Clash Royale
Image via Supercell

Five Essential Cards For Your Clash Royale Offense

Learn how to come out on top in this card-playing strategy game.

Clash Royale is a card-playing, tower rush strategy game released by Supercell in 2016. The game has received millions of downloads and won the Google Play Awards Game of the Year in 2016, the same year that it was released. The main objective of the game is to destroy more of your opponents’ three towers than they do yours. To achieve this, you create a deck with many different cards boasting lots of fun and unique abilities. Some of these cards can be annoying to play against due to unique abilities, while others are fairly straightforward. It is easy to become attached to certain cards in the game, and this is actually encouraged. The more comfortable you are playing with a handful of cards that work well together, the better you will do. However, these combinations often do well against some decks, but poorly against others as everything must be balanced out. Thus, the main thing that players argue about the most in Clash Royale is which cards are the best.

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While this argument depends mostly on what you are most comfortable playing, there are a couple of main points that stand out. Firstly, a good balance of both offensive and defensive cards is important. If you play too aggressively and your attacks are countered, you could find yourself in trouble with no defenders. On the flip side, without any cards that can take out your enemy’s towers, you won’t have a way to win the game. Therefore, it is important you know the strengths and weaknesses of some of the best cards out there.

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Five Offensive Cards That Will Ruin Your Opponent’s Day

To take out your opponent’s towers, your aim is to cause as much destruction as possible. You will want cards that can deal damage, target their tower and other buildings exclusively, or both. Offensive cards need to be able to hold their own while they are on the attack, and should be your key to victory. Here are some of the best picks to choose from out of the many different cards in the game.

The Ram Rider

Image via Supercell

Picking the Ram Rider as one of your draft cards is a strong choice to ensure offensive capability. The ram targets buildings in a charge-like attack similar to the Prince and the Dark Prince. On the other hand, the rider will throw her bolas at troops and slow their movement speed by 70%. With her powerful charge attack dealing blow after blow to your opponent’s tower, the Ram Rider is a sure pick for your deck.

Some of her weaknesses include cards that are able to stun others, which will stop her charge and slow her down. This makes her virtually a sitting duck while your enemy’s defenses take her down. If your opponent picks cards such as the Electro Wizard or the Mega Knight, be cautious. Another weakness to the Ram Rider are building cards. These include the Inferno Tower and the Cannon, which will stop her charge and deal damage right back at her. To counter these buildings, use spells or other cards which can take out the buildings before they become a threat.

Graveyard

Graveyard Clash Royale
Image via Supercell

Graveyard is a strong offensive card for a couple of reasons. Firstly, it can be placed anywhere in the arena, as a spell that spawns multiple skeletons. This allows the user to deploy reinforcements to their defense, bolster an attack, or distract their opponent. Graveyard spawns skeletons in a random pattern that changes with every deployment, and thus is impossible to fully predict. Paired with spell cards like Poison or Tornado, as well as the Giant for tanking damage, Graveyard can be almost unstoppable.

Popular counters to the Graveyard are actually some of the cards it works best with, like Poison. If your opponent has Poison as part of their deck, we strongly advise you to not play Graveyard. The Poison spell almost completely stops Graveyard, killing its spawned skeletons before they can get any damage in. Another strong counter to Graveyard are ranged units that have a fast attacking speed. These cards include Archers and the Dart Goblin, among others. To counter them, deploy Poison or Arrows and watch your enemy’s defenses fall to pieces.

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Wall Breakers

Wall Breakers Clash Royale
Image via Supercell

Wall Breakers are one of the cheapest cards in Clash Royale, and are the least expensive in terms of only attacking buildings. When both Wall Breakers successfully damage your enemy’s princess towers, they deal roughly a quarter of its health in damage. Due to their low cost, Wall Breakers can be played over and over again to put pressure on your opponent. Additionally, Wall Breakers deal splash damage to their surroundings when they attack a building, meaning any defending troops nearby take a hit, too.

The most dangerous counter to the Wall Breakers is Arrows, which can take them out instantly. If your opponent has Arrows as a part of their Clash Royale deck, using your Wall Breakers too much can be very risky. Other counters to Wall Breakers are cards that deal splash damage, such as the Wizard or the Witch. However, you can deploy Lightning to effectively stop these ranged units from causing too much trouble. In general, when using Wall Breakers make sure to load your deck with some other cheap cards that complement them. This allows you to cycle cards quickly and keep the pressure up on your enemy.

The X-Bow

X-Bow Clash Royale
Image via Supercell

The X-Bow is perhaps the most controversial card of all in Clash Royale among the community. Some players love it for its unique ability to attack a tower from the other side of the arena. Others, for good reason, dislike it for how fast it attacks and the amount of damage it can rack up in a short time. Although expensive at 6 elixir, the X-Bow can be devastating if it locks onto your enemy’s tower, or your own. It chips away at its targets from an incredible range – the longest in the game. With that in mind, it is important to beware the many counters to this strong yet vulnerable card.

The first counter to the X-Bow, and the one that is used most often, is a high-HP unit deployed directly in front of it. These can include the Royal Giant and the Golem, among others. With their high health points, they can simply take down the X-Bow before it can deal with them. Even worse, they can then continue on to your towers and force you to defend this counterattack. To defend against these high-HP units, build your deck with cards like the Inferno Dragon or Skeleton Army in mind.

A second counter to the X-Bow are high spell cards, such as the Rocket or previously mentioned Lightning. These cards cannot be stopped, as they are spell cards that even the very rare Monk unit can’t deflect. The only way to counter these devastating spells is to cycle your X-Bow faster than your enemy can play his spells. This way, you will eventually outpace him and have your X-Bow down before he is able to play a counter.

The Bandit

Bandit Clash Royale
Image via mnht5ytht/WallpaperCave

Not all of the best offensive cards in Clash Royale need to be those that only target buildings! One of the most unique attackers in Clash Royale is the Bandit, who dashes from target to target at will. While she’s dashing, the Bandit is invulnerable and protected from all damage, although the dash is only a short time. When she hits a target with her dash, such as another unit or a building, she deals double the damage, punishing them even more. With a fast hit speed and ability to dash towards ranged troops and close the distance, the Bandit is a strong offensive card. Even more appealing, the Bandit is only a cheap 3 elixir, meaning you can deploy her at a moment’s notice if needed.

Unfortunately, although she is quick, the Bandit is not quick enough to deal with swarm cards. One of her biggest weaknesses is Skeleton Army, which will surround her and take her out quickly. Another unit that will cause a problem are the Guards. After their shields take the first hit from her dash, their strength in numbers will then do the rest of the work. To stop these cards, add Arrows to your deck, because of how it offers an easy solution to most swarm units.

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We hope you learned a lot from this Clash Royale Offensive Card guide. Feel free to visit Gamer Journalist on Facebook to learn more about the video games you love to play. For further reading, you may also want to check out our guide on getting trade tokens in Clash Royale, or what a ‘Personal Break’ is in Clash of Clans, a feature that all new players should know about.

Author
Image of Sullivan Pearson
Sullivan Pearson
Sullivan is a longtime gamer with a special passion for MMORPG games and single-player classics. He is always looking for a new game to play, and loves to share his interests and expertise with the gaming world.