Miner

“The Miner can burrow his way underground and appear anywhere in the Arena. It's not magic, it's a shovel.”

The Miner card is unlocked from the P.E.K.K.A.'s Playhouse (Arena 4) or a Legendary Chest. He is a single-target, melee troop with both moderate hitpoints and damage. A Miner card costs 3 Elixir to deploy. The Miner is the only troop that can be deployed anywhere on the Arena. He appears to be a joyous digger with a bright red nose, a shovel, and a black helmet with a candle on it.

Strategy

Due to his ability to be placed anywhere, the Miner can be used for surprise attacks.
He deals only 40% of his normal damage to Crown Towers, so it is recommended not to use him on them alone.
- However, he can act as a surprise tank. A Miner backed up by high damage per second troops such as Goblins or Minions is a cheap way to deal immense damage if ignored.
- A lone Miner, however, can dish out moderate damage to a Crown Tower, so it is advised to address him whenever possible.
If the player is sending the Miner to a Princess Tower, sending the Miner on the center tile of the inner side will put him in the kill zone, allowing the other Princess Tower to target him.
If the player needs to do some chip damage to both of the Princess Towers, they can send a Miner in the kill zone and then pressure the opposite lane. This is a high-risk, high-reward move.
However, the Miner can still be placed in the side of the killzone without being targeted by the opposite Princess Tower; by placing the Miner on the corner of the side, he will be barely out of range.
With this knowledge, the player can deploy their countering unit near the Miner to push him within range of the second tower.
If the player deploys him in front of the tower, their supporting units are much easier to counter as splash units can easily splash the Miner and support troops. An Ice Golem can also be placed in front of tower pushing the Miner and forcing him to retarget.
If you want to attack the King's Tower without your Miner being within range of a Princess Tower, place the Miner on the left corner or 1 tile beside it of the King's Tower to avoid getting targeted by the right Princess Tower, and vice versa.
Conversely, if you want to attack a Princess Tower without getting targeted by the King's Tower, place him in the bottom right corner of the right Princess Tower so that he can target it without getting targeted by the King's Tower, and vice versa.
If you know your opponent has the Tornado card in their deck, make sure you place your Miner far away from the King's Tower so that your opponent cannot use the Tornado to drag the Miner towards the King's Tower and activate it early.
Use Miners to efficiently destroy enemy buildings such as spawners when they are not attacking or defending. Note that his damage is only reduced to Crown Towers, and will deal normal damage to other buildings.
- He can easily damage or destroy an Elixir Collector especially if the Crown Towers are distracted, preventing an Elixir advantage for the opponent, all whilst gaining an Elixir advantage. (3 Elixir to destroy a 6 Elixir building)
- It is important to know where he should and not be deployed when going after a passive building in the back.
  - If the building is deployed beside the King's Tower, the Miner should be placed on the side of the building that is closer to the Princess Tower, but farther from the King's Tower. If the Miner is sent too close to the King's Tower, he will target and activate the King's tower after taking down the targeted structure, and thus, this position is mostly avoided.
  - With that being said, it is an amazing location since most players aren't familiar with this positioning.
  - The Miner shouldn't be deployed directly above and 1 tile beside on the left (for both sides of the arena) of the Princess Tower as he will target it instead. The Miner will always attack the left corner of the targeted building.
  - The safest place to deploy a defending troop is behind the Princess Tower.
The player can also support their pushes by deploying the Miner next to their troops. However, the Miner is best used to tank, diverting some damage from your main push.
The Miner can take out squishy but powerful troops such as the Princess or Musketeer that are protected by a tank. Against a Princess that is attacking a tower from the bridge, placing him on the outside tiles will not cause her to re-target to him; the player needs to deploy the Miner on the inside or the center tile to cause her to re-target.
Being a single-target troop, the Miner is very weak against a small swarm of troops, such as Skeletons, which distract the Miner and prevent him from attacking nearby buildings. High damage troops like the Mini P.E.K.K.A. can also easily destroy the Miner.
Switching up your placement in unpredictable ways prevents your opponent from efficiently addressing your Miner, allowing him to chip the target. For example, deploy the Miner on the same tile 2 times, and after that, deploy him on the opposite tile.
Miner pairs well with the Poison as the Poison will kill any swarms trying to counter the Miner while the Miner does constant chip damage to the Princess Tower. The Poison, too, will chip some damage off the Tower. This combo is considered as a Miner + Poison burner deck.
Pairing up the Miner and Hog Rider is a great choice for a push. However, it is vulnerable to air troops, such as Minions, and is also easily stopped by Barbarians or Skeleton Army. This may put you at an Elixir disadvantage.
A Goblin Barrel works well with the Miner. The Miner can soak up damage, while the Goblins deal damage, or vice versa.
- However, it can be easily countered with air troops or spells, or swarm cards.
- Deploying a barrel on one Princess Tower and the Miner at the other may catch your opponent off guard, forcing them to act fast.
The Miner also works very well with the Graveyard. The Miner will tank the damage from the Tower or counters while the Skeletons continuously spawn, allowing them to potentially deal heavy damage to the Tower. A Minion Horde or Poison can counter this combo for an Elixir advantage, however.
Mirroring the Miner can deal decent damage. Also, you may wish to Mirror a Miner at the opposite Crown Tower. However, this will cost 7 Elixir and will most likely result in a negative Elixir trade.
An Ice Spirit can prove useful in an emergency when defending against the Miner. Deploy the Ice Spirit behind the attacked Tower so that it jumps into the Miner. This allows time for proper placement of troops to counter the Miner.

History

The Miner was added to the game on 3/5/16 with the May 2016 Update.
On 18/5/16, a Balance Update increased the Miner's hitpoints by 6%
On 4/7/16, a Balance Update decreased the Miner's deploy time to 0.7 seconds (from 1 second). This change was not mentioned in any change notes and was later said to be unintentional by Supercell.
On 24/8/16, a Balance Update increased the Miner's deploy time back to 1 second and decreased his hitpoints by 6%.
The 20/6/18 Update moved the Arena to unlock the Miner from Builder's Workshop (Arena 6) to P.E.K.K.A's Playhouse (Arena 4).

Trivia

It is the only troop card that can be placed anywhere on the Arena.
It is the only troop card to deal reduced damage to Crown Towers.
If the Miner digs under a place where troops are standing, the troops above him will move aside. This uprooting of the dirt can re-aggro troops as it pushes them aside and make them switch targets. However, this is not substantially used as it is hard to predict Miner movement.
The Miner is one of the nine troop cards that inspired a troop in Clash of Clans, along with the Night Witch, the Baby Dragon, the Ice Wizard, the Bomber, the Skeleton Barrel, the Battle Ram, the Giant Skeleton, and the Ice Golem.
Unlike his Clash of Clans counterpart, he cannot go back underground after he pops out.
The Miner can be pushed back by The Log while underground. However, The Log will not deal any damage to the Miner and will not cause it to pop out of the ground upon contact.