When Clash Royale first launched, the Giant Skeleton was one of the most feared cards in the arena. The last thing you wanted was to let a Giant Skeleton connect to your Crown Tower. One solid connection and it would immediately mean that you lost the Tower because of the death bomb.
While the card isn’t nearly as strong in the current meta, it still holds a decent bit of usage rate. In mid-ladder especially, many players still use the card as a primary win condition. In the top ladder however, the decks that do use this card, use it more as a defensive troop that offers some utility on offense.
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Giant Skeleton Card Overview in Clash Royale
Despite not being a “True Tank”, the Giant Skeleton has an impressive health pool in Clash Royale. Its hit points at tournament standards exceed that of a Goblin Giant, but unlike the popular beatdown win condition, it isn’t a building-targeting troop. Instead, the Giant Skeleton will go after any unit that comes within its range.
It’s an epic card that takes 6 elixirs to deploy. While that might seem like a lot of elixirs for a basic troop, the Giant Skeleton offers a lot for what it costs. Not only does the Giant Skeleton hit hard and has a massive health pool, on death, it drops a death bomb that deals massive damage to any unit or even building caught in its radius.
The decks that use Giant Skeleton usually use it to clog up a lane. The Giant Skeleton walks down slowly along the lane and defends against any troops the opponent uses to push. If the Giant Skeleton dies, the death bomb takes care of anything else left alive. Against Golem pushes, it’s best to put the Giant Skeleton behind the Golem so that it can take out the support cards.
How to Counter Giant Skeleton in Clash Royale
While there are little to no counters to the Giant Skeleton on defense, on offense, the card isn’t really as strong. It can get kited easily, and because of its slow movement and attack speed, it’s easy to take down with swarm troops. Anti-tank troops such as the Mini Pekka or Inferno Dragon are also excellent counters to the Giant Skeleton.
The biggest threat of the Giant Skeleton isn’t necessarily its health pool or damage on attack but rather the death bomb. The Giant Skeletons’ death bomb deals 534 AOE damage on all troops. On Towers the damage increases to 1068 which is like taking two Rockets on your Tower.
If you see a Giant Skeleton walking towards your Tower, use swarm troops like Skeleton Army or Goblin Gang to kite it away from your Tower. You can also use Fisherman to pull it away before it dies so that the death bomb doesn’t hit. The Witch is an excellent counter to the Giant Skeleton because of the Skeletons that she spawns constantly. All of these counters will give you a positive elixir trade against the troop.
Best Decks with the Giant Skeleton in Clash Royale
While the Giant Skeleton isn’t really the strongest card in Clash Royale right now, it has its uses in a couple of decks. Here are the top three decks that are performing well in the current meta.
Deck 1
|
Card Name |
Elixir Cost |
|---|---|
|
Evo Lumberjack |
4 |
|
Evo Mega Knight |
7 |
|
The Log |
2 |
|
Minions |
3 |
|
Skeleton Dragons |
4 |
|
Monk |
5 |
|
Ram Rider |
5 |
|
Giant Skeleton |
6 |
The first deck is a version of Mega Knight Bridge spam that uses the newly launched Evo Lumberjack along with the Evo Mega Knight. It also has the Monk as a champion card. The Giant Skeleton serves mostly as a defensive troop in this deck and can also apply dual lane pressure when the game hits the double elixir stages.
Deck 2
|
Card Name |
Elixir Cost |
|---|---|
|
Evo Goblin Drill |
4 |
|
Evo Wizard |
5 |
|
Barbarian Barrel |
2 |
|
Tornado |
3 |
|
Royal Ghost |
3 |
|
Golden Knight |
4 |
|
Cannon Cart |
5 |
|
Giant Skeleton |
6 |
This Goblin Drill cycle deck uses the age-old combo of Giant Skeleton and Tornado to create pressure on the opponent. Send the Goblin Drill to the back of the Tower and put the Giant Skeleton on the bridge. Use Tornado to pull in any troop the enemy uses to kite the Giant Skeleton so that the death bomb gets on the Tower.
Deck 3
|
Card Name |
Elixir Cost |
|---|---|
|
Evo Skeletons |
1 |
|
Evo Cannon |
3 |
|
Ice Spirits |
1 |
|
The Log |
2 |
|
Earthquake |
3 |
|
Hog Rider |
4 |
|
Archer Queen |
5 |
|
Giant Skeleton |
6 |
The classic Hog EQ cycle deck in Clash Royale may have fallen out of favor among players, but it’s still one of the strongest decks in the game if you want to use the giant Skeleton. The Archer Queen activates the champion cycle, allowing you to cycle through your deck faster, while the Giant Skeleton can easily block up a lane as you go in with your Hog Rider on the opposite lane.
- Released
-
March 2, 2016
- ESRB
-
t
- Multiplayer
-
Online Multiplayer
- Engine
-
Unity