Pogo-Hopper

Pogo-Hopper is a rare rogue minion card, from The Boomsday Project set.

Strategy
Pogo-Hopper is a card with a mechanic comparable to Jade Golems, as it gets drastically better over the course of the game. The second Pogo-Hopper played already becomes a 3/3 for 1 mana, which is far above average, and it can continue to scale up afterwards. Rogues have a wide arsenal of tools using duplicate and Return to hand mechanics to play more Pogo-Hoppers, such as Shadowstep, Togwaggle's Scheme and Lab Recruiter, generating massive threats for only 1 mana per minion.

Vanish has found new utility with this card, as it can be used to clear the board and return your Pogo-Hoppers to your hand while leaving you with enough mana to potentially play four more Pogo-Hoppers.

Applying Zilliax on a powered-up Pogo-Hopper can provide you with an immense amount of health gain, which can help stabilize your health against more aggressive enemies. Bronze Gatekeeper can also turn one of your Pogo-Hoppers into a large taunt wall, which will also help against aggressive opponents.

Being a 1-mana minion, Pogo-Hopper can take advantage of cards such as Witchwood Piper to reliably draw it (so long as your deck has no other 1-mana minions) and Magic Carpet to give your powered-up Pogo-Hoppers Rush. Magic Carpet has cross-synergy with Lackeys, which can help facilitate Heistbaron Togwaggle; while all of Heistbaron Togwaggle's treasures are powerful to one degree or another, if Tolin's Goblet is played when your deck is stuffed with Pogo-Hoppers, you could end up drawing a handful of Pogo-Hoppers to terrorize your opponent with. As Pogo-Hopper, Lackeys, and Heistbaron Togwaggle are all Battlecry minions, they all also have excellent synergy with Barista Lynchen, which not only gives you extra copies of these cards but will help empower your Pogo-Hoppers even more.

Spirit of the Shark has excellent synergy with Pogo-Hopper; while it won't improve future Pogo-Hopper buffs, it will significantly empower Pogo-Hoppers you summon due to its Battlecry being duplicated. For example, if Spirit of the Shark is on the field and you've already played two Pogo-Hoppers, your third Pogo-Hopper will be buffed to 9/9 (two Pogo-Hoppers have been played, so it gains 2 2/2 buffs twice), but if Spirit of the Shark is gone once you play your fourth Pogo-Hopper, that one will only be buffed to 7/7 (as while the last one had its Battlecry duplicated, you've still only summoned three Pogo-Hoppers this game).

Tak Nozwhisker is an excellent choice for synergy with Pogo-Hopper. You can play Tak, a Pogo-Hopper and Lab Recruiter all in one turn (when at 10 mana) to add three more Pogo-Hoppers to your hand, or conversely you can use Togwaggle's Scheme instead of Lab Recruiter to add an army of Pogo-Hoppers to your hand (albeit without the added benefit of a 3/2 minion on the field).

Pogo-Hopper has powerful synergy with Elven Minstrel, as it can draw these Pogo-Hoppers from your deck and also has a very powerful on-play effect, which is better with the same duplicate and return to hand mechanics. Valeera the Hollow and Sonya Shadowdancer are also good choices.

Trivia

 * Pogo-Hopper's flavor text is a reference to "Once you pop, you can't stop", a slogan for the American potato chips brand.
 * Based on the card art as well as the name, Pogo-Hopper may be a tribute to popular Hearthstone player BunnyHoppor, winner of the HCT Summer Championship 2018.
 * A perfect place to test out (and enjoy) Pogo-Hopper decks is in The Lich King (boss), where the boss's Class challenge effect will remove all the spells you put in your deck, and therefore thin out your deck to increase the chance of drawing Pogo-Hopper and Lab Recruiter, Youthful Brewmaster, Barista Lynchen etc. Another place is the Top 2 or Top 3 Tavern Brawl.

Patch changes

 * Now costs 1 mana. (Down from 2).
 * Added.