The Gonkening
- Last updated Dec 19, 2018 (Level Up Nerf)
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Wild
- 9 Minions
- 20 Spells
- Deck Type: Ranked Deck
- Deck Archetype: Unknown
- Crafting Cost: 10520
- Dust Needed: Loading Collection
- Created: 12/4/2018 (Boomsday)
- Echo_
- Registered User
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- 7
- 38
- 117
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Battle Tag:
Echo#11883
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Region:
US
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Total Deck Rating
274
So with Gonk, the Raptor being rated as the worst loa (and even rated so low that it got the Magma Rager award), I decided to give a go at making Gonk work. The whole point of the deck is to assemble a lot of Gonks and smack yourself against anything that moves or breaths.
How to Play
Similar to 95% of druid combo decks, the first step is to ramp and gain armor. Cards such as Wild Growth, Nourish and Branching Paths are all great at bringing you into the late game faster. Once you have done this, the next goal is to draw into the cards needed for the combo, this being Gonk, the Raptor, Dreampetal Florist, cards to copy Gonk such as Prince Taldaram or Faceless Manipulator and as many cards that can increase your hero's attack, such as Pounce, Claw or Malfurion the Pestilent. From there drop the Dreampetal Florist and try to discount Gonk, the Raptor or the Faceless Manipulators. Then, once the opponent has any form of board, simply drop Gonk, copy him a bunch, give yourself a lot of attack, then clear the board and attack face with the remaining hits.
Match Ups
Similar to most other combo druids, this deck excels at killing slower decks, but due to a new expansion being out and not a lot of aggressive decks in the meta yet, I'm not sure how great the match ups for it is. Out of the two aggro decks I've played against (zoolock and Odd paladin), I was able to win both games by just controlling the board with a T7 Gonk and Pounce. I'll try to keep this area updated as I play more against other match ups.
Mulligan Guide
So in your mulligan hand the three types of cards we want to try finding are ramp, cycle or armor gain. As such Wild Growth, Nourish (if you have Wild Growth, Wrath are all typically great in the opening hand.
For aggressive decks, keeping removal such as Swipe or the Lesser Jasper Spellstone are all great for just keeping the enemy off the board.
As for control, keeping slower ramp cards such as Nourish, Ultimate Infestation and Predatory Instincts are all good to make the deck run faster.
Substitutes
Of all the decks I've made, this is probably the most expensive ones but most of the cards can be substituted out.
Flobbidnous Floop and Prince Taldaram are both great for providing multiple gonks for cheap, but the cards can either be replaced for a Carnivorous Cube to provide more ways of making Gonks or more ways of keeping the board clear, such as Wrath, depending on whether you are seeing more aggro or control decks.
Malfurion the Pestilent is a great card for not only keeping you safe, but it also provides a lot of attack for cheap. Because of this, the card is hard to replace, so I'd either run Gnash if you are not running Prince Taldaram and if you are, running more removal such as Wrath is always a good idea. Another interesting choice could be to also cut both Spreading Plagues for two Witching Hours and Wrath. This will turn Witching Hour into 3 mana summon a Gonk, the Raptor which is a really good rate.
Gonk, the Raptor is necesary, sorry if you wanted to try the deck without it. Granted, the cards kinda in the title so you should have expected it to be a main card.
Branching Paths and Ultimate Infestation are not needed for the deck, but not having them would make the deck function incredibly different. If you do not have them, I'd priorities making Ultimate Infestations as they are absurdly good for druid as a whole. Granted, the same applies for Branching Paths, but this card can just be replaced by either more removal or more ways to get on the board early such as Saronite Taskmaster
Dreampetal Florists and Faceless Manipulator are also both pretty important for the deck as both are important combo pieces. The Faceless Manipulators can be replaced by Carnivorous Cubes for a similar effect, but it takes more cards to make it work, whether it be Naturalize or Greater Jasper Spellstone.
Gameplay
So since someone made a video of this deck (first time I'm freaking out), here's some gameplay if you are interested in seeing the deck in action!
Final Verdict
Personally I have had good results with this deck. I was able to take it to 7-5 on a winstreak the entire way, and only once I got down to rank 4 did I start having issues with other decks. Granted this may just be because there is a new expansion and people are trying out worse decks (in a similar manner in how I took a Big Priest running Zerek, Master Cloner from rank 14 to rank 6 fairly easily during Boomsday launch). That being said, this deck is incredibly fun and if you have the cards for it, I'd recommend trying it. I think it can find some spot in the meta once it stabilizes, maybe not this exact list, but something along the lines of it.
Edit:
With the recent nerfs to Wild Growth and Nourish, I'm not sure how good this deck is going to be. It is significantly slower and depending on how the meta shapes up post-nerf, it might just be too slow. That being said, in the mean time I've cut the Wild Growths and a Nourish for Saronite Taskmasters to help cover for the early game (and doubling up by giving a body for Gonk to eat) and another Wrath. Not sure how good these changes will be in the long run, but it's kind of hard to scope out how druid will feel in general because the nerfs are essentially taking malfurion into the backyard and shooting his kneecaps.
This deck is so stupid and strong, the fact that multiple gonk give you so much free extra attack is insane. Not sure dev though about it, nerf incoming?
Love this deck.
is there any way i can get away with 1 florist?, that is the only missing card or it’s necessary? thanks
Oh definitely. The second Florist is mainly there because I always get cucked by the first one as it discounts the Flobbidinous Floop and it also just helps with draw consistency (since I also don't get incredibly lucky all the time). If you have Twig of the World Tree it should fit the same roll as the florist and if you don't, I'd put in more cards to just help you stay safe such as another Wrath or possibly even Starfall if you are facing a lot of Odd paladins (granted you kinda want the opponent to have a wide board for the OTK, but if the opponent can fill the board quickly then it should still be pretty good).
thanks champ :)
I'm about to use 2500 dust to complete this deck. Is that worth?
NO
As of right now, the best advice I can give is to wait a bit. Often times decks that seem really strong turn out to not be good at all (such as with Shudderwock Shaman on WW launch).
That being said, what cards would you be missing? I could try helping you find some substitutes so you can try the deck to see if you want to invest in it later.
Missing Taldaram, a faceless and a florist. I'll give it a try with a cube. Thanks for the guide, great work.
tried this and another gonk deck, good fun but theres issue with over draw due to holding attack buff card in hand. also issue with to much copy. also issue of dream petal reducing floops cost, which resets when gonk is played.
due to this iv swapped to oaken package.
-floop -2 x spell stone -1 x ua
+2 x iron wood + 2 x oaken summons
extra armour and stall is helping a lot
What about the possibility of including Witching Hour? It's good for when Gonk is dead and allows for more flexible cloning of him, but it means you'd have to cut Malfurion, Spreading Plague, and Taldaram. Would it even be worth it?
Malfurions hero power works well with Gonk and allows you to clear a (small health) board with just the hero power
I'm thinking about trying a Witching Hour build, but then the big issue is that it makes the deck more reliant on attack giving cards. I feel like the sweet spot for attack is around 5-6, so it might be able to work with Gnash instead of Malfurion, along with running two more Ferocious Howl and a Wrath to try and minimize the loss of Spreading Plague.
The only other issue is that it might still will take a bit of a set up to get a good Gonk turn because chances are you won't be able to store enough face hits with only two Gonks. As of right now, I've been using Flobbidinous Floop as a pseudo-witching hour and it feels pretty strong to summon a gonk that cheaply. It's definitely something I'm going to try though.
Being able to bank attacks and make on the upwards of 4 gonks is super fun and unexpected from most! the deck actually works decently well on the ladder and I wish this could stay a thing for as long as possible :D
I made a video showcasing the deck in all of its glory (including quadruple gonk) I really hope you enjoy
Disguisted Toast have similar version that i think its better twig and prince taldaram works super good in this deck.
Prince Taldaram is definitely a card I'm considering crafting for the deck since it's the easiest way to make a cheap Gonk. As for Twig, I've tried the card in the past and it always felt like it was a win more card more often than not. I guess it makes comboing off easier, but it just never felt really strong when I played it.
Really funny deck, and i find Gold Gonk sooo... i love it!
Ok, so I ran this deck with faceless and cube and I cound cube to be better and came up with the optimal build from what I saw. You all can do with this what you want but this was the first game I played and I beat my friend with it just now so the deck is at least not TERRIBLE XD.
The issues with Cubes is that they take at most 6 mana in order to do the same thing that Faceless Manipulators do for 5, along with taking an extra card in order to pop. In my original build I was running cubes, but they just felt clunky too much of the time and required me to not use removal earlier on in order to actually pop them later on. Assuming that the discount from Dreampetal Florist does not fall on Gonk, the cube playing Gonk and cube for the combo finish would take 8 mana instead of 7, preventing you from playing Claw and DK HP which allows you to clear much more easily and only need to kill 6 things for a complete OTK.
As for running both cubes and a faceless manipulators, it already feels a bit greedy running Taldaram and two faceless and so running cubes, which are essentially just a worse version of Taldaram feels like you are just going to lose a lot more to aggro.
Faceless manipulator or is it too expensive? I feel like if you run the floop card that gives you a mana for every minion that dies you can trade in your face then play more stuff after to pump up your face so you can hit face more. Thoughts?
I'm probably going to replace the Cubes with Faceless Manipulators simply because they basically do the same thing and I was just using another deck as a shell for this one originally.
As for Floop's Glorious Gloop, I think the card could be fun to mess around with and could easily get more Gonks out, but it also just feels too much like a win more card. I'll probably try it a bit just because I already have the card, but I'm still a bit iffy on whether it will actually be good or not.