Wizard Zombie

The Wizard Zombie is a zombie encountered in Dark Ages in the game Plants vs. Zombies 2: It's About Time. It transforms plants into sheep. If there are no plants nearby, it will then proceed to the Player's House.

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 24 normal damage shots and its appearance changes at 12 normal damage shots before dying at 24 normal damage shots.

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

General
This is a very dangerous zombie if many of it come in groups. Unfortunately, this zombie does not have a weakness. Additional fact, it also uses its disadvantage, which is its speed, as its 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 it quickly, as it can transform an unlimited number of plants. This could result in all plants being transformed into sheep and lead to the player losing the level. To make its special ability useless, keep planting more plants until it dies. The 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's levels.

Note: The Wizard Zombie never eats plants, meaning Hypno-shrooms and Chili Beans are totally useless against it. Boosting Iceberg Lettuce will also 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. While the Dark Ages Gargantuar crushes your plants, the Wizard Zombie turns all your plants into sheep. You must have 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 troublesome. Thinking of this as a Gargantuar Prime with slower speed and less health but frequently uses its magic to aid its allies. Remember that one is already deadly, five is already an obstacle and twenty of these can be extremely troublesome because not even two columns of Winter Melons or Melon-pults can assist you. Additionally, a boosted Coconut Cannon along with Cherry Bomb can also be of great help.

Another strategy is to lure the Wizard Zombies into the adjacent sheeps respectively then blow all of them up with a Cherry Bomb, better if you have a copy of it with you. It will greatly revert all sheeps into plants and all of them will be heavily bombarded. It then will slowly reduce any Wizard Zombies lured nearby. Better yet, you can keep on spamming them with boosted Kernel-pults but first make sure that you have enough amounts of Sun-shrooms and Sunflowers. It is better if Sun-shroom is boosted because it is easy to shovel it up after it gives you 235 sun, although at some points upcoming Wizard Zombies can cause more havoc. But then again, if there are Dark Ages Gargantuars, Jester Zombies and this zombie in the same level, plan carefully.


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

Trivia

 * This is the only zombie that can transform a plant through magic.
 * So long as there are many plants in front of it, it will transform all of it into passive sheep.
 * When it lifts up its rod it groans heavily even though it has no lungs.
 * It plays a sound as it is about to transform a plant into sheep.
 * If a plant is right in front of it, it 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, its ability is to turn plants into sheep. The deflecting part was then bestowed to the Jester Zombie.
 * This zombie, the Camel Zombies, and the Pianist Zombie are the only zombies that have creeper speed, which means they are the slowest zombies in Plants vs. Zombies 2: It's About Time.
 * It has the legs of a Mummy Zombie. This is because in medieval times, people would bandage their limbs to protect themselves from the plague. However, it is unusual that none of the other zombies have bandaged up limbs.
 * The sheep does not eat plants, they just block a tile for planting. However the sheep will turn back into plants when the Wizard Zombie is killed. The sheep cannot be dig by using the shovel, but they will not be eaten by any zombie.
 * Transforming plants will not be counted as losing plants. Its magic may sometimes save your endangered plant. Transforming "sheep" plant promptly becomes invulnerable and cannot be eaten by other zombies. It only lasts until the Wizard Zombie dies, though.
 * The only thing it eats is Infi-nut's barrier and hypnotized zombies. All other plants are transformed into sheep.
 * When Magnet-shroom attracts a bucket or knight helmet and then is transformed into sheep, the sheep looks like it is wearing a bucket or knight helmet.
 * Sheep will not be tossed by graves, meaning it will still stand on them. It will not turn back into plants, instead it will disappear.
 * The 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 is about to turn a Power Lily into a sheep, it will give the player Plant Food before being turned into one. When that Wizard Zombie is killed, the sheep will turn back into a Power Lily and will give the player another Plant Food.
 * Plants given Plant Food cannot be transformed by it.
 * There is a glitch that if the Wizard Zombie is eating a Force Field or hypnotized zombie, and is missing an arm, its hand from the missing arm will still be visible while eating, resulting in a floating hand.
 * Sheeps cannot be burned by Zombot Dark Dragon. However, it disappears when turning back.