Clash Royale: Best Meta Decks (January 2026)

Goblin Cage + Royal Recruits + Royal Hogs

Cards:

• Goblin Cage (Evo)
• Royal Recruits (Evo)
• Royal Hogs
• Flying Machine
• Fireball
• Zappies
• Arrows
• Barbarian Barrel

This first deck has been at or near the top of the meta for quite a while. Goblin Cage’s evolution in general has been very strong for months, and it doesn’t seem like Supercell has any intentions to change this. The biggest strength of this deck is how versatile it is. Goblin Cage, Flying Machine, and Zappies are all purely defensive cards. Then Royal Recruits is strong enough to create a counter push that’s nearly unstoppable. Goblin Cage is able to effectively counter any troop, so you don’t have to really “think” much when defending. Then with Royal Hogs as the main win con, you’ll have no trouble making sure you’re able to consistently do damage.

This deck is very hard to counter and does damage constantly, making it exceptionally hard to counter. Since it has so many good cards and is able to deal with so many threats easily, it’s one of the more difficult decks to play against.

Royal Giant + Royal Ghost

Cards:

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

This deck is the definition of a bridge spam deck. Royal Giant has tons of health and does large chunks of damage to towers with each shot, so he’s one of the most annoying cards to play against. Unless your opponent has specific cards, Royal Giant almost always gets at least a couple shots through. And with backup like Royal Ghost, Hunter, and Fisherman, this is even more likely. The main thing to watch out for are Inferno cards which easily counter Royal Giant and Mini P.E.K.K.A. + any building, which gives enough time to do so. With the new hero variant of Mini P.E.K.K.A., you will have to watch out for it pretty often, but this deck is still strong enough even with that to remain near the top.

Battle Ram Spam

Cards:

• Battle Ram (Evo)
• Zap (Evo)
• Golden Knight (Hero)
• Mini P.E.K.K.A.
• Three Musketeers
• Ice Golem
• Barbarian Barrel
• Heal Spirit

Battle Ram is seeing a lot of play right now, which is fun to see. These kinds of decks are a lot of fun to play since they’re so fast-paced and chaotic. This version features the newly-reworked Three Musketeers as one of its main threats, and Golden Knight as the main defensive troop. Golden Knight as the hero works really well since he’s able to clear out virtually anything on the ground (especially swarms), even after being nerfed slightly this month. If you have the second hero slot then Mini P.E.K.K.A. is a great addition as well, but I actually also like him without the hero version as well. The Three Musketeers are really the star of this deck, though. Now that they’re actually viable without the Elixir Collector due to their buff, they’re definitely worth including in this deck.

Balloon + Baby/Inferno Dragons

Cards:

• Baby Dragon (Evo)
• Inferno Dragon (Evo)
• Knight (Hero)
• Balloon
• Bowler
• Tornado
• Freeze
• Barbarian Barrel

Dragons are all the rage right now, and what better to pair them with than the Balloon? These double Dragon decks have been really popular this season, so I wanted to include at least one of them. Balloon is generally always strong since flying damage is always hard to deal with, so it’s not uncommon to see it performing well. However, usually Balloon decks come with Lava Hound. This time around, though, things aren’t as flying-focused. Bowler takes its place as the main tank for the deck, in addition to the hero variant of Knight. Hero Knight’s ability to take tower aggro is really helpful since it can allow Balloon to stay alive longer and take out more towers. Then there’s also Tornado since Bowler is included, which combines well with Baby Dragon.

Wall Breakers + Skeleton Barrel Log Bait

Cards:

• Wall Breakers (Evo)
• Skeleton Barrel (Evo)
• Mini P.E.K.K.A. (Hero)
• Berserker
• Goblin Gang
• Dart Goblin
• Rascals
• The Log

For the last meta deck right now, I think a Log Bait deck fits well. This kind of deck wants to win by forcing opponents to waste their spells like Log, Barb Barrel, Arrows, or other cheap spells. This clears the way for win cons like Wall Breakers and Skeleton Barrel to make it to towers without difficulty. You could also use Goblin Barrel in this kind of deck, but its evolution isn’t as strong as Wall Breakers’ or Skeleton Barrel’s, so it’s not being played as much right now. Goblin Gang, Dart Goblin, and Rascals are all good for getting opponents to waste their spells, then they can’t do anything to defend against the cheap win cons they usually would be able to stop. It’s a risky deck to play sometimes because some opponents simply won’t have a good deck for it to interact with, but most of the times it works really well.