Clash Royale's meta has suddenly become very stale right in front of us, with the new absurdly strong card "Electro Dragon" being added to the game and fitting in almost every deck archetype. Creativity is lacking when you're building new decks and rightfully so, since this card has been one of the most impactful releases in the recent history of Clash Royale.

That's why we thought about covering a more general aspect of Clash Royale that you have to deal with almost every match that you play. Controlling bridges is a term often used by players in the professional environment and describes the situation of both opposing players dueling it out with their cards on one or both bridges. The winner of this exchange will often have a major advantage moving up against the enemy for the rest of the game and is widely considered a key part of Clash Royale. Without further ado, let's get into it!

Important Cards

Now that we know what the term "bridge control" actually means, Rohin "Messi10" Sharma informed us about some of the strongest cards that excel at these types of fights, "The main cards which do really well at controlling the bridge are splash damage troops (Bowler, Baby Dragon, Ice Wiz, etc.) and Tornado. Rather than using single target troops, it is more effective to have a troop which can hit everything when grouped up with a Tornado. On top of that, some splash troops have special mechanics. For example, Bowler is able to knockback a lot of ground troops and Ice Wizard is able to slow down a massive push while also dealing consistent damage. Since Lightning is very prominent in the meta, Baby Dragon is a great card due to it being able to survive Lightning and Ice Wizard is also a great card because it only costs 3 Elixir."

Tornado is a 3 Elixir card that sets up a lot of offensive and defensive moves on both sides of the playing field. You'll see it quite often when you're watching the CRL due to its potential to wipe large groups of enemies with a close to 100% success rate.

Bowler, Baby Dragon, and Ice Wizard were the examples that Messi10 mentioned in his statement. He pointed out that during these times of a meta shift towards more common usage of Lightning cards that the Baby Dragon will come out as a prominent card. He didn't mention cards like Electro Wizard since its damage isn't a "Splash" effect which is the key part to making a card great for your clashes at the bridge.

Controlling decks

When asked about some frequently used controlling decks, Messi10 told us that these three are especially useful in the current meta: Golem Lightning, Miner Poison, and Splashyard.

Golem Lightning is a deck that capitalizes on the toughness of the Golem to tank all the damage and explode upon the depletion of its health bar to destroy surrounding hordes of enemies. With the backing of The Log, Baby Dragon, and Lightning all within the same deck, you won't have a problem clearing large numbers of troops. Elixir Pump obviously makes it so that you can play more cards together with the Golem costing a whopping 8 Elixir.

Miner Poison is similar to Golem Lightning with very different cards. The tanks in this deck are the Knight and Miner, with the Skeletons/Musketeer/Inferno Tower acting as back-up. The Ice Spirit is one of the cheapest cards with a Splash effects and can be used in combination with every card in this deck. If the Inferno Tower's beam doesn't get disrupted, it's a very lethal combination with Ice Spirit.

Splashyard is probably the deck that focuses the most on Splash damage thus made obvious in the deck's title. With Tornado acting as a set-up, you have to choose between Baby Dragon, Bowler, Electro Wizard, or Poison. Electro Wizard will be able to support the Bowler against the likes of an Inferno Tower/Dragon, Skeletons/Graveyard will deal with large individual units (Golem, P.E.K.K.A., etc.), and the rest of the Splash cards will deal with groups of enemies.

Counters

Messi10: "More often than not, decks with Inferno Dragon do very well against Splash troops. Generally there are no resets such as Zap and Electro Wizard in those kind of decks. As a result, Inferno Dragon is able to shred through the support troops. However, Electro Dragon has been very popular and since Lightning is the only spell that is able to counter it, both those cards have been in a lot of meta decks. Both of these cards do very well against Inferno Dragon, so that is why Splash Control is very strong at the moment. Nevertheless, decks with Lightning are still good against Splash Control since they generally get a lot of value."

With Messi10's statement on this matter, we can gather that it's very important to use the Inferno Dragon (and possibly the Inferno Tower for defensive purposes) but that Splash decks are in a very good spot at the moment. Baiting out a card that is able to disrupt your Inferno Dragon, making that sole decision possibly fatal.

Lightning is a card that also gets mentioned, due to it being able to counter the Electro Dragon and hordes of minions at the same time it's risen back to being one of the most used spells. As long as Electro Dragon is still a force to be reckoned with, you should always at least consider adding Lightning to your deck!

Tips

When Messi10 was asked about when you should play agressively and how to time it, he told us, "Take the offensive after you have won the bridge battle. The troops that have survived are able to counter push and get a lot of value.

Wait until you know your push is able to get a lot of damage. If they lack a good counter to your splash troops or win condition, then you are definitely able to capitalize and go on the offensive afterwards.

He also had a tip for newer to seasoned players, "Don’t overcommit to winning the bridge battle. Sometimes you may get nothing out of it, so early on in the game it’s best to just cut your losses and try to stabilize your position in the game. Also ensure that you play patiently and seperate your troops in way that makes your opponent have a tough time.

Providing an example to solidify his statements, Messi10 told us about one of his recent experiences, "I was playing Golem Lightning against Pekka Battle Ram. I knew that if I was able to defend his pushes and get value out of my splash troops, I could easily Golem and get a lot of damage without getting punished. I waited for the perfect opportunity and I was able to win the game by getting a massive snowball push."

We want to thank Messi10 once again for making his second consecutive guide with us! His input is, as always, essential to making these guides and it wouldn't be the same without him. For more great content covering all of our different games that we as a team compete in or have competed in, stay tuned!

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