Rocket Science

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

• ▲ Tribe added: Barrel

Strategies

With

Rocket Science is a solid removal card which does its job well, 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 targets, for it most plant decks have snowballs, buffing cards, or strong attackers, such as Pepper M.D., Transfiguration, Muscle Sprout, Navy Bean, Tricarrotops, Jelly Bean, etc. so there are plenty of targets that Rocket Science can help with.

The main issue is that Rocket Science 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. Additionally, many of 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. 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 solid control finishers, 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 late game 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 Zombot Dinotronic 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 have Area 22 to provide much-needed power and increase the burst damage dealt by her finishers, which is especially good against passive Solar heroes like Rose and Wall-Knight. However, it should be noted that Rocket Science is itself already very good against 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 ones with Toxic Waste Imp, which often does Rocket Science's job better, or combo decks that don't have time or room for Rocket Science, such as Buried Treasure + Medulla Nebula + Zom-Blob. 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.

Overall, Rocket Science is a perfectly serviceable Trick that ends up being indispensable in many Brainy decks which don't have any other cards that can cripple strong plants.

Against

Some classes have ways to get 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 and Gravitree are Untrickable, making them totally immune to Rocket Science and therefore very valuable against control, especially with cards that cause bonus attacks like Espresso Fiesta. You could also use Umbrella Leaf.

Gallery

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  Rocket Science's statistics
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  Rocket Science's card
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  Rocket Science's card image
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  Rocket Science being played (1)
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  Rocket Science being played (2)

Old

• 

  Rocket Science's statistics before update 1.30.4
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  Rocket Science's statistics
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  Rocket Science's statistics before update 1.14.13
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  Rocket Science's card
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  Rocket Science's silhouette
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  Rocket Science's silhouette
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  The player receiving Rocket Science from a Premium Pack
• 

  The player receiving Rocket Science from a Premium Pack before update 1.6.27
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  The player receiving Rocket Science from a Basic Pack before update 1.2.11
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  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

• Shamrocket

V · E	Zombies in Plants vs. Zombies Heroes

Unobtainable
Tokens	Zombie · Returned Octo Zombie
Superpowers	Flick-a-Plant · Get Well · Motivate
Other	Pirate's Booty