Clash Royale: Tips and Links (Updated with 2 reddit links)

I'm really late to this game but finally started it a few days ago. It is quite an interesting game that I am considering a tower defense game, especially the "stamina" system. You can keep playing at the expense of forgoing new chests for cards because of the fixed 4 chest slots. It is probably still a good idea to keep playing to 10 crowns to at least get the Crown Chest for the day before stopping.

There doesn't seem to be any easy way to "reroll" your account if you don't like your first Epic rarity card after tutorial; it seems like you will need to do it on a new device: https://www.reddit.com/r/ClashRoyale/comments/41l2f1/anyway_to_reroll/. I got the Skeleton Army for my first Epic and it is not a good card because of numerous easy counters to it but have continued with the account so far. I'm a little tempted to spend some money to get 500 gems to exchange for 10,000 coins and buy the other better Epics from the shop but have managed to resist so far!

The early game so far seems to be just about playing your tanks and supporting it with firepower behind it. Hopefully, things change soon enough when I get to the higher arena levels before I get bored of the gameplay.

Here's are some useful links I researched:

- Complete Beginner's Guide: https://forum.supercell.com/showthread.php/1043092-Complete-Beginner-s-Guide-to-Clash-Royale%21

I searched around a lot and this is probably the best read for beginners. Scroll to the Ultimate Deck Building Guide section and check out the first 4 decks' YouTube videos focusing on one Epic each; Prince, Witch, Baby Dragon and Skeleton Army respectively. The videos are also useful to learn about the overall gameplay with multiple sample battles.

- Clash Royale Arena's Arena 1 Deck for Beginners: http://clashroyalearena.com/deck-building/arena-1-deck-beginner

Clash Royale Arena is one of the first website at the top of Google's search results and it has quite a few useful articles compared to the many other Clash Royale websites I found. This article about an Arena 1 Deck is useful and it also focus on the Skeleton Army epic card with a video from M4SON to learn from the sample battles.

- Clash Royale Arena's Best Decks (From Arena 4 to 9): http://clashroyalearena.com/deck-building/best-decks-clash-royale

Another good article from the same website as the previous link. The interesting thing about this one is that it also walks you through the good cards you get at each Arena tier. I'm guessing Arena 1 to 3 is the beginner stage while 4 to 9 is the intermediate to advance stage of the game. Edit: Note that with the 20 Oct 2016 changes, some of the cards or deck recommended there might no longer be valid.

- Clash Royale Tournament Highlights YouTube Channel's Shanghai Invitational Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLuZW5-Ix2aQ__hV9zoA2hzBIZ4HxnU1Du

Last but not least, I try to look for recent tournament decks and found this YouTube Channel. You can start to find a few staple cards in this Shanghai Invitational videos that is being used a lot and also learn about the play-style of the decks by watching the duels.

- GameWith's Decklists: https://clashroyale.gamewith.jp/article/show/38263
GameWith's Global Top 3 decks: https://clashroyale.gamewith.jp/article/show/40781

Out of all the English sites, I see most of them in blog forms with articles and never really find one that list out all the different Deck types. I really like GameWith's site for this resource! Note: The star ratings refer to the ease of making the deck, not the power level!

- Game8's Card Rankings: https://game8.jp/clashroyale/equiprank/86620
Game8's Training Camp Card Rankings: https://game8.jp/clashroyale/equiprank/85104

Another good resource by Game8. You can also click on the individual cards to find a deck based around the card but I prefer GameWith's decklists.

- kuratetsu's YouTube videos: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3K7oeaeZ0Zyc6S57860-2g/videos

I found a lot of videos that were decks featured in GameWith's Decklist site. Although I didn't understand Japanese, I can still make some sense of the strategy for the deck plus there is usually a video of the battle at the end.

Update:
- Rock-Paper-Scissors metagame:  https://www.reddit.com/r/ClashRoyale/comments/463eap/rock_paper_scissors_the_3_decks_of_the_metagame/

I actually find myself playing a "control" playstyle although I thought I was playing beatdown. My favourite move has been to defend in 1 lane while sending in an attack the other that when unanswered will take down the tower; prince in early arenas and hog riders+minion horde in the middle arenas. The latter in particular can even start damaging the King's tower too.

- Decks that can get anyone to Arena 9 without Legendary cards https://www.reddit.com/r/ClashRoyale/comments/4tbans/strategy_decks_that_can_get_anyone_to_arena_9/?

I'm currently the Hog Dragon deck in Arena 6 and started using it around Arena 4-5. Full writeup here: https://www.reddit.com/r/ClashRoyale/comments/4t4aq7/deck_a5_3400_muffinman_deck_ft_baby_dragon_no/?st=iqrc56a0&sh=2b37d8da