AI Overview: This X-Bow Furnace deck averages 3.4 elixir and was built by its author for 2v2. X-Bow gained damage on October 6, from 58 to 61, and its best list wins 62.7%. Furnace lost half a tile of range on June 1, yet its best list wins 72.1%. Fireball has been cut twice, so the old defensive plan still reads the same but finishes slower.
Last Updated: October 2026
Key Points:
- The deck costs 27 elixir, which is 3.4 on average, with two buildings and plenty of splash.
- X-Bow damage rose from 58 to 61 on October 6, and its best printed list wins 62.7% over 1,300 battles.
- Furnace range fell from 6 to 5.5 tiles on June 1, but its best list wins 72.1% over 1,100.
- Fireball lost Crown Tower damage twice (207 to 172 to 159) and The Log lost it too (41 to 35).
- Valkyrie base lists win 47.8% or less and none of Bats’ eight lists passes 50%, so those two are the cards to question.
The X-Bow Furnace List, Priced Card by Card
Here’s the thing: siege does not work in 2v2 only if the deck is slow. This list is the opposite. It looks like a Hog cycle at first glance, with Valkyrie, Fireball, Log, Ice Spirit and Bats, and then the X-Bow arrives behind a tank.
| Card | Elixir | Job in the deck | 2026 status |
| X-Bow | 6 | Win condition, siege tower | Damage 58 to 61 on October 6; best list 62.7% over 1,300 |
| Furnace | 4 | Lane pressure and defense building | Range 6 to 5.5 tiles on June 1; best list 72.1% over 1,100 |
| Inferno Dragon | 4 | Melts tanks that distract the X-Bow | Evo charge time 9 to 7 seconds on June 1; best Evo list 72.3% over 792 |
| Valkyrie | 4 | Ground splash tank in front of the X-Bow | Evo tornado damage halved in August; all eight base lists 47.8% or less |
| Bats | 2 | Cheap air and swarm cycle | No 2026 change; none of eight printed lists above 50% |
| Ice Spirit | 1 | Cheap freeze and cycle | Hitpoints 230 to 215 on August 4; every printed list 56.7% or more |
| The Log | 2 | Ground swarm spell | Crown Tower damage 41 to 35 on June 1; best list 65.1% over 3,500 |
| Fireball | 4 | Splash spell for groups and towers | Crown Tower damage 207 to 172 to 159; best list 60.4% over about 4,700 |
The table prices the eight cards and shows what the October 2026 data says about each.
X-Bow lists are small samples. The negative effect: a best list of 62.7% over 1,300 battles can slip when more players copy the same shape, and a patch that nudges the X-Bow’s range or lock time could break the old plan overnight.
What Changed in 2026
The X-Bow hits a little harder, 61 instead of 58, and the Furnace reaches a little less, 5.5 tiles instead of 6. Many players call the Furnace one of the best lane pressure cards, and its 72.1% best list shows that the card still does the job.
Those swaps still make sense. The Knight has a best list of 67.1% over 1,000 battles and Inferno Tower’s best is 65.8%, so neither swap costs the deck much.
Fireball and The Log are weaker against towers. Fireball dropped to 159 Crown Tower damage and The Log to 35, which matters for the old plan of finishing a tower once it reached 800 hitpoints. Inferno Dragon has a best Evolution list of 72.3% over 792 battles after the charge time fell from 9 to 7 seconds.
Card pages: X-Bow, Furnace and Inferno Dragon.
The negative effect: Lightning lost Crown Tower damage in 2026, but it still hits buildings, so a 2v2 team with two Lightnings across the board may still erase both of the buildings in this list.
How to Play It Today
Here’s the thing: do not show the X-Bow too early. The old advice was to play it like a Hog cycle until the opponent commits. After the tower is down to about 800 hitpoints, turtle with the X-Bow and Fireball and use the Furnace for pressure.
Matchups. The deck is stronger when the opponent also plays X-Bow or Mortar, and weak to Exenado and Lightning. Against Golem or P.E.K.K.A, the Inferno Dragon distracts the tank while the X-Bow stays alive. Against a fast cycle, the Furnace in the lane is the answer.
Translation: play the Valkyrie in front of the Inferno Dragon on a counter-push, and keep the Ice Spirit and The Log to cycle back to the X-Bow. In 2v2, the teammate has spells too, so the old rule to share the splash job still holds.
Elixir math: the X-Bow is the only card above 4 elixir. The other seven average 3.0, which is why the deck can rebuild a defense quickly after losing a building.
Try it yourself: send X-Bow Furnace Deck to the Clash Royale Deck Builder and tweak it to fit your levels. The average cost is 3.4 elixir; as a classic list it carries no 2026 win rate.
Two buildings in one list is a lot to ask of a 2v2 partner. The negative effect: if a partner also plays a building deck, the pair can run short of ground troops, and the opponent’s Giant or Golem push becomes much harder to stop.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the X-Bow Furnace deck good in 2026?
X-Bow’s best list wins 62.7% and Furnace’s best wins 72.1% in October 2026, though this exact eight-card list has no tracker sample, so read it as direction.
What is the average elixir cost?
Add the eight costs and you get 27; that is 3.4 per card.
Did the Furnace change?
Yes. Its range fell from 6 to 5.5 tiles on June 1.
Is Valkyrie still worth playing?
Her base-card lists win 47.8% or less, so many players swap her for a Knight or an Ice Golem.
What is the deck weak to?
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.
This is a guide about an X-Bow Furnace deck that I often use in 2v2 and have gotten constant success with.
A lot of people have said to me that siege doesn’t work in 2v2 because there are so many troops but this is untrue because I have won many, many matches with this deck! If your opponent is also using X-Bow or Mortar this makes, this deck even more powerful.
This deck is 100% my own creation. I really love 2v2 due to the nonexistent stress, that you don’t have to worry about trophies.
This deck is very defensive, it has lots of AoE cards and two buildings that can both be used as defenses or for tower damage.
There are two legendaries in this deck, one of them can be easily replaced but the other one is not so easily replaced.
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Cards Breakdown
X-Bow: Your win condition.
Don’t show it too early because at first glance the deck seems like a Hog Cycle. Valk, Fireball, Log, Ice Spirit, Bats…all viable Hog Cycle cards.
Not much to say really.
After your opponents’ towers are down to 800 hp, turtle up with your X-Bow and Fireball cycle and pressure with Furnace instead. Don’t forget your teammate has spells too.
You can’t really replace due to the fact that it’s your win condition. X-Bow is really powerful as it can do hundreds of damage with only a sliver of health.
Replacements: None
Valkyrie: X-Bow tank and swarm cleaner.
She has a fair amount of HP, in my opinion she’s fairly underrated.
She is an excellent tank for the X-bow due to the fact that she dishes out splash damage unlike the Knight or Ice Golem (if you don’t count the death nova.) Clears up pesky ground swarms (Gang, Skarmy, etc.), but get Fireball in hand in case opponents have Minions or Minion Horde.
Replacements: Knight, Ice Golem
Inferno Dragon: Tank melter.
The inferno dragon is such an amazing card in siege decks.
PEKKA, Giant, Golem to distract X-bow? This dirty Dragon is your man.
He can quickly melt down the tank while setting you up for a counterpush with the X-Bow still alive. Play the Valk in front of your Inferno Dragon once you’re on the counterattack.
Replacements: Inferno Tower
Furnace: Pressurer.
Oh my god I LOVE the Furnace. It’s one of, if not the best lane pressure cards in the game.
If your Spirits are the same level or higher than the opponents’ tower, it’s perfect. A lvl 7 furnace spawns lvl 9 Spirits, and one spirit will always make it to the tower meaning 169 free damage for you if they choose to ignore the Furnace.
It’s such an awkward card to deal with if your spirits are able to hit the tower. Do they waste elixir to defend or do they leave your Furnace to deal free damage?
Synergizes well with X-Bow because every wave will protect your X-Bow from swarms, air or ground. Place it far away from X-Bow in order to avoid Lightning or Fireball value.
Also acts as spell bait so you can place your X-bow safely.
Replacements: Goblin Hut (not recommended), Fire Spirits (not recommended either)
Bats: Cheap air protection.
Since the buff to 5 bats this card has been extremely popular. For just 2 elixir they offer an insane 335 DPS at tourney level. Cycle card and for chip damage. Ice Spirit+ Bats= Clash.WorldZY tower damage if they choose to ignore.
Replacements: Minions, *Minion Horde
Ice Spirit: Frosty dude packing insane value!
Cycle card and cheap distraction. Best to overlevel him so he’ll reach the tower which is like free 100 damage.
Replacements: Skeletons?
Fireball: Self-explanatory.
Use on Minions, Minion Horde, any kind of witches, any kind of wizards, etc. etc., and for spell cycle at end of match. Tourney lvl Fireball+Log= 304 damage just FYI.
Replacements: Poison, *Rocket
Log: Again, self-explanatory.
Use on swarms attacking your X-Bow.
Replacements: None
* = not recommended
Gameplan:
This deck cycles pretty quickly but has a lot of heavy defensive cards so it’s best to play your X-Bow once you’re on the counterattack. This deck is all about counterpushing.
Best starting moves: Ice Spirit at the back, Furnace in the middle (if spirits are able to hit tower), Bats in the back. Don’t play Valk at the back. Just like Executioner, she’s too valuable for counterpushing and whatnot.
If you have an extremely bad hand (e.g. X-Bow, Valk, Log, Fireball) cycle Log. But be warned, try to avoid cycling Log at the beginning because Log Bait users will punish you really hard, e.g. with a Knight Barrel push.
Start playing your X-Bow after you’ve cycled to your optional cards to complement your X-Bow again, such as Furnace, Valk, Fireball, or Log. Fireball is one of the most valuable cards to your deck.
Send in your X-Bow only at 10 elixir in order to be able to place down a Valk or a Fireball or Log to protect.
Sometimes it’s fine to send in a lone X-Bow if you have the right spells to counter their counters.
If you’re facing a beatdown user, always wait for them to place their tank in order for your X-Bow to whittle the tower down.
Place your Furnace constantly to apply pressure and force them to defend.
You will have wanted to get their tower down to about 1000 HP when 2x elixir time rolls around. Now you can spell cycle with Fireball and Log.
Place your buildings, including X-Bow, further back to make an wall to stop crazy pushes.
Beatdown is popular in 2v2, but Inferno Dragon will annihilate their tanks for positive trades. Valk and Fireball really gives value in 2x elixir because you can kill all the support troops quickly.
If the game goes into overtime, just keep spell cycling for the win! Don’t worry about running out of time as this deck is 3.4 average elixir and can cycle quickly back to spells. GG!
Matchups:
(Note: You are not facing one deck but rather two decks in 2v2 but most of the decks will have the theme of these decks mentioned below.)
Log Bait: Easy Matchup.
Save your Log for the Goblin Barrel. Limit damage because then they will keep chip damaging you out.
There are very few high HP cards (except Knight) and you have many cards to stop the knight killing your X-Bow.
Try to bait his Rocket out with the Furnace, then you can safely place your X-Bow.
It’s very easy to defend spell bait with this deck due to the heavy defense that will guard your X-Bow for eternity. Well, until your X-Bow runs out of life.
Lavaloon: Easy Matchup.
Because you have furnace it’s easy to distract, but watch out for lightning.
Inferno Dragon to melt Lava and Loon (make sure to space him out so your opponents can’t get lightning value, and bats to clean up other support troops like Mega Minion.
Try to keep up the positive trades so you can catch the opponents off guard with a surprise X-Bow.
Golem: Medium Matchup.
Use your Inferno Dragon on the Golem and Fireball the support troops.
Place the Valk on the support troops if they are ground troops.
Punish with X-Bow when he places the Golem at the back because by then you will have generated plenty of elixir to defend and you will have gotten tons of damage, assuming he has no elixir 🙂
Try not to overcommit because then you will be able to generate huge X-Bow counterpushes after their push.
REMEMBER, REMEMBER to space out your defensive cards and again, DO NOT overcommit or else the Golem user will just completely annihilate your troops with the Lightning, whilst you have no elixir to defend. #sadlife
PEKKA: Hard Matchup.
In my opinion it’s one of the hardest matchups.
You will always outcycle the PEKKA user because this deck is so cheap. But if both people are using PEKKA you’re sort of screwed… Luckily you have the trusty Inferno Dragon for the PEKKA so you can melt her before she reaches your X-Bow.
Hog Cycle/Control: Medium Matchup.
Hog Cycle users often start off with Hog if they can, so Furnace in your starting hand would help. If not, use Bats.
It’s better to save your Inferno Dragon for their support on their Hog.
Try to keep up with the cycle because they can easily chip away at your tower when you are caught off guard.
If you are facing Hog Control watch out for Lightning because they can wreck your Inferno Dragon/Furnace. Exenado counters this deck pretty well, so use your Valk on the Exe.
That’s all folks! Hoped you liked this deck, as I spent a fair bit of time writing this. Give this deck a shot.
Happy Clashing!
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