Clash Royale: All Cards Ranked (2025)

Tier List

Note: the cards are not ranked in any particular order within their 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. Hog Rider, Goblin Barrel, and Balloon are three of the most iconic win cons from Clash Royale’s history. Goblin Barrel has defined the meta time and time again. It’s been such a constant threat that it feels like every deck has to have the Log or another similar spell in them. Hog Rider is beloved due to his ability to beat down enemy towers constantly, forcing a high-speed game. The Balloon comes in as the best flying win con, often backed up with a variety of other flying troops to make a strategy that’s extremely hard for most decks to counter.

Firecracker is the sole support card in S-tier, and it’s largely because she’s so frustrating to play against. Not only does she do huge wave damage that makes any swarms or low-HP support troops irrelevant, she’s also hard to hit. She protects herself against spells since she moves around so much while shooting, and it’s not uncommon to waste a Fireball or Log missing her. Then obviously I have the Log at S-tier because it counters almost every ground swarm, including Goblin Barrel.

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 P.E.K.K.A. are two of the best high-elixir troops to base a deck around. Mega Knight is better for more defensive decks focusing on counter pushing, while P.E.K.K.A. excels as a great straightforward tank that works best with support troops behind him. Royal Giant is my favorite troop overall that only targets buildings, but he is fairly easy to counter, so he isn’t quite at the same tier as Hog Rider and Balloon.

For the non-threat troops, A-tier features some of the best of the best at distracting and/or supporting other troops. Royal Recruits covers the entire battlefield, so it’s able to counter anything on the ground at any time. Goblin Gang can also be spread around the battlefield, but they also target flying troops. Plus they work great in Log Bait decks. Knight and Valkyrie are two of my favorite smaller tanks, with Knight as a true tank with little damage and Valkyrie the more versatile of the two.

For the spells, Fireball and Barbarian Barrel are always high quality picks. Fireball is great for countering many mid-HP troops, and Barbarian Barrel provides a Log effect but also a troop for decks that really need more ways to distract. Then there’s also Inferno Tower, which can be used to shred through almost every tank in the game.

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.

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 Tornado is just extremely specific. Tornado does break the mold a bit here since it can’t really be replaced in the decks that need it, but I usually don’t find those decks good enough to break it past this tier. The same can also be said for a building like X-Bow that requires you to play around it entirely. I love X-Bow more than any card, but I’d be lying if I said it was higher than B-tier, at least right now.

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, Sparky, and Golem all fall into this tier of having decks based around them but still being C-tier. For example, you could never play a Golem or Lavaloon deck without Golem or Lava Hound, but I just don’t think those decks alone put these cards higher up. Without the perfect line-up of support cards, Golem is almost useless. He just costs too much elixir and requires you to commit too hard. Sparky is also C-tier, even though it has a ton of potential. But it’s also really easy to counter, so it gets limited pretty hard.

Most of the cards in this tier are just fairly standard support cards. Cards like Baby Dragon, Mother Witch, Executioner, and others are all solid cards that fit perfectly at C-tier. Even something with more potential like Princess 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. Poison is good at killing swarms but often just feels worse than Fireball, and Zap and Earthquake are both very situational. Freeze has a lot of potential for making huge pushes, but also does nothing a lot of the time. Then there’s Clone, which works perfectly with cards that have a post-death effect, but it’s also too situational for me to rank higher.

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 Night Witch, Magic Archer, Electro Dragon, and the new Spirit Empress are on this list 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.

I also included cards that I just never see anyone play, like Void, Furnace, Goblins, and Battle Healer. 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, Graveyard is easily countered, 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. Three Musketeers is a card I desperately want to be good, because they’re so cool in theory. But it’s far too common to spend the ton of elixir only for Lightning to take them out. Or maybe one survives, but then you’re still down 5 elixir. Rune Giant is basically just an irrelevant card, and I’ve never had a situation where it felt like her ability mattered.

Goblin Curse is a very poor spell that can do some cool stuff, but it requires your opponent to cast a swarm for it to target. And the damage just isn’t good enough to warrant the situational nature of it. Then there’s Heal Spirit, which is the most irrelevant spirit of them all. The little bit of healing never seems to matter, and honestly I wish Supercell would just bring back the original Heal spell.

It’s hard to make a card that’s truly horrible, and even these all have some potential (other than Rune Giant–sorry). But even then, a solid buff might make her a great card overnight. So don’t lose hope for these subpar cards, as with the nature of the game, they’ll probably be S-tier someday.