From Plants vs. Zombies Wiki
Brainana is a premium legendary plant card in Plants vs. Zombies Heroes and a member of the 
Smarty class. It costs 6
to play and has 4
/3
.
It has the Amphibious trait, and its ability resets the zombie hero's brain counter to zero the turn it is played. Its closest zombie counterpart is Ra Zombie.
Origins
It is based on the banana, an edible fruit, botanically a berry, produced by several kinds of large herbaceous, flowering plants in the genus Musa. Its head bears a resemblance to Megamind's, and also some of those in Murderous Maths.
Its name is a portmanteau of "brain," referring to its ability and head, and "banana," the real-life plant it is based on.
Its card description contains the word "brain drain", meaning a situation where there is an emigration of highly trained or qualified people from a particular country, which usually does not mean well for the country of departure. However, the term is taken literally and positively, as it refers to its ability to reduce the zombie hero's brains to 0.
Statistics
- Class: Smarty
- Tribe: Banana Plant
- Trait: Amphibious
- Ability: When played: The Zombie Hero loses their Brains.
- Set - Rarity: Premium - Legendary
Card description
In this case, "brain drain" is a good thing.
Update history
Update 1.4.14
- ▲ Trait added: Amphibious
- Tribe change: Fruit → Banana
Update 1.16.10
- ▲ Strength change: 3 → 4
- Rarity change: Super-Rare → Legendary
Update 1.22.12
- Animation change: Legendary shine added.
Strategies
With
Brainana has low stats for a high-cost plant and lacks any type of meaningful synergy, so it's bad for a fighter, although its amphibious trait means it could be used to snipe your opponent if they can't deal with amphibious threats. This plant is meant to shut down your opponent's tricks before they have a chance to wreck havoc with these, and as such is best used later in the game. It also has its uses on strategies based on Teleport and Teleportation Zombie against the Brainy class. If your opponent chooses to skip their turn before tricks, Brainana can be used to deny them from playing many cards and open up a variety of plays if you have any extra sun. It is even possible to repeat this by bouncing Brainana with Rescue Radish. If it somehow transforms from a Seedling into one, Brainana will empty their brain counter before the zombies play phase, preventing them from playing any cards that cost brains.
Therefore, it is better to play it in the late game, as your opponent gets more brains for tricks and environments, as well as
Brainana, however, is plagued by a large number of weaknesses. If you don't have enough board control, stopping your opponent from playing tricks with an expensive, weak plant isn't going to do much, as Brainana absolutely cannot contribute to that, whereas the same amount of sun could be spent on plays that pressure the opponent further without denying tricks. Furthermore, Brainana doesn't prohibit your opponent from getting extra brains from the likes of Gentleman Zombie, so you'd have to remove them before as well, and this also applies to other sources of cost reduction, as it allows your opponent to play free cards. If your opponent doesn't rely on tricks or attempts to finish the game as soon as possible, Brainana can be very difficult to utilize. As such, Brainana isn't all that useful as one might think, but does have some merit should it find its deck being frequently confronted by tricks.
Against
While Brainana's ability cannot be played around with the exceptions of other bad cards such as Gentleman Zombie or Ra Zombie, its low stats make it very easy to counter. It does only four damage on turn 6, which is quite low. Using a big, threatening zombie such as Cryo Yeti, Interstellar Bounty Hunter, Supernova Gargantuar, or Gas Giant makes Brainana very easy to counter, since it will always lose the trade against them. Alternatively, you can spread out your board presence using lots of small cards to deal massive damage to the Plant Hero.
You should usually not worry about Brainana's ability. If it depletes your brains at the start of the turn (from a transformation) then there's nothing you can do, but otherwise, it only affects trick-based decks or those abusing Teleportation Zombie.
Gallery
Brainana's grayed out card
Brainana activating its ability
The advertisement for the "Brainana Pack"
Old
A glitch where there is a negative amount of brains, caused by Brainana's ability
Brainana on the advertisement for the Citron Ally Pack
Brainana in Rose's Premium Pack
In other languages
Please note that only official translations are used.
| Language |
Name |
Description
|
 English
|
Brainana
|
|
 Simplified Chinese
|
食脑蕉
|
lit. "Brain-Eating Banana"
|
| Traditional Chinese
|
腦袋香蕉
|
lit. "Brains Banana"
|
Trivia
- In older versions, it subtracted only 50 from the brain counter.
See also
Double Strike trait due to Coffee Grounds' ability
Untrickable trait Fused with Pea Patch
Kabloom
Mega-Grow
Smarty
Solar