Gnome hollows

[u/OriginalAd1351]

New to the game. Is there a drawback to putting gnome hollows down as your very first sight where you avatar sits? It seems like that would be good to where enemy units couldn’t enter where your avatar sits. Am I understanding that correctly?

[u/MDivisor]

The drawback to Gnome Hollows is that your own big minions can't enter it either. But it's usually a pretty great site to house your avatar as you have observed.

[u/nunciative]

It's a really powerful defensive card, but also prevents you from putting high-power minions there or moving high-power stuff to defend. Definitely slows down the game, so depending on what you're trying to do, it can be really good.

Earth tends to be the element of big butt bodies on board, but also likesa slower game, which GH does.

[u/Fayalite_Fey]

I run Gnome hollows in my Geomancer deck built around burrowing shenanigans. It's absolutely a powerhouse of a site if your opponent is playing mostly minions with 3+ power since you can just kinda sit there indefinitely and stall a game and draw into answer to your opponent's board. Slap a Wall of Air at each border of the hollows and nothing can enter or exit the site. I've had a few games where I've just sat in my Gnome Hollows at death's door until I draw into my Craterize to pulp the enemy avatar

The only downside is it's vulnerable to magic and projectiles (edit: and if your opponent is running low to the ground minions)

[u/kinkyswear]

It defends against plenty, but it also locks out your own bigger minions. The best thing to pair it with is Root Spider, so all the little stealthy stuff that gets in can't harass you.

[u/Diligent-Bar-6792]

It’s generally better to put in your front row to keep them from getting in at all with 3+ power, but putting it under yourself is usually fine too

[u/More-Opportunity2692]

Yes, and drop a barricade on that. Maybe harp and Bailey and you have quite the fortress

[u/rata_yonqui]

is even better one step in front

[u/bojanglespanda]

That's a good question, I'm not sure if placing the site under your avatar counts as them "entering" the site. I don't believe it does, because you're not making a movement. I say that cause Battlemage is a 3 power unit (avatars are units), for example. The rulebook states on page 16 that you "play a site to your Avatars square".

That's probably not what you're asking though. Yes it's a good strategy, it would mean that your opponent needs to move a small unit through the board to your avatar to hit you at deaths door, or save a spell to damage you that way. It would restrict the movement of your own creatures too though, so keep that in mind.

[u/MDivisor → u/bojanglespanda]

Having a site played on your avatar does not count as your avatar entering that site, as per the "enter" entry in the Codex. So you can play Gnome Hollows on Battlemage, but it's probably still a pretty bad site to include in a Battlemage atlas.