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