Clash Royale Knight In Depth Guide

Clash Royale Knight In Depth Guide by CocoZebra

Hi, Coco here with a comprehensive guide to the knight. I’ve used the knight in almost every deck that I switch, and he’s never failed me. People always wonder, “do I use the knight, ice golem, valkyrie, or lumberjack?” They all play different roles, and here I’ll tell you the benefits of the knight, and how to use him. He’s an underused card and I think most people don’t see his potential. Hopefully by the end you’ll try out the knight!

At first glance, the knight seems like a simple, boring card. Average move speed, average hit speed, average damage, nothing makes the knight stand out. He is out-shined by other cards with cool mechanics, and everyone forgets the classic card that gets piled to the ground. He was kinda there in every meta, floating in the middle as more interesting cards appeared. With the recent nerf of the ice golem, the knight has slowly climbed back and reappeared into the meta as a viable card on defense.

Content

Benefits of the Knight

Knight on Defense

Knight on Offense

Good and Bad Interactions

Decks with the Knight and Combos

Why I Like the Knight

It can be in cycle decks, as it is cheap, while it can also be used in heavy decks as a semi tank. It has a place in every deck!

Compared to the ice golem, the knight can do damage for one more elixir

The knight is a low risk card. He is not as much commitment as a mini pekka or a valkyrie, meaning if they were to get countered by minions, it would be less devastating

The knight can do quite a bit of damage on tower if ignored, which most people underestimate

Is a common, so it can be overleveled

The knight is spell resistant; it can even survive a rocket! This means he is good on defense as he can’t be quickly wiped off the map with a spell.

Knight on Defense

The knight is meant to protect the king, and that’s exactly what he does! The knight shines on defense, and is usually where it begins his life. Here are some ways to use the knight to defend against popular archetypes.

Miner: The Knight can tank 4 swings from the miner before killing it. Try to predict your opponent’s miner placements so you won’t suffer the chip damage. If’s just the miner, the knight will walk away almost untouched. If something is paired with the miner, you can use other troops or spells to take care of them.

Beatdown: The Knight can tank while your other troops go to work on the giant. Wait until the enemy’s support troops cross the bridge. Then, drop the knight on the most threatening support troop. Immediately drop your tank killers. This can be anything fragile, as the Knight will be tanking all the damage.

Royal Giant: Similar to how to defend against beatdown. Place the knight on the royal giant to tank the backline, and place your other troops away from the knight where it can still hit the RG. A building is good if you want to really minimize the RG shots.

Lavahound: Believe it or not, the knight can do SOME good facing a lava hound deck. You can use it to tank the lava pups, destroy any ground unit in the push, and if you’re desperate, kite minions and mega minions. In a lava hound matchup, the ice golem is more ideal, as the knight’s damage for one more elixir doesn’t get put to use.

Hog Cycle: A lone knight is not enough to counter the hog, as it will get many swings. The knight has to be paired with something else, such as a building, skellies, or ice spirit to be effective. In some situations, you can use the Knight to soak up the ice spirit so it doesn’t affect your tower or another important troop for countering the hog.

Elite Barbarians: Yes, it gets its own section. Knight and ice spirit/skeletons is a surprisingly good way to deal with them. Drag them to the middle, and both towers + the knight can hack away at the elite barbs. If your opponent pairs it with something else, you should ideally also use same amount of elixir defending. If your knight is two levels higher, he can shut them down himself on defense. Overlevel your knight ASAP!

As you can see, the knight can’t fully counter these threats by himself. Always pair it with something else, the knight works better when he’s with a buddy!

Knight on Offence

Most of the time, the knight can be turned into a counter push. Here are the some good ways to use him on offence.

Split Lane Pushing: The most famous deck for split pushing, the three musketeers. The reason why using the knight is good for split pushing is because he’s cheap and tanky, just what the musketeers need. A lighter version would be to split archers behind a knight. On one side, you have possibly your beatdown push, and on the other, you have a Knight and one archer. Your opponent will either ignore it because he has to defend the bigger priority, or spend more elixir trying to counter your tiny second push.

A Quick Tank: The knight is a quick tank for many things, like the goblin barrel and graveyard. That being said, the knight can fit into zap/log bait decks as the “tank” role.

A Secondary Tank: A knight can support a giant by following behind him and killing your opponent’s counters. After the giant has died, the knight will act as another tank to your support troops.

Good Interactions

On defense with the tower assisting, the knight can neutralize the mini pekka, the lumberjack, dank prince, and the valkyrie, for a positive elixir trade.

When used in combination with the ice spirit or skeletons, he can shut down a prince

The Knight can also take out any ranged troop, such as executioner, wizard, or bowler for an even bigger positive elixir trade.

The knight can tank a sparky shot, but will have just 99 hitpoints left. Not a good trade but a trade nonetheless.

The bandit is no match for the knight. He barely twitches!

Bad/Fair Interactions

Any air unit :( – as mentioned in defending the lava hound, the knight can tank and kite air troops. Solo minions and mega minion can do big chip damage when ignored. By placing the knight at the right time, he can kite the minions so no damage is done to him or the tower.

Swarm – knight can be shut down easily when on your opponent’s side of the arena. Simple spear goblins can do the trick. However, on your side the arena, the knight is much more capable with the tower helping. He can take out a goblin gang and most of the scarmy with ease. Thing to note: Knight two shots stab goblins.

Spawners -the knight is decent at soaking up damage from a spawner. Make sure you have something behind the knight, such as a dart goblin, so it can quickly take care the pesky troops. Against the furnace one on one with the knight, the fire spirits will jump onto the knight like a mad man. If ignored, the knight can take out almost all of the furnace (when furnace is placed in the middle of base).

Any melee unit significantly stronger than the knight, such the pekka. -the knight can tank 3 shots from the pekka, however there are more ideal cards to deal with him. Reserve your knight for their support troops and have swarm for the pekka.

Winning Decks with the Knight

Knight is support card so it doesn’t have any decks revolving around it, rather it just fits into decks. Here are some decks that are often seen with the Knight.

Graveyard Control: Graveyard, Tombstone, Mega Minion, Arrows Bowler, Knight, and executioner

Royal Giant Siege: Royal Giant, Furnace, log/zap, Knight, Lightning, Minions, Skeletons, Musketeer

Three Musketeer Beatdown: Giant, Knight, Three Musketeers, Log, Zap, Elixir Collector, Skeletons

Log Bait: Ice spirit, Rocket, Knight, Inferno Tower, Princess, Log, Goblin Barrel, Goblin Gang.

Xbow Siege: Knight, Inferno tower, Xbow/Mortar, Log/Zap, Minions, Fireball, Skellies, Ice Spirit

Other combos:

Knight + Log

Knight + Skeletons

Knight + Ice Spirit (Beastly on defense)

Knight + Minions

Knight + Balloon

Knight + Mortar

Basically, any troop that could use a mini-tank. You can even put a knight in front of 1 hp musketeer, just to get its full value, making your opponent respond. Place your knight earlier than you think you should so your support troops don’t go in front of it. The saddest thing ever is when the knight pushes the musketeer forward and she gets exposed.

Conclusion

The knight is a cheap versatile card that can fill many roles. He can last long on the battlefield, and even can surprise your opponent to how much value he gets. Great for quick fixes and holding up your fort.

Thanks for reading! First time attempting at writing a guide. Let me know if you have any questions, or things I should add/change in this guide.