Tornado Deck Guide: Best Cards to Pair With It

By SilverOnyx · Deck Building · Feb 17, 2024 · Updated Oct 16, 2026

AI Overview: Tornado is a 3-elixir Epic spell in Clash Royale that pulls troops toward its center. It works best with cards that punish a clump, such as Graveyard, Executioner, X-Bow and Golem. In October 2026, RoyaleTracker’s best Tornado deck, with Evo Baby Dragon, Evo Inferno Dragon and Lumberjack, won 72.0% over 820 battles. The printed lists average 3.1 to 4.5 elixir.

Last Updated: October 2026

Key Points:

• Tornado costs 3 elixir and is an Epic spell.
• RoyaleTracker lists Tornado in Graveyard, X-Bow, Golem, Exenado, Freeze and Electro Giant decks.
• The best list, a Lumberjack Freeze deck, won 72.0% over 820 battles.
• The weakest, a Valkyrie Rocket Poison list, won 46.6%.
• SeeMeta lists no 2026 change for Tornado itself, but several for its partner spells.

What Tornado Does

The short version: Tornado is a 3-elixir Epic spell that drags troops toward its center, so a group ends up standing in one spot. It is the glue card for decks with a splash or a siege partner. The catch: it does not win on its own.

What changed: SeeMeta lists no change for Tornado in 2026. Its partners changed. Poison‘s Crown Tower damage fell from 184 to 168 on June 1, Rocket‘s from 371 to 342, and Executioner‘s range went from 7.5 to 7 tiles on August 4. What it means: the glue is the same, and the damage next to it is a little lower.

Tornado has stayed the same all year while the spells next to it were trimmed. If the next patch changes Tornado itself, every list below loses its glue. The negative effect: one card that fits six different decks is a risk for all six.

Best Tornado Decks Right Now

The facts: RoyaleTracker’s Tornado page printed eight decks, and two other pages, Lumberjack and Goblin Hut, list Tornado decks that beat all of them. The best, with Evo Baby Dragon, Evo Inferno Dragon, Hero Balloon and Lumberjack, won 72.0% over 820 battles, and an Electro Giant list with Goblin Hut won 67.8% over 844. On the Tornado page, the Graveyard Poison list won 64.6% over 1,500, a Golem list with Evo Elite Barbarians won 63.3% over 2,000, and an X-Bow list won 60.4% over 2,200. What it means: Tornado fits many decks at very different strengths.

The pattern: every list above has a clump-punisher: Graveyard, Golem, X-Bow, Executioner, Electro Giant or Freeze. The list built on Rocket and Poison alone won 46.6%. What it means: Tornado needs a partner card, not just a spell slot.

Try it yourself: open the Clash Royale Deck Builder with the Exenado build with Evo Executioner in the table above already loaded. It averages 3.1 elixir. This exact list is not in the tracker sample, so it has no win rate; it is the 52.9% list with Fire Spirit swapped for Ice Spirit.

How to Play With Tornado

1. Pick the partner first. The payoff is Graveyard, Executioner, X-Bow, Golem or a Freeze.
2. Hold it. Do not spend Tornado on a single troop.
3. Aim at your splash. Pull the clump so it lands under your Executioner or Baby Dragon.
4. Pull big troops off your tower. Tornado also drags a tank away from the tower it was attacking.
5. Follow with a spell. Poison, Arrows or Barbarian Barrel finish the clump.

More decks now treat Tornado as the center of the list, not an extra spell. If that continues, the best lists may start to look alike. The negative effect: when many decks share one glue card, one patch can hit the whole group at once.

How to Counter Tornado Decks

• Spread your troops: do not put two support troops in the same spot.
• Keep a cheap troop in hand: Skeletons or Ice Spirit are fine Tornado targets.
• Save elixir for the answer: the clump is only dangerous if the partner card follows.
• Pressure early: fast cards force the Tornado player to defend instead of set up.

The catch: Tornado also pulls your big troops, so do not rely on a lone tank.

Is a Tornado Deck Worth Using Now?

Is it worth it? Yes, with the right partner. Tornado decks in the samples won from 46.6% to 72.0%, so the partner matters more than the spell. The catch: most of the best samples are under 3,000 battles.

The best Tornado deck leans on Hero Balloon, which was cut on June 1, July 6 and September 8. If it is cut again, the 72.0% list loses its edge. The negative effect: the strongest list in the group depends on a Hero card that keeps being nerfed.

Go deeper: For the siege and Exenado lists, read our X-Bow Cycle guide. For the cards behind them, see the Tornado guide, the Executioner guide and the Lumberjack guide. Building something similar? The Clash Royale Deck Builder tracks the average cost for you.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does Tornado do in Clash Royale?

It pulls troops toward its center, so a group ends up in one spot for your splash damage.

How much does Tornado cost?

3 elixir. It is an Epic spell.

What is the best Tornado deck?

In October 2026, RoyaleTracker’s Lumberjack page listed an Evo Baby Dragon, Evo Inferno Dragon and Hero Balloon deck at 72.0% over 820 battles.

What cards go well with Tornado?

Graveyard (5), Executioner (5), X-Bow (6), Golem (8), Freeze (4) and Electro Giant (7) all appear in October 2026 lists.

What is Exenado?

A deck that pairs Executioner with Tornado. The best printed list won 52.9% over 1,600 battles.

Did Tornado get nerfed in 2026?

SeeMeta lists no 2026 change for Tornado. Poison, Rocket and Executioner were changed.

Original Guide, Kept in Full

The text below is the original guide, kept in full. Its stats and win rates are older than the 2026 data above.

Hello fellow royalians! It is me B.W back again on my guide about picking a good splash partner to be used in conjunction with the Tornado.

Tornado is a card that is very unique in my opinion. It can wins you the game when used correctly or it will also turn the game to enemy favor and ended up losing you the game.

S Tier

Giant Skeleton – Defensive SPLANK – 957 Damage

The most underrated tank of the game benefits Tornado very well. In tournament standard level, it deals roughly 1131 area damage. Which is enough to fully kill an Executioner, Baby Dragon, and Inferno Dragon, also it brings Sparky to die by 1 Tower shot.

For this combo to work at defending, you will need a tank killer to kill the tank and the Giant Skeleton will tank for a while. If the big Larry is already dead, quickly place the Tornado to slow down the tank and clump up their support units. Defend succeed

Example Tank killer: Mini P.E.K.K.A, Barbarian, Inferno Tower, Inferno Dragon, Lumberjack, etc

Note : P.E.K.K.A is not that good for the combo. 2 Heavy tank in 1 Deck is kinda a wasted slot and P.E.K.K.A itself is a tank so you won’t need to have a troop to tank for her.

Rocket – Kaboom! – 1232  Damage

Rocketnado, it deals 1406 damage at tournament standard. An extreme damage that only heavy tanks can absorb it. Mini tank like Knight will die from it. Some medium tank will still survive with a sliver of health like Bowler, Valkyrie and Prince.

Tornado in this combo is not needed for additional damage. You will use this combo to completely make all of their troop killed within the 2 tiles radius from Rocket. Place the Tornado first and quickly followed up by Rocket. Place both cards fast or the Rocket will miss and ended up losing you the game.

Wizard – Explosiooon! – 162 DPS.

One of the most underrated splash card in the game benefits Tornado suprisingly good. Wiznado combo have the highest damage output out of all splash troops combo after Sparky.

He is by far the best reliable DPS splasher in the game with 2 weakness. He is not beefy enough and his splash reach is not as long as the one Bowler/Executioner has. For example, you cannot splash all of the three Musketeers that is behind that Golem, But i have never seen that kind of beatdown though.

It fully wrecks air and ground combo. My main problem with using this combo is that tank beatdown Deck usually brings a Lightning spell which is a big trouble. If i know that they have lighthing there is 2 option.

• Bait their Lightning if you can. (Mega minion + Furnace, etc)
• Double deploy Tornado and Wizard. You will need 8 Elixir to do this and the enemy cannot respond that fast. Giving you plenty amount of damage before the Wizard dies.

Sparky – Trashcan BLAST! – 1300 Damage

Chargee… and BLAST, Sparknado is one of the best splash + Tornado combo that is very strong when enemy doesnt have any stun spell ready.

Some players that use Sparky in their Deck use a spell bait card like Goblin Barrel, skeleton Army. When they used their Zap already, your Sparky will rock on defense! Quickly Tornado when the charging ring is at tier 2, their supports will die like it is nothing and thus giving you a big positive Elixir trade.

Just keep in mind that this combo work solely on defense and is hard to use on offense. Because when they have Electro Wizard, offensive Sparky will not make any harm except if you already have a lot of troops backing up Sparky.

Executioner – AxAxAxAx – 117 DPS

A unit that is spell resistant to every spell of the game except Rocket, targets both air and grounds, and have a very big splash area.

I am not an exenado user but i just found that this is absolutely the card that is perfect in a lot of ways. It is beefy, have decent DPS and can attack both air and ground troops. Just place it in a linear style when defending, wait for their push to come and Tornado them for the satisfying execution!

A Tier

Fireball – FiRE! – 572 Damage

The spell that has always been used by many people. Also one of those card that has never been experiencing any buff/nerf except the crown Tower damage reduction.

With Fireball + Tornado you  can:

• Kill All of the three Musketeers, even when splitted.
• Kill any mid health support troops and unlike Fireball + Zap, for 1 more Elixir you can pull their tank. Unallowing their tank to do massive amount of damage to our crown Tower.

Bomb Tower –  The Tankier Bomber – DPS: 110

Bomb Tower + Tornado is very cancerous indeed. It can wipe almost any ground push while also is the most spell resistant building in the game. Rocket the bomb Tower and it will still have 400 HP left, making the enemy Rage quit.

The main problem with this combo is that it does nothing to Lavaloon. Just make sure you have a ranged troops to deal with them, it musnt be a splash troop. When the Lava hound is near dead, Tornado it and the Lava pup will be clumped and easier to kill. Bomb Tower also can tank 2 Balloon hit and remain with a tiny bit of health. Which is good enough to buy you a time.

Fire Spirit – Kamikaze – 507 Damage

A very good damage for its Elixir. If you want to pull it off, you need to have a tank or distraction for that. Can kill a full Army of Barbarian,Witch,and Ice Wizard with the cost of 5 Elixir. Insane, right?

But if you do the fire spirits + Tornado combo alone, your fire Spirit will just get melted. Try to have a cheap tank like Ice Golem for the safest way.

Poison – Combo Wombo! DPS: 75

A very good combo because it can take troops even better than Fireball + Poison. It can take any medium swarms and with the help of Tornado, the troop will not leave from Poison radius, thus giving you a full damage. This combo is found in the new Ewiz Bowler Graveyard.

Although it seems very good, it has some weakness. These 2 spells have no direct damage. So you will have some problem with Goblin Barrel ( although you still can pull it). Having the third spell like Log and Zap is recommended!

Bowler – Bowliee – DPS: 95

A feared card on defense becomes more feared when you use it with Tornado. Bowler has a  suprisingly big amount of health point that makes him will not die to any spell of the game, even a Rocket. Also, thing to note that Bowler has one of the largest area splash along with the Executioner so the boulder will definitely hit all of their grounds troops.

The only problem is that he is not capable to attack air units which is a big trouble against a Lavaloon player. But against a ground based push, their troops are definitely screwed.

B Tier

Bomber – Bombard them! DPS : 142

Bomber, the splash troops that inst used that much in higher arenas is surprisingly good with Tornado.

Bomber has good area splash that is bigger than some splash troops like Wizard and Witch so you will always hit most of the troops in the Tornado. It can kill most of ground troops even Knight when you use the maximum duration of the Tornado to bomb them.

The weakness of this combo is that your enemy can easily kill your Bomber in instant with a Fireball, completely destroying your combo. Musketeer and Dart Goblin can also kill the Bomber even when they are being Tornado-ed because of how far their range is.

Baby Dragon – Flying Spitting Draggy- DPS : 83

This combo is a part of the new Giant Graveyard. You can easily clump and destroy their troops without minding your draggy to die since it is tanky.

Your opponents will never able to kill their Baby Dragon in the duration of Tornado except if he uses an emergency Rocket (lol XD). The weakness of this combo is of course the lack of damage to kill all of their troop.

Baby Dragon is the third lowest splash DPS troop in the game with only the DPS of 83 at tournament standard. To make the most of Tornado, Usually you will pick another splash troop to accompany your draggy like Bowler for complete destruction.

Valkyrie – Whirlwind Tornado – DPS: 140

A good melee splash partner for your Tornado. The main problem is that this card is a melee card so your Valkyrie can easily die when attack them. Also it cannot target air unit which is a big deal.

But Valknado in my opinion is still a good combo. You can make that Giant skeleton on your Tower and Princess that is sniping your building to get clumped up with the Tornado and then place the Valkyrie in the middle of them to eliminate them.

Another ranged splash partner is recommended so your Tornado don’t go on waste.

Balloon –  Lava’s best cancer friend – Death Damage: 272

This combo is not for killing enemy troops. Generally, you will play a Tornado to make their enemy troops unable to attack the Balloon. Making a free path of your Balloon to kill the Tower.

Think of it as a riskier Freeze that deal damage but less disable. You will have 2 option to Tornado them.

• Tornado them to the other lane. Works if their enemy troops is like a Musketeer,Dart Goblin, Princess and any other ranged unit.
• Tornado them to the back of the Princess Tower. Good if the enemy troops have less range like minion or is squishy like Spear gobs. When the Balloon dies, the death damage will kill the minion.

Ice Wizard – Pull and Slow! DPS: 42

In my opinion, this combo is good but not in terms of damage. This combo will be used for a pure disabling purpose.

An AOE 35% slow for all of their troop is kinda good. It kinda remind me of a Poison spell when it has a slowing effect but better!

Mortar –  Siegeing Tornado – Damage 228

Rarely seen in a Siege Deck, Mortar with a Tornado can deal a good damage to their troops. 402 damage is the combined damage of 1 Mortar shot and Tornado, which is enough to kill low health support troops like Bomber and Archers.

It also brings Wizard, Electro Wizard and Musketeer to die by a Log in tournament standard. However in ladder matches where Mortar can be overleveled, it will surely kill troops like Witch and ice Wizard.

Golem – Gotcha Minions! – Damage 259

One of my favorite combo in the game, It brings all of those annoying support troops to die along with your Golem. Instantly kill small troops like Archer and Bomber and brings those ground support troops like Witch, Wizard, Musketeer, Ice Wizard, and Electro Wizard to die by a Log.

It can also be used to protect your support troops. When they place a Valkyrie between your support, place a Tornado that leads to your Golem, allowing their Valkyrie to attack the Golem instead of your supports.

Princess – Mini-Arrownado – Damage 140

Tornado is Princess best friend in a lot of ways, it can defend  bridge Princess from a small troop, it also can amplify the area attack of the Princess itself.

Keep in mind that the damage is nowhere to be good, but it will instantly kills any minion swarms and Guards while also shortening the health of their supports.

C Tier

Witch – Destructo beam! – DPS : 98

Witch + Tornado combo is not that good in my opinion. The damage is weak, also Witch is ligthing-able. The Witch area splash is a bit small so some of the Tornado-ed troop will not get hit by the attack of Witch.

You can try to accompany the Witch with another splash partner to make the most use of your Tornado.

Furnace – Spawner Nado! – 338 Damage

Although is not as effective as another splash+Tornado combo, it will still work . You will want another splash troop to be accompanied with it.

When they have some small counter push going like Barbarians and archer. Distract it with cards like Ice Golem or Guards, then Tornado and all of them will be dead, Barbarians will still have a sliver amount of health but i t will still die from a Tower shot.

Zap – ZAPPP! – 159 Damage

For 5 Elixir, the damage it gives is absolutely terrible. I have both of these spell in my Deck but i rarely use this combo. I use both of these spell to work solo-ly, not by use them as a combo.

The only time when i  will use this combo is against a minion Horde + tank combo and I don’t have any other card to respond for the Gang of Minions.

Log – Push and vacuum! – 240 Damage

Generally not used as a combo, it can works well when you do it on defense against ground push. Their combined combo can delay their troops to the Tower by up to 5 seconds. Giving your Army a free hit, yay!

Dank Prince –  Danknado – 128 DPS 385 Charge Damage

No one has ever heard of this combo, generally Valkyrie is better with a Tornado because dark Prince doesn’t have a 360 splash. But if you can do a preemptive Tornado, 385 Area damage is no joke. Thing to consider is that people will always Log your dark Prince or stun it and if they do, save the Tornado for something else. Except if you have another splash ready for the Tornado.

Ice Spirit – Advanced Stun – 90 Damage

Ice Spirit usually act as an additional combo for your Tornado. It can fully froze all of their units for 1.5 second, which is good for the value of 1 Elixir.

You will need a tank to do it or your Ice Spirit will go on waste.

Ice Golem – Double CC – 70 Damage

An expensive way to kill a Minion Horde, Ice Golem is also a good temporary tank for your splash troops to do the Tornado safely.

Keep in mind, Ice Golem is good as a tank and not as a splash dealer for your Tornado.

D Tier

Arrow – The prime spell of the good ol’ days – Damage 243

Arrow is one of that straight forward spell that does no side effects unlike any other spell and only has 1 main uses : Swarm Removal.

Arrow + Tornado combo is not that superior in my opinion. It doesn’t provide any positive Elixir trade, thus you may want to look at other splash partner for your Tornado.

Electro Wizard – ZAP! – Damage 159

It can be a good one, but i don’t think a Tornado for spawn Zap Electro Wizard is a good idea. Think of this, Electro Wizard will just be killed after that and the damage it gives is nowhere near good.

The only think you would use this combo is against a minion Horde and that is all.

Damage Amplifier

Tornado has a duration of 3.5 seconds, Some beefy troops that got splashnado-ed may still survive and cause havoc to your side of arena. What we will gonna do is to add a support spell that will help you to amplify your splashnado and wins you the game :D.

Rage –  GRAWWW! (Lumberjack favourite drinks)

You may have seen  it used a lot with that Ebola Barbarians, but what about with Wizardnado or Bowlernado? Yes, the DPS will rise very high and the enemy troops will die faster along with the tanks.

2 Elixir for a 35% more reliable DPS?yes please!, and i think this is how you play Rage defensively.

The only unit that doesn’t benefit enough from Rage is Executioner (see OJ video) and the troops that benefits this spell the best is Wizard. But i know, every splashers do benefits from this 2 Elixir spell.

Lumberjack – Defensive Lumby!!!

Personally, this is the combination i use along with the Wiznado. Why would you pay a 2 Elixir spell if with 2 Elixir more, you can have a temporary beast DPS troop with the HP of Ice Golem?

Lumberjack + Wizard and when the Lumberjack dies, go Tornado!! And boom, Defend success!

Clone – Kagebunshin no Tornado jutsu

A Risky Rage that is 1 more Elixir expensive but provide 100% more DPS. Clone is very rewarding if they doesn’t have any cheap spell in hand, but usually they will just Zap/Log the Clone, nulliffying the entire Clone, thus making this spell a high risk high reward card.

Mirror – 7 Second of Tornadoo!

Mirror, you can either Mirror your splasher or Mirror your Tornado to prolong the duration. Personally, i will recommend to Mirror the splasher instead because it will make a setup for counter-push. This spell is expensive yet it gives 100% more splash DPS which usually will make their entire push get wrecked apart.

Countering Splashnado

Although this combo seems very strong, it has a lot of flaws.

1. Tornado doesn’t do any damage to building.
2. Splashnado is very weak against building. So if you are facing against a siege decks, the combination of this 2 cards is not enough for them to be a threat.
3. Against a Rocket or Lightning user, your Splasher will have a hard time protecting their our own lives (Doesn’t apply to Bowler). So you gotta bait them out, or the Splasher will ended up dying before the Tornado duration even ended

How to counter a fellow Splashnado user as a Splashnado player.

• If you have Tornado yourself, you can try 1 v 1 Splashnado and see who wins the fight. It depends on your troops tho, if your troop is like a Bowler, Executioner and Baby Dragon. They have a lot of hitpoints, allowing them to deal enough damage before they die. DO NOT EVEN TRY if your troops is weaker compared to them like Bomber, Princess, Wizard( good DPS but not beefy).
• Or another safe method if the Deck you are using is a Splashnado Deck is when they are going to Tornado, quickly Tornado all of their splasher to the back. Allowing them to not deal any damage during the entire duration of nado.

How to counter a Splashnado user.

• If you have a Rocket/lighthing or the classic Fireball Zap/Log. Just use them to their splasher whenever the clash is going to start. This is how i usually lose the game as a splashnado player. Against this method, you need to cycle your splasher quicker than they cycle their own spells.
• Another medium risk and high reward method is when your main melee troop already pass the bridge, place your supports behind the river. Tornado doesnt has the ability to pull unit to pass through the river, allowing your support to not damaged by their Tornado because they will be stuck on the river. This method also work if you are a splashnado user.

It may not work everytime, if your opponent is smart enough, they will try to place the Tornado on the middle of the bridge so even if your supports are behind the river, it will also be pulled.

Consclusion

Splashnado is one of the best game-winning strategies in this game, it is weak against a heavy spell and building user but it will wrecks every troop combination in the game. The Tornado can also be used as a solo card to pull their troop to the king Tower. Splashnado is best when used defensively because it is the time when the enemy will put all of their troops in 1 main force. It is also beast when used offensively when your enemy uses a troop as the main defender, it does nothing to the almighty Inferno Tower though.

This is all about my guide, constructive criticism and feedback is very appreciated.

Defend, Push, Splashnado, and win! Peace out!

B.W

Sources

Researched from the following (no links, listed for transparency):

• RoyaleTracker, best decks with Tornado (October 2026 tracker samples)
• RoyaleTracker, best decks with Lumberjack (October 2026 tracker samples)
• RoyaleTracker, best decks with Goblin Hut (October 2026 tracker samples)
• RoyaleTracker, best decks right now, normal battles (data from October 9, 2026)
• SeeMeta, Clash Royale balance changes 2026 (page updated October 8, 2026)
• Supercell, Clash Royale October balance changes 2026 (October 6, 2026)
• Clash Royale card data used by the Deck Builder (elixir costs and card types)
• Supercell official Clash Royale API, card list (elixir cost, rarity, Evolution and Hero flags)