Clash Royale: Best Decks for Arena 8 Frozen Peak

New Cards Available in Arena 8

This arena is all about ice and/or “wintery” cards. We get Ice Spirit, Ice Golem, Snowball, and Freeze in this arena, so it’s great for some snow-inspired decks. But there are also some less “chilly” new cards, too. Battle Healer, Giant Skeleton, and Lightning don’t follow the theme for the arena, but they’re all great cards nonetheless. Here’s the full recap of all the new cards unlocked in Arena 8!

➡️ Troops: Ice Spirit, Battle Healer, Ice Golem, Giant Skeleton

➡️ Spells: Snowball, Lightning, Freeze

➡️ Buildings: n/a

Evolutions in Arena 8

Evolutions are something you’ll see from time to time in Arena 8. They aren’t going to be in every deck, but they’ll be around. If you aren’t familiar with how Evolutions work, just know that they basically upgrade a card. Evolutions are more powerful versions of cards that already exist, and there aren’t that many of them yet since they’re so new.

If you’re interested in learning more about Evolutions and which ones are the best, check out our article on it here! We won’t include Evolutions in this list’s decks, but if you have them, feel free to add them in wherever you can.

1. Giant Skeleton Defense

All cards in this deck:

• Giant Skeleton
• Snowball
• Royal Hogs
• Guards
• Minions
• Archers
• Tombstone
• Electro Spirit

Giant Skeleton is one of the more unique tanks in Clash Royale. He isn’t a win con since it’s too hard to get him near enemy towers, but he is the strongest defense troop you can use. What makes him so strong is the bomb he drops upon death. At level 11, the bomb does about 500 damage to troops and 1000 to towers, so it’s got a lot of power. Because of this, the best use for Giant Skeleton is to defend against massive pushes. He can hold a big group of enemies off for a while thanks to his high HP, then the bomb will clear up most of his attackers. It’s not enough to take out high-HP troops, but it gives your other defense units a better chance and clears out swarms with ease.

To win with this deck, you’ll want to use the Royal Hogs to chip away at enemy towers. The Hogs are great for taking out both towers slowly or making a huge push against one, so you have a few ways to use them. Any time you get a Giant Skeleton across the bridge, throw some Royal Hogs behind it for a great push. They’ll have to deal with the Giant Skeleton’s tankiness, the death bomb, and the Hogs all at once. They make for a deadly push, to say the least.

Outside of those two cards, the rest of this deck is a pretty standard line-up of defense. Guards, Minions, and Archers are great for either defending or backing up a Royal Hogs + Giant Skeleton push. Reliable cheap cards are important in every deck, so it’s nice that this deck has several of them.

2. Royal Giant Standard

All cards in this deck:

• Royal Giant
• Lightning
• Baby Dragon
• Battle Healer
• Archers
• Bats
• Goblins
• Ice Spirit

Royal Giant is one of the strongest win cons out there right now since it’s so easy to use and has a great Evolution. (The Evolution is not required, but if you have it it’s one of the best.) Royal Giant does huge chunks of damage to buildings with its cannon shots, so all you have to do is keep it alive to win games. Therefore, most of this deck is focused on keeping Royal Giant alive. If you have the Evolution, this job will be much easier since he does AOE damage around himself after every shot. It’s one of the best Evolution effects, as it makes defending the Royal Giant far too easy. It’s not enough to kill every unit, but it takes out swarms and limits the counters that work against him. If you don’t have the Evolution, just make sure to have an AOE troop like Baby Dragon to protect him.

Lightning is the best defensive card for keeping the Royal Giant alive, but it is expensive. You probably don’t want to rely on it too much during normal Elixir, but in double Elixir it’s a great choice. You can take out lots of mid- to high-HP troops with Lightning, and even some buildings! This deck also has access to Battle Healer, which can heal Royal Giant if there are enemies close to him for her to fight. It’s situational, but it’s incredible a lot of the time and never bad. She’s generally tanky enough to fight off lots of troops, so you can use her for defense if needed. This whole deck is very consistent and powerful, so it’s fit for any fight.

3. Royal Freeze

All cards in this deck:

• Royal Giant
• Flying Machine
• Goblin Cage
• Goblin Barrel
• Freeze
• Snowball
• Minions
• Skeletons

Royal Giant is a great win con that can take out buildings with frightening speed, and this deck maximizes that aggressive potential. In addition to the Royal Giant, this deck also has Goblin Barrel as a secondary win con. You can pair the two together, or use them to make split pushes down both lanes.

Royal Giant has the benefit of being a high-HP tank, but he’s also very slow and weak to swarms and tank destroyers like Mini P.E.K.K.A. or Hunter. If you have the Evolution, that takes care of the swarms thanks to the AOE damage. But if you don’t (which is fine–it isn’t necessary) he will be harder to keep alive. The second win con, Goblin Barrel, drops three Goblins anywhere on the battlefield, allowing for some quick damage to any tower. The best damage you can do with this deck is to wait until Royal Giant is taking tower aggro, then throw the Goblin Barrel at the tower. It guarantees that you’ll destroy the tower unless they defend very well, so it’s perfect.

Freeze is largely used to allow Royal Giant or Goblins to damage towers unopposed, but it’s also good for defense. You can freeze any push that threatens your towers, allowing you enough time to react. Freeze is a much more versatile card than it’s often given credit for, so we highly recommend it. Other than that, you’ll want to use the rest of the cards here to support Royal Giant or defend. They’re all fairly straightforward, and all of them can be replaced with other cards if you don’t like them.

4. Frozen Balloon

All cards in this deck:

• Balloon
• Barbarians
• Baby Dragon
• Bats
• Knight
• Tombstone
• Snowball
• Freeze

Balloon is always a fun win con, as everyone knows how frustrating it can be to play against. It’s the strongest air-based win con at this arena (and probably overall), so it’s always around. This deck simply wants to get Balloons above enemy towers and rain down bombs on them, which can be easier said than done. Since Balloon is so deadly, most players will know how to defend against it. So, if you want to play Balloon, you’ll need to really learn how to play against its counters. A single building can mess up an entire Balloon deck if the person playing it doesn’t know what to do.

To get Balloons to enemy towers, your greatest tools are Baby Dragon and Freeze. Having an air-tank to go ahead of Balloon is a great way to protect it, and Baby Dragon is the best option for that at Arena 8. You can either send the Baby Dragon in first or use it behind Balloon as support, but either strategy is great. Then you can Freeze buildings and towers so that Balloon doesn’t get taken out before it’s able to drop at least a few bombs.

The hardest part of playing Balloon decks is timing the Balloon pushes correctly. Since full Balloon pushes cost a lot of Elixir, it’s critical to time them well. If you waste a bunch of Elixir on a Balloon push that gets instantly countered, you’re likely to lose the game off it. Be careful and don’t over-commit to a single push unless you’re sure it’s a good time to do so. Other than that, this deck is really fun and rewarding once you get the hang of it.

5. Hog Cycle w/ Rocket

All cards in this deck:

• Hog Rider
• Rocket
• Musketeer
• Ice Golem
• Cannon
• Snowball
• Spear Goblins
• Skeletons

The Hog Rider deck for this arena is important because it’s where the deck really starts to come together. Since Hog Rider is such a consistent win con, there are decks based around him in every arena. This one is similar to the classic Hog Cycle decks, but it isn’t exactly the same. The addition of the Rocket adds a second win con, but it isn’t the main damage source. You’re better off using Hog Riders to damage towers, then save Rockets for double Elixir or even to surprise them with the last chunk of damage. You can also use Rocket to blow up dangerous troops like Elite Barbarians that are otherwise difficult to counter.

With this deck, you’ll need to make use out of every card well. Since these cards are mostly cheap, you’ll need to play smart to counter more expensive threats. Cannon can counter a tank, but not by itself. Ice Golem is the perfect distraction, and if you place it correctly you can lead just about any troop on a chase across the arena. This allows Cannon time to blow up high-HP troops, or you can use cards like Spear Goblins or Musketeer to take them out. Musketeer is particularly important, as it’s the best air defense for this deck. This isn’t at all an easy deck to play, so just remember that if it takes a while to learn.