Clash Royale: Best Legendary Cards, Ranked

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Human Made

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 Benjamin Barr

Legendary cards are expected to be some of the best in all of Clash Royale, since they’re so rare and difficult to get. While they aren’t the rarest card type anymore (Champions are the rarest now), they remain just as important in the meta as always.

In this article, we’re gonna rank all 19 legendary cards in Clash Royale from worst to best – taking into consideration how good the cards are now and how they’ve performed over their entire life span. Let’s get to it!

All Legendary Cards in Clash Royale, Ranked Worst to Best

There are currently 19 legendary cards in Clash Royale – 17 are Troop cards and the remaining 2 are Spell cards. We’ll be going over each one, working our way down to the best legendary.

Mega Knight

Elixir Cost: 7 | Arena: Electro Valley (11) | Release Date: September 8, 2017

Mega Knight is a controversial card. Its fall-in damage is awesome and often directly counters other cards, but for 7 elixir it just doesn’t do enough to be worth it. It’s not the best tank at its price point, nor the best counter for anything.

Mega Knight can also be countered laughably easily, making it a risk to use. Any high-damage unit or air-based swarm can take out Mega Knight with little to no resistance. He’s certainly a fun card to use, but outside of a few decks, it just isn’t worth using.

Fisherman

Elixir Cost: 3 | Arena: Miner’s Mine (15) | Release Date: August 5, 2019

FIsherman is best used as a support unit, but he only really works against specific decks. Against something like Hog Rider or a building-focusing tank, the Fisherman’s grab is invaluable. You can use the grab to reposition dangerous enemy troops, or redirect them to other buildings if you play it right.

The downside here is that this ability can be useless if your opponent has the wrong units for it. Fisherman is high-risk, high-reward, but the risk is painfully relevant.

Bandit

Elixir Cost: 3 | Arena: Rascal’s Hideout (13) | Release Date: March 24, 2017

Bandit used to be a lot more powerful than she is now, as she just doesn’t hold up compared to newer cards. Her dash is still a useful ability, but she’s not even the only unit with that kind of ability anymore (Golden Knight does the same thing but better for only 1 more elixir). Bandit is fine if you need a cheap ground unit, but her utility only goes so far.

Royal Ghost

Elixir Cost: 3 | Arena: Spooky Town (12) | Release Date: January 4, 2018

Royal Ghost is often underestimated, and even more often forgotten. His untargetable nature (until he attacks) paired with his relatively high HP pool makes him a fairly good flex pick, as he can be fit into almost any kind of deck. Unfortunately, he also doesn’t offer any specific utility outside of having solid stats. Royal Ghost doesn’t do much, but it isn’t a bad unit at all.

Ram Rider

Elixir Cost: 5 | Arena: Electro Valley (11) | Release Date: December 24, 2018

Ram Rider is a very inconsistent win con, but the positives outweigh the negatives. She’s best used for chipping away at towers with her “ram” damage, as her damage over time is fairly low.

Ram Rider also has a unique ability which allows her to throw snares at enemies, stunning them and rendering them mostly unable to move. Because of that, Ram Rider has more interesting gameplay than a lot of other win cons. Only a handful of units have such strong offensive and defensive options, so it certainly makes her stand out.

Night Witch

Elixir Cost: 4 | Arena: Serenity Peak (14) | Release Date: May 31, 2017

Night Witch fluctuates a lot in terms of strength, but she’s usually a strong support unit in general. When backing up a Golem or Electro Giant, Night Witch can be incredibly annoying to play against.

She provides medium melee damage which can be helpful for taking out threats to your major win cons, and she spawns bats which help clear the skies. Night Witch’s biggest downside is that she can be easily dealt with via spells since she has pretty low HP compared to some other support units.

Sparky

Elixir Cost: 6 | Arena: Electro Valley (11) | Release Date: May 3, 2016

Sparky is incredibly inconsistent, but also incredibly fun. It’s a slow moving, battery-like machine that has one purpose—blow everything up. However, it’s not so simple.

Sparky has a very long charge-up time, so it can easily be countered by units that reset that timer like Electro Wizard or Electro Dragon. Even Zap can be enough to hard counter Sparky. When it gets to fire its shot, it’ll clear out any non-tank unit it gets near and take out towers in just a few shots. But landing those shots can be more frustrating than they’re worth sometimes.

Inferno Dragon

Elixir Cost: 4 | Arena: Electro Valley (11) | Release Date: September 30, 2016

Inferno Dragon suffers from the same major problem as Sparky—it can be easily countered. Since Inferno Dragon builds up more damage the longer it stays focused on a single target, it’s fantastic for taking out tanks. In fact, Inferno Dragon is probably the best unit in the game for obliterating tanks.

But if anything causes it to change targets or stop firing for any amount of time, the damage resets. This makes Inferno Dragon very weak to most of the Electro units and any swarm, since the scaling damage doesn’t matter against low-HP units. Against the right decks, Inferno Dragon is S-tier, but its vulnerability keeps it from consistently placing higher.

Mother Witch

Elixir Cost: 4 | Arena: Miner’s Mine (15) | Release Date: December 7, 2020

Mother Witch can spawn a truly terrifying amount of hogs. Any unit she kills becomes one, which means she can turn someone’s entire swarm against them. Remember back when people used to play Skeleton Armies at the start of games for no reason? Well, Mother Witch is the reason you can’t do that anymore.

Against swarms, Mother Witch is the best unit you can have on your side. The downside is that unless she has a significant amount of low-HP units to target, she doesn’t end up doing much. She’s really bad against high-HP units, and most decks these days don’t have enough huge swarms to warrant the Mother Witch. However, when she ends up against Log Bait or one of the other Goblin Barrel and friends decks, she’s fantastic.

Princess

Elixir Cost: 3 | Arena: Electro Valley (11) | Release Date: February 29, 2016

Princess was one of the first legendary cards introduced to Clash Royale all the way back in early 2016 (alongside Ice Wizard), and she remains one of the most played. There’s something fun about watching several Princesses rain fire down on the battlefield from behind your towers, even if she can be easily countered.

That’s the main problem with Princess—everything kills her. The Log and Arrows both one-shot her, and any non-swarm unit can easily take her out. But the support she provides is unparalleled for controlling large waves. And when your opponent doesn’t have a way to deal with her, you can stack multiple and let them rain constant fire.

Lumberjack

Elixir Cost: 4 | Arena: Serenity Peak (14) | Release Date: July 4, 2016

Lumberjack is great because he’s a very strong ground unit with high DPS, and when he dies he drops Rage on the battlefield. He’s a great unit to lead any aggressive push, since you won’t mind when he dies anyway.

Lumberjack has found himself in all kinds of decks over the years, from Lavaloon variations to Hog Rider cycle decks. He’s also underrated as a support unit, as he’s one of the most effective ways to chop down large tanks. Lumberjack can cut down a Giant just as quickly as he can a tree.

Magic Archer

Elixir Cost: 4 | Arena: Rascal’s Hideout (13) | Release Date: March 2, 2018

Magic Archer might seem like a pretty mediocre support unit, but his strength lies in his range. His arrows might not do the most damage, but they clear out swarms and have so much range they can hit towers without the Magic Archer himself being within its range (if he’s targeting something in front of it). They also go through multiple targets, including towers.

If you throw him behind a big tank push, your enemies will only have a couple options to deal with it. His presence demands an answer, so he’s able to fit into many different meta decks.

Phoenix

Elixir Cost: 4 | Arena: Spooky Town (12) | Release Date: October 26, 2022

Phoenix is the newest legendary card in Clash Royale, so it’s still kind of all over the place. It seems that its main function is going to be as a flying support unit that deals respectable damage, but its revive ability varies in usefulness. It’s pretty rare to successfully revive the Phoenix, as everything kills the egg in only a couple hits at most.

As a support unit, the Phoenix usually has a better chance of pulling off a revival. It’s great at taking out aggressive air units like Balloons or Lava Hounds, and behind something like a Royal Giant, it can lead to some deadly pushes.

Miner

Elixir Cost: 3 | Arena: Electro Valley (11) | Release Date: May 3, 2016

Miner is the most consistent unit for chipping away at towers. You can place Miner anywhere on the battlefield, including right beneath enemy towers. In addition to chipping away a few hundred damage at a time, Miner works great as a distraction/tank as well. Just throw him under a tower, then drop a building-targeting unit on the bridge.

Sure, Miner can be quickly killed by small swarms, but he’s able to put out enough damage that it’s still worth it. Decks that focus on constantly throwing Miners at enemy towers usually end up toward the top of the meta for a reason.

Lava Hound

Elixir Cost: 7 | Arena: Rascal’s Hideout (13) | Release Date: May 3, 2016

Lava Hound might be the most notorious legendary card in Clash Royale. It’s only found in one type of deck, but it’s one that’s named after it—Lavaloon. Lava Hound is almost always followed with a Balloon or another air unit, and its decks rarely have any ground units at all.

Air units are already annoying to deal with, but an air tank that splits into more units once it finally does die is on a different tier. Lava Hound is a massive threat that must be answered, otherwise the game will be over before you know it.

Electro Wizard

Elixir Cost: 4 | Arena: Electro Valley (11) | Release Date: December 30, 2016

Electro Wizard is the reason several cards on this list ranked so low. Every hit Electro Wizard lands shocks (or resets) its target, making units with long charge times irrelevant. It hard counters Sparky, Inferno Dragon, and all the other units like them that build up to large amounts of damage.

And when it doesn’t have any targets to reset, its general damage is still good. Electro Wizard is never bad, as even at its “worst” it’s still a strong support unit.

Graveyard

Elixir Cost: 5 | Arena: Spooky Town (12) | Release Date: October 28, 2016

Graveyard is one of only two legendary spell cards (the other is coming up here in a bit), and it functions as one of the most frightening offensive tactics in Clash Royale. Since you can drop the Graveyard anywhere, it can instantly cause a huge problem on enemy towers. Pair it up with other spells like Freeze or Poison to produce a 9-elixir push under an enemy tower with zero warning.

It leads to some deadly combinations, but it can leave you open to attacks as well. You have to pay attention and learn when to go all in with the Graveyard, but once you do, it’s a hard strategy to beat.

Ice Wizard

Elixir Cost: 3 | Arena: Spooky Town (12) | Release Date: February 29, 2016

Ice Wizard is the best support unit in Clash Royale by far. Its AoE ice attack is perfect for weakening threats to your pushes and can even clean up units with less HP. Ice Wizard also does a drop-in attack, slowing and dealing damage to enemies near him when he spawns in.

For major pushes or defending against them, Ice Wizard can handle almost any threat (as long as it has a tank to cover for it). There’s never a bad time to have an Ice Wizard in your deck.

The Log

Elixir Cost: 2 | Arena: Electro Valley (11) | Release Date: July 4, 2016

The Log is the best legendary card in Clash Royale. While it might not be the most explosive spell, The Log directly counters every low-HP land unit, knocks back targets hit, and chips away at towers. There are some entire decks that can be countered with just The Log, and since its a spell there’s really nothing that anyone can do about it.

Its knockback effect is also important, because it can stop pushes involving charging units like Prince and Ram Rider. Even after nerfs, The Log remains at the top—even if the Lumberjack is determined to take it out.

Join the High Ground!

What do you think of our rankings for the best legendary cards in Clash Royale? Is there a particular card you would rank higher or lower? Let us know in the comments, and don’t forget to subscribe to our weekly newsletter to stay up to date on everything gaming related!

Happy gaming!

Clash Royale: Best Legendary Cards, Ranked