AI Overview: Arena 5 is Builder’s Workshop, the 1,300 to 1,600 trophy range. RoyaleTracker lists five decks here, from a 2.9-elixir Hog Cycle to two 4.1-elixir Hog Rider and Battle Ram decks. Valkyrie and Knight are each in four of the five. The tracker prints no win rates for arena decks, so this page ranks them by cost and role.
Last Updated: October 2026
Key Points:
- RoyaleTracker lists five Arena 5 decks, from 2.9 to 4.1 elixir.
- Valkyrie and Knight are each in four of the five decks.
- The win conditions are Giant (two decks), Hog Rider (two) and Battle Ram (one).
- The tracker prints no win rate or battle count for arena decks.
- SeeMeta lists Wizard and Barbarians reworks, and tower-damage cuts to Fireball and Arrows, in 2026.
Table of Contents
What Arena 5 Decks Look Like
Arena 5 is where Clash Royale starts to feel like a real game. You have a few win conditions, a few spells and a first set of splash troops. The five decks below all follow the same plan: one win condition, one or two splash cards, a mini tank and a spell.
The short version: Arena 5 decks are simple on purpose. Pick one win condition, add Valkyrie or Knight for defense, and keep a spell for support. The catch: there is no win rate here, so the order below is by cost and role, not by results.
What changed: SeeMeta lists no change for Giant, Hog Rider, Valkyrie or Knight in 2026. Wizard was reworked on September 8 (damage 281 to 304, first attack 0.4 to 0.5 seconds), and Barbarians were reworked on August 4 (hitpoints 691 to 716). Fireball lost tower damage on June 1 (207 to 172) and September 8 (172 to 159), and Arrows lost tower damage on June 1 (93 to 75). What it means: the splash cards hit towers softer, and Wizard hits a bit harder after a slower first shot.
The Wizard and Barbarians reworks landed in late summer, and two of the five decks use both. If another change lands, the Wizard decks are the first to shift. The negative effect: a rework that helps a card in one arena can break the plan in another.
Best Arena 5 Decks Right Now
RoyaleTracker’s Arena 5 page lists five decks. The two cheapest are a Hog Cycle at 2.9 elixir and a Giant Witch deck at 3.1. A Giant and Mini P.E.K.K.A deck with Fireball and Arrows runs 3.8, and two Hog Rider and Battle Ram lists with Wizard, Musketeer and Barbarians run 4.1.
| Build | Cards | Avg elixir | Win rate (sample) |
| Giant Witch (cheap tank deck) | 3.1 | Not printed | |
| Hog Cycle with Valkyrie and Knight | 2.9 | Not printed | |
| Giant and Mini P.E.K.K.A with two spells | 3.8 | Not printed | |
| Hog Rider with Wizard and Musketeer | 4.1 | Not printed | |
| Battle Ram with Wizard and Barbarians | 4.1 | Not printed |
The pattern: every deck has a mini tank (Knight, Valkyrie or Mini P.E.K.K.A) and a splash card. The cheap decks lean on swarms, and the 4.1-elixir decks lean on Wizard and Barbarians. What it means: start with the 2.9-elixir Hog Cycle if you want to learn the basics. Still unknown: no win rates, so the order is a suggestion.
Try it yourself: open the Clash Royale Deck Builder with the Hog Rider, Wizard and Musketeer build in the table above already loaded. It is the deck RoyaleTracker lists for Arena 5, and it averages 4.1 elixir.
How to Play in Arena 5
- Start with your tank. Play Knight or Valkyrie before your win condition.
- Use the spell on a group. Fireball is best against Musketeer plus another unit.
- Counter-push. After a good defense, send the Hog or Battle Ram while they are low on elixir.
- Do not stack your troops. A Wizard or Fireball punishes that.
- Watch elixir. The 4.1-elixir decks are slower to cycle.
Valkyrie is in four of the five decks and has no change in 2026. If she is ever adjusted, the whole page changes with her. The negative effect: a card that shows up in 80% of lists is a single point of failure.
How to Counter Arena 5 Decks
- Cheap swarms: Skeleton Army or Goblins stop Hog Rider and Battle Ram.
- Splash: Valkyrie and Wizard kill Skeletons and Archers together.
- Spell value: Fireball the Musketeer and Wizard when they stand together.
- Building: a Cannon in the middle stops a Hog.
The catch: if your deck has no splash, a swarm will stop you.
Are These Arena 5 Decks Worth Using Now?
Is it worth it? Yes, for learning. These five decks are balanced and cheap. The catch: there is no win rate, so you cannot say one is stronger than another.
The listing is short: five decks. As more trophies pass through Arena 5, the tracker may print win rates. The negative effect: until then, the list is a starting point, not a ranking.
Go deeper: For the Hog plan, read our Hog 2.6 Cycle guide. For the Giant plan, see our Giant Graveyard guide and our Beatdown guide. Planning a list of your own? The Clash Royale Deck Builder updates the average cost with every card you add.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best Arena 5 deck?
RoyaleTracker lists five Arena 5 decks without win rates. A good start is the Hog Cycle at 2.9 elixir or the Hog Rider, Wizard and Musketeer deck at 4.1.
What arena is 1,300 to 1,600 trophies?
Arena 5, Builder’s Workshop.
What cards do most Arena 5 decks use?
Valkyrie and Knight, each in four of five decks.
Is Giant good in Arena 5?
Two of the five decks use Giant, one with Witch and one with Mini P.E.K.K.A.
What counters Hog Rider in Arena 5?
Cheap swarms, a Cannon, and Valkyrie.
Does the tracker show win rates for Arena 5?
No. RoyaleTracker prints average elixir and cards, but no win rate or battle count for arena decks.
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.
Hey guys, this is Excalibur back with another guide to building your best Clash Royale Arena 5 Decks.
This guide is for the players with less than 1400 trophies who are looking to get past Arena 5 – Spell Valley. If you’re not so good at the game, a newbie, or just someone who wants to brush up, feel free to read. There may even be a good tip for pro players.
Clash Royale Arena 5 Deck Guide
Choosing a Win Condition
Choosing a good win condition is very important.
For those who don’t know what a win condition (win-con for short), it’s the card in your deck which is going to blow up the opponent’s tower. It should have good health, moderate to high damage and it must be able to get to the tower most of the times.
I’d recommend you to choose a win condition which attacks buildings so as to get guaranteed damage on the tower.
You have a good selection of win conditions to choose from:
It doesn’t matter if you don’t have a legendary.
Honestly, you’ll still be able to push ahead. Back in the old days, Ice Wizard and Princess were the only Legendaries. Getting a Legendary card was absurdly rare – 1 in 10 000 Silver Chests contained a Legendary.
Many players didn’t have a single Legendary card but got right to the top of the game (around 3k trophies back then.)
Anyway, choose a win condition from the cards above, and add it to your deck.
Choosing cards to support your win condition
Next, you’ll be choosing a support card which either helps your win condition to get to the tower or defends your tower well.
Support cards generally have low health and are taken out by spells easily. For example, Wizard can be killed by Poison, Fireball and Lightning. The Wizard’s main job is to defend a large push well and then, safe behind a win condition, snipe the tower.
Choose two support cards from below.
I would recommend you to choose one heavy damage support card like Wizard, Night Witch, Hunter, Musketeer or Bomber, and the other a flying troop like Baby Dragon, Mega Minion, Minions or at least something that can attack air, like Archers or Minion Horde.
Moreover, if your win condition is expensive (like Golem) pick cheap support cards like Bomber + Archer. Night Witch works very well with Golem if you have her unlocked.
Brewing your Spells
Spells are an integral part of the game.
You simple need spells in order to progress, because they provide great utility and fluidity both on defense and offense.
Look for getting maximum value on the opponent’s tower. Are you able to seriously hurt/kill something else near the tower by using the spells? That is called spell value. You can Zap the opponent’s tower along with his Minions/Skeleton Army and get spell value too.
A Wizard won’t stand up to Lightning. If the opponent’s support is making your Lavahound suffer, you can BZZT it with the Lightning. Most spells provide a special mechanic too. Poison deals damage over time, while Lightning hits only the targets with the highest hit points. Meanwhile, Tornado pulls everything together.
You’ll want to choose a light spell to take care of swarms, and a heavy spell to deal consistent damage to their tower (with the added bonus of killing support).
Choose a light spell.
Choose a heavy spell.
Get a Tank Killer
The name says it all. Tank Killers kill off your opponent’s win conditions. They have high damage, moderate to high health and some weird mechanics that make sure they cannot be used as a win condition themselves.
For example, Mini PEKKA is a great tank killer. He’s got high damage, good health and is cheap. But he’s very easily distracted and has a slow hit speed, which makes it difficult to land hits on the tower.
You have a good range of tank killers to choose from. Pick any one of them.
If you’ve picked an expensive win-con, I’d advise you to pick a cheaper killer like Mini P.E.K.K.A or Hunter.
Build the victory up!
I cannot stress the importance of buildings!
There are 2 kinds of buildings, Passive and Active. Active buildings shoot down your enemy’s troops, while passive buildings spawn troops to kill the enemy.
It’s completely up to you which building you wanna use. However, be sure to use at least one cheap building like the Cannon or Tombstone to counter Hog Riders.
Pick a building, any building!
Splanks!
We have the final card in the deck, the Splanks.
Splank is a combination of splash-n-tank or a troop with good HP, moderate damage, and splash attack.
You’ve got only 2 Splanks unlocked till now: Baby Dragon and Valkyrie.
I would advise you to pick the Splank which suits your win con. If you are lucky enough to pack the Baby Dragon, you should carry it. It flies, is area splash and can tank for many cards.
Alternatively, you can swap out the cheaper support card for a cycle card like Skeletons, Goblins, Spear Goblins etc.
Cycle cards are named so because they’re very cheap and cycle your deck fast, enabling you to put down more win conditions at a time.
Best Decks for Arena 5
Based on the win conditions above, I’ll give you a deck for each one.
Giant Deck
This deck is mainly offensive, but has a good defence comprising of Witch, Mini PEKKA and Cannon.
Hog Rider Deck
Cycle deck with great synergy!
Goblin Barrel Deck
This deck doesn’t have a small spell, but is still great against swarms. Use a combo of Valkyrie and Baby Dragon to defend well, and keep changing the spot where Barrel spawns. For more info, you can watch OJ’s Tricky Barrel video.
Golem Deck
This is a VERY offensive deck. Unfortunately you need the Night Witch in order to use it as her role is irreplaceable. If you don’t have the Night Witch, you can use the regular Witch or even the Mini PEKKA.
Lavahound Deck
One of the better LavaHound decks for low ladder. If you’re lucky enough to unlock the fiery card, use it! Build up pushes from the back and support your Lavahound with Baby Dragon + Minions.
Miner Deck
God Tier Miner deck for lower arenas, plop the Miner in front of Minions, Skeleton Army, Witch, whatever! Use the Hunter for defense. For a quick offense, you can try Miner + Poison, which is a good synergy.
This is the first guide of the series I am working on – Best decks for all Arenas in the game! Guides for Arena from 6 to 13 are coming soon.
That’s it for today! Hopefully, you have found some of the best Arena 5 Decks. If you have any questions, please ask me in the comments!
Clash on, Excalibur out.
Sources
Researched from the following (no links, listed for transparency):
- RoyaleTracker, best decks for Arena 5: Builder’s Workshop (1,300 to 1,600 trophies)
- 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)