Which card in Clash Royale should never appear in the starting hand?

Clash Royale currently has two cards that will never appear in the starting hand:

  • Elixir Collector (nerfed in a balance change)
  • Mirror (logic)

Do you think that there should be more? If so, which card(s) do you think should not appear in the starting hand? Why?

We will summarize your responses here, from Twitter, r/ClashRoyale, and r/RoyaleAPI when the survey is over in 24-48 hours. Thanks for your help!

4 Likes

Mirror, elixir collector isn’t a bad first play. Mirror is just useless tho if its the starting hand

Lava Golem Giant Goblin-Giant Electro-Giant

Fixed starting hands is the best solution, but if not clone and freeze shouldn’t be in starting hands for obvious reasons.

1 Like

Any direct damage spell (spells that don’t spawn a troop). You never lead with a direct damage spell, so it gives you less choices to start an affective attack and get the game going. In extreme cases where it happens badly to both players it can lead to stand offs on who goes first.

Any win condition card which require a quick answer from opponent, just like golem, hog rider, etc.

The reason: Many times mi rival play golem and it may happen two things, i dont have in cycle something for pressing at the contrary tower or i dont have any card in cycle to defend golem like pekka o inferno dragon. The same with the hog rider, if my opponent play hog rider and i dont have tornada, fisherman or any structure that damage could make me lose.

Cards exile high tricky to initial play.

Any win condition card which require a quick answer from opponent, just like golem, hog rider, etc.

I disagree. I’d rather have win cons in the starting hand. It gets the game going quickly and allows me to attack. If neither person has a win con in their starting hand it forces one person to make a crap start with cards that won’t amount to anything, giving the advantage to the other person.

There should not be any cards that never appear in the starting hand.

I think that Elixir Collector can be put in the starting hand if it wasn’t a high risk high reward card. Making the building cost 5 elixir and generate 6 would be my personal change.

Mirror could be in the starting hand if it couldn’t be used as the first card in a game.

I think all cards should be able to appear in your starting hand. If a card is problematic, you should fix the card, rather than make special rules to accommodate it.

Mirror - The issue is that, currently, Mirror can’t be played as your first card because it has nothing to mirror. This give you a big disadvantage if Mirror appears in your starting hand. One solution is to allow the Mirror to mirror nothing if it played as the first card. Since nothing costs 0 elixer, mirroring nothing should cost 1 elixer. Then if Mirror appears in your starting hand, you can just play it for 1 elixer and cycle to the next card.

Elixer Collector - The issue is that if you play the Elixer Collector behind the princess tower as your first play and the opponent doesn’t have the right cards in cycle, you can basically win the game. The root cause of the problem is that Elixer Collector doesn’t provide any defensive value. All other buildings provide some defensive value and, therefore, need to be placed in front of the princess towers in order to realize their full value. Since the Elixer Collector doesn’t provide any defensive value, it can be placed behind the princess tower and still realize its full value. The entire game of CR is based around the goal of damaging the princess towers. So when you’re forced to attack an Elixer Collector placed behind the princess tower, it basically changes the entire point of the game. That’s the real root of the problem. One solution is to give the Elixer Collector some defensive capabilities and reduce its elixer generation. For example, you could have it cost 5 elixer and generate 4 elixer. That way, if you place it behind the princess towers, you won’t get any value out of it. Then you just need to give it enough defensive capabilities to make it worth the investment.

1 Like

I think spells like arrows or rocket should never appear in first hand because you can’t(you can but you should not) use them to ground or crown towers.