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Plants
Current Examples
- Solar class in general falls under the scrappy category, because of how many powerful options it has, that managed to cover the entire playstyle spectrum, from aggro, to control, with midrange probably being the most powerful option, as demonstrated in the iconic Rescue Radish-centered deck for Rose. For reference, not only does Solar have various control tools, they also have many aggro options, some very high-damaging Strikethrough cards, and the infamous heal package, which provides tempo and serves as a huge headache for the zombie hero.
- Guardian's situation is pretty much the same as Solar's. It's just as infuriatingly versatile, and has access to its own unique card package that you are bound to run into every single time. When matching against respective heroes, it's best to mentally prepare yourself for Tricarrotops + Photosynthesizer, and Three-Nut + Wallnut combos. Expecting some form of gravestone removal is also wise.
- Depending on who you ask, Lil' Buddy becoming a non-token card might've been a fun addition, or the very reason why the game is now
Ruined FOREVER. This is thanks to the card's 0-cost nature, as it enables some lowkey unfair plays that apply heavy pressure on the zombie hero. The most notable examples are Buddy's synergy with Pepper M.D. and Cob Cannon. The former is a 2/2 card that receives +2/+2 every time anything on the plant-side is healed. If the plant hero takes damage on turn 1, they can pop out Pepper and Buddy on turn 2, and instantly create a massive obstacle in form of a 4/4 body that's guaranteed to "ignore" a hit from a zombie in the same lane. Cob Cannon is a little more reasonable, but still just as annoying. CC's evolution trait allows it to destroy a zombie on the field. The card is actually fair on its own, even taking into account that it's a 6/6 body, but the problem is that its ability is balanced around a need of a preliminary setup with team-up plants. Lil' Buddy allows to skip that part entirely, and just whip out an instakiller with a huge body whenever the player deems necessary.- Puff-Shroom is technically in the same boat as Lil' Buddy, also being a 0 cost team-up card. However, it's rarely villified as much, because Kabloom's ways of abusing it are a little less infuriating, and are easier to deal with on average. That still doesn't stops it from being a scrappy, though.
- Captain Combustible is reviled for his extremely potent superpowers and his access to both Mega-Grow and Kabloom plants, with obtusely powerful, low-cost options such as Black-Eyed Pea, Blooming Heart, and Bonk Choy, up to powerful finishers such as Gatling Pea and Apotatosaurus. What makes him especially reviled, however, is the way his hero powers perfectly synergize with Re-Peat Moss. His signature alone is enough to turn the card into a finisher, but he also possesses Time to Shine, which makes Moss deal two bonus attacks for dirt cheap. And then there's Banana Launcher, which spawns cheap tricks that can help clear Re-Peat's lane from zombies, and trigger his ability for just one sun.
- A certain specialized deck of Nightcap's is a pretty common and annoying occurrence. Nicknamed "Cyclecap", it's an aggro deck that requires placing Astro-Shroomnote or Admiral Navy Beannote on a Planet of the Grapesnote . Supporting this is Lima-Pleurodonnote and Shroom For Two, which places down two units for the price of one. This gives Nightcap a Cycle of Hurting strategy that has a great amount of card drawing and direct face damage during the Plant Phase by using swarms of weak, Zerg Rush minions and environments that cost 2 or less, and even if they do go down to a wide-area kill, he can place another rush the following turn. This startegy lead to PotG receiving a cost nerf, but even after the deck supposedly "slowed down", people still found ways to keep it strong, and in some cases even less reliant on the key combo.
Nerfed Examples
- Clique Peas were a massive problem when they were initially introduced. They had the exact same ability of granting all copies of themselves permanent +1/+1, while shuffling two more into the player's deck. However, back then they didn't have the cost increase penalty. This gave Mega-Grow heroes an opportunity to fill the board with 4/4 bodies by turn 3.
- For some reason, Briar Rose got a huge buff with the release of Galactic Gardens, lowering her cost from 6 all the way to 4. This might not sound that extreme on its own, but set 2 also introduced Solar Winds – a 2 cost environment that creates a Sunflower at the end of the turn, if there are no zombies on its lane. Using this environment meant that you could place Briar on field by turn 3, creating an instant killer that's difficult to take care of this early, and that effectively repurposes Solar Winds into a defense that's impenetrable without tricks or environment replacing. Fortunately, both cards got nerfed, with Briar being raised to a more justifiable 5 sun cost, and Winds to 3 sun cost.
- Set 2 turned most Kabloom Heroes into this, courtesy of Mushroom Grotto. Thanks to that environment, they were able to create lots of bodies for cheap, providing proper attackers with a layer of protection. Additionally, the environment allowed to amass hoards of mushrooms by turn 4, which can then be turned into a massive threat with Pineclonenote . Players who like to gamble can take it further, and use Molekale (yet another Galactic Gardens addition) which turns all those Pineclones into 5 sun plants. This strategy is still present today, but it's much less effective because of Grotto getting nerfed to a 3-cost.
- During the early days of Set 2, Venus Flytraplanet and Heartichoke combo was a big pain to deal with. It allowed Solar heroes to cut off a large portion of the zombie hero's health thanks to the Cycle of Hurting enabled by the synergy of the aforementioned cards – Flytraplanet heals the hero for the amount of damage that was done by plants in its lane, and Heartichoke is doing damage to face equal to how much healing the plant hero has received. The combo still works today, but the real reason it was so devastating back then is because Flytraplanet would heal the hero even if the plant in its lane got killed in combat. Interestingly, Heartichoke got a similar nerf earlier than VF, but that didn't stop plant heroes from abusing the environment in other ways. This is what eventually lead to Flytraplanet's fall from glory.
Zombies
Current Examples
- The Crazy Package is the current bane of all plants' existence. Since everyone were too busy abusing obviously broken cards, it was overlooked for a very long time, and only came to life long after the release of Set 4, setting foundation for the game's current meta. It's focused on applying pressure to plants through use of direct damage rather than typical control tools, allowing it to switch between aggro and control playstyles on a whim. The entire package is a pain to play against in its own right, but some specific tools are highly infuriating on their own:
- Exploding Fruitcake is the prime example of good CCG balance. For a mere cost of 2 brains, it deals 7 damage to a plant. The only downside is the plant hero conjuring a fruit. There are exactly five plants in the game that can tank this damage, and the scenarios where the fruit conjure aspect could be a problem are very few and far between.
- Barrel of Deadbeards is quite a problem on its own, being able to create a 4/3 pirate and deal 1 damage to all plants on board for just 2 brains, even if it requires to get destroyed first. However, its danger gets amplified with the use of Final Mission – a 2 cost trick that destroys a zombie in exchange for dealing 4 damage to anything. For an obvious reason, it has great synergy with BoD, allowing Crazy heroes to spread massive damage across multiple targets, or double it against the plant hero. Naturally, playing against it is not very fun. The situation becomes especially bad on Impfinity, who has tools that allow zombies to gain the Deadly traitnote , and therefore turn BoD + FM combo into a literal nuke.
Nerfed Examples
- Brainy Heroes are the Zombie side's Set 2 high tier scrappies, thanks entirely to Medulla Nebula, an environment that costs 2 brains and gives 3 brains when the Zombie Hero places a teammate on them. This allowed Brainy heroes to amass lots of brains via Brain Vendor and use of cheap Zombies on the environment. Wise usage of Nebula allowed Gargantuars to be easily played on turn 3, and various dedicated finishers to be playable as early as turns 4 and 5. Tellingly, Medulla was nerfed by increasing the cost from 2 to 3 in order to make the class more balanced, and Set 4 nerfed it further by decreasing the number of brains it gave from 3 to 2, reducing ramp potential.
- Fossilhead Zombie used to be a massive problem in the first months of Set 3. It has Untrickable (cannot be affected by Plant tricks) and is a 2-brain 2/3 that gets +3/+3 if evolved from (played on to replace) a Professional Zombie. Since the set also introduced multiple 1-cost Professional zombies, it became possible to create an insane threat in form of a 5/6 zombie that can't be removed with tricks, by turn 2. Fortunately, the buff got reduced to +2/+2 later on, and then other tools that allowed to take great advantage of other Professional cards got crippled too.
- Stompadon is definitely one of the Set 3 highlights. This card's Dino-Roarnote effect buffs all zombies in the hand by +1/+1, allowing to turn any zombie into a massive threat with relative ease. The real reason Stompadon was such a disaster, though, is that it costed merely 3 brains, and was added during the time when Medulla Nebulla was still a major problem. Being a Brainy/Hearty hero, Rustbolt became the go-to option for Stompadon abuse, playing it as fast possible, and then instantly triggering the effect with all the card draw tools that Brainy has access to. The strategy only came to a halt by the time of Set 4 release, with the nerf of Medulla's and Leprechaun Imp's abilities, and Stompadon itself being upped to a 4-cost.
