Goblin Machine: The Most Underrated Card in Merge Tactics

Goblin Machine Underrated Carry

Most undervalued Troops in Merge Tactics are undervalued because they are weak. The Goblin Machine is the opposite: it is strong, and nobody is fighting you for it. Across three recorded ladder games, Ricky Royale three-starred the Goblin Machine every single time, and as he points out, being able to max a unit that easily is the clearest possible sign that the lobby is not contesting it.

This guide is based on Ricky Royale's video on the most underrated card in Merge Tactics history. It covers why the Goblin Machine is so easy to max, the one genuine downside (Trait value), how to pair it with a Rider and the Queen, a stage-by-stage game plan, and the Modifiers that make the whole plan close to free.

Why Goblin Machine Is Slept On

The argument Ricky Royale makes is not about raw numbers, it is about contest level. If you can reliably collect enough copies of a unit to push it to three-star game after game, that unit is uncontested, and uncontested units are the cheapest route to a maxed carry on your board.

Easy to max: Ricky Royale hit a three-star Goblin Machine in all three games shown, including one where he openly prioritized the merge over winning individual rounds.
Low contest: the lobby is busy chasing Noble, Clan and Forest units, so Goblin Machine copies keep rolling into the shop.
Real damage: once maxed, he repeatedly calls out the Goblin Machine's damage, including a round where it simply deleted the enemy board.
Early impact: even a two-star Goblin Machine got a clean shot off onto a Ram Rider in the opening rounds, so it is not dead weight while you build.

Key insight: the best units in a season are not always the flashiest ones. They are the ones you can actually finish merging, and right now the Goblin Machine is exactly that unit.

The Trait Trade-Off

The honest downside Ricky Royale flags more than once: you do not really gain a Trait by running the Goblin Machine. Technically it brings Goblin, but as he says, you are not realistically going to field four or more Goblin bodies around it, so the unit pays for itself with stats rather than synergy.

✅ Stat carry: treat the Goblin Machine as a pure damage slot that earns its place by being three-star, not by unlocking a trait bonus.
✅ Flexible: because it demands no Trait package, you can slot it into whatever shell the shop gives you.
❌ No breakpoint payoff: unlike a Clan or Noble core, maxing the Goblin Machine does not light up a trait line for the rest of your board.
⚠️ Build your activations with the supporting cast. In the video Ricky Royale juggled Rider, Forest and Clan, at one point forfeiting Clan for Forest, and later threw in Royal Giant purely to keep Noble online.

In short: the Goblin Machine is the carry, your other units supply the Traits. That split of responsibilities is what makes the plan so easy to pilot.

Best Partners And Comp Shape

The video never runs the Goblin Machine alone. It sits next to a maxed Rider and whatever premium unit the shop hands over, which this season is almost always the Queen.

Core partners

Queen: described in the video as the most overpowered unit in the entire season. Ricky Royale hit a three-star and even a four-star Queen, and holding spare copies is valuable both for your own board and for blocking opponents.
Dark Prince: called absolutely insane and used as a frontline anchor that buys the Goblin Machine time to shoot.
Hog Rider: rated in the video as probably the second best Rider in the game, and the unit he pushed to four-star in game three alongside four Clan.
Musketeer: a genuinely good unit worth maxing when the chance appears. In game two a four-star Musketeer tore into a Boss Bandit and kept him alive far longer than his board deserved.
Giant and Giant Skeleton: dependable frontline bodies that soak damage while your carries work.

What to deprioritize

❌ Firecracker: Ricky Royale is blunt here. Even at three-star she was not doing much for the board, so she is a filler slot rather than a win condition.
⚠️ Do not waste tempo on units you do not need. He calls playing the Witch in an early round straight-up overkill when that shop slot could have fed the cycle instead.

Stage By Stage Game Plan

The plan is simple and repeatable: get a cycle going, upgrade your Rider, hoard Goblin Machine copies, and do not throw the game to do it.

Early rounds

Get your cycle online first. A clean Firecracker merge plus a Spear Goblin merge in round two was enough to start spinning the shop almost immediately.
Accept a little chip damage. Taking three damage in round one was fine because the engine mattered more than the round result.
⚠️ Only start banking Goblin Machine copies if your board can still keep you alive. Ricky Royale is explicit: hold machines as early as you can without sacrificing a comp that keeps you in the game.

Mid game

Upgrade your Rider early. He calls a three-star Rider the best-case scenario for rescuing an iffy board.
Use shop denial. Keeping a Queen you do not strictly need can block the player you are facing from maxing her, and the video treats that as a legitimate plan in itself.
Take the useful items. The Queen's Cloak on the Queen herself is strong, a nod to her old ability of going invisible with bonus hit speed below 50% health, and the Fisherman's Hook on a Giant gives you a slow on any unit on the board.

Late game

Chase only the merges that are actually achievable. In game two he kept forcing a four-star Goblin Machine that an opponent was confirmed to be blocking, and admits he should have pivoted to the Musketeer much sooner.
✅ Abandon dead projects. Dropping the Prince push to secure something that could actually finish is the correct call.
Remember the race to 60 merges: once the finish line is close, every roll should be feeding a merge you can realistically complete.

Pro tip: before you spend another round chasing a merge, ask whether an opponent is sitting on your copies. If the pool is blocked, pivot to the nearest unit you can still finish.

When To Bum Rush Goblin Machine

The clearest use case from the video: the Goblin Machine is your safe out when the premium Traits are already claimed. If Noble is taken, Clan is taken, or Forest is taken, there is no reason to fight three players over scraps.

✅ Contested lobby: bum rush your Rider and bum rush the Goblin Machine. Ricky Royale calls this a very valid strategy for this season.
✅ Any Ruler: if you are not on the Empress, upgrade your Rider early and bank Goblin Machine copies as your damage plan.
✅ Four Stars Modifier: with extra copies flooding the shop, the cycle feels endless from round one. His exact point: if the Goblin Machine is already free in regular Modifiers, imagine how free it is here.
✅ Safe default while pushing: when you cannot afford a risky comp, the machine is the low-variance pick that still ends up maxed.
⚠️ Odd Modifiers: the plan held up across a wormhole board and an old season-zero style Modifier too, but your Trait lines shift round to round, so stay flexible with the support slots instead of forcing one line.

Strengths And Weaknesses

Strengths

✅ Uncontested: three games, three three-star Goblin Machines, which is the entire thesis of the video.
✅ Board clearing damage: at three-star it visibly wipes enemy boards rather than just trading hits.
✅ Comp agnostic: it forces no Trait package, so it fits any shell you happen to build.
✅ Safe default: the perfect fallback when Noble, Clan and Forest are all spoken for.

Weaknesses

❌ No real Trait payoff: you only get Goblin, and stacking enough Goblin bodies for a serious breakpoint is unrealistic.
❌ Needs the merge: the reputation comes at three-star. A one-star copy carries nothing.
⚠️ Can be blocked: once another player starts holding copies, as happened in game two, the merge stalls. Spot it early and pivot.
⚠️ Tunnel vision risk: Ricky Royale admits he chased the merge over the win for the showcase, and game two ended in a loss partly because of it. Do not copy that part.

Key Units & Traits

Goblin Machine: The underrated carry: uncontested, easy to three-star, and deletes boards once maxed.
Queen: Called the most overpowered unit of the season. Max her if you can, and hold copies to block opponents.
Dark Prince: Insane frontline anchor that buys your Goblin Machine time to shoot.
Hog Rider: Rated as probably the second best Rider. A four-star Hog Rider plus four Clan closed out game three.
Musketeer: Strong backline damage worth maxing. A four-star Musketeer tore through a Boss Bandit in game two.
Giant: Dependable frontline body and a good holder for the Fisherman's Hook slow.
Giant Skeleton: Extra frontline value that helped stabilise rounds while the carries did the damage.
Royal Giant: Slotted in purely to keep the Noble trait online around the Goblin Machine core.

TL;DR

✅ The Goblin Machine is the most underrated Troop in Merge Tactics because it is strong AND uncontested: three games, three three-star copies.
✅ Treat it as a pure stat carry. It brings Goblin and little else, so your other units supply the Trait breakpoints.
✅ Bum rush your Rider and the Goblin Machine when Noble, Clan or Forest are already taken in the lobby.
✅ Pair it with the Queen, Dark Prince, Hog Rider and Musketeer, with a real frontline like Giant in front.
✅ Hold spare Queen copies to block the player you are facing from merging her: denial is a plan, not a waste.
⚠️ Do not hoard copies so hard that your board dies. Stay alive first, merge second.
⚠️ If an opponent is blocking your copies, drop the merge and max whatever you can still finish.

The Goblin Machine is not a gimmick pick, it is the most reliable maxed carry available right now, and that is precisely because the rest of the lobby ignores it. Ricky Royale's three games show the same pattern every time: the copies arrive, the three-star lands early, and the unit immediately starts erasing enemy boards. It will never give you the Trait fireworks of a Clan or Noble build, and it does nothing at one star, so you still need a clean cycle and a sensible frontline around it. But as a safe default when the premium traits are contested, and as a near-free merge under the Four Stars Modifier, the Goblin Machine is one of the best value plays in Merge Tactics and well worth learning before the rest of the ladder catches on.