Clash Royale: Best Elite Barbarians Decks

Image Credit: Supercell

Author XP

Human Made

I've been playing video games pretty much nonstop ever since I got my first Xbox 360.

Elite Barbarians are a strong pair of troops, with each essentially acting as a much faster and stronger version of the normal Barbarians. They do more damage and provide a much greater threat, all for just 1 extra elixir (and less overall troops). They can function as either your main win con or as more of a counter pusher, but either version is great. I’ll take a look at three decks featuring the Elite Barbarians, but first let’s take a quick look at what they do in general!

How to Play Elite Barbarians

Elite Barbarians function similarly to the standard Barbarians, but there are only two and they do more damage. They’re also faster, so they’re better as win cons than the normal Barbs are. However, they’re also really strong on defense in the right scenarios. Since they do so much damage to single targets, they’re pretty strong against tanks and some mid-HP troops. This allows them to fit into a bunch of decks since they can fit multiple roles, but I’d still say their primary role is as a win con. You just can’t play them the same way you would other win cons like Hog Rider or Balloon that only do that. Elite Barbs are absolutely worth using in multiple ways, so I’d recommend just playing them a bunch to figure out when the best times to use them are.

Elite Barbs + Valkyrie Evo & Three Musketeers

Cards:

Valkyrie (Evo)
Zap (Evo)
Elite Barbarians
Three Musketeers
Elixir Collector
Bandit
Ice Golem
Heal Spirit

This deck takes advantage of the newly reworked Three Musketeers (3M). The main difference between the old 3M and new version is that it uses “Elite Musketeers” instead of the normal ones so that they can be balanced separately from the standard 4-elixir Musketeer. The Elite Musketeers are largely the same, but they do less ranged damage in exchange for a newly-added bayonet melee attack in addition to their marksman rifles. This allows them to be more useful if an opponent plays a ground troop near them, without taking away all of their high DPS power. This deck also plays Elixir Collector, even though it was recently nerfed a bit. I think it’s possible to play this deck without the Collector, but I still think it’s worth having even after the nerf.

For evolutions, this deck features Valkyrie and Zap. Valkyrie is one of the strongest evolutions right now, and with Royal Ghost’s evo getting nerfed, it makes a good replacement. The original version of this deck that I saw on RoyaleAPI did use Royal Ghost evo in place of Valkyrie, but I think it’s more consistent and will be more viable long term this way. The Elite Barbarians work well with everything in this deck, as they match its overall high aggression. They’re the main win con here, and they’ll probably be the only way to deal tower damage other than a Bandit or 3M that manages to get in range.

Overall, you just have to be aggressive here. Except when you’re trying to set up an Elixir Collector play. It’s kind of a two-sided deck. The nature of Elixir Collector forces patience, but the troops we have here are almost 100% offense except for 3M having a defensive role. We want to spam 3M and Elite Barbs as often as possible once the Collector(s) get going, but you have to have at least some patience to get there. Otherwise you’ll end up with an Elixir Collector on the field but nothing to show for it while a Hog Rider runs right at it.

Elite Barbs + Double Dragons

Cards:

Electro Dragon (Evo)
Inferno Dragon (Evo)
Elite Barbarians
Elixir Golem
Battle Healer
Void
Heal Spirit
Rage

This deck has two of the evolved dragons–Electro and Inferno. These two are excellent at defending, especially with their evolutions. Electro Dragon is the best way to deal with big swarms we have right now once you have the evolution ready, so it’s great for supportive roles. Inferno Dragon, on the other hand, counters the opposite–big tanks. And with the evolution, the built-up damage never resets, allowing you to potentially one-shot both the Princess and King Towers in the right situation. Elite Barbarians are this deck’s main win con just like before, and the Dragons allow us to support them better than most Elite Barb decks can.

Elixir Golem is one of my favorite tanks to use since he’s super cheap and actually does strong damage. You can have him lead the way for Elite Barbs, distract troops like P.E.K.K.A., apply pressure to an opposite lane, or really anything any other tank could do. All for 3 elixir! Yes, he does give your opponent elixir as well eventually, but for such a low upfront cost I think it’s more than worth it. Then with Battle Healer, we’ll be able to keep both Elixir Golem and Elite Barbs alive for much longer.

I’m a huge fan of this deck since it really makes the Elite Barbarians shine. The Dragons can handle almost any offense your opponent has up their sleeves, while the combo of Elite Barbs + Battle Healer and/or Dragons is fantastic. If you can get that combo onto an opposing tower, it’ll be hard not to destroy it. You can take a more passive route until you have the Dragon evolutions ready, but that doesn’t take much time since they’re so easy to use. Aggression is going to be your best friend with this deck.

Elite Barbs + Golem

Cards:

Firecracker (Evo)
Wizard (Evo)
Golem
Elite Barbarians
Ice Spirit
Goblin Gang
Goblin Curse
The Log

For this last deck, I really wanted to include one with Golem. I feel like Golem and Elite Barbarians are an underrated combo. The Barbs handle all the damage while Golem soaks up damage for what feels like forever. Then the rest of this deck is almost entirely based on defense, which I’m a fan of. With Golem and Elite Barbs, there’s really no need for more win cons on top of them. Obviously patience is a major key for winning with Golem, and sometimes I like to just wait until the end to surprise them with one big attack. The defensive nature of the rest of this deck allows us to do that really effectively, and counter-pushing is also really easy with this deck.

Wizard and Firecracker fill the evo slots, which ensure swarms will be no threat to our Golem. Either of those cards supporting a Golem or Elite Barbs is a great combo for aggressive pushes–just be sure not to over-commit and end up losing a tower. The Goblin pair of Goblin Gang and Goblin Curse is also really helpful for supporting Golem and causing chaos around him. Goblin Gang is great as a defensive troop, while Goblin Curse is more of an offensive spell. If you can make enough Goblins with the Curse, it’s almost always worth the effort to do so. Then we have Ice Spirit for cycling and The Log for some extra defense against swarms and cards like Goblin Barrel or Skeleton Barrel.

With Golem, there’s only one way to play–patiently. Use Elite Barbs for offense earlier in the match, while the evo cards and cheaper troops can usually defend against most threats. You don’t have to wait until double elixir to use Golem, but be careful if you don’t. It’s super easy to get into a bad spot and lose instantly with a Golem deck if you play wrong.