Top 8 Best Champion Cards in Clash Royale Ranked (March 2026)

Champion cards in Clash Royale are one of the most powerful cards in the game. You can start unlocking them once you reach Arena 16: Executioner's Kitchen. Each of these cards has powerful cooldown-based abilities that you can use by spending extra elixir as denoted by the ability icon at the side of the screen.

After using all the 8 Champion cards released so far, I have created this list that ranking all the best Champion cards in Clash Royale in the current patch so that you know which ones to use this season. With this list, I will be explaining which ones you should utilize in deckbuilding since you can only have up to two of them in your deck

List of 8 Best Champion Cards in Clash Royale

To rank all Clash Royale best Champion cards, I considered their individual strengths, abilities and versatility in deckbuilding synergies. Hence Champions with strong stats and abilities will rank higher since they synergize well with other cards in deckbuilding.

Moreover, I have also considered their current effectiveness in or against the best Clash Royale meta decks since those are what you might be facing mostly when you are playing 1v1 Trophy Road or Ranked matches.

8. Monk

The worst Champion card in Clash Royale right now is unfortunately the Monk. The Monk has a cool ability that lets him deflect any projectile-based attacks right back to where they came from for a few seconds. As such, it's powerful against projectile-based attackers like all three Wizards and Witches, Princess, Firecracker, and more.

However, the Monk falls prey to melee troops like the Knight, Mini P.E.K.K.A., etc Overall, his use rate is pretty low in the current meta, due to his low individual strength. He can be useful in some of the best Clash Royale Hero Ice Golem decks to make your Golem survive longer.

7. Little Prince

The Little Prince is ranked low on this list of the best Champion cards in Clash Royale because he was once a top-tier card that lost all his glory after being nerfed. When this card first came out, he was a menace to deal with since his Royal Rescue ability lets him summon his trusted bodyguard Guardienne in front of him.

She acts like a mini-tank while the Prince keeps shooting arrows from behind. With the Guardienne undergoing nerfs recently, makes him less viable in top-tier deckbuilding, which makes him rank low on this list.

6. Mighty Miner

The Mighty Miner ranks sixth of the list of the best Champion cards in Clash Royale because of his effective use in a select few decks. Individually, he isn't as strong as it takes forever for his drill to reach max damage output giving your opponents enough time to use spells and troops to take him down.

However, his main viability comes from his one-cost Explosive Escape ability that lets him burrow underground and appear on the other side of the arena horizontally. While he does so, he drops a bomb in his initial location, which is useful to blow up a Princess Tower if it has less than 400 HP left. He can easily escape from the Hero Mega Minion's teleport ability if up against some of the best Clash Royale Hero Mega Minion decks.

5. Archer Queen

The Archer Queen is one of the best Clash Royale Champion cards since her one-cost Cloaking Cape ability literally hides her from everyone while she continues attacking for three seconds. Additionally, her attack speed is also increased by 80%, which makes her shoot rapidly.

This can be very useful if you wish to get her out of a tough spot of being crowded by enemies you wish to keep on attacking the enemy tower without any hindrance. She initially had a higher damage output with future updates nerfing it entirely. The Archer Queen is still useful in some of the best Mega Knight decks in Clash Royale.

4. Golden Knight

The Golden Knight once was the best Champion in Clash Royale. He has decent stats similar to a normal Knight and a high attack speed. His Dashing Dash ability lets him dash and hit multiple enemies together as long as they are near each other. With the press of a button, he can dash and hit all of them, dealing significant damage to each.

The best way to counter him, is to not place your troops together and keeping a little space between them. This halts him in his tracks, allowing you to defeat him with other troops and spells. The Golden Knight ranks high due to his ability has a short eight-second cooldown, where it's possible to use it multiple times.

3. Skeleton King

The Skeleton King ranks third on this list of best Clash Royale Champion cards because of its utility. When other troops die in battle (both yours and your opponents'), he collects their soul to fill his soul meter, which requires 10 souls to be full. This meter is then used when you activate his Soul Summoning ability that summons Skeletons around him.

The number of skeletons summoned depends on how much the meter was filled. An empty meter will spawn six skeletons, while each collected soul increases it by one, with a maximum of 16 skeletons. The Skeleton king is pretty useful in best Clash Royale Hero Goblins decks where you use many weak but cheap units to fill up his meter faster.

After filling the soul meter, you can unleash your army of skeletons when he reaches near enemy towers to overwhelm enemy defenses. However, do keep a splash-damaging support troop behind him since Minions and Bats are his main counters.

2. Goblinstein

When the Goblinstein was first released, he was the most powerful card in the entire game, as the “Goblinstein meta” ruled the season. While the Goblinstein attacks enemy buildings and towers, the Doctor is free to attack any nearby unit (both ground and air troops) and also stun them for 0.5 seconds with each hit.

After numerous nerfs, he is still pretty strong as a tank unit, since his Lightning Link ability lets you create a lightning chain between the Doctor and his creation. This chain damages every enemy that comes into contact with it, alongside having infinite range. This is pretty useful since it counters many anti-tank troops like Skeletons, Minions, and Bat, putting more pressure on the enemy. The troop works well with many of the best Hog Rider decks in Clash Royale.

1. Boss Bandit

The Boss Bandit is undoubtedly the best Champion in Clash Royale currently. Being the most expensive card on this list, costing six elixirs, her ability, Getaway Grenade, that lets her teleport backwards for only an elixir. This lets you use her dash again after a short three-second cooldown. To make things balanced, you can only use this ability twice when she's alive.

Her ability makes her useful in many Hyperbait Clash Royale Log Bait decks. Right now, she is the ultimate tank-killer since she has high HP, high damage, fast attack speed, and a get-out-of-jail-free ability. Her dashes also deal significantly more damage than the dashes made by the usual Bandit.

Overall, she is very hard to counter unless you do so using multiple troops or airborne troops. As such, you should preferably have a splash-damaging support troop behind her to provide her with cover fire.

That's it for this ranked list of the best Champion cards in Clash Royale. If you are looking to add Champions to your decks, we recommend you upgrade the top four or five Champions from this list. Additionally, check out our list of the best Hero cards in Clash Royale to learn which Heroes to unlock first and add to your deck!