Its Evolution ability alludes to how it is an upgrade plant in Plants vs. Zombies.
Its description may be an allusion to how Gatling Pea shoots more peas than the other peashooting plants in said game.
Statistics
Class: Mega-Grow
Tribe: Pea Plant
Trait: Double Strike
Ability: Pea Evolution: This does a Bonus Attack.
Set - Rarity: Colossal - Legendary
Card description
There is no problem that cannot be solved by more peas.
Update history
Update 1.22.12
Added to the game.
Update 1.24.6
▲ Strength change: 4 → 5
▼ Health change: 5 → 4
Animation change: Legendary shine added.
Strategies
With
By itself, Gatling Pea should be treated like a more powerful version of Template:PvZHLink. Just like Repeater, due to its Double Strike trait, it will perform a bonus attack if it survives combat, essentially allowing it to do double damage or attack the zombie hero after destroying a zombie.
Just like other Double Strike plants, increasing its strength is always a good idea as it only makes the fact it can do at least two attacks in a turn more potent. Being a pea plant, this can easily be done with Template:PvZHLink, becoming a 7/4 Double Strike plant, or The Podfather, which makes Gatling Pea stronger when played, making it a 7/6. This can allow Gatling Pea to do up to 14 damage that turn. If you count its Evolution ability, you can do 21 damage, which can potentially defeat a full health zombie hero if they don't block its attacks. If you want to look for an alternative, Grape Power is a very worthwhile choice as it bumps its strength to a massive 10, which with Double Strike will do 20 damage and is likely to defeat the zombie hero.
However, the main distinction for Gatling Pea is that it can be Evolved over another pea plant. Doing so will cause Gatling Pea to perform a bonus attack upon being played which can help either remove a zombie with 5 or less leaving the zombie hero's lane open, or weaken a high health zombie which can then be taken out easier during combat.
It is recommended to never play this plant at all if Bonus Track Buckethead is on the field, and instead try to destroy him first if you do, as he nullifies both this plant's Evolution ability and Double Strike trait.
Against
Gatling Pea should be treated like a Repeater with higher stats, if left alone it can do a lot of damage in its lane, potentially taking out 10 in an empty lane. It can be especially dangerous in tandem with Torchwood or The Podfather.
In order to try and mitigate or prevent its evolution effect, you can try to ensure there isn't another pea for it to evolve over or placing a Gravestone zombie in front of peas it may be evolved on.
Many tricks such as Locust Swarm or B-flat can easily take out this plant before the fight phase begins, so using them is a good idea.
The best counter to this plant, however, is Bonus Track Buckethead, which can be used to prevent Gatling Pea from using its Evolution ability and from performing a bonus attack from Double Strike.