Clash Royale: Best Hero Barbarian Barrel 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.

Barbarian Barrel is a long-time favorite in Clash Royale. It’s a cheap spell that’s able to clear out low-HP ground troops, so it’s always valuable. Now that it has a heroic version, though, it’s even more popular than ever! I’ll discuss the best 3 decks featuring the heroic Barbarian Barrel, but first let’s take a look at how to play it in general.

How to Play Heroic Barbarian Barrel

Hero Ability – Rowdy Reroll (1 Elixir): Barrel down lanes a second time.

The hero version of Barbarian Barrel has a very simple ability. When you activate it, he rolls forward again from where he is currently standing. This is strong for clearing out any extra low-HP troops that the initial barrel missed, or for creating more aggressive pushes. It makes Barbarian Barrel essentially twice as valuable as it was before, which is a lot of value. Barbarian Barrel is always strong in the meta since there will always be low-HP threats to deal with. It’s perfect for countering cards like Wall Breakers or Goblin Barrel, and even against other decks it’s at the very least pretty good. It’s consistent, can’t be countered, and almost always has a direct impact on the game. Hard to hate.

Royal Giant Bridge Spam

Cards:

Royal Giant (Evo)
Barbarian Barrel (Hero)
Royal Ghost (Evo)
Hunter
Fisherman
Fireball
Skeletons
Electro Spirit

This is a pretty standard version of the Royal Giant bridge spam deck, which does exactly what the name implies. This deck is all about spamming Royal Giant on the bridge every time you get the chance. His evolution lets him defend himself against ground swarms, and Barbarian Barrel is great for when you don’t have the evolved version for that purpose. Then Royal Ghost comes in as the wild card, as he’s extremely valuable alongside Royal Giant. Royal Ghost’s defensive capabilities are second to none, so he’s perfect for defending Royal Giant from his most difficult counters like Mini P.E.K.K.A. and Hunter.

Royal Giant spam decks, and really any deck with “spam” in the title, are extremely aggressive. While one Royal Giant might get countered or only get a few shots off, playing as many as possible helps ensure you do enough damage. This sounds obvious, and it is. Royal Giant moves slowly, so opponents will have plenty of time to respond to him, even when you drop him right on the bridge. By focusing on playing him multiple times instead of making one big push around him, you make it much more difficult for opponents to manage what you’re doing. Instead of defending once, they have to do it time and time again, which leaves tons of places for them to make mistakes.

They key gameplay loop with this deck is to play Royal Giant (evolved or otherwise) and back him up with whatever you have available. Hunter is great at defending from flying troops, while Fisherman is better for distracting ground counters like Mini P.E.K.K.A. From there, you just want to find any chance you can to put a Royal Giant on the opposite side of the arena from their ground threats and buildings.

Furnace Graveyard

Cards:

Valkyrie (Evo)
Barbarian Barrel (Hero)
Furnace (Evo)
Graveyard
Poison
Goblin Hut
Skeletons
Ice Spirit

I’ve always been a fan of Poison Graveyard decks since the core threat is virtually uncounterable. Graveyard spawns a large swarm of skeletons over a pretty short period of time wherever you want in the arena (including right on enemy towers). Then if you place Poison directly on top of it, you prevent opponents from countering Graveyard with cheap distractions. From there, the best option opponents have is something like Valkyrie, Baby Dragon, etc. that won’t die to Poison but can kill the Skeletons quickly. The main problem is, all of this happens very quickly. Opponents won’t always have time to respond properly, so you can usually get some chip damage in to towers this way. If nothing else, you’ll at least get the Poison damage.

So to make sure you have time to cycle through Graveyard + Poison attempts as many times as possible, the rest of this deck is mostly focused on defense. Evolved Valkyrie is amongst the best defensive troops in the game, and she pairs well with Poison since she pulls everything in close together. Furnace also works well with this since it benefits from the AOE attacks, as well as providing the main source of air defense. The hero Barbarian Barrel comes into play here as a strong ground troop counter that pairs well with Valkyrie. It’s nothing flashy, but it works well.

In general, this deck is very aggressive. Since you might have to use Graveyard and/or Poison multiple times, you don’t want to let them sit in your hand for too long. However, since Valkyrie and Furnace make such strong pushes together, you’ll usually be able to make one or two big pushes if needed. Or you can go the longer route and chip away at towers throughout the game. Either way, both are great options.

Goblin Cage + Royal Recruits

Cards:

Goblin Cage (Evo)
Barbarian Barrel (Hero)
Royal Recruits (Evo)
Rascals
Phoenix
Electro Spirit
Arrows
Zappies

This deck is all about defense. Obviously the hero Barbarian Barrel is a defensive card itself, but pretty much everything else is here too. Goblin Cage is one of, if not the, best defensive cards in the game, especially with its evolution. Its able to counter just about anything on the defensive side, then the goblin it produces is a great counter-pusher. Royal Recruits as the wildcard here also continues this trend, as the Recruits are perfect for defending the whole battlefield at once. I’ve also taken out a couple cards from the main popular version of this deck in exchange for Rascals and Phoenix, which help with air defense and making counter-pushes.

This deck can pretty easily deal with any threats without breaking too much of a sweat, so the rest comes down to counter-pushes. By this I mean turning your defensive armies into big pushes after they get done defending. Royal Recruits are particularly good at this, as at least a few of them tend to survive most situations. Phoenix is also really good at this since it can revive itself very easily on your side of the arena if it dies defending. From there, Zappies are just a strong troop to put behind a big push, while also helping counter specific threats like Sparky or even flying troops like Lava Hound or Balloon.

This deck is, obviously, very reactive. You need to wait for opponents to give you something to counter, then you can go crazy and overwhelm them. It’s not the most exciting strategy, but it’s extremely consistent.