Rocket Science is a premium super-rare zombie trick card in Plants vs. Zombies Heroes and a member of the 
Brainy class.
It costs 3
to play, and its ability instantly destroys a selected plant with 4
or more. Its plant counterpart is Shamrocket.
Origins
It is based on a rocket, a missile, spacecraft, aircraft, or other vehicle that obtains thrust from a rocket engine.
Its name and description are a play on the phrase and common idiom, "It's not rocket science," meaning that something is not as hard as rocket science, the primary field of aircraft and spacecraft more properly called aerospace engineering, which is generally considered to be very complicated.
Statistics
- Class: Brainy
- Tribes: Science Barrel Trick
- Ability: Destroy a Plant that has 4 or more.
- Set - Rarity: Premium - Super-Rare
Card description
Turns out, it IS rocket science.
Update history
Update 1.2.11
- Set - Rarity change: Basic - Common → Premium - Uncommon
Update 1.10.22
- New sound effects when Rocket Science is played.
Update 1.10.23
- New ability animation when Rocket Science is played.
Update 1.14.13
- Rarity change: Uncommon → Rare
Update 1.16.10
- Rarity change: Rare → Super-Rare
Update 1.30.4
Strategies
With
Rocket Science is a solid removal card which is does its job well enough but has a few flaws. Firstly, it doesn't brick as often as you'd expect; while it's not impossible for the Plants to not play any rocket targets, most plant decks have snowballs, buffing cards, or strong attackers, such as Pepper M.D., Elderberry, Muscle Sprout, Bananasaurus Rex, Tricarrotops, Jelly Bean, etc. so there's plenty of targets that Rocket Science can help with. Even decks that don't rely on strong minions will probably have something like Poppin' Poppies that you can use a rocket on. Another thing that isn't as big of a deal as it appears is that you need to pass 3 brains to Tricks to play it; Brainy heroes prefer to play on Tricks anyways because of Teleport, and worst case scenario, you were probably using Fun-Dead Raiser anyways in the sort of slow-paced decks that Rocket Science it used in, which is a great option select. The main issue is that it sometimes doesn't get as much value as you'd like. Destroying a cheap snowball with it isn't a particularly good trade against tempo decks; for example, if you use Rocket Science to destroy a Pepper M.D. that Chompzilla played on turn 2, that Pepper M.D. traded with a 3-cost Trick as a 2-cost Plant and may have even done 4 damage to your Hero, all while you spent your turn 3 getting rid of it, allowing Plants to play more cards for free. Additionally, the best expensive Plants have powerful effects when played or destroyed, such as Cob Cannon, Jelly Bean, and Astrocado, meaning it doesn't get as much value against them as you would hope. That's not to say that these are terrible situations to use Rocket Science; only that unlike many other cards which give you an advantage, Rocket Science can only make you lose slower. Luckily, Brainy has 2 great control finishers in Trickster and Zombot Dinotronic Mechasaur, which can help a lot in compensating for Rocket Science's passivity.
Rustbolt is a great example of a Hero that benefits from Rocket Science, as he has great early-game control cards like Black Hole, Rolling Stone, and Planetary Gladiator, which pair perfectly with Rocket Science's ability to target high-Strength lategame plants as with a decent hand and knowledge of when to use removal he can easily lock down the field long enough to Teleport in Tricksters and Mechasaurs while preventing most direct damage. Immorticia also often runs control, using Cheese Cutter, Nibble, Extinction Event, and Cyborg Zombie to complement Rocket Science's late game power, and while this early game is not as solid as 
Hearty's, she does sweeten the pot with Area 22 to increase the burst damage dealt by her finishers, which can sometimes be nice against passive 
Solar heroes like Rose and Wall-Knight. However, it should be noted that Rocket Science is itself already very good into these sorts of decks, as they can struggle to replace Pepper M.D. after it gets rocketed.
Unfortunately, the other Brainy heroes don't make as nearly good use of Rocket Science. Huge-Gigantacus and especially Super Brainz have a poor early-game and limited pool of Tricks which often prohibits them from running the sort of slow, passive decks that Rocket Science is found in. Instead, they tend to run decks more focused on tempo, such as Toxic Waste Imp, or faster combo decks that don't have time for Rocket Science, such as Buried Treasure + Medulla Nebula. The former may run two or three copies of Backyard Bounce to more reliably unblock lanes and distrupt Plants in the short-term, while the latter probably won't run any removal at all. Professor Brainstorm might benefit from Rocket Science were it not hopelessly outclassed by Exploding Fruitcake, and there isn't much incentive to run both, especially considering even his slowest decks still aren't hard control and instead make good use of 
Crazy's excellent Zombies.
Overall, Rocket Science is a perfectly serviceable Trick that ends up being indispensable in control decks because the heroes that run control don't have any other cards that can cripple strong Plants.
Against
Some classes have topend that gets around Rocket Science; Brainana shuts down all removal for a turn and also blocks Teleport, frequently effectively skipping a Brainy hero's turn, and Apotatosaurus is 
Untrickable, making it totally immune to Rocket Science, making it valuable against control, especially with cards that cause bonus attacks like Espresso Fiesta. You could also use Umbrella Leaf, but it's frequently considered too passive and situational to be consistent. However, the most common solution to Zombie removal is to simply live with it; either play a fast, aggressive deck which can out=pace Rocket Science, or don't play for tempo and instead stall for a finisher that doesn't care like Wall-Nut Bowling, or simply play more big Plants than the Zombie Hero could possibly remove; this is typically Chompzilla's specialty (Pepper M.D., Black-Eyed Pea, Muscle Sprout, Astrocado, Elderberry, Gatling Pea, etc.)
Gallery
Rocket Science's statistics
Rocket Science's card image
Rocket Science being played (1)
Rocket Science being played (2)
Old
Rocket Science's statistics before update 1.30.4
Rocket Science's statistics
Rocket Science's statistics before update 1.14.13
Rocket Science's silhouette
Rocket Science's silhouette
The player receiving Rocket Science from a Premium Pack
The player receiving Rocket Science from a Premium Pack before update 1.6.27
The player receiving Rocket Science from a Basic Pack before update 1.2.11
The player having the choice between Chimney Sweep or Rocket Science as the prize for completing a level before update 1.2.11
Rocket Science being played
In other languages
Please note that only official translations are used.
| Language |
Name |
Description
|
 English
|
Rocket Science
|
|
 Simplified Chinese
|
火箭发射
|
|
| Traditional Chinese
|
火箭科學
|
|
 French
|
Physique-chimie
|
|
 German
|
Raketenwissenschaft
|
|
 Italian
|
Scienza missilistica
|
|
 Japanese
|
ロケット
|
|
 Korean
|
로켓 공학
|
|
 Brazilian Portuguese
|
Ciência Espacial
|
|
 Russian
|
Китайская грамота
|
|
 Spanish
|
Ciencia aeronáutica
|
|
Trivia
- A rocket similar to this one is found in Wall-Knight's and Z-Mech's comic strip.
- The face on the rocket is the same as the face on Kite Flyer's kite, Rolling Stone, Balloon Zombie's balloon, and Toxic Waste Imp's barrel.
- It had the most rarity changes out of all cards in the entire game, from Common to Uncommon, then to Rare, and finally to Super-Rare.
- The Simplified Chinese translation of the description is entirely different. It reads: "Nobody knows how could this rocket strike its target". Additionally, the name is translated to "Rocket Launch".
See also
Brainy
Crazy
Hearty
Sneaky