Goblin Barrel

Elixir3
RarityEpic
TypeSpells
ArenaPEKKA's Playhouse
Released2016

An object that lands where you don’t want it.

Goblin Barrel is filed as a spell, but it does no spell damage. What it delivers is three goblins, thrown anywhere on the map — including directly behind a tower. Skipping everything in between is the whole idea, and it is the reason a 3-elixir card with no direct damage has been in the game since 2016.

How it works

The barrel itself does nothing on impact. Everything depends on what comes out of it: three goblins, fast and fragile, that go for whatever is nearest. Because they arrive already past whatever was defending, the question is never whether they can reach the tower — it is whether anything is still alive to stop them.

That makes it unusual among cards of its cost. Most things you play have to walk the length of the arena and survive the trip. This does not, which is why it is grouped with spells despite behaving nothing like one.

What it looks like

A wooden keg tumbling end over end through the air, painted with a grinning green face. You see it in flight before you see what it contains, which is usually the point at which it is too late to do much about it.