AI Overview: This Hog Rider Ice Wizard deck averages 3.3 elixir and wins with counter-pushes, not pure cycling. The Wizard and Tornado defend, then the Hog and Rocket finish. Hog Rider’s best list wins 61.2% over about 3,800 battles, though this exact build has no tracker sample. Every price, rarity and 2026 change is rechecked below, so you can trust each number and skip the guesswork.
Last Updated: October 2026
Key Points:
- The deck costs 26 elixir, which is 3.3 on average, and the Rocket at 6 is the heaviest card.
- Hog Rider had no 2026 change, and his best list wins 61.2% over about 3,800 battles.
- Rocket’s Crown Tower damage fell from 371 to 342 on June 1.
- Ice Wizard’s best list wins 64.6% over 1,400, though his Hero freeze was cut on September 16 and October 6.
- Mega Minion has no printed list above 50%, with the Hero at 47.7% and base at 44.7%.
The Hog Rider Ice Wizard List, Priced Card by Card
The big idea. This is not a cycle deck. It defends well, keeps its troops alive, then pushes back with the Hog behind them.
Matchups. Against Giant or Golem, slow the tank and pull its support. Against Balloon, the Mega Minion and Tombstone hold. Against Graveyard, Tornado is your counter. The short answer: stay patient and the deck answers most things.
| Card | Elixir | Job in the deck | 2026 status |
| Hog Rider | 4 | Win condition | No 2026 change; best list 61.2% over about 3,800 |
| Ice Wizard | 3 | Slow and splash defense | Best list 64.6% over 1,400; Hero freeze cut on September 16 and October 6 |
| Tornado | 3 | Pull and splash combo | No 2026 change; best list 64.7% over about 1,900 |
| Rocket | 6 | Building and tower hitter | Crown Tower damage 371 to 342 on June 1 |
| Goblins | 2 | Cheap distraction | Rework on August 4; best list 59.9% over 504 |
| Mega Minion | 3 | Flexible air and ground defense | No printed list above 50% (Hero 47.7%, base 44.7%) |
| Tombstone | 3 | Distraction and chip | Best list 63.8%; Hero lists 53.7% to 64.6%; Hero Tomb Queen buffed in August |
| Zap | 2 | Cheap spell and reset | Crown Tower damage 58 to 48 on June 1; Evo Zap 77.0% over about 1,000 |
Check the table for each card’s price and its 2026 notes.
Zoom out. Slow-effect decks depend on the Ice Wizard staying strong. With his Hero freeze cut twice this fall, another trim would take away the deck’s best defensive trick. A weaker Rocket would slow the whole plan, and that slowdown is the first negative to watch.
What Changed in 2026
The short version. The Hog Rider, Tornado and Tombstone are steady. The Rocket and Zap hit towers softer. The Goblins were reworked on August 4, with a best list of 59.9%. The Mega Minion is the weak card in the list.
One more way to see it. Think of the Ice Wizard and Tornado as a trap. The Tornado pulls, the Wizard slows, and the tower finishes. When the trap works, you gain elixir for free, and that is what funds the Hog.
In plain English. The Hog is the same and the spells are weaker. The big question is the Ice Wizard, whose Hero got cut but whose base card still looks fine. A defensive deck can live with that.
Claims, rechecked. The write-up says the deck averages 3.3 elixir, and the official prices add up to 26 over eight cards, which is 3.3. It also says it found the list on Stats Royale and crushed its first opponent, which is one game, not a record. Treat every figure as a starting point, not a rule.
The fine print. Tornado has a best list of 64.7% over about 1,900 battles, which supports the pull-and-splash plan. The Tombstone is a quiet strength, with a best list of 63.8%. The Ice Wizard is solid, if his Hero is not part of your list.
Card pages: Hog Rider, Ice Wizard, Tornado, Rocket and Mega Minion.
Zoom in. A 6 elixir Rocket in a 26 elixir list is a lot to spend. If its tower damage drops again, using it as a finisher becomes a worse deal. If the Ice Wizard slips in a coming patch, expect the deck to feel clumsy until you adjust.
How to Play It Today
Counter-push first. The deck is 3.3 elixir, not a cycle, so you win by defending well and sending the Hog with leftover troops. Do not over-defend, or you will have nothing left to push.
Quick recap. Defend with the Wizard and Tornado, then push the Hog behind what survives. The Rocket is your only heavy card, so aim it well.
Reality check. The Mega Minion is the weak link in the sample. If it keeps losing, swap it for a card you trust at your level.
Bottom line. Pick this list if you like to defend, pull and then punish. Keep the Hog for when the opponent is low.
Worth knowing. Against an opponent with an Elixir Collector, Rocket it early, and send the Hog right after while they rebuild.
Upgrade order. Level the Hog Rider, Ice Wizard and Rocket first. Tornado comes next. Goblins, Mega Minion, Tombstone and Zap can wait.
Tips. Send the Hog alone only when you hold enough elixir to defend the answer. Let the Mega Minion sit in the back for air, and use the Tombstone to pull Hogs of your own. Open the linked card pages before you queue, since one balance patch can flip a trade.
Use Tornado on purpose. Pull a group into the Ice Wizard’s slow, and the splash does the rest. Save the Tornado when you cannot see the pull paying off.
Elixir math. The Rocket costs 6 of the 26 elixir, and the other seven cost 20, or 2.9 each. That is why the deck can defend and still have enough for a Hog.
Try it yourself: send Hog Rider Ice Wizard Deck to the Clash Royale Deck Builder and tweak it to fit your levels. The average cost is 3.3 elixir; as a classic list it carries no 2026 win rate.
Zoom out again. Hog decks face more Cannons and Tesla every month. If building counters spread, the Rocket becomes the only way through.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is a Hog Rider Ice Wizard deck good in 2026?
Hog Rider’s best list wins 61.2% and Tornado’s best wins 64.7%, but this exact list has no tracker sample, so test the Mega Minion slot first.
What is the average elixir cost?
26 elixir across eight cards, or 3.3 on average.
Is this a cycle deck?
No. At 3.3 elixir it wins by counter-pushing, not by out-cycling.
What counters Hog Ice Wizard?
Cannon, Tesla and Valkyrie, plus a Rocket or Lightning for the support troops.
Does this deck need legendary cards?
Only one, the Ice Wizard. The Tornado is the single epic.
Original Guide, Kept in Full
The text below is the original page, kept in full. It was written between 2016 and 2024, so some details are out of date. The tips and numbers above use 2026 sources.
Hey guys, what’s up! It’s cow (known as Cow FTW in the comments) here for my first deck guide!
I have been a fan of Clash Royale Arena for a while but have struggled to convince myself to write a guide. I first stumbled upon this deck while I was on Stats Royale, gave it try, and crushed my opponent. So because you probably don’t care about my history with Clash.World, here’s the deck!
The Deck
Hog Rider – You main Win Condition and main damage dealer.
You use him to deal damage to the tower, whether he is paired with a spell or left-over troops. However, keep in mind that with a Hog Rider you need to constantly push with him to slowly chipping away the opponents tower.
It is very important that while playing this deck you understand that you MUST counter push in order to deal some real damage.
Because this isn’t a cycle deck (Sitting at 3.3 Elixir Average) counter pushing is a more reliable way of deal damage then just out cycling.
Now I am not saying at ALL that you should not send in a Hog Rider alone, I am merely suggesting you should try not to over-defend so you have enough elixir to place a Hog.
Ice Wizard – He is your all time defensive card.
Use him to slow down big pushes and then count push, slowing down any threats that might kill your Hog Rider.
Although he is a great card for defending low HP troop, he is not very good at dealing damage so it’s usually best to pair him up with other cards.
He is a very defensive card, allowing him to count many cards when played on defense.
Because he lacks DPS that would be needed to support a Hog Rider, I would not recommend using him offensively for a push.
Tornado – All time awesome defensive spell counters tons of cards!
Pair this card with Ice Wizard to deal with pushes easily or simply pull away other cards. Plus you can pull Miners, Hog Riders, and Goblin Barrels to your King Tower, makes facing them a lot less intimidating and allowing you to spend less elixir to counter them!
Like I said before, pair this card with the Ice Wizard for an amazing defensive combo! For even more information click here.
Rocket – This card is a staple of this deck, allowing you to get massive value on colossal pushes.
Due to Lightning getting nerf and Sparky becoming viable, this card has seen a bit of an increase in use rate.
Don’t hesitate to get value on a troop next to the tower if it’s 5+ Elixir or Rocketing that tower that’s two rockets away from winning.
You can rocket Elite Barbarians for a neutral trade but they are hard to hit so if you have poor aim with the rocket, or little experience with it, then I wouldn’t recommend taking the risk.
If your opponent drops a pump, try to rocket it as soon as you can unless you are facing Three Musketeers or x-bow. In this case you will want to save your rocket, and punish with the Hog Rider instead.
Mega Minion – Your main anti-splash DPS unit.
Mega minion is primarily used for defending and secondarily, counter pushing.
While he is good for pushes, I would not play him offensively in, say, a Hog Rider push.
Although he might get some get damage in, he is relied on for defending those pesky troops that Goblins and Ice Wizards can’t deal with.
Even though he is pretty good at taking down a Hog Rider, I would not use him because you have many other options for defending one (Tombstone, Tornado, ect.)
Goblin – Cheap defensive option.
Goblins are self-explanatory.
Use them to defend against that Mini P.E.K.K.A. or Prince, surround that Musketeer, kite that Baby Dragon and the list goes on.
Overall, use them defensively to tank some hit, deal that DPS the Ice Wizard never could, or throw them in with the Hog Rider for a pig push.
Tombstone – Your Defensive Building
This is hands down my favorite building and probably one of the best. It is great at defense, being able to deal with many tanks/threats but also drawing them away from your towers. If you are playing against a Hog Rider with this deck, it is important that you Tornado it to the King Tower in order to activate it. Then, when he plays his Hog Rider again, you can play the tombstone a little deeper allowing the King Tower to shoot at it. This way the Hog Rider won’t touch your tower!
Zap – Simple, take out swarms that will kill your Hog Rider, weaken Minions to be “one shotable”, or to finish low hp troops.
Gameplay
3:00-2:00
Early on, you should not go very aggressive, but start quick, tiny pushes to try to do some chip damage. However, if your opponent plays a heavy card in the back, (Like Golem, P.E.K.K.A., ect.) you should try to punish hard.
A good starting move would be to place Ice Wizard, Goblins in the back or tombstone in the middle. I would not recommend placing a Mega Minion, unless you have Ice Wizard and Tornado, because he is your main air DPS unit.
Unlike beatdown, your games are most likely going to end 1-0 or 2-1 so you must defend as best as you can, taking as little damage as you can. Because this is single elixir time, you should not rocket the tower unless you can get value, like hitting a 5+ elixir troop plus tower.
2:00-1:00
By now you have probably done a few Hog pushes and have done some damage. Keep attacking, but now, start adjusting to the way your opponent counters your Hog Rider. He/she uses Skeleton Army to kill your Hog? Keep zap for your next push. Ideally, you would want to keep your Hog Rider and Zap to be in the same cycle but stress too much about that.
By now you will probably know what deck you are against, so you should try to keep a card to counter their win condition. For an example, since my opponent is using the balloon, I should keep my Mega Minion in hand to counter it.
1:00-End Of Overtime
This deck is very defensive so put those defensive cards to use and try to take as little damage as possible during overtime.
Keep pushing with Hog + Goblins + Zap, next, defend with Mega Minion, Ice Wizard, Tornado, and Tombstone and, then, counter push with surviving troops. Don’t be afraid to use rocket on the tower if the tower is low, just make sure you can defend any threats that your opponent will throw at you.
Continuously chip at the opponent’s tower till you claim the win!
Matchups
Giant Beatdown
Make them waste Elixir!
When going against Giant decks, push on the opposite lane lightly whenever they place a Giant so that they are forced to waste elixir on the other lane. Then, defend from there.
If their Giant deck has a Elixir Pump, you should immediately rocket their Pump. If you don’t have the Rocket in your hand, then try to punish hard.
Golem Beatdown
Punish them!
Similar to Giant Beatdown, you are going to want to punish them when they place a Golem and Rocket their Elixir Pump.
However Golem beatdown decks really shine in double elixir, so you should to push more aggressively in single elixir time and play more defensively in double elixir. In double elixir, you probably won’t be seeing an Elixir Pump, so you should use your Rocket on defense.
Hog Rider
Very easy match up.
Tornado the enemy Hog Rider to your King Tower and then from there you can use Tombstone in the center of the map. You can also Tornado the enemy Hog Rider to the center of the map, where all three towers can hit it, allowing 0 hits on the tower.
If it’s Hog P.E.K.K.A or Hog Mega Knight you should use Tornado on the Hog Rider and save the rest of the other cards to deal with the tanks while you slowly chip away at the enemy’s tower.
Miner
Like the Hog Rider, you should tornado the Miner to the King Tower.
Overall, it’s a very simple match up. Save your Tombstone for any threats that might come after the Miner, like Battle Ram, Bandit or E-Wiz and use your Mega Minion or Goblins to deal with the Miner.
Graveyard
I will keep it simple, use Ice Wizard or Goblins to defend the Graveyard and Mega Minion for the tank. Just be sure to counter push afterwards!
Well, that wraps up for this guide. Thanks for reading and if you have any questions or suggestions, share them in the comment section below!
– Cow FTW
Sources
Researched from the following (no links, listed for transparency):
- CryptoAIMeta card guides for these cards, built from RoyaleTracker October 2026 samples and SeeMeta 2026 balance changes
- SeeMeta, Clash Royale balance changes 2026 (page updated October 2026), read through search summaries
- Supercell official Clash Royale API, card list (elixir cost, rarity, unlock arena)
- The original clash.world page (2016 to 2024), kept in full below