Ultimate Guide on Building Hybrid Decks

Hello fellow Clashers! I’m KairosTime and today I’m bringing you Part VI to the “Strategy Guide to Clash Royale” with the Ultimate Guide on Hybrid Deck Building.

This is a guide for new and experienced players alike and will help you get better at using understanding how Hybrid Decks work, and how to build them.

Check out this guide for some basic ideas on Hybrid Decks.

Before we move on, I think that Hybrid Decks are some of the strongest decks in the game, but they require very skilled deck building and players to unlock their full potential. This guide will help you do just that!

In this guide, we’ll focus on these key topics:

• What Hybrid Decks are (Pros & Cons)
• Hybrid Deck Fundamentals
• How to Build a Hybrid Deck

What Is Hybrid Deck?

The 3 Primary Deck Archetypes are Control, Beatdown and Siege.

Each of these have their own strengths and weaknesses as well as deck types that they are Strong or Weak against.

Here’s a brief refresher on each of these Archetypes if you’d like it. (Click the links above for the complete guide on them).

A Hybrid Deck is a deck that contains cards or elements from more than 1 Archetype. For example, you could make a deck that includes the P.E.K.K.A and the Battle Ram for a Beatdown Control Hybrid deck.

Note: Hybrid Decks function a little differently than Double Decks or decks that have more than 1 win condition from the same Archetype. (Miner + Hog would be a Double Control Deck) However, Hybrid Deck building principles will help with Double Deck building as well because a lot of the principles are the same.

Hybrid Deck’s Cons

Although Hybrid decks break free from a lot of the rules that are associated with the three Archetypes, that doesn’t mean that they’re easier to play or build.

In fact, there are lots of Cons to Hybrid Decks:

Difficult to Build

An incorrectly built Hybrid deck will often times contain the weaknesses of both it’s archetypes without all of the strengths.

To get around this, a firm understanding of the current meta is required, as well as a sound understanding of each archetypes’ and cards’ weaknesses.

In order to build the best Hybrid deck, you’ll want to understand how the 3 types of Hybrid Decks work as well. Or you could just throw a bunch of cards together and hope to get lucky with an all star Hybrid deck!

Difficult to Play

Although Hybrid decks can be extremely successful, playing a Hybrid deck requires a lot of skill and understanding of the game.

Because it gives you two different functioning Win Conditions, it means that if you make the wrong choice in the given situation, it’ll often cost you a tower.

Also, only playing one of the archetypes leads to a 3-card disadvantage which can limit your options.

Note: Please let me know if you would like a guide on how to Play Hybrid Decks in the future

Hybrid Deck Pros

If you’re a skilled player and you think you have what it takes to make and play a Strong Hybrid Deck, there are a lot of reasons why Hybrid Decks are an excellent choice.

It’s a High-Skill, High-Reward deck type so if you can pull it off, you’ll have a lot of advantages:

More Options

Although having more options can be a curse if you make the wrong choice, a skilled player will always make the right choice, which means that they’ll have the advantage over any deck archetype.

One example of this is a Control-Beatdown Hybrid playing primarily a Control style to counter a Beatdown deck so he always has the advantage.

Split Pushes

Having a Push with 1 Archetype going down one lane, while the other Archetype push is going down the other can really put your opponent into a tough spot since most people are accustomed to defending one type at a time.

This requires you have a big advantage, but is extremely rewarding if you can pull it off.

Double Threat

Some Hybrid decks use 2 Win Conditions that are similar and require similar counters to get rid of them. These “Double Threat” decks allow you to get past defenses once your opponent’s 1 or 2 counters are already used up, so your second Win Condition can get in on the Tower.

Example: 

Workaround

Other Hybrid decks use 2 Win Conditions that are different and require different counters. If the opponent only has the counters for 1 of them, the other Win Condition can make it’s way to the tower for some easy damage.

Example:

Hybrid Deck Fundamentals

In order for us to talk about Hybrid Deck Building, it’s important to label each win condition as either Offensive or Defensive.

I will label them according to how easily it is for that Win Condition to provide offense or defense.

Keep it in mind that some Win Conditions can be used for both Offense and Defense, but fit better into one or the other.

I’ve added the Archetypes to these cards in parentheses. Bear in mind that some cards could be considered multiple depending on the user’s play style. However, these Archetypes are labeled according to the following definitions:

• Control – Primary Tower destroyer up close
• Beatdown – Acts as a tank to protect other cards that help destroy the tower
• Siege – Primary Tower destroyer from a distance

Offensive Win Conditions

These are Win Conditions that either only target defenses, or that tend to provide more value on offense than defense.

Control:

Beatdown:

Siege:

Defensive Win Conditions

These are Win Conditions that offer more value on Defense and typically require a lot of support to deal damage to the enemy tower, with the exception of the Rocket.

Control:

Beatdown:

Siege:

Note: Some may even not consider some of these Win Conditions because they offer more value on Defense than Offense (Ex. Giant Skeleton or Elite Barbarians). These cards typically require a deck built around them to make them work as a Win Condition.

Hybrid Deck Building

Now that we have the Fundamentals down, we can talk about the 3 types of Hybrid Decks and how to build them:

• Double Offense – Hybrid decks that contain 2 offensive Win Conditions
• Double Defense – Hybrid decks that contain 2 defensive Win Conditions
• Balanced Hybrid – Hybrid decks that contain 1 offensive and 1 defensive Win Condition

Double Offense Hybrid Deck Building

Double Offense Hybrid Decks offer two Win Conditions that are Offensive and as such, as long as you can stay on the offense, these decks are very difficult to defend against. However, they do tend to struggle on Defense so it’s important to build the deck around allowing you to apply constant pressure.

Jason’s Deck was the deck to win the first Clash Royale Competitive Championship! It utilized both the Giant and the Hog Rider to make a Beatdown-Control Double Offense Hybrid Deck

Deck Building Process:

1. Select 2 Offensive Win Conditions – You’ll want to select 2 Win Conditions that you will either Combo together, or that you will send 1 at a time to keep pressure on your opponent. Good Combo’s are cards that require different types of responses like the Hog Rider and Balloon. Cards to send 1 at a time are usually cards that require similar responses so you can hopefully catch your opponent off guard, like the Hog Rider and Giant.
2. Select 1 Win Condition Support – You’ll want to select 1 card that is chosen specifically because it will help both of your Win Conditions deal damage to the tower. For example, Lightning does a good job at supporting both the Giant and the Hog Rider if Inferno Towers are popular.
3. Select 2-3 Anti-Meta Defense Cards – You’ll want to select some cards that are specifically chosen to defend against the most popular Win Conditions in the current meta. Make sure these cards also do a good job at supporting your Win Condition.
4. Select 2-3 Cards to Fill Holes – Here is a very in-depth Deck Building Guide where you can scroll down to “Fill the Holes” and see what I mean. Basically you’ll want to select the last 1-2 cards to cover any weaknesses your deck may have.

One important aspect to recognize while building Double Offense decks is that they really struggle to defend if you have a bad hand.

As such, you want to ask yourself what the worst hand would be if your opponent were to drop a threat that needed to be dealt with immediately.

With the example of the Jason deck, this would be a Hog Rider, Giant, Arrows, and Elixir Collector. With this hand, you wouldn’t be able to defend.

Make sure you build a deck that doesn’t have any of these hands or you’ll find yourself in trouble.

Double Defense Hybrid Deck Building

Double Defense Hybrid Decks contain 2 Defensive Win Conditions. Because of this, they make it difficult for your opponent to deal damage to your tower, but they can struggle on offense.

These decks can do well on the Ladder because of their ability to pull a draw if they find themselves in an unfavorable matchup.

This Double Defense Beatdown-Siege deck uses the PEKKA and the Mortar to support each other, and make it tough for the opponent to deal tower damage

Deck Building Process:

1. Select 2 Defensive Win Conditions – You’ll want to select a couple of Defensive Win Conditions that do a good job at supporting each other so you can actually land hits on the tower.
2. Select 2-3 Win Condition Support Cards – Because your Win Conditions are already defensive, you can focus the majority of the rest of your card slots with cards that are geared toward actually assisting your Win Conditions. Once again, it’s important to select Support cards that will support both of your Win Conditions so you don’t limit your options. These will also have to be cards to counter defenses that might give your Win Conditions a hard time
3. Select 1-2 Anti-Meta Defense Cards – Since your Win Conditions are already defensive you only need 1-2 cards geared toward countering Meta Offenses. Select these to cover offenses that your Win Conditions don’t counter themselves.
4. Select 1-3 Cards to Fill Holes – Similar to the Double Offense Deck Building, you’ll want to make sure there aren’t any major weaknesses to your deck by “Filling the Holes”.

Note: Make sure you have at least 1 damage dealing Spell to help finish off towers. Anything 4+ elixir should work great since Double Defense Hybrids struggle on offense.

Balanced Hybrid Deck Building

Balanced Hybrid Decks are definitely the easiest to Build and to Play because they include 1 Offensive Win Condition and 1 Defensive Win Condition.

As such, you don’t have to worry nearly as much about making sure that you have to cover Defense with Offensive power, or vice versa.

This Balanced Hybrid Deck is a variation of the one I made 3 months ago and won 14 Challenges in a row with, about half of which were Grand Challenges

Deck Building Process:

1. Select an Offensive Win Condition – You can start with the defensive one, but I prefer to start with my primary Tower Destroyer. It doesn’t really matter which Win Condition you start with as long as the two work very well together. It’s a good idea to select an offensive Win Condition that the majority of the meta won’t have a great counter to.
2. Select a Defensive Win Condition – You will want to select a Defensive Win Condition that also does a good job at supporting your Offensive Win Condition, or vice versa depending on the meta. For example, a Battle Ram does a great job at clearing Inferno Towers to allow for PEKKA’s to make it to the tower. You’ll want a Defensive Win Condition that also does a good job at defending against Meta Win Conditions
3. Select 1-2 Win Condition Support Cards – You will want these cards to be cards that can help support both win conditions. In the example above you could select the Baby Dragon as a support to both the PEKKA and the Battle Ram if Tombstones are popular.
4. Select 1-2 cards as your Anti-Meta Defense – These cards should do a good job at covering the weaknesses that your Defensive Win Condition may have against Meta Offenses.
5. Select 2-4 Cards to Fill Holes – Use the last slots to make sure your deck doesn’t have any obvious weaknesses and that it can handle the current meta.

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Thanks so much for reading this guide! If you’re interested in learning more, make sure to subscribe to my YouTube Channel so you can be the first to see my guides. If you have any questions, feel free to leave them as comments on my video and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can!

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