Goblin Barrel Guide

Goblin Barrel Summary

“ Spawns three Goblins anywhere on the Arena. It’s going to be a thrilling ride, boys!”

Goblin Barrel is unlocked from Arena 1 (Goblin Stadium). Goblin Barrel is a spell that can travel to any point in the Arena and deploys 3 Goblins.

Strategies for using Goblin Barrel

The Goblin Barrel is a key card in every single Log Bait deck. It is an incredibly high risk, high reward card. At best, it can do 693 damage to the crown tower left unattended. Coupled with a mini- tank, it can take down the tower. Unfortunately, this rarely happens. Goblin Barrel is easily countered by cheap spells or splash cards. Also, Goblin Barrel can be a dead card in your deck when they have counters available. However, you can use the Goblin Barrel as just goblins if you are desperate. It’s better to play the Barrel than allow for a Prince to hit your tower. When using Goblin Barrel, take these things into consideration.

To use the Goblin Barrel, you need to use the other bait cards in your deck to force the opponent to play their Goblin Barrel counter. In matchups when they have either a fast cycle to get back to their counter, or multiple counters, you have three options.

• Play “Tricky Barrels”
  • You can play the Goblin Barrel behind or to the side of the tower to try and have your opponent miss your Goblin Barrel
  • Be careful when using this strategy, if you toss a Barrel in the far corner, they can easily counter it with a cheap card
• Play Aggressive Swarm Cards
  • If your Barrels are not getting through, you need to be more aggressive with you swarm cards to force splash cards to be played. If you get lucky, you might be able to push through with a Goblin Gang and get a large amount of damage.
• Play Chip
  • Although most bait decks are played with a mentality of wanting to chip, if you cannot get anything through, you can start using Princess and Rocket to chip away at their tower or push for a tie
  • You should continue to play Barrels if they are countering with arrows as it is an equal trade

To counter the Goblin Barrel, it is crucial that you never play tour barrel counter against any of your opponent’s swarm cards, especially their Princess. Also, you need to be extremely careful when they play the Barrell with a mini-tank. Here are the best ways to counter the barrel.

• Using Small Spells
  • The best counters to the Barrel are these:
    1. The Log/ Barbarian Barrel: Barbarian Barrel gives you more value, but The Log can hit other cards and especially a Princess
    2. Snowball: Snowball can prevent all hits, but it needs to be timed correctly and doesn’t work if they have a mini-tank
    3. Arrows: Shuts down the Barrel, and prevents tricky barrels too
    4. Zap: Doesn’t kill the Goblins if they are of equal level, and will let the Goblins get in 3 stabs
• Using Splash Units
  • If you don’t have a small spell, splash cards are a good alternative, especially if your opponent doesn’t play a center Barrel.
  • Certain splash units can completely shut down the Barrel: Fire Spirits, Bowler, Dark Prince
    • All of these cards require extremely precise timing to work
  • Cards that are effective counters but can’t prevent all shots are: Valkyrie and Electro Wizard
    • Electro Wizard can hit all of the Goblins if you place him before the shadow hits the river
• Using Swarm Cards
  • If you can plant them early enough, Goblin Gang and Skeleton Army can prevent all hits
  • If you plant them late, make sure to place them in front of your tower
  • Watch out for a predictive Log

Best Goblin Barrel Decks

Goblin Barrel is almost used exclusively in Log Bait decks.

Deck #1

Deck #2

Deck #3

Matchups

Goblin Barrel, and bait decks, are good against most decks, as long as they don’t have a large amount of splash or small spells. Decks that don’t run Inferno Tower or those that run Fireball instead of Rocket have a hard time against cards like Witch and Wizard. You either need to use your Inferno Tower in sub-optimal situations or surround them with your swarm cards.