Wizard Zombie

Wizard Zombie is the ninth zombie encountered in Dark Ages in Plants vs. Zombies 2. He can transform any plant into sheep, excluding instant-use plants and Ghost Pepper. The plant will stay as a sheep until the Wizard Zombie that transformed it dies. He is similar to Octo Zombie and Hunter Zombie, as they can all render plants useless from a safe distance. Wizard Zombie also does not eat plants (except for Infi-nut's barrier and hypnotized zombies). If there are no plants left to transform, he will then proceed to the player's house.

Description
Wizard Zombie wears a blue robe and a blue wizard hat, with the top of the hat being bent like a spiral. He has gray thick eyebrows and a beard that is so long that the bottom of it is tied with a brown hair tie. In his right hand, he wields a wooden rod with a purple colored crystal orb on the top. Wizard Zombie lifts his rod to release a magical beam to transform plants into sheep. Instead of wearing footwear, like all the other zombies in Dark Ages, the Wizard Zombie wears bandages on his feet.

Almanac entry
TOUGHNESS:  Protected SPEED:  Creeper

Transforms plants into passive sheep.

All the zombies agree, Wizard Zombie's powers of transmutation are impressive. But what they don't get is ... why sheep? Everyone knows it would be more helpful if the Wizard used his powers to turn plants into, say, more zombies. But yeah, no one is going to say that to his face.

Overview
Wizard Zombie absorbs 23.5 normal damage shots and its appearance changes upon absorbing 11.75 normal damage shots before dying at 23.5 normal damage shots.

Appearances
Player's House: Piñata Party

Dark Ages: Nights 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, Arthur's Challenge, and Piñata Party

General
This is a very dangerous zombie, especially if it comes in large groups. What's more is this zombie does not have a special plant made to counter it, unlike other powerful zombies like Zombie King (Magnet-shroom). He also uses his disadvantage, which is his speed, as an advantage in order to keep on bombarding black magic to your plants. Therefore, an instant-kill plant is the only way to stop them from transforming plants. Kill him quickly, as he can transform an unlimited number of plants. This could result in all plants being transformed into sheep and lead to you wasting a lot of coins to remove them. Split Pea will be useful, as the Wizard Zombie cannot transform plants backwards, so it is a good idea to have it boosted for Arthur's Challenge levels. Be careful though, as the Wizard Zombies can be spawned during Necromancy if you do not break all the remaining graves.

Guacodiles are also good against Wizard Zombies, due to the reasonably cheap cost and fast recharge. Place the Guacodile right where a Wizard Zombie immediately triggers the rush attack which is sufficient to kill a Wizard Zombie without a chance of the Guacodile being turned into sheep. However, two Guacodiles are needed for Wizard Zombies further back. The Threepeater can also be useful, as Wizard Zombies only turn plants in front of them into sheep. However, if multiple are on screen at once, they can neutralize your Threepeaters.

As the Ghost Pepper was released in the store and cannot be transformed by this zombie, use this plant to deal with large amounts of Wizard Zombies. Remember that as the Ghost Pepper range is close, they will need to be planted near the Wizard Zombies to do damage.

Note: The Wizard Zombie never eats plants, meaning Hypno-shrooms, Chili Beans, or any instant plant that requires the Wizard Zombie eat it are totally useless against him. Boosted Iceberg Lettuce will help you halt a horde of Wizard Zombies. Use it instead.

Arthur's Challenge
Wizard Zombies and Dark Ages Gargantuars are considered to be very dangerous and troublesome to your plants when worked together. While the Dark Ages Gargantuar crushes your plants and absorbs a lot of damage, the Wizard Zombie turns all your plants into sheep from a safe distance. You must have powerful plants, such as Cherry Bomb, boosted Iceberg Lettuce, and boosted Kernel-pult for your disposal to prevent this from happening. Otherwise, you will risk spending coins on Plant Food or Power Ups. Combining these with Jester Zombies can cause you a lot of trouble. If Wizard Zombies are also combined with Knight Zombies, Zombie Kings, and surprise attacks, they can easily destroy your lawn defense. One is already deadly, five is an obstacle, and twenty of these can be extremely troublesome because then each wizard only needs to transform one plant to empty a typical Dark Ages lawn. A boosted Coconut Cannon along with Cherry Bomb can also be of great help.

Ghost Peppers are in to your disposal. Once you have purchased it, use it. Do not hesitate on doing so as it will greatly aid you in the future levels, saving you much time from using Cherry Bombs or Jalapenos. Still, boosting it makes it more usable as it will bombard tons of Wizard Zombies. Also, timing is of the essence if you are planning to drag all Wizard Zombies close to it. If you have not bought the Ghost Pepper, Banana Launchers are also the best in defeating groups of this type of zombie, as Banana Launchers can defeat them wherever they are and when defeated, the plants transformed into sheep will be normal again, however, it is recommended to plant the Banana Launchers on the first column to prevent that they turn into sheep.

In addition, boosted Bowling Bulbs are also great aids to neutralize large amounts of Wizard Zombie especially on levels with three to four flags. First, remove the second and fourth rows of the first column empty. They will be used for the Bowling Bulbs. Then harvest enough sun for the rest of the level for you to be able to use it repetitively. Once the large hordes of Wizard Zombies attack, it is time for you to use it. After the Plant Food effect takes off, immediately shovel it before the Wizard Zombies away from the screen can easily transform it to sheep. With it, you get either half or 75% of its original sun cost so you can repeat this technique provided that you have sufficient amount of sun to do so. Best if you can have 1200 sun and above to be use it repetitively. This is far helpful than using boosted Kernel-pults or Iceberg alettucesas it also eliminates the other zombies from advancing through. However, some may still slip by and if they do, have either a boosted Kernel-pult or a Ghost Pepper to counter.


 * For the strategy how to get Not Baaad achievement, see Not Baaad.

Trivia

 * Wizard Zombie and Archmage Zombie are the only zombies that use magic to bypass the player's defenses.
 * As long there are plants in front of him, he will transform all of them into sheep one by one.
 * He plays a sound as he is about to transform a plant into sheep. The sound resembles the sound when feeding Plant Food on a Snapdragon and Cold Snapdragon.
 * If a plant is right in front of him, he will just turn it into sheep instead of eating it.
 * Before the release of the 2.3 update, the Wizard Zombie was going to shoot projectiles at the plants, just killing them, but as of the 2.3 update, his ability is to turn plants into sheep. The ability to shoot projectiles was then bestowed to the Jester Zombie, but it was changed to reflect projectiles shot by the plants.
 * Wizard Zombie, Camel Zombies, Pianist Zombie, Octo Zombie, and Hunter Zombie are the only zombies that have Creeper speed, which means they are the slowest zombies in Plants vs. Zombies 2.
 * He has the legs of a Mummy Zombie. This is because in medieval times, people would put bandages on their limbs to protect themselves from the plague. However, it is unusual that none of the other zombies in Dark Ages have bandaged up limbs.
 * The sheep do not eat plants; they just block a tile for planting. However, sheep will revert into plants when the Wizard Zombie dies. Also, sheep cannot be shoveled or eaten by the zombies.
 * Transformed plants will not be counted as lost plants.
 * His magic may sometimes save the player's endangered plant. Transforming plants into sheep makes the plant become invulnerable as it cannot be eaten by other zombies. However, this only lasts until the Wizard Zombie dies.
 * The only things he eats are Infi-nut's barrier and hypnotized zombies. The rest are transformed into sheep.
 * When a Magnet-shroom attracts a bucket or knight helmet and is then transformed into sheep, the sheep will have the bucket or knight helmet floating on top of it.
 * Sheep will not be tossed by graves, meaning it will still be inside them. It will not turn back into a plant however, instead it will just disappear.
 * Wizard Zombie resembles Gandalf the Grey from Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit as both are wizards and have similar appearances and scepters.
 * When a Wizard Zombie was about to turn a Power Lily into a sheep, it gave the player Plant Food before being turned into sheep. When that Wizard Zombie was killed, the sheep would turn back into a Power Lily and would give the player another Plant Food. This shows that any instant-usage plants transformed by it would perform their action again after being transformed back. This was fixed in the 2.7.1 update.
 * Plants that are given Plant Food cannot be transformed into sheep.
 * There is a glitch that if the Wizard Zombie is eating a force field or hypnotized zombie, and is missing an arm, his hand from the missing arm will still be visible while eating, resulting in a floating hand.
 * Sheep cannot be burned by Zombot Dark Dragon. However, it disappears when turning back.
 * For some reason, when a transformed Grave Buster turns back into its original form, it always disappears along with the tombstone it was busting.
 * Wizard Zombies can use their abilities off the game's screen where they are impossible to hit. This is shared with Pirate Captain Zombies and Octo Zombies.
 * When one looks closely, the transformed plant will disappear first, then a sheep will replace it.
 * Ghost Pepper is currently the only plant that is not an instant use plant that cannot be transformed by this zombie.
 * In the Springening Piñata Parties, the sheep is replaced with an egg. The egg will still make sheep noises though, which hints that is a retextured sheep.
 * Wizard Zombie cannot transform plants behind him into sheep.
 * This is similar as to how Octo Zombie cannot bind up plants behind him, and how Hunter Zombie cannot freeze plants behind him.