Clash Royale: Best Deck for Arena 17 (Royal Crypt)

Human Made

Penned by Brett Moss

I've been playing video games pretty much nonstop ever since I got my first 360. I love arena shooters, MMOs, and MOBAs, but I'll pretty much try any kind of game.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Hsu

Arena 17 is one of the last arenas which unlocks new cards, but the two that it unlocks are some of the best! These arenas largely feature Champion cards, and Evolutions become much more popular around this point. By Arena 17, you’re really getting close to the top, so the decks will be expected to be much more powerful. With that in mind, we’ll take a look at 5 of the best deck options for Arena 17 in Clash Royale, but let’s first check out the two new cards you can unlock in this arena!

Popular Destinations..

Clash Royale Waystone | Navigation Page

Clash Royale: Best Evolutions, Ranked

All New Cards Available in Arena 17

➡️ Champions: Archer Queen and Mighty Miner

Just like Arenas 16 and 18, the only cards left to unlock here are the Champions. Champions are the most powerful tier of cards in Clash Royale, and the only cards stronger are some of the evolutions and occasional broken cards.

Of the two in this arena, both are incredibly strong for different reasons.

Archer Queen excels at defending and quickly defeating high-HP troops, but she can also do huge amounts of tower damage if you utilize her ability correctly. Mighty Miner is also a strong defender, but his ability allows him to counterpush like crazy and avoid counters to himself.

They’re both worth getting, as you can base decks around either one of them.

The 5 Best Decks for Arena 17 in No Particular Order

With two Champions added to the card pool, you get upgrades to many of the most popular decks in Clash Royale. While neither new Champion is a win con, you can base your decks around these Champions anyway by picking win cons that pair well with them.

Here are our picks for the 5 best deck options for Arena 17 in Clash Royale.

Royal Giant + Archer Queen

All cards in this deck:

• Royal Giant (Evolution optional)
• Archer Queen
• Lightning
• Fireball
• Battle Healer
• Tombstone
• Bats
• Log

Royal Giant is always a strong win con, and his evolution makes him even better. With the evolution he defends himself via AoE damage after every shot fired, but without it, he’s still almost just as strong. Either way, he’s arguably the strongest win con to pair with Archer Queen.

Archer Queen does solid DPS to ground and air troops, but her ability also allows her to keep herself safe and buffed. For just 1 Elixir, Archer Queen goes invisible (untargetable) and drastically increases her attack speed. This allows her to become an effective counter to many tanks, while also preventing herself from being targeted.

Lightning and Fireball are both included for the same reason: protecting Royal Giant and countering certain troops. Lightning is better in the double Elixir stage of the game, but you’ll want to be careful before then. Since it’s so expensive, it can be hard to commit to. Fireball is a better card during the first part of the game, and it also counters troops up to mid-HP level by blowing them up.

The last card that requires any specific attention is Battle Healer. When placed well, she can keep Royal Giant alive long enough to score a 3-crown victory. You just have to wait until there’s a troop near the Giant, then it’s time to start healing him!

Champion Replacement: Phoenix, Hunter, or any other support troop that can handle air threats.

Mighty Mining Hog Rider

All cards in this deck:

• Firecracker (Evolution optional)
• Mighty Miner
• Hog Rider
• Freeze
• Bomb Tower
• Spear Goblins
• Skeletons
• Log

Hog Rider is the most consistent win con in Clash Royale. He does high damage to towers/buildings, he’s hard to counter, and he’s incredibly fast. Mighty Miner goes well with him since it’s he’s strong enough to counter almost any tank and hold off most other troops on its own.

Just pair any air defense unit with Mighty Miner for an often-flawless defense. That leaves Hog Rider free to go take out towers, and prevents you from having to figure out a way to squeeze out a counterpush as your only way to win.

To help Mighty Miner, Firecracker and Bomb Tower are the second best defensive cards in this deck. Firecracker is the main air defense in the deck, and Bomb Tower is a very strong building that counters ground swarms and helps defend against everything else. Spear Goblins and Skeletons are both mostly for distracting, but Spear Goblins can help out when threatened by air troops like Balloon or Skeleton Barrel.

Freeze is the most difficult-to-use card in this deck, but it has massive potential. You can use it to freeze towers and defensive troops so Hog Rider can do more damage, or to defend against big pushes. Take your time to figure out how to use it well, as it’s absolutely worth it.

Champion Replacement: Mini P.E.K.K.A., Inferno Tower, or any other medium Elixir cost card which can counter tanks and other threats.

Giant Skeleton + Archer Queen

All cards in this deck:

• Skeletons (Evolution optional)
• Giant Skeleton
• Royal Hogs
• Archer Queen
• Bomb Tower
• Hunter
• Bats
• Snowball

There’s nothing too crazy going on with this deck, so it shouldn’t be too hard to describe. Giant Skeleton is one of the best pure defense cards, as he has high HP, okay damage, and a massive bomb that explodes after he dies.

This bomb allows him to take out most of the troops near him when he dies, and it doesn’t get much better than that for defending against pushes. Even though the bomb damage has been greatly nerfed over the years, Giant Skeleton is still a highly effective tank. And if you can manage to get him near a tower, the bomb will do around 1000 damage to them.

The win con for this deck is the Royal Hogs, which you should use alongside counterpushes led by Giant Skeleton. The Giant Skeleton can tank against towers for quite a while, giving the Hogs plenty of time to demolish them. Archer Queen can handle any air threats that get past or near Giant Skeleton, and Bomb Tower is just as good here as in any deck.

Nothing in this deck has a super specific purpose, outside of winning the game. It’s just a bunch of great cards that work well together, led by a Giant Skeleton with a huge bomb.

Champion Replacement: Any defensive/support troop that can target air troops (preferably around the same Elixir cost of 4).

Evolved Mortar + Mighty Miner

All cards in this deck:

• Mortar (Evolved)
• Mighty Miner
• Phoenix
• Royal Hogs
• Baby Dragon
• Tombstone
• Electro Spirit
• Log

This is the only deck on this list where the win con really needs its evolution to work. It’s not that Mortar is bad without the evolution, but the evolution makes it so much stronger. The Goblin left behind by the mortar shot might not sound like a huge deal, but it easily increases its damage output by at least a few hundred points.

Mortar is similar to X-Bow in that both buildings are capable of targeting enemy towers despite being on your side of the battlefield. These decks are almost entirely about protecting their building, and Mortar is admittedly one of the harder to defend.

Mighty Miner, Phoenix, and Baby Dragon are the support crew for Mortar in this deck. Mighty Miner takes out tanks that will directly target Mortar, and Phoenix and Baby Dragon take care of air threats. For extra defense, we also have Tombstone and Electro Spirit for more specific situations or to distract.

The secondary win con for this deck is necessary since some decks are able to counter Mortar very easily. When you’re just not able to keep a Mortar on the field, Royal Hogs are the perfect backup option. They do high tower damage, they’re fast, and they cause a ton of chaos for your opponents to deal with.

All of this makes for a very fast-paced deck that can handle anything thrown at it in Arena 17 of Clash Royale.

Champion Replacement: Mini P.E.K.K.A. or any other medium Elixir cost card which can counter tanks and other threats.

Lumberloon

All cards in this deck:

• Knight (Evolution optional)
• Lumberjack
• Balloon
• Inferno Tower
• Flying Machine
• Ice Wizard
• Wall Breakers
• Lightning

For a deck without any Champions at all, Lumberloon is a fun option that’s been around for a long time and is more than sufficient to beat Arena 17 in Clash Royale.

It works by using Lumberjack to start a fast push. Then you just use Balloon behind the Lumberjack, taking advantage of the Rage it will drop once killed. This allows you to do damage on the ground first, then follow up with a deadly Balloon attack with the leftovers of the first attack.

The biggest problem with this deck is getting past defensive buildings like Inferno Tower and Tesla, but it can be done.

Knight, Flying Machine, and Ice Wizard are all here to defend our side of the arena, while Lumberjack and Balloon rampage on the other side. Knight (with or without the evolution) is the best cheap tank in Clash Royale, so he’s perfect for distracting potential threats. Flying Machine and Ice Wizard both help with air defense, but they’re also better support for Balloon than the Knight is.

If you don’t have a Lumberjack but you want to use a Balloon anyway, these troops can definitely help with those pushes in addition to defending.

Lightning is the last noteworthy card here, and it’s included to protect Balloons. Against a lot of popular Balloon counters like Musketeer, Archer Queen, Witch, and more, Lightning is a devastating counter that will often leave your opponents open to deadly attacks. It can also take out buildings, which, as we stated before, are the biggest threat to this deck.