Goblins vs Gnomes is crazy! We knew there were going to be 120+ new cards, but I had no idea so many would be so cool! I’m super excited to start building decks with a lot of the new cards, and I’m going to give you a head start with some brews to start off with. Most people will be bumbling about with trash for the first week, but YOU will be ready with powerful new technology. 🙂
I haven’t played any of these decks yet of course, but I believe they are all going to be strong contenders once they become a little more tuned. Enough chatter; let’s get started!
Mech Rattle N’ Roll
2x Clockwork Gnome
2x Undertaker
2x Frostbolt
2x Haunted Creeper
2x Mad Scientist
2x Mech Warper
2x Counterspell
2x Harvest Golem
2x Spider Tank
2x Tinkertown Technician
2x Fireball
2x Goblin Blastmage
2x Mechanical Yeti
2x Piloted Shredder
2x Fel Reaver
I think the best shells for mechs are Mage and Rogue, as those are the classes with good mechs to fill in two slot along with Mechwarper (we’ll get to Rogue later) and the best mech payoff cards (Goblin Blastmage and Iron Sensei).
The big neutral payoffs for playing mechs are 4 drops on turn 3 off of Mechwarper and Tinkertown Technician. 8 beasts is about the minimum for Houndmaster in Hunter decks, but Tinkertown Tech costs a mana less so you want at least 9 mechs in your deck. Eight 3 cost or less deathrattles is the minimum for Undertaker, so toss in Harvest Golem to work on both axes and fill with high-value cards to get what I believe will be the best deck early on, as it is very easy to figure out and plays a lot of great cards.
Counterspell is a lot weaker if spare parts are flying around everywhere, but it’s better than the other secret options available and it’s still insane when it’s free off of Mad Scientist. It may end up being correct to cut the secrets and Mad Scientists for Loot Hoarders, Sylvanas Windrunner, and Loatheb.
Fel Reaver is probably going to be hated by a lot of players, but if you aren’t going to fatigue there is basically no downside to this insanely huge minion. This deck is trying to kill the opponent fairly quickly, so the Reaver is a perfect fit. Think of it this way: If you normally end a game with 15 cards left, that means your opponent has to play 5 cards while you have Big Reavs out to hurt you. If they’ve played FIVE CARDS and haven’t killed your 8/8 yet, you’ve probably already won the game.
Cyborg Ninjas
2x Backstab
2x Clockwork Gnome
2x Deadly Poison
1x Blade Flurry
2x Eviscerate
2x Goblin Auto-Barber
2x Mechwarper
2x Iron Sensei
2x SI:7 Agent
2x Spider Tank
2x Tinkertown Technician
2x Mechanical Yeti
2x Piloted Shredder
2x Fel Reaver
1x Junkbot
2x Gadgetzan Auctioneer
Junkbot might be a little too cute; that slot could be Loatheb instead.
This is meant to be an aggressive tempo-based deck that overloads the opponent’s removal while removing their minions efficiently with Rogue spells. There are some pretty terrifying openings, including the extremely simple Mechwarper into Iron Sensei. The opponent has to choose which of your minions to let live: the guy that pumps your minions every turn or the 4/5 that makes all your guys cheaper. That’s a pretty tough spot to be in when your turn 2 play got killed by Backstab!
Gadgetzan Auctioneer is playing the role of a Sprint that can attack here. You should generate 1-3 spare parts per game, and you should save them for excellent trades or a turn 8 or 9 Gadgetzan card draw spree. You could also throw in Toshley or Gazlowe if you’re feeling spicy.
Brightwing
2x Explosive Sheep
2x Flamecannon
2x Frostbolt
2x Mad Scientist
2x Snowchugger
2x Unstable Portal
1x Duplicate
1x Gnomish Experimenter
2x Ice block
2x Illuminator
1x Fireball
2x Polymorph
2x Water Elemental
1x Loatheb
2x Sludge Belcher
1x Sylvanas Windrunner
1x Archmage Antonidas
1x Flamestrike
1x Ragnaros the Firelord
Explosive Sheep gives Mage a Consecration of sorts, which might be what it takes to push Mage control over the edge of playability. The nerf to Flare doesn’t hurt, either.
It also stands to gain a lot from Unstable Portal providing cheap minions and Flamecannon providing cheap removal to maximize the effectiveness of Gnomish Experimenter. With 13 spells you stand to get a free card almost half the time, and this deck isn’t reliant on Alexstrasza like old Mage control decks, so even if you lose a minion it isn’t disastrous.
Snowchugger and Mad Scientist are both great early board control, and Illuminator + Ice Block stands to gain a lot of life, especially if she can hide behind Sludge Belcher for a turn or two. This is the deck I’m most excited to play this week!
Folly of Man
2x Hunter’s Mark
2x Arcane Shot
2x Tracking
2x Call Pet
1x Explosive Trap
2x Freezing Trap
2x Mad Scientist
2x Wild Pyromancer
1x Acolyte of Pain
2x Eaglehorn Bow
2x Illuminator
2x Unleash the Hounds
1x Loatheb
2x Sludge Belcher
2x Tundra Rhino
2x Savannah Highmane
1x Gahz’rilla
The objective is to get a one hit kill with a charging Gahzrilla. To accomplish this goal, we have to have a Tundra Rhino in play from a previous turn or Call Pet into the Rhino or Gahz’rilla. This will take 7 mana, and you can easily trigger the Gahz twice with 3 mana using some combination of Wild Pyromancer and Arcane Shot. To further facilitate Call Pet, Savannah Highmane has been added, and he bats clean-up pretty well all on his lonesome. In the absence of a lucky Call Pet against removal-heavy decks, turn 10 Tundra Rhino + Loatheb can set up the combo nicely.
Tracking, Acolyte of Pain, and Call Pet cycle through the deck to find the combo, and Wild Pyromancer, Eaglehorn Bow, Unleash the Hounds, and traps control the board long enough for you to play these card draw spells. Illuminator will probably only trigger once in this deck, but 4 life isn’t too shabby and her body isn’t half-bad on its own.
Some version of this will definitely be a contender in the GvG metagame.
Where Ancients Tread
2x Backstab
2x Preparation
2x Shadowstep
2x Deadly Poison
2x Zombie Chow
1x Blade Flurry
2x Eviscerate
2x Sap
2x Sunfury Protector
2x Coldlight Oracle
2x Deathlord
1x Earthen Ring Farseer
2x SI:7 Agent
2x Vanish
2x Clockwork Giant
2x Mountain Giant
Murlocs are back! Where you at, Neptulon?
This one is a little out there, and I likely won’t be trying it since I don’t want to blow dust on the otherwise-terrible Clockwork Giant.
The objective is to set up a Handlock-like turn where you drop a couple Giants and Sunfury Protector them. To set this sickness up we have Coldlight Oracle and the Preparation–Vanish combo. The rest of the deck is tools to survive the early game and Deathlords to be hilarious in fatigue PLUS help shore up the early game.
This deck is either really terrible or breaks the format. Time will tell, but it’s probably the former.
Conclusion
So that’s what I’m excited to play once I get my hands on some new Goblins vs Gnomes cards. What are you brewing up? What’s got you excited to play? What are you going to tweak in the above decks? Let me know in the comments!
Please don’t hesitate to ask any questions in the comments, and all comments are appreciated. Thanks for reading!
Until next time,
LightsOutAce
