Clash Royale November Balance Update: Mega Minion Nerf

By Clash World · Guides · Oct 17, 2026

AI Overview: The Clash Royale November balance update on November 30th 2016 nerfed the Mega Minion, buffed the Poison and the Elixir Collector, and slowed the Tombstone. The writer gave his own view on each card, with usage numbers for the top players. The old write-up is kept below, so you can trust each point and skip the guesswork.

Last Updated: October 2026

Key Points:

• The original says the update came on November 30th 2016.
• The Mega Minion’s hit speed fell from 1.3s to 1.4s and its damage fell 6%.
• The Elixir Collector’s life fell from 80s to 70s.
• The Poison gained 10% damage.
• In 2026 no printed Mega Minion list wins more than 50%.

Myths and Facts From the November Patch

How to read this. Each myth is a claim from the original writer. Each fact is what the page, or today’s data, can back up.

Short on time? Read the table. Mega Minion and Elixir Collector are the two headline cards.

Plain talk. The writer was loud. Some of his calls aged well. Some did not.

Myth: The Mega Minion nerf ended the Mega Minion.

Fact. The patch cut its hit speed from 1.3s to 1.4s and its damage by 6%. The writer said it would still beat Musketeer, Baby Dragon and Wizard one on one. Today, no printed Mega Minion list wins more than 50%.

Myth: A 10% Poison buff fixes Poison.

Fact. The writer said it was not big enough, and that Poison would stay underused. Today the Poison’s best list wins 68.6%, though its tower damage fell from 184 to 168 on June 1.

Zoom out. Small buffs can look useless until the meta shifts around them. If another spell is quietly boosted, expect it to return when its main counter fades, and expect players to say they saw it coming.

Myth: The Elixir Collector buff is huge.

Fact. The patch cut its life from 80s to 70s and sped production from 9.8s to 8.5s. The writer called it a rushed fix. Today only six tracked decks run it.

Myth: A 1% hitpoint cut to the Lava Pup is a big deal.

Fact. The writer said it would matter to very few players, since it only changes how many tower shots kill a low-level pup. Today the Lava Hound’s best list wins 78.8%, over a small sample of 241 battles.

What the Writer Got Right

Tombstone. He said it would stay the best defensive building. Its best list wins 63.8% today.

Final word. A bold call is easy to make and hard to check.

Good to know. The Clone Spell was due about a week later, says the original, and the writer expected more Zap bait decks.

Quick recap. Tombstone held, Poison returned, Lightning ruled.

Poison. He expected a comeback against Graveyard and Ice Golem Hog decks. Poison is a core spell now.

Lightning. He said it ruled the meta. Today Lightning’s best list wins 72.1%.

Claims, rechecked. The page says 84% of top 100 players used the Mega Minion over three weeks, and that Elixir Collectors once sat in about 90% of top decks. Those are the writer’s figures, and they are not checked here. Treat every figure as a starting point, not a rule.

Zoom in. Usage numbers drive patches. If a card sits in most top decks, expect a nerf, and expect players to lose a favorite they built a deck around.

Where This Fits

Same month, other pages. The November 1st balance page and the November update recap are merged below, in full.

Last tip. Check two pages before you trust one writer.

Small habit. Treat any usage percentage on an old page as a story, not a fact.

Card pages. Check Mega Minion, Poison and Tombstone for current numbers.

Dated. The page says November 30th 2016.

Zoom out again. If each patch fixes the last patch, players lose track of the cause. The risk is a meta in permanent repair, where nobody is sure why a deck works, and every new player has to learn the repair history first.

Frequently Asked Questions

What was the Clash Royale November balance update?

The original calls it a November 30th 2016 patch with a Mega Minion nerf, an Elixir Collector buff, a Poison buff and a Tombstone nerf. Use it as a guide, and check the linked pages for the current details.

How was the Mega Minion nerfed?

Its hit speed went from 1.3s to 1.4s and its damage fell 6%.

What changed for the Elixir Collector?

Its life fell from 80s to 70s and production sped up from 9.8s to 8.5s.

Did the Poison get stronger?

Yes. It gained 10% damage in 2016.

Is the Mega Minion good in 2026?

No printed list wins more than 50%.

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.

So finally Supercell has announced the upcoming Clash Royale Balance Change Update on November 30th 2016. In this update, Supercell is toning down Mega Minion (as we predicted before) and making the Elixir Collector great again.

Clash Royale November Balance Change Update

Below is Ash’s opinions on the new Clash Royale update (balance changes).

Mega Minion: Hit Speed decreased from 1.3s to 1.4s; Damage decreased by 6%.

This is no surprise. Mega Minion is too valuable for only 3 Elixir and can beat all other 3 Elixir and 4 Elixir unit (except Tesla) one on one. In total, this is about 15% DPS nerf. Unfortunately, even with this nerf, the Mega Minion is still going to be a beast. The Mega Minion will continue to beat threats such as Musketeer, Baby Dragon, and Wizard one on one. And in my opinion, it’s really not too significant.

The Mega Minion was used by over 84% of the Top 100 players in the Global Leaderboards for the last 3 weeks. This nerf may reduce the usage down to around 75% I would. The 2nd most used card is The Log, which is used around 65%, so yea, I really don’t see another card surpassing Mega Minion, unless the Mega Minion gets a bigger nerf than this.

Elixir Collector: Lifetime decreased from 80s to 70s; Production Speed increased from 9.8s to 8.5s.

I feel like this is a huge buff and feel like it’s unneeded. It’s only been a few weeks since Elixir Collector was changed.

The Elixir Collector wasn’t dead, it was still a fine high risk high reward card and also worked perfectly fine in 3 Musketeer decks too. But now with this significant buff, the Collector will now produce Elixir faster, making it super super deadly during double Elixir time.

Beatdown decks will be stronger than ever during double elixir. It will still remain risky, but the reward is now really high. You get a 3 Elixir profit in 70 seconds, that’s a crazy return value in my opinion.

I feel like Supercell just rushed this card, thinking it was dead. The Elixir Collector metagame was one of the worst metas in the game, where in its prime, it was in about 90% of top players’ decks. I would hate to see that happening again.

Poison’s damage increased by 10%

Many people believe that this is a significant buff, but in my opinion, it’s not really not significant and Poison will still be very underused.

Poison’s main attribute used to be its slow down effect. A 10% buff means Poison will do 60 damage per second instead of 55 for 10 seconds at Level 4. And in total, it will do 50 more damage to troops and building, and 25 more damage to Crown towers. Which is insignificant in my opinion. It’s not going to kill Skeletons from a Graveyard, in fact, it’s going to be the same thing beause Level 9 Skeletons have 67 HP and Level 4 Poison will now do 60 damage per second, so it will still take 2 seconds to kill Skeletons.

So yea, I don’t think a 10% damage increase is going to Poison a better option than Fireball or Lightning in most decks.

Tombstone spawn speed decreased from 2.5s to 2.9s

2.9 seconds from 2.5 seconds. This is also not much nerf.

The biggest difference will be that you’ll have to time place down your Tombstone safer to block a Furnace. You’ll have to wait for the first round of Fire Spirits to dissipate before playing down your Tombstone. While the Tombstone will spawn 2 less Skeletons over its 40 second life time, not really that big of a deal.

The Tombstone will still remain as the best defensive building, and I’m very confident in saying that.

Lava Pup HP decreased by 1%

This change only affects like 0.000001% of the players, and I’m one of those players who’s affected pretty badly like this.

This is simply so that a Level 12 player’s Arena Tower can 2 shot Level 4 Lava Pups, instead of 3 shot. I don’t like it because my highest level Legendary is my Level 4 Lava Hound, and it’s the card that I use to mainly trophy push with because of that. Not only that that, Level 4 Lava Pups already get 1 shotted by Level 13 Zap Spell. This is a big blow for me.

Ash explaining the new balance changes in this video:

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Clash Royale November Balance Change – A Closer Look Into The New Poison Buff

Shared by Galbers Gaming

Supercell back in October removed the slow effect (movement speed and attack speed) from Poison which completely annihilated it, but they felt it was needed to rid Clash Royale of Goison and they didn’t want to risk not going far enough to remove the combination from the game. Well they succeeded, there is more variance in the arena but in it’s place Lightning now stands just about supreme and is used in two very strong decks at the moment: the Giant with Bowler and the Lava Hound. Supercell is apparently looking at Lightning so maybe come end of December we will see a buff to Elite Barbarians and a slight nerf to Lightning but anyway I digress let’s get back on topic, POISON!

Poison has been completely unused since that nerf, in fact the only time I saw it was in the entertaining Double Elixir Challenge where I lost to a very good (annoying) spawner deck on my 12th win attempt, yes I’m still a little bitter! So it was inevitable that it would get a buff at some point especially when a fireball does more damage and instantaneously. So this 10% damage increase is certainly a good start at bringing the Poison spell back into the arena from the Graveyard :), and right now there are decks out there where I can see this spell really working and in some instances even being as strong as Poison was back before it was nerfed! Big shout I know and it is to do with the Ice Golem with Poison interaction against the Barbarians, this is something which no one has seemed to pick up on yet but before I talk about that here is some background:

Past

Before the Poison destruction back in October, it slowed units speed and attack speed as well as did damage over time. At that time Hog Rider Poison was a thing, obviously it was not as prolific as Goison but it was there.

Current Decks that will be affected by an increase in Poison popularity:

• The Ice Golem Hog Rider cycle deck is one of the stronger decks at the moment, one card which shuts this down relatively well is the Barbarians – Poison used to be used in conjunction with Hog Rider to combat Barbarians.
• There are also some tricksy Graveyard decks doing the rounds – Poison will shut these decks down.
• There will also be more Elixir Collectors post Wednesday’s update, although the Elixir Collector will still be a risky card to play especially in the current Lightning Meta – Elixir collector has always been an attractive Poison target even now pre-Poison buff.
• The Clone Spell will be released in just over a week’s time, upon release there will be more Zap Bait decks where Poison will be helpful as well as be a slightly expensive option of destroying the cloned units themselves, four elixir Poison to the three elixir Clone.

With all of this in mind, Poison is looking more attractive especially post the ten per cent damage buff.

Post Poison buff – 10% damage increase

• In an Ice Golem Hog Rider cycle deck (one of the stronger decks currently) the inclusion of the buffed Poison with the Ice Golem’s death damage will be able to kill Barbarians (this is also currently the case with the Fireball & Ice Golem’s death combination), but wait that’s not all. On the Ice Golem’s death a slow will activate, making this already potent combination even stronger and very similar to the Poison back before it was nerfed! My video below explores this as well as the post Poison buff: Ice Golem, Hog Rider and Poison deck.
• Poison will also now be able to kill the Wizard and Musketeer should you be able to keep them in the poison long enough…
• Poison Freeze was also a thing for the level 12s and 13s so maybe that too will make a comeback.

This all looks very good on paper but we will just have to see how it works in practice. I’m pretty sure it will work in some decks but if doesn’t work you didn’t hear it from me… if it does work, you heard it from Galbers Gaming first 😉

Anyway, please let me know if you:

• Agree/disagree with me
• Know of any other little “niches” that will arise from the ten per cent Poison damage increase
• Have any decks in mind where Poison would fit it
• And most importantly of all, do you think Goison or some sort of Tank Poison will come back to the Clash Royale arena?!

Thanks for reading, if you have any questions please do not hesitate to ask and please don’t forget to subscribe to Galbers Gaming’s channel for more strategy and tips.

What do you think about these changes guys? Please share your opinions!

Older Page: Clash Royale November Update Recap – Hidden Updates Inside!

This is an older page that was merged here. The text below is kept in full. It was written between 2016 and 2022, so some details are out of date. The tips and numbers above use 2026 sources.

Hey guys, so Supercell is going to release the big Clash Royale November update very soon with new cards, balance changes and lots of new features. I decided to create this page to recap everything you need to you about the upcoming update.

Clash Royale November Update Recap

Balance Changes

In this update, Supercell is going to buff Ice Golem’s death damage and the Rage effect. Ice Spirit’s freeze effect and Inferno Tower HP is going to be nerf also.

Take a look at this page for more details about these balance changes!

Friendly Battle Rework

For the better battles, both players’ cards are set to the Tournament Rules in the Friendly Battle mode.

Here are some more hidden information I got from Yarn’s video:

• Players no longer see the Elixir bar of friend’s opponent while spectating. People were using this as a way to “cheat”.
• Card Request reduced to 7 hours (from 8 hours). Awesome!
• Max Trophy requirement in Clan Settings now is 4000 trophies.
• Muted opponents no longer show bubbles.

New Special Event Challenges

The first special event challenge is the King’s Cup, which is gonna be available on November 4th.

During the King’s Cup, your cards bring to Tournament Standard, even If your cards are below the cap. There will be also a new game mode in the King’s Cup which is called “Blind Mode”, giving both players random decks to play.

Read more about the King’s Cup at here.

4 New Cards

Yes, 4 new cards are going to be released soon my friends!

We now all know the first card is the Tornado, which was leaked by Supercell today:

And this is the leaked image containing the other three.

Take a look at this page to see the gameplay of these new cards!

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Hidden Updates

Below are some hidden updates which were not reveled by Supercell. Asdamp mined the data from Clash Royale 1.6 game files (thanks a lot buddy!).

New Achievements:

4 New Shop Packs:

Misc:

• Reference to Dark Mirror (Possible new card coming in the next update)
• The most powerful Trainer, Trainer Cheddar, is now set at 5000 trophies. He gains 1 Elixir every 0.7s during normal time. He uses this deck: Miner, Ice Wizard, Princess, Lava Hound, Inferno Dragon, The Log, Sparky and Lumberjack (super payfecta).
• Epic chest shows up in shop every 7 days. Legendary Chest shows up in shop every 21 days.

Updating…

Don’t forget to bookmark this page so you can visit it later with ease my friends!

Older Page: Clash Royale November Balance Change Update (1/11)

This is an older page that was merged here. The text below is kept in full. It was written between 2016 and 2022, so some details are out of date. The tips and numbers above use 2026 sources.

Hey guys, today Supercell has announced the new balance change update which will be released on November 1st. In this update, Supercell are taking a look at Ice Golem, Ice Spirit, Inferno Tower and the Rage Spell.

Ice Golem Death Damage increased by 74%

This change helps Ice Golem kill Skeletons nearby upon death at Tournament Rule card levels. This is such a great buff since people are using Skeleton Army and Tombstone a lot!

Ice Spirit Freeze duration decreased from 2s to 1.5s

The special Freeze ability is what makes Ice Spirit the best troop in Clash Royale pre-update. But, undoubtedly, 2s are too much with only 1 Elixir cost. We all knew this change would happen!

Rage effect increased from 30% to 35%

Rage is always very fun to use and is the surprising part of most decks containing it. But, currently its userate is very low. With the insane buff for this 2 Elixir Spell, I strongly believe we will face the Rage Spell a lot in the Arena!
As a result, Lumberjack’s Rage effect will be also increased from 30% to 35%.

Inferno Tower HP decreased by 6%

At the moment, Inferno Tower is the best defensive building in Clash Royale, working as the solution to deal with big tanks. Hands down, sometimes it’s very hard to remove the Inferno Tower from the map.

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Also, as you can see in the image above (provided by Supercell), there is a new 3 Elixir card, which looks like a “Tornado.

Seems like we will see this new card soon in the Arena:

<3 Sneak Peeks? Come back later!

— Clash Royale (@ClashRoyale) October 29, 2016

See how this change affects your own deck: the Patch risk tab in the Clash Royale Deck Builder scores every card by its recent balance changes.

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 2022), kept in full below