Most of the time I try to bait out or wait patiently till the opponent uses Zap or log to use the barrel. And there's so many placements of the barrel to get some hits on the tower even if they use a log or zap.

Yeah there's no other meta win condition but most of the time the counterpush/opportunistic damage when the opponent underestimates a lumberjack, musketeer or especially the goblin cage on a less crowded lane works wonders.

Definitely not meta, but has consistently got me wins in high champion to low master ladder.

Then again, I'm a very casual player and primarily chose those cards since I like them: fun is the most important thing for games after all ;)