Hey guys, today i am going to tell you all about another amazing strategy that has recently been dominating the meta of Clash Royale. Its a deck revolving around the Graveyard Baby Dragon and the Bowler, and is hence called

The Splash-yard Deck

As you can see in the picture above the deck consists of some other cards like the poison and mega minion as well, which act as support troops to the main trio. With an average elixir cost of 3, this deck is a very moderate in terms if elixir usage and will definitely keep your hand ready with something to defend with.

Let’s go into the details of the deck as , mind you, it requires quite a lot of skill to play and master. You won’t win a lot of matches initially with this deck but once you get a hold of it, say after about 10-15 matches , the wins will just keep coming.

So let’s get right into the detailed analysis of each card after which i will talk about general but very crucial tips that will be required to play this deck and some combinations of kill-squads.

The Skeletons


The Skeletons are the cheapest card in the Clash Royale universe. At 1 elixir the Skeletons are a great distraction and cycle card.
This card can be very good when countering heavy hitting troops such as the Pekka or the Prince. The Skeletons essentially tank for the arena towers and the damage dealers when defending. This makes the enemy Prince or Pekka waste pretty much all their damage, by only killing one small health point troop per swing. This stalls the Prince and Pekka long enough so they can’t get any damage on your tower.

The Skeletons should be used as a defensive card 90 percent of the time. However, at this stage of the game I think that it can be useful and help you defend your arena or crown towers quite a bit. The Skeletons have no hard counter that gives your opponent an equal or advantageous elixir count but at the same time the Skeletons don’t provide a great deal on offense but can be very useful in mini battles, i,e, supporting Princess while at the bridge to get some more damage on the tower and at the same time frustrating the opponent.

In this deck too their job is to faster kill mini tanks like Knight, Ice Golem, etc and pretty much the regular job that Skeletons have – of distracting.

Knight

The Knight’s statistics are all very moderate. This makes him a very versatile card.
The Knight is best used as a as a meat shield for smaller troops, as it has extremely high hitpoints for a mere cost of 3 elixir.
Alternatively, the Knight can be used to back up higher hitpoints troops, such as the Giant Skeleton or Giant, mainly the Graveyard in this deck. It can take down a Valkyrie, Ice Wizard, Wizard, Witch, Mini Pekka, Night Witch, among almost of 3-4 elixir cards. After it was buffed with an increased health and damage per second, it has become one of the most versatile cards in the entire game.

With high hitpoints and decent damage, he can be played both offensively and defensively.
He can survive a hit or two from a Prince, and if placed in the middle it can distract the Prince long enough for the towers to kill it.

He can be supported with Skeletons, Mega Minion or even the Graveyard in overtime to deal quick and great damage. This combo is not only cheap but versatile. It also gives you enough time and Elixir to defend against your opponent. Deploy a splash troop like the Bowler in case the combo fails and the enemy comes at you with a counter attack.
The Knight is actually a good counter to cards such as the Dark Prince, Executioner, and the Miner due to his higher health, damage per second, and, in the case of the first two, Elixir advantage.
The Knight can also be used as a cheap tank, as he has high health for his elixir cost.
It’s very effective to use it against support cards such as Spear Goblins and Witch due to its fast hit speed, high health, and most of all, positive elixir trade.
Many a times people actually ignore the Knight which is a massive mistake, as the Knight can deal up to 1000 damage if left alone.

Bowler

The Bowler is easily the most underrated card in the game.

Not only can it deal with Elite Barbarians extremely efficiently, but can also basically shut down a hog push. It is THAT strong. I personally would include it in every deck i create.

On defense, it can counter hog extremely efficiently, conceding at most 1 hit if placed right in front of the tower. This way you know your opponent has wasted 4 elixir and you can thus counter-push using the hog combined with Goblins, or Minion Horde in overtime.

If your opponent drops Elite Barbarians, drop the Bowler in the center , along with Ice Wizard if you wish to minimize the damage. The Ice Wizard will slow down the Elite Barbarians, minimizing damage and allowing you to counter push.

On offense, it is the perfect counter-push partner. Elite Barbarians, Barbarians, Goblins, Goblins Gang, Skeleton Army, you name it. It is the main tank and support unit both in this deck, where on offense it is used in combination with the Baby Dragon and Knight and the Graveyard in overtime to overpower your opponent, leaving him/her defenseless.

Poison

Poison can be used effectively to damage both troops and buildings.
It can be used to cripple the infamous spawner strategy, as it damages the troops that spawn from the buildings, along with the buildings themselves, resulting in massive elixir advantage

Since the Poison’s damage is capable of killing a Musketeer, Wizard, or Electro Wizard but since the troops tends to walk out of the radius before it dies, a Knight/ Skeletons paired with the Poison to keep the troop inside the radius can also be used

Pairing Poison with the Bowler is a good idea since the Bowler’s knock-back can push medium-health swarms back into the Poison radius.

A Bowler paired with Skeletons and Poison can take out Three Musketeers with ease, providing a base for a counter-push as well.
Poison is preferred to Fireball as it combines extremely well with Graveyard, crippling anything in a big radius.

Poison can be an effective counter to the Graveyard, sharing a similar duration. It covers most of its radius. However, some Skeletons will still do damage to the Arena Tower.
Poison is also effective with Graveyard since the Poison and Graveyard’s duration are similar and Poison will kill low health units that are trying to defend against the Graveyard over time, which is the main essence of this deck.

Tornado

The tornado is one of the best defensive card in the game, if not the best.

On defense,at mere cost of 3 elixir, it can be used to counter almost all cards , especially Tanks. The perfect strategy on defense is to either pull the Tanks towards the King Tower( Hog Rider, Giant, Golem) and the subsequent time you can pull the troops towards the center of your side, keeping them in range of all 3 towers, which will result in them dealing massive damage.

Additionally, for higher hard hitters, you can drop Skeletons to deal that extra damage while them constantly getting roasted by the towers. It can be used in sync with the Bowler in such a way that all troops are in line of the Bowler’s ball, dealing damage to all of them and giving you an outrageous elixir advantage.

On offense, the Tornado can be used again in sync with the Bowler/ Baby Dragon and Graveyard, where the tornado clumps the enemy’s troops together while the Bowler deals with them and the graveyard finishes off the tower along with poison if needed.

Baby Dragon


The Baby Dragon is a very underrated card in my opinion.
Not only does it deal area damage, easily defeating Archers, Minions, Spear Goblins, the Goblin Gang, and Skeletons from the Witch or the Skeleton Army, but can also be a great support unit in a majority of decks thanks to its aerial ability.
It can take down almost all kinds of swarm troops, even the Minion Horde, in just 2 shots!

It is effective to pair the Baby Dragon with the Bowler and Graveyard in this deck. The Baby Dragon takes out the swarms of low hit point troops while the Bowler distract the units thanks to its high health, and the Graveyard, well, you know.

The Baby Dragon also can weaken Barbarians, allowing your Crown Tower to take care of them.

You can bypass a building that is at least 3 tiles away from the river by placing the Baby Dragon on the edge from the very front. This will work on both sides.

Mega Minion

The Mega Minion is mostly usable as a defense card as it has high damage but is slow and cheap. However, it is often used on the offensive as a support card, being able to clear out small units and deal good damage.
Its high damage and medium hit-points allow it to be able to defend relatively well against many ground-based pushes, while not being as vulnerable to Zap, Arrows, or Fireball as a Minion Horde or Minions due to its relatively higher health.

The Mega Minion is effective against Balloon combos as due to its damage and health it can survive Arrows or Fireball and still have some health to take out the Balloon before it attacks a Crown Tower.

A Fireball 3 levels higher than the Mega Minion can kill it in one shot except at level 1.
To defend against a Minion Horde, the player can place this card in the middle so the horde of Minions will be pulled to the center, delaying them from reaching a Crown Tower and killing at least two of them.

In this deck its major usage is to deal with high hit-point medium Tanks like the Knight or Balloon at a very cheap cost , proving you with a base for THE counter-push, which can be done by combining it with the Bowler or Knight and Graveyard.

The Graveyard

Last but surely not the least, we have the Graveyard. This will be the main attacking unit of your deck, At the cost of 6 elixir, it is surely a very expensive card, but combined with the Bowler and Baby Dragon and poison in overtime it will deal massive damage. It has clearly no place in defense, but you wont need it, thanks to the various troops that are in this deck, which effectively deal with them while providing a base to counter-push.

What you would want to do ideally is drop a Tank like the Knight or Bowler supported by the Baby Dragon such that the Arena Tower locks onto the Tank, and when that happens, drop the Graveyard. In overtime, or when you have a huge elixir advantage , drop the Poison on the Tower as well, which will slowly kill all troops that the enemy might drop to counter your Graveyard, which, more often that not, are low hit-point swarm troops like Skeleton Army, Minion Horde. The Poison spell will kill them along with damaging the Tower, and this strategy is so deadly that if executed correctly, it will finish off the tower 90% of the time.

Additional Notes

Good Combos:
Offense: Bowler+Baby Dragon + Graveyard+ Poison
defense Bowler+Tornado

Ideal starting play-
#1- 1 Elixir Skeletons, followed by
#2- Mega Minion, followed by
#3-Knight.

Never play Bowler, Baby Dragon as they are high elixir troops and too risky to play as your first card. Instead, wait for the opponent to play and react accordingly .

If the enemy drops a Goblin Barrel, simply counter using 1 elixir Skeletons; you want to build a good elixir advantage.
NEVER TRADE TOWERS. THIS DECK IS ONLY GREAT TILL ALL YOUR TOWERS ARE INTACT. Play defensive and react on the counter-push.
Against 3 Musketeer decks, go for the tie, as they are simply too stronger.
Against “cycle” decks, put pressure on them by constantly winning elixir trades.

When to play Graveyard- when you know his cards, and has swarm cards in his hand that can be killed with Poison.
Save Tornado for defense preferably.

If you ever get the chance to take out the enemy’s tower, do it.

This deck essentially is a counter-deck.

I hope you guys enjoyed reading this article, and liked the deck, Do give it a try. If you have any feedback/queries, feel free to comment down below.
Keep calm and clash on!