20 Awesome Card Designs in Clash Royale

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Learn about the best (and worst) Clash Royale cards

Co-authored by Eric McClure

Last Updated: February 1, 2026 Fact Checked

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Coolest Cards

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Best Cards

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Worst Cards

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Clash Royale has added so many cards to the game over the years, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t some clear winners when it comes to the coolest designs and characters. Here, we’ll cover the 10 most popular fan favorites when it comes to neat cards. We’ll also cover what might be the 10 most OP cards from the history of the game. Let us know what you think!

The Coolest Card Designs in Clash Royale

An illustration of 5 popular fan favorite cards in Clash Royale, including Dark Prince, Royal Giant, Royal Recruits, Inferno Dragon, and Balloon.

The coolest Clash Royale cards tend to have great themes, unique animations, interesting skills, or expressive animations. Some of the most popular and beloved card designs include:

Dark Prince
Royal Giant
Royal Recruits
Inferno Dragon

Section 1 of 3:

Coolest Designs & Fan Favorite Cards

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Is he good? No. But does he have a place in the current meta? Also no. What Dark Prince does have is an adorable horse, a giant flail, and a hilarious bucket helmet. The animations are just super expressive and fun to watch, even if it isn’t that powerful of a card.
He’s got great mutton chops, and he’s holding a giant cannon. What’s not to appreciate? He’s also a fan favorite because he’s a very easy-to-use champion, and he’s one of the first win conditions players get access to, so basically every player develops at least a little bit of affection for this big, goofy guy.

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Royal Recruits They’re just really cute. They’ve got buckets on their head with little feathers on top, and they run around in groups like Pikmin or something. They also have one of the most entertaining trailer videos of all time. There just aren’t a lot of cards that contain a lot of character personality, but this is one of them.
- The evolved Royal Recruits are also awesome. The capes just give them this kind of epic vibe that other cards don’t have.
It’s a good card, but it’s also super cool. It floats across the battlefield with this neat flying animation, and there’s something incredibly charming about a dragon wearing a helmet and a backpack.
One of the most iconic air threats in the history of the game, Balloon is a fan favorite for its clean animations and fun gameplay patterns. It also has some really interesting lore. The skeleton flying in the balloon is supposedly a graduate of flight school, and in Clash A Rama you actually get to see the bomber training for flight school to become a balloon operator.
Speaking of Balloon, its nemesis, Hunter, is also a very popular card design-wise. With his coon-skin cap and his double-barrel shotgun that sends bullets all over the place, Hunter has the vibes of a rugged woodsman you don’t want to mess with.
A strong contender for the most-loved card in the game, Mini P.E.K.K.A. is a robot who loves pancakes. What’s not to love about that? Not only is it a cool little droid design, but it has great taste in breakfast food. It also happens to be a phenomenal card performance-wise.^{[1]
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She’s slow, nerfed into oblivion, and outclassed by other competitive cards. But we can’t lie, there’s something really satisfying and fun about her attack. The way she spins around violently with her axe is really smooth and expressive. It’s just so rewarding to watch her take out a whole crowd of little goobers in one move.
Guards are just a really efficient, tightly designed card. It’s very good at what it does, and while it’s not as expressive or interesting as a Mini P.E.K.K.A. or an Inferno Dragon, the little skeleton troopers are still pretty cool. It also helps that they have a really adorable underbite in their card’s art.
In its heyday, Miner was the single most powerful card in the game (it had a 50% usage rate at its peak). It has since been nerfed quite heavily, but Miner is still beloved for its unique play pattern. The fact that you can spawn him anywhere is just nuts. It leads to so many interesting and unique games, as Miner’s random appearances tend to throw chaos into all the games he’s played in. It doesn’t hurt that he has the smile of a winner in his card art, too.^{[2]
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Section 2 of 3:

The Most Powerful Clash Royale Cards

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Goblin Machine It’s probably going to be nerfed into oblivion at some point in a future patch, but as of right now, Goblin Machine is running the show. It can just be super overwhelming in a deck designed around utilizing its health and spamability, and while most players agree it is a bit much, it is probably the best card in the game right now.^{[3]
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- A note on “best” cards. Clash Royale is updated often enough that this list is subject to change, but we’re going to intentionally try to cover the cards that have consistently been dominant and highly playable.
Incredible DPS and a solid ability to back it up make Little Prince a consistent winner. It also shines in one of the best decks right now, Drill Evo Snowball. It’s just a really good card that is easy to take advantage of, even when the meta shifts against it.
Night Witch is a pretty niche card, which creates the impression that she isn’t that good. But the players who have taken the time to learn how to utilize her best in comps know that she’s one of the stronger cards in the game. (So long as Supercell doesn't revert her buffs and get rid of the bat spawn again).
Goblin Curse used to be one of the worst cards in the game, then one of the worst cards, then one of the best cards, then one of the worst cards, and now…it’s kind of okay. It’s clear that Goblin Curse is a tough card for Supercell to balance, but that doesn’t take away the card’s storied history as an obnoxious game-ender.
Zap isn’t a game changer on its own, but it’s probably the cheapest and most reliable way to reset troops and stun enemies without breaking the bank. It’s simply a ton of utility for basically no resources. Is it an all-time most powerful card? Absolutely not. But it’s such a core part of the game’s history and gameplay that it deserves a spot.
Rocket is a lot like Zap in the sense that it won’t single-handedly win you any games, but it’s so versatile and universally good that it needs to be recognized. Want to stop a huge rush you weren’t ready for? Rocket. Need to take out a pesky unit? Rocket. Want to fight through a defensive building while Hog is running it down? You got it—Rocket.
Monk has never really been that dominant, but part of that is that it’s primarily a counter, which means that it only pops up when certain metas make it an attractive choice. It’s also a very hard unit to utilize correctly. All of that being said, Monk can be a force to be reckoned with.
Phoenix spent a few years being a worse version of Mega Minion, but that situation has been flipped around for some time now. Phoenix does a ton of single-target damage, and the fact that it comes back from the grave if you can protect its egg after it dies just makes it irritating to get rid of.
Furnace was reworked recently, and while its old version was phenomenal, its new version is also quite powerful. It’s great on defense or offense, and it’s a smooth answer to basically any deck trying to spam swarms of bats or skeletons.
She’s not great right now, but for 2-3 years, she was probably the most overpowered champion in the game. Her ability to go invisible (which also boosts her attack speed) can quickly turn the tide of a game.

Section 3 of 3:

The Worst Clash Royale Cards

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“Worst” is extremely subjective, but the game does have some stinkers. Every card in Clash Royale is at least a little bit useful, and certain strategies can make even the stinkiest of cards shine a little bit, but here are the most common contenders for “worst” card in the game:
- Skeletons
- Bomber
- Mirror
- Electro giant
- Clone
- Barbarian Hut
- Heal
- Cannon