Gonk, the Raptor

Gonk, the Raptor is a legendary druid minion card, from the Rastakhan's Rumble set.

Strategy
Naturally, Gonk has synergy with Spirit of the Raptor; with each minion destroyed thanks to Gonk, you are rewarded with additional draws. Drawing into cards such as Pounce or Bite can assist in clearing out minions with higher health.

Attacking multiple times is an easy way to trigger the Deathrattle of Twig of the World Tree, giving you access to 10 additional Mana Crystals.

Malfurion the Pestilent's hero power or the upgraded hero power gained from Baku the Mooneater are excellent sources of gaining hero attack without playing cards, which make Gonk useful even when resources of hero attack are limited.

Flobbidinous Floop is a great second resort if your Gonk has been destroyed before you could use it, also making it cheaper by 3 mana allowing more cards to be played, or to play Floop with as a second Gonk on board to utilize the stacking Gonk's effect, as stated in the Notes.

Being a Beast, Gonk can be drawn from and synergizes well with cards such as Oondasta, Predatory Instincts and Untamed Beastmaster.

Should you find yourself in a situation where you control 2 Gonks, you are granted two extra attacks per kill. This increases with the number of Gonks you control. This allows Gonk to be played as an OTK combo, using cards that copy Gonk and summon weak minions for the opponent, such as Mad Summoner or Zul'Drak Ritualist.

Lore

 * '', the Great Hunter, is the ancient  of shapes and master of the hunt. The  trolls heard many of the 's tales about Gonk. He taught both tribes how to be druids, and the Zandalari druids serve him as the . Gonk's high priest is Wardruid Loti. The followers of Gonk and  do not get along.


 * ''Gonk taught the Darkspear tribe how to contact the loa in a different way than they had before, thus allowing them to serve all the nature spirits at the same time instead of only one at a time as they used to do as loa priests (s). The other loa, such as Shirvallah, were against this but Gonk forced their hands in order to defeat, who had trapped several loa inside the . Through this method the Darkspear became druids, though the other loa are not happy about it and want the trolls to continue worshiping them one at a time.


 * ''Unlike the Darkspear druids, Gonk did not just speak to the Zandalari. For his Raptari, Gonk is not just a fragment or piece of him, but physically there, a real voice they can listen to in person.

In Hearthstone lore, Gonk serves as the patron loa of Gonk's Raptors, the ferocious, shapeshifting druid team in Rastakhan's Rumble.
 * Rikkar thought Gonk and Wardruid Loti were examples of inspiring contrast. Gonk was one of the oldest loa, and Loti one of the younger competitors in the Rumble (not to mention an advisor to King Rastakhan! And one of the most talented shapeshifters in the world!), but the two of them joined forces to open the door for young Zandalari trolls to become Druids. Loti was the inspiring leader to a pack of howling, dinosaur-jumping lunatics. Maybe he could use that!

Trivia

 * Originally during the development of Rastakhan's Rumble, Gonk's effect belonged to Spirit of the Raptor (then called "Shrine to Gonk") with the card text "Your hero has Windfury". Gonk himself instead gave a bonus when the player attacked and killed minions, at one point being considered as an 8-mana 5/5 that gave the player's hero "Overkill: Refresh your Mana Crystals." The effects of Gonk and the Spirit were eventually swapped since the designers found that giving their hero the ability to "attack a whole bunch" was the more exciting of the two and thus belonged better on Gonk. Furthermore, the accompanying deck needed more resources since players would spend so many of their resources on buffing their hero's Attack, so they felt that it made sense to give a card draw effect to the Spirit.
 * At one point in playtesting, Gonk cost 5 mana. While this was fine in most circumstances, occasionally it would allow druid players to use Gonk in combination with Pounce and an already-equipped Twig of the World Tree as early as the fourth turn to rapidly escalate the game, which was "not an okay circumstance".

Patch changes

 * Added.