Prickly Pear

Unreleased

Prickly Pear is a in Plants vs. Zombies Heroes, and a member of the  class. It costs 4 to play, and has 4. It has the Team-Up trait, and its ability does 4 damage to a zombie in its lane, but not the zombie hero, every time it takes damage.

Origins
It is based on the Opuntia, a genus in the cactus family, Cactaceae, which is commonly known as "prickly pear."

Statistics

 * Class: Guardian
 * Tribe: Cactus Fruit Plant
 * Trait: Team-Up
 * Abilities: When hurt: Do 4 damage to a Zombie here.
 * Set - Rarity: Premium - Rare

Card description
''You hurt me, I hurt you. That's how this works.''

With
Prickly Pear acts like a Wall-Nut, but with less health and more expensive. However, unlike Wall-Nut, which only blocks hits, Prickly Pear can retaliate back when hurt, and with an offensive plant behind, makes quick work of a majority of zombies. Due to this, you can guard a plant with no Strength and still take care of any zombie in its lane. Prickly Pear can be boosted by Spineapple too, giving it some base strength on top of its abilities.

The player should be wary if they face a or  hero, as they could either use Deadly zombies, Rolling Stone, or Weed Spray, which easily destroys it.

Against
Prickly Pear is a dangerous plant if you do not counter it well. First of all, 4 damage is quite a lot against almost all zombies that can be played on the fourth turn, destroying or heavily damaging them (Jester, Valkyrie, Trash Can Zombie, Buckethead, Zombie Coach, and Firefighter are the only ones that can survive it). Also, since it has Team-Up, it will almost always go in front of a plant you want to destroy.

Because it does damage whenever it is hurt, Freezing it or doing a bonus attack will not do you any good (unless Prickly Pear's strength is boosted, which in this case Freezing could save your zombie) since you get hurt either way, as you would when you attack it normally. It is best to destroy it in one hit, requiring a zombie with 4 or more strength. Deadly zombies can also be a replacement for zombies with 4 Strength or more.

Another thing to note is that Prickly Pear's ability can only damage zombies and not the zombie hero, so you can use tricks against it when no zombies are in its lane. Also, since Prickly Pear's ability only activates when it is hurt, and not instantly destroyed, you are free to use Rolling Stone or any other Instant-kill against Prickly Pear without any harm.

Trivia

 * Its description refers to its special ability.
 * This is the second plant in the series to be based on the prickly pears, the first is Dusk Lobber.
 * This is the only plant to appear facing the other side on its card icon.