AI Overview: This Miner Dart Goblin deck averages 2.4 elixir, one of the cheapest lists on the site. A friend went 20-0 in the League Championship with a similar 2.3 elixir list. In 2026 the Miner hits towers for less and the Dart Goblin’s best list wins 65.1%, though this exact list has no tracker sample. Read on for the card-by-card check.
Last Updated: October 2026
Key Points:
- The deck costs 19 elixir, which is 2.4 on average, and no card costs more than 4.
- Miner hits towers for 39, not 49 (July 6), and his best list wins 66.0% over 535 battles.
- Dart Goblin’s Evolution poison was buffed on June 1, and her best list wins 65.1% over about 3,500 battles.
- Ice Golem lost hitpoints on September 8, 1,315 to 1,228, but its best list wins 58.8% over 14,600 battles.
- Skeletons’ spawn spread tightened on October 6, and their best list wins 68.6%.
The Miner Dart Goblin List, Priced Card by Card
Here’s the thing: a very high skill cap as the main con. The idea is simple. Cycle so fast that the opponent cannot keep an answer in hand.
| Card | Elixir | Job in the deck | 2026 status |
| Dart Goblin | 3 | Cheap ranged chip damage | Evo poison buffed on June 1; best list 65.1% over about 3,500 |
| Miner | 3 | Chip damage and counter-attack | Crown Tower damage 49 to 39 on July 6; best list 66.0% over 535 |
| Ice Golem | 2 | Cheap shield and blocker | Hitpoints 1,315 to 1,228 on September 8; best list 58.8% over 14,600 |
| Ice Spirit | 1 | Cheap slow and cycle card | Hitpoints 230 to 215 on August 4; every printed list 56.7% or more |
| Skeletons | 1 | Cheap distraction | Spawn spread tighter on October 6; best list 68.6% over about 3,800 |
| Tornado | 3 | Control card that activates the King Tower | No 2026 change; best list 64.7% over about 1,900 |
| Poison | 4 | Spell that clears and chips | Crown Tower damage 184 to 168 on June 1; best list 68.6% over about 3,800 |
| The Log | 2 | Cheap spell for swarms | Crown Tower damage 41 to 35 on June 1; best list 65.1% over 3,500 |
Costs come from the official card list; the right column shows what changed in 2026.
An ultra cheap deck wins by tempo, not power. The negative effect: with the Miner and Poison both hitting towers for less, a deck with no heavy card has no quick way to catch up, and one big opposing push can end the game.
What Changed in 2026
The Dart Goblin, Tornado and The Log are close to what they were, though The Log hits towers for 35. The Miner and Poison hit towers for less. The Ice Golem has fewer hitpoints. The Skeletons spawn closer together.
Claims, rechecked. The deck actually works. The data here does not test this list, and the League Championship 20-0 was for a similar list at 2.3 elixir, so the figure belongs to a different deck.
The weak spots. The deck struggles against Golem and Mortar bait decks. The Golem’s best list wins 68.7% and the deck has no way to hit it hard. The Ice Spirit’s lists are all 56.7% or higher, a safe slot.
Card pages: Dart Goblin, Miner, Ice Golem and Tornado.
The deck takes lots of practice. The negative effect: a high skill cap with no margin for error is hard to keep stable, and the lower tower damage on the Miner and Poison means a mistake costs more than before.
How to Play It Today
Use him on defense against almost-dead Princes or Mini P.E.K.K.As about to hit your tower.
Tips. Know when to use the Miner, since overcommitting gets punished and you can do nothing about it. Use the Log and Poison against swarms, and Tornado to activate the King Tower. Keep the Ice Spirit and Skeletons as cheap blockers.
Translation: keep the Miner alive as long as possible by blocking with the Ice Golem, Ice Spirit or Skeletons, and then turn that into a counter-push. He has long range, so he can be placed in the opposite lane to defend. Do not overcommit with quick Miner pushes.
Elixir math: the Poison costs 4 and the rest cost 15, about 2.1 each. A Miner plus Dart Goblin push is 6 elixir, and the whole deck can be cycled in under 20 elixir.
Try it yourself: test Miner Dart Goblin Deck yourself in the Clash Royale Deck Builder; it opens with every card in place. Average elixir: 2.4. The tracker holds no sample of this exact build, so its 2026 win rate is unknown.
The deck can cycle its defenses very fast with the right macro plays. The negative effect: macro plays are the first thing to fail under pressure, and an opponent who sends two threats at once breaks the cycle.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the Miner Dart Goblin deck good in 2026?
The Dart Goblin’s best list wins 65.1% and the Miner’s best wins 66.0%, but this exact list has no tracker sample, so test the Ice Golem slot first.
What does the deck cost on average?
19 elixir in total across eight cards, an average of 2.4.
What are the pros?
An extremely fast cycle, annoying to deal with, very quick defense cycling and great synergies.
What are the cons?
A very high skill cap, trouble with Golem and Mortar bait decks, and lots of practice needed.
Where should the Miner be placed?
In the anti-Tornado spot to start, or in the opposite lane to defend.
Original Guide, Kept in Full
The text below is the original page, kept in full. It was written between 2016 and 2024, so some details are out of date. The tips and numbers above use 2026 sources.
Hey guys, it’s NebulaNoodle with another awesome deck guide for you guys.
Sorry that I haven’t been posting lately; but as it’s Easter holiday now I’ll try to write a few more guides.
Today I’m showing you a crazy Miner Dart Goblin deck which I tried out with friends with lots of success.
Surgical Goblin went 20-0 in the League Championship with a deck similar to this, but 2.3 elixir (do check it out!)
This deck really revolves around good skill, positive elixir trades, and smart offensive and defensive tactics.
Pros:
- Extremely fast cycle
- Annoying to deal with
- Possible to cycle defenses very quickly if right placements and macro plays made
- Great synergies.
Cons:
- Very high skill cap
- Struggles vs Golem, Mortar bait decks especially
- Takes lots of practice!
Miner Dart Deck
Miner: Obviously, your win condition of the deck.
Use him as a starting play in the anti-Tornado spot and on counterpushing with Skeletons, Ice Spirit, and/or Dart Goblin.
Don’t be afraid to use Miner on defense against almost dead Princes, Mini P.E.K.K.As, or any other threat card about to hit your Tower.
Know when to use him in the right circumstances; don’t overcommit especially with Miner quick-pushes or else you will get punished and you can do nothing about it.
Dart Goblin: In my eyes one of the most important cards in this deck.
Try to keep him alive for as long as possible by blocking with Ice Golem, Ice Spirit, or Skeletons. You can turn that into a counterpush later.
He has insane range, so you can place him in the opposite lane as well to defend, then you can attack opposite lane potentially!
Use him for chip damage on the bridge, he can deal pretty good damage to a Tower if the opponent can’t respond to him quickly enough.
He is your only real air defense so cycle him quickly with Ice Spirit, Skeletons, and Ice Golem if opponent Logs/Arrows.
The good thing is that Balloon cycle is out of meta, which would be very hard to deal with, having only one air defense troop, and Poison isn’t great vs Balloon.
It’s slightly easier to deal with Lavaloon because you can cycle Dart Gobs very quickly to melt the Hound and tornado the Loon to king, hopefully not letting the Balloon even hit the tower once. (To see how to do this watch this video)
Ice Golem: The Ice Golem is extremely important in this deck.
He is your only real tank on defense and will be used to kite Mega Minions away from Golem pushes, kill Princes with the help of Ice Spirit or Skeletons, and make positive Elixir trades.
Kills Lumberjacks, Royal Ghosts, and Mini P.E.K.K.As as well! With Dart Goblin can kill E-Barbarians.
Ice Golem and Dart Goblin is a strong offensive combo if your opponent is caught off guard, and for 2 Elixir the Ice Golem is extremely good in this deck, as well as keeping the Elixir cost low!
Cycle him in the back for a passive opening move.
Ice Spirit: The Ice Spirit will be used to distract, Freeze, and kite.
Combined with Dart Goblin the two can deal massive damage together. For one Elixir this card adds great utility to the deck and cycling ability.
If using with Miner on offense, send the Miner right before the Ice Spirit is going to hit the Tower so the Miner can deal maximum damage. (Top tip!)
You can actually combine Ice Spirit with Tornado to get an Executioner to activate the king! (You don’t need Ice Spirit for this but it is just to minimise damage on your crown Tower.)
Skeletons: Pretty much same role as Ice Spirit.
Can kill Lumberjacks (with Ice Spirit) and Mini P.E.K.K.As.
Send in mini-pushes like Miner and Skeletons.
This card is so good because no one really wants to Zap or Log Skeletons (at risk of a negative trade.), so they are forced to use another card.
Can also be used to kite air support troops (works best with Mega Minion) away from a Lava Hound, Giant, or Golem push. This way you can use the Tornado to activate the King to maximum effect and tank and spank with Ice Golem+Dart Goblin/Skeletons.
Tornado:
In my eyes Tornado is an extremely valuable card in this meta.
Can be used to activate the king. Works with Valkyries, Knights, Hogs, Giants, Balloons (just make sure you don’t take too much damage), Golems, E-Wiz, Executioner, Royal Ghost, and more!
Combined with Ice Spirit, Tornado is very powerful. Tornado can be also used to clump troops back into Poison AoE.
Poison:
Poison is a very powerful card, in my opinion the best mid-high damage spell right now in the meta.
We see it everywhere, from Golem decks to Giant decks to Miner and Hog decks.
Here we use it as a support spell and also for nice chip damage. In single Elixir it’s best to stay conservative and only use it as a reactive card as opposed to with Miner.
Feel free to swap with Fireball or Rocket, if you want better air defense, but you will lose the great Poison synergy with Miner.
Use against glass cannons, Pump, the like. It’s also easy to cycle Poison near end of match in Double Elixir due to great cycling ability.
Log: Finally, the Log- one of my favorite legendaries!
Can be used as a prediction against squishies when doing front-Tower Miner placements.
Get value logs and chip away at the Tower.
In Double Elixir don’t be afraid to Log cycle the Tower, as you can cycle quickly and the opponent can’t punish (remember you have Tornado for swarms too.)
Always Tornado the first Barrel to king and Log the rest of the barrels. Just Poison off princesses if facing bait. You’ll get nice chip damage too.
Another value, value card in this deck!
Gameplay
1x Elixir:
In single Elixir you will ideally wanting to be settling into your cycle, feeling out your opponent’s deck, and sending in occasional miners and defending well with smart combos and plays.
Good opening plays would be a Miner to the Tower (don’t support it, figure out your opponent’s counter instead), Ice Golem/Skeletons at the back, Ice Spirit at the bridge, or just Log cycle the Tower.
Send in little chip damage plays, for example Ice Spirit and Dart Goblin if the opponent only has Zap as a small spell (common in Golem/Giant Double Prince, or Giant Prince bait.)
Try to avoid as much of your opponent’s chip damage, for example block a Goblin Gang or Fire Spirits, because you might struggle with damage in many matchups, for example vs X-Bow where you will usually have to place Miner on the X-Bow whilst using Ice Golem to tank, so remember to always get value off Poison and whenever you can, hit the Tower with the Poison.
2x Elixir:
In challenges you really shouldn’t worry about the time.
You have got to be patient or else you will get punished with a monster snowball push.
Look for an opening, whether your opponent is low on Elixir or he/she makes a mistake.
Even if you have the opponent’s Tower to 2000 at this point you can still chip away, and anyway you are looking to get the 1-0 win.
Keep sending Miners and Logs. Ice Golem and Dart Goblin are your main defenders.
Use Tornado to clump up troops to an Ice Spirit or keep it inside Poison range.
Once the Tower is down to triple digits, Poison cycle and save your Miner for an extra defense.
Some matchups are tricky but this is your general gameplan.
Matchups
I will be going through the main meta decks in challenges, so hopefully this part will help you if you are struggling against these decks, and if you are thinking ‘OK, how the hell am I gonna defend Golem using this deck???!!!’ I will do the best I can to explain.
Giant/Golem Double Prince
This is certainly the most overpowered and rampant combo in the entire game, on Ladder and Challenges.
Here’s my take on how to deal with this:
Against Giant version, be prepared for different variations, with EWiz, MM, bait cards like Spears and Gang (actually the most popular variant) or other potential support to Princes or Giant.
When you are faced with Giant Double Prince MM combo, kite Mega and Princes away to the other lane so it’s easier to deal with Giant.
Now pull Giant to the king with Tornado and place Dart Goblin right in front of the king (harder to spell off) to try to clean up the Princes and everything else.
Log to make sure the Princes don’t get a charge and distract all around with Ice Spirit and Skeletons.
Don’t worry about the Giant too much once it’s on the king.
After this first sequence just pull everything in range of three towers with Tornado.
Against Golem version, just basically do the same, just beware the Golem will be tanking for longer so if possible just keep kiting everything and pulling support away with Tornado and distracting with Ice Golem, whilst killing with Dart Goblin.
P.E.K.K.A Zappies Goblin Hut:
P.E.K.K.A Hut Miner is not really popular in ladder, but it is still rampant in Challenges.
Poison their Huts and hit the Tower too. The most annoying thing is when the Spear Goblins start to stack up behind the P.E.K.K.A so get some nice Log value there.
If you know the range of Dart Goblin (6.5 tiles!) you can snipe their Hut from across the river if they place their Hut in the wrong place.
In this matchup you will mainly have to Poison cycle and defend a lot, so possibly it’s best to play for a draw.
Minimize damage as they also have Poison, and will likely Poison cycle you out if you let too much damage slip!
Kite PEKKAs away from the lane with the lower health Tower, then both towers will be hitting the P.E.K.K.A.
Dark Prince Bandit Bait:
This is one of the new popular bait variants, this deck with no big spell though.
There are four main bait cards here (Barrel, Gang, Spears, Princess) and they will be continually pressuring you with Bandit+DP, and Barrels.
This deck is very offensive so defend well versus the bait cards with Logs and Tornadoes, and keep sending Miner and Poisons to keep them on their toes.
It will be easy to spell cycle them out as they only have Log as a damage spell, just remember to save Log for the Barrel to mitigate damage.
X-Bow Tesla w/ Fireball:
This is a pretty hard matchup because you only have one big unit to distract the X-Bow, and you will often find yourself cycling like crazy, wasting Elixir trying to distract the X-Bow.
You MUST place the Ice Golem in the opposite lane and Miner + Poison the X-Bow and Tesla, and possibly Archers and Skeletons (or Log them if you’d like to save P.
Don’t worry about their Ice Golem. Just focus on killing the X-Bow, and FAST.
If you really can’t get damage sit back, defend, and play it out for a draw.
Just make sure they can’t Fireball you out, and just don’t take too much X-Bow damage. Cycle your Ice Golems.
Conclusion
This is a really fun and crazy deck which at first glance might like stupid and unusable, but really it is extremely good if in the right hands of a skilled player.
You can get 12 win GC’s and do very well in it. This deck really has great potential. If you’re a fan of quick, cheap cycle decks this is the deck you’ve been waiting for. Once again I’m really sorry for not posting in a while, but I hope you enjoyed this guide.
Stay tuned for more guides! Neb signing off <3
Sources
Researched from the following (no links, listed for transparency):
- CryptoAIMeta card guides for these cards, built from RoyaleTracker October 2026 samples and SeeMeta 2026 balance changes
- SeeMeta, Clash Royale balance changes 2026 (page updated October 2026), read through search summaries
- Supercell official Clash Royale API, card list (elixir cost, rarity, unlock arena)
- The original clash.world page (2016 to 2024), kept in full below