it was released globally. So to celebrate, today we�re going to go through the amazing

history of Clash Royale from the day it was released. We�re going to talk about the

evolution of the game, prominent card updates and the evolution of the best decks and the

meta. So I hope you guys enjoy!

Clash Royale first softlaunched on iOS on January 4, 2016, exclusively to eight select

countries: Canada, Hong Kong, Australia, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Finland, and New

Zealand. Unfortunately, I lived in the United States, but was still able to download Clash

Royale from the Canadian app store by changing my location.

You had to pay Gold to battle multiplayer or friendly battles. This severely limited

playing as it meant that you would have to spend your Gold on battles, rather than saving

them for upgrades. January 11, 2016 - At this early stage of

the game, the Prince, Witch, and Goblin Barrel were considered the best cards in the game

and were immediately nerfed by end of the first week the game was launched.

February 2, 2016 - This was one of the biggest balance update.

Friendly Battles began incorporating Tournament Standard level caps for fair-play matches.

6) The Freeze Spell was the best card in the game by far due to its 4 tile radius and long

duration. So it received a much needed nerf, decreasing its radius to 3 tiles. Funny thing

is, even after this big nerf, the Freeze Spell was still the best card in the game for months.

7) The X-Bow was the most hated card in the game. It was a nightmare for new players to

deal with as it was a highly reactive card. It was a super strong card as it only took

3 seconds to deploy and target and had lots of Hit Points and also had an insane 13 tile

range. So this card received a 15% HP decrease and was limited to only targeting ground units.

Yes, the X-Bow used to also target air units. 8) The Pekka went from being a 8 Elixir card

to a 7 Elixir card. 9) Almost all defensive buildings had their

lifetimes significantly decreased as these buildings made defending too easy, to the

point where gameplay was severely slowed down, leading to lots of draws.

10) The Cannon and Mortar both used to cost 6 Elixir. Because of their high cost and inability

to target air units like the Inferno Tower, they were rarely used, so their Elixir costs

were significantly reduced. Cannon became 3 Elixir and Mortar became 4 Elixir.

11) February 9, 2016 - The Tombstone was the strongest and most

used defensive building in the game, spawning 6 Skeletons when it was destroyed. So the

Skeleton count was reduced to 4 Skeletons instead.

12) The Musketeer used to cost 5 Elixir, but the Wizard overshadowed her as he was much

better because he was able to do splash damage, damaging multiple units within his vicinity

unlike the Musketeer, who was only a single target attacker. So the Musketeer�s cost

was reduced to 4 Elixir.

13) February 19, 2016 Spell cards such as the Rocket and Fireball

used to do so much damage to Crown Towers, to the point where players would just use

a bunch of buildings in their deck with little to no offense and just keep Rocketing your

tower to win the game. This was actually a powerful strategy and quickly became super

annoying. So damage to Crown Towers by Spells were reduced by 20%.

14) With almost all defensive buildings being nerfed, the Hog Rider was the king of the

game. And the deadliest combination in the game at this time was with Hog Rider and Freeze

Spell.

15) February 29, 2016 Six new cards were introduced: Princess, Ice

Wizard, Royal Giant, Three Musketeers, Dark Prince, and Poison. The two new Legendary

cards proved to be insanely good for the cost of only 3 Elixir, becoming must have cards.

While the Royal Giant was considered to be one of the worst cards in the game, being

laughed at by most players. The Poison Spell was the most underrated card in the game.

It was an extremely powerful card when it had the ability to slow down troops and buildings,

but it was overshadowed by Freeze Spell for a very long time.

16) The Arrows card was the most used card in the game since day 1 of soft launch, but

one of the single biggest game-changing balance update was made this day. The Zap Spell was

given a 1 second Stun effect. The Zap Spell quickly went from being one of the least used

cards to being the most used card the game.

17) At this time of the game, the most powerful deck was considered to be a deck that took

advantage of both Princess and Ice Wizard along with Pekka, Prince, and Dark Prince.

All of these cards are either Legendarys or Epics, which made it very difficult for free-to-play

players to compete against other players who could spend a lot of money unlocking and upgrading

these cards.

18) March 2, 2016 - The day Clash Royale was released globally on iOS and Android.

19) March 23, 2016 - The Princess and Ice Wizard both had their

HP decreased. While the Prince and Dark Prince both had their charge speeds decreased by

13%. This was due to the popular Pekka Double Prince deck taking over the meta, being overused

by top players. 20) This is also when the Royal Giant started

seeing buffs. The Royal Giant was given a monstrous 20% damage increase. He became a

great card, but very few people used him, and he was still laughed at. We should�ve

respected the Royal Giant more. 21) Along with the Poison Spell, the Giant

was also one of the most underrated cards in the game. On February 2nd, the Giant got

a 5% HP increase, and on March 23rd, the Giant got another 5% HP increase. The Giant was

an insanely powerful card, but most people just preferred to use Hog Rider or Golem or

Pekka instead. It took a while for people to realize how crazy the Giant was, especially

with all these buffs he was getting under the radar. The Poison Spell also got a 5%

damage increase, but boy, if people only knew how crazy the combination of Giant and Poison

was at

this time.

22) 4/16/2016 - The Helsinki Tournament A live tournament with over 200 participants,

full of top players, was held in Helsinki, Finland. The champion of this tournament was

Jason, who won with an unique strategy, using a Giant beatdown deck with the Elixir Collector.

Although this strategy is everywhere today, many players back then were unfamiliar with

it, until Jason dominated the tournament with it in spectacular fashion. The Giant was finally

revered as a top tier card. The Elixir Collector also received a lot of recognition. Many people

didn�t realize it, but the Elixir Collector was the most overpowered card in the game.

23) April 3, 2016 This was also one of the biggest balance change

update in Clash Royale. Players started receiving Gold for winning battles and more Gold was

placed inside chests.

24) Six new cards were introduced: Fire Spirits, Furnace, Guards, Lava Hound, Sparky, and Miner.

25) The Royal Giant was given a 1 tile range increase, which allowed it to outrange most

defensive buildings, most notably the Inferno Tower. This was another big buff to the Royal

Giant, and his usage started to rise and rise.

26) May 3, 2016 At this time, the Royal Giant was everywhere.

It didn�t take long for him take over the meta because he�s a Common card, making

it easy to level him up quickly. The Royal Giant quickly went from being one of the worst

cards in the game, to the most hated card to battle against in the game. The X-Bow was

the most hated card for about four months, but to this day, the Royal Giant is still

the most hated card. It�s been 10 months, and so many people still despise the Royal

Giant.

27) At this time, the Miner was the best card in the game. Most top players were using the

Miner in their decks. But surprisingly, he was given an additional 6% HP increase.

28) May 18, 2016 The Cannon got a 5% HP decrease, after getting

an 11% HP decrease two weeks before that, and a 10 second lifetime decrease before that

update. The Cannon was getting nerfed more and more every update. Funny thing was, it

didn�t stop there. A month later, the Cannon got another 8% HP nerf.

29) Surprisingly, even after the Cannon got nerfed a crazy amount of times, it was still

one of the most used defenses in the game because the Hog Rider was everywhere and the

Cannon was the cheapest answer.

30) Hog Rider with Freeze Spell was still super good, being the favorite combination

by top players for months until this update. Freeze Spell got another big nerf, this time

it received a 1 second duration decrease. This opened doors to the Poison Spell, which

was hiding in the shadows for far too long. It also opened doors to one of the strongest

decks in the game at that time, the Hog Trifecta, which used Hog Rider, Valkyrie, and Musketeer

together with the Poison Spell. And the synergy behind this deck was crazy good.

31) While the most hated card, the Royal Giant, only received a 4% HP decrease.

32) The cost of Furnace went from 5 Elixir to 4 Elixir, which was a very big buff, but

it took time for people to realize just how deadly it was.

33) June 21, 2016 For the first time, the Hog Rider got a nerf,

a 6% HP decrease. But that was very small, and the Hog Rider continued to be one of the

most used cards in the game. The Hog Rider is one of the most important cards in the

game, and I feel like it�s currently an untouchable card. I don�t expect it to ever

get another nerf.

34) The 1 Elixir Skeletons went from spawning 4 Skeletons to 3 Skeletons. It was an insanely

good card, offering so much value for only 1 Elixir, so this nerf wasn�t surprising.

35) Cannon again received another 8% HP nerf. It�s crazy to think just how much HP the

Cannon used to have after getting nerfed five straight balance changes.

36) July 4, 2016 On Independence Day, four new cards were introduced:

Ice Spirit, Bowler, The Log, Lumberjack. Ice Spirit quickly became a top 5 card in the

game. While The Log was surprisingly one of the least used cards in the game and was often

laughed at. The Log at this time did not push back bigger Ground units such as Giant and

Prince. The Zap Spell was still the most used card the game by far.

37) A new Tournaments game mode was introduced, which is currently known as Custom Tournament.

At this time players were able to create a tournament with an insane 200,000 gems, where

the top player can win 15,000 cards. Fun fact, I was the winner of the first 800 player tournament

by Supercell. I won 6,000 cards by coming in first place. I used a deck with Miner and

Goblin Barrel. I then won 10,000 cards coming in 2nd place in a 1,000 player tournament

that week with a Sparky deck. Sparky used to be a great card back then.

38) After a couple of weeks in the highly competitive 200,000 gems tournaments, a new

deck rose. This was, in my opinion, the most powerful deck of its era. The Giant Poison

Beatdown deck, which popularly consisted of Giant, Poison, Elixir Collector, Musketeer,

Mini Pekka or Prince or Bowler. I was killing it in tournaments, until all of a sudden this

deck showed up. It was the most annoying deck to face because it simply had no weakness,

and if your opponent had the Elixir Collector in their starting hand, it gave them a huge

advantage. And at this time, the Zap Spell was given the power to reset the Inferno Tower,

making the Zap Spell even better, and Giant even better.

39) September 19, 2016

Four new cards were introduced: The Mega Minion, Ice Golem, Inferno Dragon, and Graveyard.

Supercell finally allowed players to mute emotes. After stating that they wouldn�t

allow players to disable emotes, Supercell received a lot of criticism from the community.

But Supercell did listen to the community, and they did give us the power to mute emotes.

40) Challenge Mode was added and it quickly became my favorite feature in the game. Finally,

I was able to use my skill to obtain lots of cards at a great deal. Because of this,

I�m almost a maxed level player right now.

41) Giant received a 5% HP nerf. This was a funny nerf because it did absolutely nothing.

The Giant Poison beatdown was still super good, and even after this nerf, the Giant�s

usage kept rising. More and more people kept using the Giant and Poison. More than half

the players in the top 200 global leaderboards used the same deck.

42) The Log could now could push back all Ground units, big or small, which was one

of the single biggest balance changes to a card. This propelled The Log from being one

of the least used cards in the game to a top 5 card.

43) October 20, 2016

Finally, after Giant Poison took over the meta for several months, Giant, Poison, and

Elixir Collector were all nerfed. Giant received a 5% HP nerf, which isn�t much. But the

Poison Spell no longer slowed down movement or attack, which destroyed the card. The Elixir

Collector�s cost was raised to 6 Elixir, which took a big hit.

44) The nerf to the Elixir Collector was much needed because it became the most used card

in the game by top players, surpassing the Zap Spell. At one time, about 90% of the top

200 players carried the Elixir Collector in their decks. So I was happy that the Giant

Poison meta finally came to a conclusion and we didn�t have to carry Elixir Collector

in every deck. This was a much needed balance change.

45) The Log was now able to to roll faster and further and received a 9% damage increase.

This came out of nowhere, since The Log was a really good card after it was able to push

back ground units. So no one saw this coming, it made no sense to make The Log even better.

The Log is currently the most used card by top players.

46) Skeleton Army�s Elixir Cost was reduced to 3 Elixir from 4 Elixir, Skeleton Count

decreased to 16 from 21, and most importantly, the level of the Skeletons increased by 5.

This buff was huge. It quickly made the Skeleton Army from one of the worst cards in the game

to one of the best.

47) November 1, 2016

Four new cards were introduced: Elite Barbarians, Tornado, Clone, and Electro Wizard. Elite

Barbarians were a very unpopular card as they were deemed too weak for the cost of 6 Elixir.

Tornado was also a very unpopular card when it first came because of its weak pull. It