While the profession she's based on is unclear, her appearance is similar to that of a park ranger, a person who protects and preserves parks.
Her ability is a reference to how a squirrel's diet consists mainly of nuts and berries.
Her description is likely a reference to the idiom, "To herd cats," describing a futile or impossible thing to do. It may also be a reference to Cat Lady.
Statistics[]
Class: Beastly
Tribes: Pet Professional Zombie
Trait: Gravestone
Ability: When revealed: Destroy one of their Nuts or Berries.
Squirrel Herder's stats are nothing but average, but her ability is the better part of her, serving as a cheap instant-kill, and thus, making Squirrel Herder a viable play in any deck, and in all parts of the game. While this ability is very limited on what plants (or environment) it can destroy, many nuts and berries in the game are annoying, threatening, or even game-changing: Poison Ivy, Mirror-Nut, Strawberrian, Sergeant Strongberry, and Pecanolith are such examples.
This makes it a good counter for a nut or berry-based deck, especially against Guardian and Kabloom heroes, preferably Spudow, and even if your opponent isn't running either of them, most nuts and berries function well even outside of such decks, so you should have a good chance of encountering and destroying one. It also bypasses the Untrickable trait, letting you destroy Primal Wall-Nut and get around Umbrella Leaf.
Furthermore, for strategies that utilize Planet of the Grapes, she is capable of completely removing it without using another environment, making it a cheap way to defend a lane while also removing any problems that may arise by Plant Heroes drawing the extra cards.
But as mentioned, Squirrel Herder's ability has limits, which is one of Squirrel Herder's weaknesses. While it is true that her ability can be very helpful at times, it becomes useless if your opponent doesn't have any nuts or berries. Also, Squirrel Herder's ability destroys only one plant. While destroying the main plant is all you have to do to jeopardize your opponent's setup, they can have multiple of the same threat to avoid that possibility.
While this issue can be remedied by playing Mixed-Up Gravedigger or Secret Agent to reactivate Squirrel Herder's ability (should you not have many of them in your hand), this gives your opponent another chance to exploit its third weakness: being a Gravestone zombie, Squirrel Herder can easily be removed by Grave Buster or Grave Mistake.
You should be especially cautious against Citron, Beta-Carrotina, and Nightcap, as they have access to Spyris, which allows them to predict your play.
Aside from her ability, Squirrel Herder can be used well in (but isn't limited to) pet decks with Cat Lady and Zookeeper, with the added benefit of her being cheap. Or, she can be used in The Smash's professional decks with Jurassic Fossilhead and Zombie Middle Manager (although she isn't the best professional for synergization), as her ability's usefulness isn't tied to one zombie tribe, unlike Zookeeper's.
Against[]
Squirrel Herder can easily be destroyed due to her low stats, but her ability is what you should be concerned of. The best counter would be to play Grave Buster or Grave Mistake (although she may return if you play the latter), preferably with Spyris already on the field, as she has the Gravestone trait.
Citron, Beta-Carrotina, and Nightcap can also play Rescue Radish to Bounce a powerful nut or berry like Pecanolith or Sergeant Strongberry to prevent it from being destroyed.
But since these strategies are limited to certain heroes, the most universal tactic would be to not play any nuts or berries if you can predict her. If you have no choice but to play them, play your most expendable plant (but nothing else) to essentially waste her ability, then make a comeback as soon as possible.
It isn't recommended to Bounce Squirrel Herder unless you can win from this as she can be played again to re-activate her ability.
Beastly class. She costs 2
to play and has 2
/2
.
Untrickable trait, letting you destroy Primal Wall-Nut and get around Umbrella Leaf.
Overshoot trait
Frenzy trait
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