Chum Champion

Chum Champion is a in Plants vs. Zombies Heroes, and a member of the  class. It costs 5 to play, and has 3/4. It does not have any traits, and its ability gives all plants on the field -1 when it is played, while its Sports Evolution ability destroys all plants on the field with 2 or less. The Evolution ability activates after its normal ability does.

Origins
It is based on a gladiator, or more specifically, the retiarius, a Roman gladiator who fought with equipment styled that of a fisherman.

Its name is a combination of "chum," referring to the fish stuck on his trident and his Sports Evolution animation where he shoots pieces of fish at the plants, and "champion," referring to its sports tribe and also possibly, its legendary rarity.

Statisitcs

 * Class: Hearty
 * Tribes: Sports History Zombie
 * Traits: None
 * Abilities: When played: All plants get -1. Sports Evolution: Destroy all plants with 2 or less.
 * Set - Rarity: Triassic - Legendary

Card description
The Retiarius gladiator was classically armed with a trident, a net, and a 10-day-old fish.

Update 1.24.6

 * Added to the game.

With
For a 5-brain zombie, Chum Champion has both less than average strength and health. This means that while it can destroy a few weak plants, it is not suitable for combat. Its regular ability is a bit underwhelming, giving plants a measly -1, but it still is enough to destroy a few threats like Captain Cucumber if you also activate its Sports Evolution ability.

Chum Champion's true value, however, shines when you are confronting a bunch of 3 plants, as you can lower their strength to 2, which is just the amount of strength needed to be destroyed by its Evolution ability. Examples of them include Snake Grass, Three-Nut, Loco Coco, and Pineclone. It also shines against many nuts (including the two mentioned before), as they usually don't get their strength over 3. While your opponent can boost their plants to lessen the impact of its normal ability and avoid destruction by its Evolution ability, they usually won't have enough sun for a Berry Angry or Vegetation Mutation right after they play them unless you are facing Solar Flare, which lets you destroy them freely. You can also use cards that lower strength like and  beforehand to have it destroy more plants.

Unfortunately, Chum Champion's value diminishes against opponents with cards that boost strength, or enough firepower to destroy any sports zombies beforehand. Also, as mentioned before, Chum Champion doesn't have good stats. His low strength makes him vulnerable to. But Chum Champion's biggest weakness is Onion Rings, who makes all plants immune to its Evolution ability.

Due to him being a sports zombie, he can be boosted by Team Mascot and protected by Zombie Coach, although is a better 5 zombie than it in terms of stats and traits. Speaking of Zombie Coach, he is a good zombie for Chum Champion's evolution if you play it on the turn before you play Chum Champion, due to its ability.

Against
Chum Champion is not much of a threat in terms of stats, but its ability can be devastating if you are running a deck focusing on playing many plants with 3 or less, such as Pineclone or nut decks. For Pineclone decks, while you can boost them with Berry Angry, you won't have enough sun to do that on turn 4, and your opponent is able to play Chum Champion before you play Berry Angry on turn 5 due to the turn order. Therefore, holding on playing Pineclone may be better. As for nut decks, unless your hero is Grass Knuckles or Spudow, your defenses will surely be ruined, so it is recommended to have a backup strategy in case of that, if possible.

If your opponent is running a sports deck, make sure no sports zombies are on the field as they can use them for Chum Champion's Evolution and ruin your strategies.

Chum Champion itself can be destroyed by any strong plant, or Whack-a-Zombie. However, the plant in question must have at least 5, because Chum Champion's ability takes away 1.

Trivia

 * Chum Champion is the only legendary sports zombie in the game.
 * During development, its name was originally Glamorous Gladiator.