Daily Challenge (PvZH) strategies/Puzzle Party (Witty Wednesday)/Week 40

January 10^th, 2018; January 9^th, 2019 and January 8^th, 2020

Synopsis:

Players play as Spudow against Brain Freeze on turn 16. Brain Freeze has 512   and Spudow has 1  . On the field a Hot Dog Imp in the 3^rd lane, a Zombot Plank Walker on the 4^th lane, and Pair Pearadise environments in both the 2^nd and 4^th lanes. Spudow has a Berry Angry, an Imitater, a Gardening Gloves, a Tricarrotops, a Kernel Corn, a Wall-Nut Bowling, a Dandy Lion King, and a Gloom-Shroom.

Tip

1. Exponentially halving Brain Freeze’s colossal health is faster than linearly damaging by fixed amounts.
2. Imitater’s ability only activates for playing non-Imitator plants.
3. Cards made by Transforming will also activate their When Played abilities.
4. Cards made by Transforming will also activate other cards’ When a(nother) Plant is Played abilities.

Solution

Minimum requirements

1. Play Imitator on any Pair Pearadise. The environment played on will make another Imitator on it.
2. Move either Imitater to either the 1^st lane or the other Pair Pearadise with Gardening Gloves.
3. Play Dandy Lion King on the other lane mentioned in Step 2.
   • The Imitators will transform into 2 more Dandy Lion Kings, and the Pair Pearadises will make 2 more Dandy Lion Kings. Those plus the original sums for 5 more Dandy Lion Kings. They will half Brain Freeze’s health 5 times with 256+128+64+32+16=496 damage, leaving him with 16 health ((1⁄2)⁵=1⁄32 of what he began with)
4. Play Berry Angry to increase (the leftmost 3) Dandy Lion Kings’ by 2 each. End the turn – Spudow still has 2   unspent.
   • Before the Zombies Strikethrough, the leftmost 3 Dandy Lion Kings will deal 3×(4+2)=18 damage to Brain Freeze, overkilling him by 2   (Enough even if Brain Freeze had 18×2⁵=576   to start with).

Variations

The extra 2   is enough to play the Tricarrotops, although not required. Therefore, without impacting the strategy (i.e. play it in any Pair Pearadise) one can play it:

• Anytime on the 3^rd lane without increasing the damage output, or
• Anytime before playing Dandy Lion King on the 1^rd lane. Note that the player can and must either:
  • If all (Imitator) Dandy Lion Kings goes on the Ground, the player must play Tricarrotops before using Gardening Gloves to make up the 3   offset, as Gardening Gloves draws a card (Small-Nut) and triggers Tricarrotops’ Dino-Roar (+1  ). The overkill of 2 will be lost.
  • The player can alternatively move specifically the made–with–Team-Up Imitator from its Pair Pearadise to that 1^rd lane so it ends up on the same lane with the Tricarrotops. Playing Tricarrotops after Gardening Gloves will further increase the overkill by 3 (1   from Tricarrotops plus 2   from Berry Angry) for a potential of (18+3)×2⁵=672   damage in total.
    • For maximum theoretical damage, one can combine the two strategies above by playing Tricarrotops before Gardening Gloves to increase the overkill by another 1. This means that this puzzle is possible even if Brain Freeze had (18+4)×2⁵=704   health to start with. The back Dandy Lion King on lane 2 will not attack, however, as its 6   is not needed for 6 in overkill.