Balancing Offensive and Defensive Cards

When it comes to building the right deck in Clash Royale, finding the right balance between different types of cards is crucial. A well-balanced deck ensures that you can effectively handle both attacking and defending situations during battles. With the different kinds of cards found in the game, this is how we can categorize them according to how they are typically used.

Aggressive Troops

These cards are prominently used to inflict damage on the opponent's towers, punish your opponent quickly, or eliminate other cards hastily, allowing you to take the game's initiative. They usually consist of fast-moving troops, low elixir cards, high DPS melee troops, and certain win conditions. Incorporating aggressive troops into your deck allows you to put pressure on your opponent and create strong offensive pushes. But putting too much of them in one deck will allow your opponents to easily break into your defenses.

Examples

• Hog Rider
• Spear Goblins
• Bandit
• Elite Barbarians
• Royal Giant
• Fire Spirit
• Elixir Golem

Most Affiliated Deck Archetype: Beatdown, Control, Bridge Spam, Cycle

Passive Troops

These cards are usually played reactively to neutralize offensive troops and build up an elixir advantage. They consist of slow-moving melee units, ranged DPS cards, crowd control cards, tanky units, spellbait troops, and elixir-heavy cards. Although most of these cards are easy to stop, including them in your deck helps you maintain a solid defense and a reliable way to regain control of the game. Some passive troops can also be played aggressively either to support your cards across the bridge, or to increase your opponent's chances of creating a mistake.

Examples

• Valkyrie
• Magic Archer
• Electro Dragon
• Royal Recruits
• Skeleton Army
• Sparky
• Barbarians

Most Affiliated Deck Archetype: Beatdown, Control, Split/Dual Lane

Utility Spells

These versatile spells can effectively be used both offensively and defensively to eliminate enemy troops effectively. Utilizing utility spells strategically can provide valuable area damage, weaken enemy pushes, or even help your own troops inflict damage while being unharmed. Every single deck relies on spells like these in order to eliminate various kinds of threats.

Examples

• Fireball
• Poison
• Log
• Earthquake
• Lightning

Most Affiliated Deck Archetype: Control, Cycle

Special Spells

These spells are specifically effective when used directly on your own troops or to disrupt enemy troops. Although they are mainly used on offense, they have limited effectiveness when damaging enemy towers. Integrating special spells into your deck can surprise your opponents and create unique strategic advantages, unleash devastating tactics, enhance the performance of your troops or hinder the enemy's defenses. These spells only work well with other cards that synergize effectively with them, so it is usually left out when it is not necessarily needed.

Examples

• Tornado
• Freeze
• Rage
• Clone

Most Affiliated Deck Archetype: Beatdown, Control

Win Condition Spells

These spells involve troops that relentlessly target the enemy tower, dealing continuous damage if left unattended. When including win condition spells in your deck, it usually means they are the sole focus of the deck and they shouldn't be paired with cards that don't complement the cards properly. These kinds of win conditions are the most susceptible to counters so balancing your deck's supporting cards are key to make these cards shine.

Examples

• Goblin Barrel
• Goblin Drill
• Miner
• Graveyard

Most Affiliated Deck Archetype: Control, Cycle, Spellbait

Defensive Buildings

These buildings are typically placed in decks that focus more on defense rather than big pushes. Defensive buildings usually help control enemy advances, protect your towers, and provide a solid defensive foundation. They really work well with cards that are used more aggressively, paired with cheap distractions then it will totally help them eliminate threats completely.

Examples

• Bomb Tower
• Tesla
• Inferno Tower
• Cannon

Most Affiliated Deck Archetype: Control, Cycle

Win Condition Buildings

These buildings require frequent cycling to avoid being easily countered. Low elixir cards and utility spells are great additions for win condition buildings, since they can cover their weaknesses by eliminating threats quickly while providing a fast elixir cycle allowing them to pressure the opponent even more.

Examples

• Mortar
• X-Bow

Most Affiliated Deck Archetype: Siege, Cycle

Elixir Investment Buildings

These cards allow you to negate your opponent's tactics by building up an elixir advantage over time. They can be used defensively to build up a counterpush or act as special buildings that support you directly. One downside of having these cards in your deck are there will be times where using them will have the least impact against your opponent, due to numerous counters and punishes that can occur. So pairing them up with cards that prevent those things from happening will be necessary for them to be more effective.

Examples

• Furnace
• Tombstone
• Elixir Collector
• Barbarian Hut

Most Affiliated Deck Archetype: Beatdown, Control, Spawner, Spellbait

OJ's challenge of using a deck without win conditions or any aggressive card proves to be a significant disadvantage since without spells or any way to connect; you can't win: 

Crusher's challenge of using only win conditions proves to be also difficult since a Win Condition-only deck leaves you vulnerable defensively:

SirTag's All-Spell deck also leaves him incapable of actually creating actual offenses:

Finding the right balance between these different types of cards depends on your deck's playstyle, deck archetype, and the current meta it stands on. Experiment with various combinations, consider how compatible they are during offense and defense, while also analyzing their synergies to create a well-rounded deck that can handle different situations. Remember, a balanced deck provides you with flexibility, adaptability, and increased chances of victory.