zap's function is to stun/reset, and that actually hurts graveyard decks. Graveyard players want to keep the tower distracted, so that the skeletons can accumulate and overwhelm the tower. Zap would make the tower reset, and start killing off skeletons instead of the tank. No bueno.

So, back to deck building. What does card synergy have to do with building a good deck? Well, the more synergy your cards have with each other, the better the deck will perform, as a whole. This is the reason why meta Beatdown decks don't have very many Cycle cards, and why meta Cycle decks have very few heavy cards. Cycle cards perform well in Cycle decks, but poorly in Beatdown decks; and vice versa for Beatdown cards.

Whenever you are building a deck, you want to help your win condition succeed. Unfortunately for new players, there is no exact method ("when you have -- , put a -- , in your deck."). Learning which cards work well together is done mostly through trial and error, and it's also part of the Clash Royale experience. No one is going to be able to tell you what card is 100% best in a deck, because, well, it doesn't exist. When pros "make" meta decks, they take many different things into account: recent balance changes, usage rates, etc.

The basic format of building a deck can be summarized as follows:

Choose a win condition (1-2 cards)

Choose direct damage***** spells that work well with your win condition (1-3 spells, 2 is usually a good number)

Fill the rest of the deck with support units (anything that's not a spell)

If you're going to use a building, don't have more than one (unless it's a spawner deck)

* direct damage: spells that will do guaranteed damage to crown towers. Goblin barrel, graveyard, and any other "troop-related" spells are not considered direct damage, as they do not guarantee damage.
Section 4: Do Card Levels Really Matter?
(If you are familiar with card level interactions, skip to the Author's Note after this section)

At this point many of you may be thinking, "I want to play other decks, but I don't have high enough card levels 😥." As a F2P (Free to Play) player myself, I completely understand. I'm currently sitting with 77 possible upgrades right now, and less than 100,000 gold. I've still got a long way to go before I completely max out my account. However, I offer some encouragement: Card levels don't really matter, especially not in lower arenas (to a certain extent).

A good measure of whether or not you deck is "too low level" or not is a deck's ADL (Average Deck Level. Such a complex, thought-provoking name, right? 😂) Consider each of your cards and measure how many "points" each card earns based on your king tower level. For example, if you are king level 11, max level cards would "earn" 2 points, level 10 cards would "earn" -1 points, etc. Finally, add up all of your card points. If the point total is positive, then good job. Your card levels are around where they should be.

Another thing to consider is that most card interactions have a 1-2 level margin. What this means is that cards 1-2 levels lower than your opponent's cards will still do their job relatively well. Some cards even go past this margin. For example, a level 9 princess will still 2-shot max level minions (just like she is supposed to). On the other hand, as long as your minions are at least level 10, they will survive one shot from a max level princess (again, this is what's supposed to happen).

While this margin varies based on the specific card interactions, most card interactions follow this 1-2 level "rule". So if your card levels are only about 1-2 levels lower, you should still have a decent chance at winning, at least based solely on card levels.

*** Cycle decks are more affected by low card levels than Beatdown decks. If you're worried about having low card levels, play Beatdown.

("But what if I hate having lower card levels? Even having one card at a lower level is frustrating.")

I have good news for you; there are certain cards that perform well, even at lower levels. The following list ranks cards in order of how much they are affected by a level difference:

Still very strong or do the same thing even when underleveled

Tornado

Skarmy

Rage

Freeze

Clone

Somewhat affected but still fairly strong at lower levels

Inferno Tower

Inferno Dragon

Pekka

Mini Pekka

Princess

Sparky

Mega Knight

Valkyrie

Lumberjack

Balloon

Bomber

Usable, but only at a 1-2 level difference

Swarm units other than stab goblins (including skeleton barrel, graveyard, etc.)

Direct damage spells

Defensive buildings

Spawners (except Furnace)

Basically anything not included in the other categories

Highly dependent on level

Spirits + Furnace will not reach the tower and deal chip damage

Glass cannons (musketeer, 3 musketeers, wizard, etc.) die to fireball if underleveled

Elixir Pump gets less value against heavy spells

Wall Breakers do not reach the tower

Ice Golem death damage does not kill skeletons/bats

Goblin cards (barrel, gang, regular) die to zap if underleveled

Firecracker and Archers die to log if underleveled

Prince does not one-shot glass cannons (while charging) if underleveled

(Again, I think have I covered all of the cards, except mirror. If I have misplaced any, let me know.)

*** For players using a level 1 account, the cards in group #1 are your go-to cards, at least until you get legendaries.

Section 5: Advanced Techniques/Knowledge
If you are familiar with Damage Output and Four-Card Cycles, there's nothing left! (unless you wanna read section 6.)

Disclaimer #3: The following section does not cover elixir counting, cycle tracking, and other high skill cap techniques relating to gameplay. Only topics relating to decks and their structure are explained.

Damage Output (DPS, DPSPE)

What exactly is damage output? That's a hard question to answer. Decks have subtle, implicit interconnections between cards that determine how strong a deck is. Quantifying damage output is a hard thing to do. However, there are a few stats that reflect the strength of the deck fairly accurately.

One of those stats is DPS (Damage Per Second). Most troops cards will display a "damage per second" stat when you click on the "info" tab. This stat allows us to compare the damage output of troops with different attacks speeds. For example, which kills tanks faster, a Prince or a Sparky? Prince attacks faster..... but sparky does massive damage per shot. (For those curious, it is sparky.) Without comparing DPS, it would be hard to know for sure.

The following list includes the 20 highest DPS troop cards (that survive arrows), with their respective DPS (rounded to the nearest tenth):

Inferno Dragon (assuming it's not reset) ................................................................................ [75.0 - 875.0]

Barbarians (together) ................................................................................................................... [567.9]

Three Musketeers (together) ...................................................................................................... [493.6]

Pekka ............................................................................................................................................... [376.7]

Elite Barbarians (together) .......................................................................................................... [354.1]

Royal Recruits (at most 4 recruits will help out on defense) ................................................... [338.5]

Mini Pekka ...................................................................................................................................... [332.2]

Hunter ............................................................................................................................................. [318.2]

Sparky ............................................................................................................................................... [275.0]

Goblin Brawler ............................................................................................................................... [253.6]

Lumberjack ..................................................................................................................................... [250.0]

Prince .............................................................................................................................................. [232.1]

Cannon Cart .................................................................................................................................... [176.0]

Night Witch (not including bats) ................................................................................................. [173.3]

Wizard ............................................................................................................................................. [167.1]

Musketeer ...................................................................................................................................... [164.5]

Mega Minion .................................................................................................................................. [161.3]

Bandit ............................................................................................................................................... [160.0]

Dark Prince .................................................................................................................................... [158.5]

Skeleton Dragons (together) ....................................................................................................... [156.5]

It's not surprising that most of the above cards all in some meta deck or another. It's also fairly reasonable to say that most of these cards will remain in the meta for a long time, simply because of their high DPS.

However, the list above will only get us so far, because it doesn't take a very important aspect of the game into account: elixir. Players don't get infinite elixir, to play down any card whenever they want (*coughs in 7x elixir challenge). While it would be nice to be able to throw down 15 Pekkas every time someone plays a Golem, that's not how the game works.

Also, card cost different amounts of elixir, which begs the question "Is it really worth it?". Pekka has a very high DPS..... but it also costs 7 elixir. With 7 elixir, you could throw down a combination of a few cards, like Mini Pekka + a swarm unit. Doesn't that sound like a better deal? This takes us to the next step in our quest to understand the meta: DPSPE.

DPSPE (Damage Per Second, Per Elixir) measures the damage output of a card, just like DPS. However, DPSPE also takes into account how much elixir that DPS costs. Since everyone gets the same amount of elixir..... shouldn't we make the most of it? Pekka + Mirrored Pekka is definitely not the best deal. Pretty high DPS..... but it costs too much in comparison. DPSPE gauges the relative damage output of a unit compared to its elixir cost, and provides a more realistic view on why some cards are used more than others.

Consider this next list. It is similar to the one above, but ranks DPSPE instead of DPS. The top 20 DPSPE troop cards (again, that survive arrows), with their respective DPSPE (rounded to the nearest tenth), are:

Inferno Dragon (assuming it's not reset) ......................................................................... [18.8 - 218.8]

Barbarians (together) ................................................................................................................... [113.6]

Mini Pekka ........................................................................................................................................ [83.1]

Hunter ............................................................................................................................................... [79.5]

Goblin Brawler ................................................................................................................................. [63.4]

Lumberjack ...................................................................................................................................... [62.5]

Elite Barbarians (together) ............................................................................................................ [59.0]

Three Musketeers (together) ........................................................................................................ [54.8]

Mega Minion .................................................................................................................................... [53.8]

Pekka ................................................................................................................................................. [53.8]

Bandit ................................................................................................................................................ [53.3]

Royal Recruits (at most 4 recruits will help out on defense) ..................................................... [48.4]

Bomber .............................................................................................................................................. [47.5]

Prince ................................................................................................................................................. [46.4]

Knight ................................................................................................................................................ [46.4]

Sparky ................................................................................................................................................ [45.8]

Miner ................................................................................................................................................. [44.4]

Night Witch ...................................................................................................................................... [43.3]

Musketeer ........................................................................................................................................ [41.1]

Fisherman ......................................................................................................................................... [41.0]

This list is quite a bit different from the one above. Inferno Dragon continues to top the list (as it should). But Mega Minion is ranked much higher at #9, Sparky has dropped to #16, Wizard didn't even make this list, and Mini Pekka and Hunter have moved to top 5. A DPSPE list reflects the meta so much more accurately than a simple DPS list, because players don't have infinite elixir to use.

Pekka has a higher DPS than Mini Pekka (376 vs 332). But is Pekka more value? 4 Pekkas will do a total of ~1500 DPS, for 28 elixir. What if we spent that 28 elixir on Mini Pekkas? That's 7 Mini Pekkas..... which yields ~2300 DPS for the same elixir cost. And sure enough, Mini Pekka sits at #3..... while Pekka has dropped to #10.

Of course, DPSPE isn't perfect. It doesn't explain why musketeer has such a high usage rate compared to its place on the list. Damage output isn't the only stat that matters. But it is a piece of the puzzle. So, the next time you build a deck, take a few moment to consider, "Does this card provide the best value? Or will another card do more damage, for less elixir?". I guarantee that you will begin to win more and more often, just by choosing the right card for your deck.

(The reason the above lists include troops that survive arrows was to simplify the difference between swarm troops and single units. I realize that barbarians are technically swarm, and that cards like dart goblin are not swarm. I've been working on this guide for more than a week, give me a break 🙃. I am planning on going back and editing after I post.)

The Four-Card Cycle (and the Five-Card Cycle)

Every player is aware of the "Average Elixir Cost" statistic that Clash Displays below a deck. This helps players gauge how "heavy" or "light" their deck is, then make changes accordingly; without having to do the math themselves. This quality-of-life feature is one of the major things that strategists will discuss when critiquing a deck. However, it's not very accurate, especially when decks contain 1 very expensive card, and 7 very cheap cards (not to mention mirror and elixir collector screw up the calculations a bit)

Consider the following deck:
Looks fun.... 🤡
This deck has an average elixir cost of 4.0..... but does that really reflect the cards in the deck? There are 3 very expensive, 7+ elixir cards, and the rest are 1-2 elixir. None of the cards in this deck are even close to 4 elixir. While the above deck is an extreme case, and very unrealistic, it does demonstrate a significant problem with the "Average Elixir Cost" stat.

One such consequence is that players may build a deck, worry that it's too expensive, and then replace one of the cards with ice spirit/skeletons. While this does bring down the "Average Elixir Cost"stat, nothing about the deck has really changed. It's still the same deck as before, with the difference of one card. Players will mistakenly believe that the "Average Elixir Cost" stat is a perfect measure of a deck's flexibility, which leads to confusion. Players will lose battle after battle, and wonder why their deck isn't working. They never consider that the "Average Elixir Cost" may be misleading.

I'm not suggesting that Supercell put that stat in to mislead us. I think the "Average Elixir Cost" is a wonderful quality-of-life feature that makes Clash Royale easier to analyze, and form strategies about. However, the "Average Elixir Cost" stat doesn't tell the full story. To gain a more accurate perspective about the elixir rating of a deck, players should also consider a deck's Four-Card Cycle.

The Four-Card Cycle of a deck is the elixir total of the four cheapest cards in the deck. In other words, the Four-Card Cycle is a measure of the least amount of elixir a player can spend and still come back to a certain card. This matter, especially in overtime, because elixir is synonymous with time. If something costs less, it will take your elixir less time to regenerate the amount spent, hence allowing you to play cards faster, and cycle through your deck.

Cycle decks naturally have a lower Four-Card Cycle than, say, Beatdown decks. For example, Hog 2.6 has a Four-Card Cycle of 6 elixir (Skeletons + Ice Spirit + Log + Ice Golem), while a LavaLoon deck has a Four-Card Cycle of 11~12 elixir (depending on the variation of LavaLoon). This is fairly intuitive; it makes sense that a deck with cheaper cards would be able to cycle faster. However, we can apply this to another concept: direct damage.

Many players, especially Cycle players (*coughs in Icebow), will resort to cycling spells during overtime. This is a common tactic that almost every deck utilizes, as long as they have a heavy spell with decent crown tower damage. However, not all decks are created equal. How do I know if I have the upper hand? Should I keep spell cycling, or should I switch to pressuring my opponent so he can't spell cycle? These questions, and many others like them, can be answered by considering a deck's Four-Card Cycle.

Many of you will recognize this deck:
Icebow..... 🤢
This deck is infamous for being obnoxious with its quick cycle and ice wizard + tornado defensive combo. However, most of the frustration from high-level players comes not from the X-Bow..... but from the rocket. Most skilled players can handle an X-Bow. But when an Icebow player starts going defensive and cycling rockets, there's nothing you can do**.**

Supercell even said this about spells during the last month's update: "This, coupled with the creation of sometimes stale and frustrating ‘Spell Cycle’ strategies, sees them get a slight reduction to Crown Tower Damage this Season."

There is no way to counter the actual damage a spell does. I'm not saying that spell cycle is op (quite the contrary actually). I am well aware that pressuring an opponent will force them to stop, or at least slow down their spell cycling. I'm referring to the actual damage that spells do. Once someone fires a spell at your tower, it is 100% guaranteed to do damage (unless they u/ChiefPat it, of course, sorry not sorry Chief Pat 🙃). This is why spells are often called "direct damage". Once someone fires a rocket at your tower, there is no way to stop your tower from taking 370 damage (max level).

But this post isn't to complain about Icebow. Let's resume our focus. Why is Icebow so good at spell cycling? How does it compare with other decks? Which is better at spell cycling, Hog 2.6 or Log Bait? Hog 2.6 is cheaper, but it has fireball. Log Bait is more expensive, but it has rocket. How do you know for sure?

One way to measure a deck's spell cycle ability quantitatively is to use the Five-Card Cycle. (Yes, Five-Card, not Four-Card). The Five-Card Cycle calculates how efficiently decks can deal damage through spells. Five-Card Cycles are measured in Crown Tower Damage Per Elixir, Per Cycle, or DPC for short. DPC measures how much crown tower damage a deck does on average, per 1 elixir, during one cycle.

Let's go back to Icebow. Icebow contains Rocket and Log. (Tornado damage is basically nothing). From the perspective of the Icebow player, he wants to get as much damage as possible, while using as less elixir as possible. This means he will most likely play Rocket + Log + Knight + Skeletons + Ice Wizard during one cycle (I realize this does not take defense into account, this method simply creates a constant form of measurement for all decks). This costs a total of 15 elixir, and deals a total of 442 damage (tournament standard). So, the DPC of Icebow is 442/15 = 29.5.

How does this compare to Hog 2.6? Well, Hog 2.6 players will play Fireball + Log + Ice Spirit + Skeletons + Ice Golem which does a total of 244 damage for 10 elixir, or 24.4 DPC. As you can see, even though Icebow costs more elixir per cycle, it still ends up doing more damage.

Let's take a look at the DPCs of a few well-known decks (rounded to the nearest tenth):

Icebow ............................................................................................................................................... [29.5]

Log Bait (OG, w/ knight) .................................................................................................................. [26.0]

Hog 2.6 ............................................................................................................................................... [24.4]

X-Bow 2.9 .......................................................................................................................................... [24.4]

RG Cycle ............................................................................................................................................ [15.6]

Golem Beatdown ............................................................................................................................. [14.7]

Pekka + Ram .................................................................................................................................... [14.5]

Graveyard (w/ musketeer + barbarian hut) .................................................................................. [11.5]

Giant + Graveyard (w/ musketeer) ................................................................................................ [10.1]

MK Zap Bait/Mega Goblins ............................................................................................................. [4.0]

Icebow tops this list (should I be surprised?), closely followed by Log Bait and Hog 2.6. Beatdown decks have a significantly lower DPC, which explains why Beatdown players don't resort to spell cycle as often. Decks without heavy spells, such as Mk Zap Bait, have much lower DPCs.

The DPC of a deck is a good way to measure the power of a deck in Overtime. If you and another player are neck-and-neck in crown tower damage, you want to have a higher DPC then them. Due to one of the recent updates, as long as you have more damage, you win! So the next time you edit a deck, or build a new one; think about the DPC. You'll find yourself pulling ahead during Overtime.

Here is another deck guide:
are you tired of trying to play boring meta decks over and over again have you spent hours trying to make your own deck just to find out it up and are you ready to escape mid ladder so you don't have to play Mega Knight ebarb's rage cycle over and over again well you're in the right place let me explain what are the most common questions that I get on this channel is Billy can you fix Monday Billy is my objective and in all reality most of the Decks that you guys send me are terrible so instead of going through all these decks one by one I decided to make an ultimate guide on how to make a deck that is actually good just for some context I played my own graveyard freeze deck for about six years with that deck I got up to the top three thousand I had multiple top 10K finishes and I won a good amount of Grand Challenge I'm by no means the best player in the world but I definitely have a lot of experience in making my own decks and having success with over the past couple weeks I've spent a ton of time analyzing my deck and other homemade decks and why they were so successful during that time I've been able to come up with a formula of what makes these decks so successful over other crappy homemade Decks that most of you guys have made in today's video I'm going to explain how to make a deck catered towards your play style but also be good enough to get you very far in the game so without further Ado let's get into it just like the damn video already unless you're an expo user then get the off my channel so a lot of people think that when you start making a deck the first step is to pick an archetype however this is not how you should start the first step in building a homemade deck that is actually good is to figure out your play style your play style is how you naturally play the game and it'll influence how you use any given deck this part is really important because your play style will set your ceiling for different deck archetypes for example if you're an aggressive player you're straight up not going to be able to play minor control well you're gonna play way too aggressive when you aren't supposed to and you're going to perform much worse than if you picked an aggressive archetype on the flip side if you're a defensive player and you pick Bridge bam you're going to miss opportunities to go aggressive because it doesn't fit your on the flip side if you're a defensive player and you pick Bridge fam you're going to miss big opportunities to go aggressive because it doesn't fit your playstyle well when it comes to figuring out your play style there are three major categories to choose from the first category is aggressive and that includes decks like Bridge spam cycle decks and bait decks this play style is for players who love to constantly spam and be as annoying as possible the goal of these decks is to control the pace of the game and if you don't well you're the second play style is passive this style is boring as hell and it is so damn annoying to play again passive play style includes very defensive archetypes such as control and Siege and it's best for players that have a little bit more patience if you can't control yourself from spamming Elite Barbarians at the bridge then this playstyle is probably not and finally the last play style is brain dead Dex the beauty of brain dead decks is that they have a very high skill floor meaning you don't have to put nearly as much time into practicing them to get good results brain dead decks include beat down and split Lane decks and and people love to hate on them because they have a high skill flow the thing is who gives a about what they think brain dead decks are great for anyone that doesn't want to spend thousands of hours sweating at the game just to learn every single small interaction just whatever you do make sure to spam The Laughing Goblin or yawning princess at the end of every game just to assert your dominance with your brain dead deck once you figure out your play style the next step is to pick an archetype we mentioned all the archetypes in the last section but I'll throw up a graphic here on the screen now with every archetype for each play style you don't have to pick your win condition just yet but you just have to figure out what type of deck you want to play within your play stuff for example within the passive playstyle control and Siege are gonna play very different quick note here if you have a specific win condition that you want to play you can just pick an archetype within your playstyle that has that win conditioning okay so now that we've figured out your play style and archetype the next step is to pick your win condition for those of you that don't already know a win condition is a card that your deck is based around it's usually a card that can get direct Tower damage but in some cases like Bridge bam or three musketeers that's not always the case not picking a win condition is probably one of the biggest mistakes I see when you all send me your homemade decks you guys just throw Mega Knight Witch Wizard and Valkyrie and a deck with some building in three random spells and expect to somehow get to the Tower it just doesn't make much sense and I hate to break it to you but if you think that's gonna succeed long term you're just stupid you need a win condition to get consistent damage otherwise you're just counting on your opponents make a big mistake which won't always happen right now the best win conditions are probably minor hog and graveyard but all wind conditions can be good if they are played correctly I'll throw up another graphic with every win condition with each archetype so just take some time and pick one from there so now we're gonna pick some support cards the first thing that you do is automatically pick the wizard no I'm just with y'all but in all serious you will need to pick at least one Splash damage card Splash damage is important because of how prevalent swarm cards are in Clash Royale if you don't have a splash card you're just asking to get absolutely destroyed by an idiot spamming swarm just keep in mind line certain Splash cards are better with specific decks for example Scouts King and Valkyrie are going to do much better with graveyard than a firecracker just make sure that you take some time and think about the Synergy between your Splash card and your win condition next up is two air targeting cards sometimes one of these cards can overlap with your Splash card just as an example which or executioner would fit in both of these categories if you choose to overlap a card with your Splash card you'll free up another spot for a different type of card the reason why you need to have some air defense is because you're going to get absolutely up by lava hound and balloon if you don't it's not going to be fun after that you're gonna have to pick your spells you usually want to have two spells but one has to be a small spot your big spells include spells like lightning rocket and Fireball and your small spells include cards like logs zap and snowball this is another spot to make sure that you're careful about the Synergy of your spells and your deck for example rocket might be good in Expo but it's going to be absolutely terrible in graveyard just make sure your picks make sense you can figure this all out with basic logic if you're really struggling to figure out which small spell to use use the law it is good in almost every deck except for graveyard also note that your other spell could be another small spell or even something wild it's like freeze clone or mirror and finally the last step in creating the perfect homemade deck is to fill out the remainder of the deck with wild card these slots should be used to fill any holes that your other cards leave if you don't have enough offense add another win condition if you don't have enough defense add a build something else that you should consider adding is some point damage like in The Inferno dragon or the mini Pekka to help kill tanks if you choose a cycle deck now is the time to add your cycle cards which can be stuff like skeletons goblins or any of the spirits taking these wild cards isn't always easy don't be afraid to try different ones out and find the best combination through trial owners there you guys have it that is the exact formula that I use to build my homemade deck that I've had so much success with over the years my biggest piece of advice is to be patient and use trial and error to figure out which cards fit best in your specific deck and once you figure out which ones do just stick with it and don't ever change it and call it your own

Here is another deck guide:
hey what's up guys volcán here welcome to my channel where i teach you everything you need to know to get better at clash royale so today I'm going to be sharing my top 5 tips to build the best possible deck you can with the card levels that you have so a little bit of backstory as to why I decided to make this video is that I was pushing ladder with on my so a little bit of backstory as to why I'm making this video is because I was pushing ladder on my second account volcano and I managed to reach 2,000 in the world but I reached that and I only have seven no that's seven I have 15 cards that are actually max so that goes to show that you don't need to have all the max Legendary's epics rares and even comments to get high in ladder you can do it and I could probably push higher than this I'm going to definitely try soon I might even record a video doing it but you can push high a ladder with with almost any account you could probably get higher if you're just if you just use the right deck I started out using this deck but what I found is that even by switching just a couple cards I was able to push about 800 trophies higher using this then when I was using this deck which only which isn't even a fully maxed deck but just the under level minor the underleveled spear goblins and even the knight because I had I couldn't use Rascals because they're under leveled that made all the difference to where I was stuck at like 6000 trophies and just by switching up my deck I push up all the way to six thousand eight hundred and I still plan on pushing higher so it just goes to show the power of using a good deck on ladder so tip number one is to use mostly common cards and the reason I say this is because Commons are the East just level up and basically with whatever deck you're using you just want to use your highest level cards even one level can be night and day difference like it can be the difference between two hundred trophies if it's your whole deck that's one level it can be the difference between like a thousand trophies the level is very important so you see all these common cards and the only ones I wouldn't recommend using our that's not a common I wouldn't recommend using the elite barbarians I wouldn't recommend the Royal recruits I guess if you have a high level of fire cracker you can use it why not pretty good card and that I would say Irish spirits aren't the best but even then they have their place so really you can use any of these cards except for elite barbarians and rural recruits and they will be successful in your deck okay so moving on to tip number two with some cards the levels aren't quite as important so for example with these eight spells the you can use them even if they're under leveled the log one level under will still kill a princess as one level higher the eros will still kill princess that's a level higher the Barbaro it won't but it'll still cloak oblems if it's one level lower I think actually I'm not sure about that but I'm just gonna assume for the purpose of this video that it does thornado the level literally doesn't matter like as long as it kills skeletons you're pretty much good zap same story it still kills the skeleton still kill spear goblins when it's under leveled graveyard it doesn't do as much damage but the level yeah isn't as important and then rocket even like two levels under it can kill just about anything but a Sparkie so you could use it a hunter leveled rocket and then these are some cards where the level and then these are some troop cards with the level isn't quite as important the skeletons the eye spirit the back you're mostly using for cycle anyway so utility isn't really quite as important and they all get one shot wise up anyway the Sparky the mega knight and the giant skeleton the thing is like technically they're not as strong obviously as if they were at the same level but a lot of times because they have a lot of splash times potential if you're facing not that good of an opponent which is usually the case when you're in a lower arena there you're gonna be able to get a lot of value like a lot more value than if you're playing so on on high ladder so a lot of times these Splash Damage heavy cards that are also good in a high ladder are especially oil they're also good in low ladder under level just because people clump up the troops a little bit more than they should tip number three is a really quick but really important too and that is that I'd recommend to put your highest your to highest level spells in whatever deck you have sometimes you can even put in three but a lot of times you don't really want one usually you want to and the the spills I would recommend basically never using are the poison and the lightning because unless you have them like an equal level as the witches or wizards that you're playing against they're not gonna work very well just because like a poison won't be able to kill a musketeer so tip number three is to put your two highest level spells in whatever deck you're using if you have equally high level spells you can kind of choose you know what makes more sense in whatever scenario it is but you don't want to be using for example in under level fireball you don't want to be using an under level poison or an under leveled lightning because they're not going to kill stuff so at that point you're better off just using like log and zap and not even having a big spell or using snowballing zap or zapping arrows yeah I would just say make sure you're not using an under level spell that isn't gonna kill stuff because at that point you're it's just a dead card in your hands tip number four is going to be popular requires that you should avoid just because a lot of people use a card doesn't mean it's a good card to use there's a lot better cards that you could be using and be having more success with but a lot of people use them just because they're easy to use and they're kind of low skills so so the way I like to think about this is don't use negative elixir trade cards and what that means is for example the minion horde it dies two arrows and a lot of people on ladder are using arrows and if it's under level that even dies this app so you have to be really careful with minion horde first of all you have to have a high level minion horde so it's not dying to zap and then second of all if you are using minion horde you need to be using it in a deck that has a lot of other bait cards in it like at least three other bait cards because if it doesn't then there's going to get arrows and always have a positive or there's going to arrows your minion horde and always have a positive elixir trade on you and then you can go to things like goblin game you don't want to be using gone getting princess goblin barrel or a dark goblin if it dies to zap that's it's a negative elixir trade and you're better off using a different cycle card such as skeletons or our ice spirit you also don't want to be using the range attackers like the musketeer the witch in the wizard witch and wizard just aren't very good cars in general but even with a musketeer which is a very good card you don't want to be using it if it's under level because it gets one shot by fire bullets and negative filter trade so at that point you're just better off using archers or minions and then iSchool them you don't want to use it if it's not a high enough level to kill enemy bats and enemy skeletons at that point you're just better off using tonight and a lot of times because it's easier level up Knight than high school them I would say Knight is the Walmarts I school any deck that you have I school them in you can basically just sub knight in like for example two point nine or two point six you know explore hog any any deck like that any deck like that you're probably better off using the night unless you have you know an equal level high school I would also recommend you don't use the furnace if it's under level because if this fire spear is one level under the enemy tower then there's going to be one shot by the tower and it kind of ends up just being a dead card in your hand the fifth and final tip for this video is going to be use your highest level wing conditions and whatever deck you're using for example as you can see here I'm running this Royal giant mortar deck and the reason why is because well quite frankly they're the only two one conditions I have maxed so it really is important you can kind of make these other one conditions work like you could still do decently loan ladder but you're not going to reach your maximum trophy potential if you're not using your highest level wind conditions so now that I gave you the top five tips for building decks let me show you guys some actual decks that you could use or modify to best suit your card levels I showed you guys the road giant mortar deck that I was using but let me also show you a different variation that you could also use so this variation is kind of just a modified hogrider deck you know because there's the popular like macarius mortar deck so basically since I didn't have a spear goblins leveled up I decided to put goblins in this deck instead of the log but then I found that losing the log bait so I decided to stick and log and actually worked pretty well like I got think I hit like 6500 with this deck the only problem with it was that it kept basing people who had arrows in their deck and so the minion order is kind of useless but it could be a good deck you could even take out fire bowl and sub some stuff but so basically the points is that depending on your card levels this could be a good base for exact you just modify couple cars and switch it to suit your needs we also have this deck which is a deck that's actually in the top 200 and it only has one legendary and one rare so if you happen to have you know a high level log and a high-level rocket for whatever reason and you have all these other cards maxed then you could actually like push really high with this deck and you could also you know sup in the fire bow for the rocket or you can sub in the SAP for the snowball or even like the preparing Barrow for the blog or even arrows for the log and it would work but it wouldn't be quite as good but if you if you have the card levels needed then you could definitely try using that deck so the second best free-to-play wink Edition is definitely going to be like the hog mortar and this is the most popular version of this deck the only thing about this version that I don't like is that the fire bowl well if you have an under level fire bowl it's not going to work out very well like if you can't fire fall zap a wizard then you're just going to get absolutely a knight waited not highlighted by like wizards and which players so you have to be careful about that you can't really use this deck if you don't have like a high level fireball and also well you actually could try putting rascals in a set of the mini heart I was thinking about this because a lot of people and mid-level arenas use arrows so if you're facing a lot of arrows the rascals would probably actually be better than the minion horde and maybe they'd be better anyway maybe it would be like an easier deck to play especially if your fireball is in a high level keeping it on the topic of hog I actually wouldn't recommend playing two-point-six because it's really hard to upgrade your musketeer and it's really hard to upgrade your log but if you so if you happen to have you know high and also it's hard to upgrade your high school if you happen to have a high-level high school and musketeer log then sure use 2.6 but if you don't I'm guessing most you guys probably would have this deck leveled up more or just easier to level up so you can actually give this deck a try over two point six or even like you have a high level musketeer you can sub it into this deck but something like this could actually work a lot better and then there's also the big dream deck was just just as easy a level up a guy named big dream uses or he doesn't really play anymore but he's pushed top 200 multiple times for this deck on ladder so it's a really solid deck and if you're looking for something to switch it up feel free to give this a try and believe it or not I actually think graver just like the third-best free to play one condition I guess kind of 4th if you consider Mordor one condition just because the level the graveyard doesn't really matter that much it's more about the support cards and for example with graveyard is actually more important to upgrade your poison than it is to upgrade your graveyard and the reason I have freezing this deck is because since as I was saying if you have an under level poison it's not really going to work out that well so but an under level freeze isn't as big of a deal so it's okay to use like especially graveyard freeze if you're if you don't have a high max poison and something like this could work out really well you could sub it into the deck depending on your card levels you can even use a different building you can even not easy building it all and use a tornado and you could something like that could work the next two when conditions are when conditions that are really popular but I honestly don't think are that good because so really level dependent and that would be I guess they're they're okay but you have to like really hardcore focus upgrading these winning editions and cards otherwise you're not going to be good this is a really popular deck but honestly it's really hard to upgrade because it has to Legendary's it has an epic and two rares it's just not that good I would actually recommend if you want to use log bit use something like this because it's a lot easier to upgrade you got the arrows and set the log you got the the Goblin well I guess you got the dark goblin inside the princess so no legendaries it kind of depends what you have leveled up and what's easier for you to level up so feel free to use whatever you want and I would say you don't necessarily even need a big spell in this deck like you don't really need the rocket honestly you can almost put fireball on this deck well you kind of won the rocket if you have a high level princess I'd actually put like the princess and instead of the rocket but like you don't have to copy the meta log bit deck feel free to switch it up as your card levels like you know feel free to switch it up if you have a dark problem leveled up higher than a princess or and stuff like that you can put in a valkyrie if you have a higher left without crew that night you can even put it in a cannon like like don't be afraid to try out different stuff and then with expo if you don't have a high level of high school um the night is honestly not even that much worse like it's only gonna put you a hundred or two hundred trophies lower than if you're using the high school and if even that like height really isn't that bad I'm pretty sure there's people who even get talked to a hundred with the night so yeah feel free to like use the night here you don't really want to switch out anything else in this deck the log is super important the expo is super important and so is a fireball but you can definitely try switching out the night you could even try switching up the archers and it's not that big of a deal and then my final pick and this is when I consider to be an onion underrated free to play when condition is the balloon because and the balloon itself is really hard to upgrade but you can focus upgrade the balloon like you can just request a lot of balloons like every Sunday and only request balloons and then use like only comments for the rest of the deck or you know you can use a freeze you can put it in a fire bowl if you have a high level fire bowl you can put it in a minor if you happen to have a high-level minor but really the core of this deck is balloon is the balloon and the commons so you could actually get away with and I and I used to do this a lot I would use like level twelve balloon and then max Commons hand like a level ten freeze or something like and I used to push top to a hundred ladder with with that like two years ago so it's definitely a viable deck choice and as long as you have a high level balloon it can work out quite well for you so yeah feel free to take any of the texts I showed you in this video and modify it according to your card levels take the tips that I told you in the video and use it to make the a deck that works best for your account I hope you guys hopefully you guys enjoyed this video and fokin out