Clash Royale: All Cards Ranked (2026 Update)

Tier List

(Cards in no specific order within the tiers.)

S-Tier

S-Tier cards are the best of the best. These cards have been good for a long time, despite any nerfs that might have come their way. The Log, Balloon, Hog Rider, and Fireball are the four best cards in Clash Royale in my opinion, and they’ve each been around long enough to prove they can stand the test of time. The Log is without a doubt the best way to deal with ground swarms, which have become even more prevalent this year. It’s the benchmark for what a spell should be in terms of power, and it remains the strongest Legendary card in the game as well.

Balloon is the best flying win con in Clash, as it’s able to take out towers with ease, does huge damage, and has multiple established decks which feature it. Hog Rider is in the same boat as Balloon, but for ground-based threats. Hog Rider has probably been in more decks than any other win con, so it’s hard to argue against his inclusion at S-tier. And finally we have Fireball, which is the best “all-rounder” spell in the game. It’s literally just a damage spell, and that’s all it needs to be.

A-Tier

A-tier cards are all cards that I consider worthy of carrying a deck or playing a significant part in them. Mega Knight and Royal Giant are two of the best high-elixir troops to base a deck around. There are also cheaper tanks like Rascals and Valkyrie which stand out at A-tier since they’re essentially punching above their weight. A-tier cards have high potential to win games and most of them can have decks based all around them.

I think that to be an A-tier card, a card needs to be excellently designed, strong in most metas, and versatile enough that there aren’t a ton of counters available. Sure, you can use Mini P.E.K.K.A. to counter a Mega Knight, but it’s still not the kind of card that is easily dealt with. There are counters for everything, but A-tier cards have more ways around them than most.

B-Tier

B-tier is for cards that certainly have a place in a deck, but aren’t as highly valuable or might be replaceable. I won’t go through every single card included from this tier down, but let’s take a look at a few of them to get a better idea of the tier. Archer Queen is really strong at supporting or using her Champion ability to quickly kill a dangerous troop, but costs 5 elixir and doesn’t feel like she always pays off. Electro Wizard has the great ability of being able to reset troops like Sparky or Inferno Dragon that build up their attacks, but if you aren’t against any of those it can feel a bit lackluster. Then we have cards like Royal Hogs, Hunter, Dart Goblin, etc. that are all really strong but don’t feel “necessary” for many decks or can be easily replaced with other options or by their evolutions/heroic versions.

In terms of spells, this is where most of them go. Arrows are good but more expensive than the Log-type cards, Rocket is great for specific strategies but far too expensive for most decks, Lightning is probably the best of the bunch since it can take out multiple dangerous troops at once, and Goblin Curse is just extremely specific in what it’s good at doing.

C-Tier

These are the cards that I think are perfectly fine to include in a deck, but are almost never a requirement (with a few exceptions). Let’s talk about those first. Lava Hound and Sparky are good examples of card in this tier that still have decks based around them despite being C-tier. For example, you could never play a Sparky or Lavaloon deck without Sparky or Lava Hound, but I just don’t think those decks alone put these cards higher up since they’re so weak and easily counterable in the wrong environments.

Most of the cards in this tier are just fairly standard support cards. Cards like Princess, Mother Witch, Executioner, and others are all solid cards that fit perfectly at C-tier. Even some cards with more potential like Elite Barbarians or Mighty Miner come in at this tier. These aren’t bad cards at all, they’re just pretty mediocre compared to other options.

For spells at C-tier, I included most of the average ones. Spells like Earthquake and Zap can be great additions in certain decks, but are too specific to include in most. Then we have Clone, which while really fun to play, just feels very lackluster most of the time.

D-Tier

D-tier is the first of the tiers which I would say includes bad cards. But what defines a “bad” card in Clash Royale? Personally, I’d say that if a card doesn’t have any legit uses or even alternate win cons associated with it, then it’s bad. I’d also say a card is bad if it just drastically under-performs or fits a far too specific niche. Cards like Goblin Machine, Electro Dragon, and Barbarians are on this tier because there are either better options that do the same thing or they’re just underwhelming. I wouldn’t say someone is crazy if they’re playing them, but they just don’t feel worthwhile to me.

I also included cards that I just never see anyone play, like Void and Goblins. Then there are also the more high-potential cards that feel too difficult or situational to actually utilize. Elixir Collector can work but requires a huge commitment, Fire Spirit doesn’t do enough, and Electro Giant dies to too many support troops. One or two buffs might make any of these cards a much higher tier, but for now they’re down here in the “eh, maybe” tier.

F-Tier

And here we have it, the worst of the worst. I don’t understand the point of playing any of these cards, and they’re the ones I’d most highly recommend changing or buffing soon. Rune Giant is almost certainly the worst card in Clash Royale, as she basically does nothing. What she technically does is give a buff to two nearby allies every now and then, which makes them do more damage every third attack. So if she buffs a troop that attacks fast for good damage, then this can be decent. The problem is that she targets randomly based on the closet troop to her, so it’s hard to guarantee she buffs the right troop. Plus, the buff isn’t even all that impressive to begin with.

The next card in this tier is Heal Spirit. I don’t think Heal Spirit is as laughably bad as Rune Giant, but it just feels irrelevant. I do understand that the main purpose of the 1-Elixir spirit cards is to have cheap cards to cycle through, but this one is undeniably the worst of the bunch. The others at least feel somewhat useful, while Heal Spirit almost never matters.

And the last card in the lowest tier is Barbarian Hut. This one hurts to put here since I do like the card, but it’s just far too useless. For 6 Elixir, getting a handful of Barbarians just does not feel worthwhile. Most of the times the Hut gets blown up before you get enough Barbarians for them to matter, and when it doesn’t, even then you spent 6 Elixir for 8 Barbarians. Not the best trade-off when you factor in how long they take to spawn and the likelihood they get blown up instantly.

Biggest Movers (2025 to 2026)

The Good

This year saw quite a few cards moving upwards. The biggest improvements this year were for Rascals (D to A), Three Musketeers (D to B), Fireball (A to S), Graveyard (D to A), Berserker (D to B), and Rage (D to B). Three Musketeers is the one I was most excited about this year, as they’ve been completely reworked to be more efficient. They’re still expensive, but they no longer feel like a waste.

Graveyard’s improvement was also big this year, mostly thanks to a combination of a rework which makes it more consistent and my own low rating last year. I should have put it above D in the first place, so I’m glad I’m redoing this list so I can right that wrong. Fireball was also a situation where I just feel it should always have been in S-tier, and Berserker and Rage were both due to significant buffs throughout the year. Rage, particularly, got a great buff which allows it to do damage now, so it’s a huge change.

The Bad

On the other hand, there were also a lot of cards this year that dropped through the rankings. I won’t bother going through the handful of cards that just got nerfed and dropped one or two tiers, but two stand out since they fell out of S-tier. The first of these fallen cards is Goblin Barrel. This is because I feel that Goblin Barrel has simply gotten a bit too old at this point. Other cards have become faster, especially with the Heroic cards added and all the new evolutions. Plus we have more answers now than just the Log and Barb Barrel. Snowball and Zap are also good answers, and so are some cheap troops.

Firecracker also fell out of S-tier this year and went all the way down to C-tier. Sometimes a card is just so good that Supercell decides to basically kill it, which happened to Firecracker this year. Even her evolution isn’t very good anymore. Hopefully they buff her a little so she can get back into the meta in some way, but as of now I almost never see her.