Goblins vs Gnomes Part 2

For the first part of this series, click here.

It’s been a while, but no I didn’t forget my commitment to going over all of the revealed cards for the newest Hearthstone expansion, Goblins vs. Gnomes. Since I started the series with the known class-specific cards, I split up the remainder into Mechs and the other neutral cards. There has been another big reveal since I started writing about these cards, with new ones released almost daily, so we might just know about all of the cards by the time the expansion releases later this month. For now, we’re going to focus on the mechs that were part of the initial reveal that occurred during Blizzcon.

All About Those Mechs

This is basically the equivalent to the Goldshire Footman, but with the added benefit of divine shield for one extra 1 mana. I’m not sure that you’d want to remove your 1 drop Argent Squires (1/1, divine shield), but you might find a different 1 drop and use this in lieu of a different 2 drop. Overall though, a 1/2 taunter isn’t stopping much, but the divine shield does usually equal 2 cards needed to take care of this one. It does seem to be annoying as it’s name infers.

A 3/4 for 5 mana isn’t a good cost ratio. Getting a random weapon is cool, but giving one to your opponent as well isn’t. Particularly if your weapon is worse than the one they get. I’d skip this card altogether, unless you’re running a Rogue, Warrior or Paladin that is weapon heavy. Even then, it’s rather “meh.”

This would be a great 1 drop addition to a deathrattle deck. The potential to do 4 damage and still getting a minion for 1 mana is really nice. Plus the last expansion gave a lot of good deathrattle cards this would synergize with.

A new giant, sweet! Also great to counter Miracle Rogue or Zoo (if they happen to be keeping a handful of cards). I like the Giants, they’re just annoying because of the dependence on other factors which you can’t control. If the circumstances aren’t met, you’re holding a card you can’t use (unless you’re a Druid with innervate).

I’m unsure what a Spare Part does. Either the card hasn’t been revealed, or it’s one of those cards that doesn’t exist in the set, but is only tied to this card (such as the Hunter’s Animal Companion). With that said, a 2/1 for 1 is ok, but unless that spare part does something worthwhile, I’d skip this one.

Wow. This card fits so well into a Zoo deck I can’t wait to get my hands on it. If you have a slew of minions on the board and they all get Windfury, Taunt or Divine Shield, even if you only get those benefits for a turn or two this card has already paid for itself. At 3/2 it’s easy to deal with individually, but it’s benefits for other minions is too good to pass up.

This could be good as a board clear, though a silence makes it useless. However, you don’t want it going off at the wrong time. Use caution.

This guy is a nice big creature with some AoE damage. 6/9 for 8 mana is about average, but he’d be easy to get rid of. Right place right time sort of card, whom could get rid of a couple of larger threats.

I like the effect, particularly if you’re up against someone who holds onto many cards (like Miracle Rogue) and you blow through them. I like it for a zoo deck, where you continuously get more cards in hand. However, you might burn through your deck too fast if they don’t deal with it.

This is definitely only worthwhile if you’re building a mech-central deck. Otherwise, there are better 2/3’s for 2 mana.

I like the effect, particularly because Leper Gnomes are a nice card that have a nice effect, but a 9/7 for 9 is expensive. Either way, you probably aren’t getting many Leper Gnomes before this guy is dealt with.

This guy is pretty cool, being a 1/2 for 2, that has the potential to get leveled up, but most people will kill him before he gets too built up. In combination with some of the other buffs in the game, he could be a beast. Probably best saved for a mech-themed deck.

This card can only really be analyzed when you take its effect into account. As it stands, a 4/5 for 5 is less efficient than the same 4/5 for 4 in the OG Yeti. So let’s look at V-07-TR-0N.

Ok, so Voltron here is a beast. 16 damage a turn? Ridiculous. Of course, it’s also ridiculous to think you’ll get both of these legendaries at the same time any time soon. Ok, so you have to put out 3 mechs — counting Mimiron’s Head that’s 2 others, so you’d need to have 2 out the turn you played the head. Then you’d have to not lose any of them, and at the start of your turn they’re all destoryed and you get this badboy. With the head being 5 mana, and say the other two mechs were 1 a piece, you only save 1 mana to get this guy out. Seems to me, it’d be better to just pay the 8 mana outright and avoid the headache. Avoid the gimmicks!

Cool I guess, but I dislike the random minion bit, especially random 2 cost minions. There aren’t too many that are that great. Skip this one.

This one is a little better, but is essentially the same thing, and I’d skip it as well.

Same mechanic again, but summoning another legendary is pretty cool. This is the best of the bunch, however you’d have to own multiple legendaries and put them all in the same deck. Many people do this, but usually I find 1 or 2 is the best number in a deck. Some simply don’t synergize well enough.