Astrangent M.Z.

"Hold your fire, minion! That’s Astrangent M.Z., a Plant Hero that is, in reality, one of my own Zombies in a cleverly thought-out disguise, designed by yours truly! You can applaud later. He specializes in keeping himself healed while his Science Zombies get stronger and stronger. Now, go back to thinking he’s a Plant Hero and give him all you’ve got!"

- Dr. Zomboss

Astrangent M.Z. is a Plant Hero in Plants vs. Zombies Heroes, and the leader of the Solar and Brainy classes. His signature superpower is Hat Trick, which makes all Plants on the ground attack the Plant Hero, him, and all Zombies on the ground attack the Zombie Hero. He is part of the Tide Turners set.

Origins
Astrangent M.Z.’s name comes from a portmanteau of "astringent", or sour, and Dr. Strange, the name of a Marvel hero. The name also sounds similar to “strangen’t”, the word “strange” combined with the contraction “n’t”, referring to how Astrangent M.Z. is trying his best to appear as an ordinary Plant Hero and not a Zombie in a costume, (or "not strange").

Statistics

 * Classes:PvZH_Solar_Icon.png,PvZH_Brainy_Icon.pngy
 * Superpowers:
 * Signature: Hat Trick - All Plants on the ground attack the Plant Hero this turn. All Zombies on the ground attack the Zombie Hero this turn.
 * Lemon-Aid - 1/4, Start of Turn: Heal for 2.
 * Sun-Rice - 1/3, Start of Turn: You get +1 this turn.
 * Train of Thought - Start of Turn: If there is a Zombie here, draw a card.

Hero Description
''He’s not entirely sure if Dr. Zomboss’ disguise actually works or if the Plants are cleverly using him to attack his own side. He’s hoping it’s the former.''

Strategies
Astrangent M.Z. prioritizes a slow and steady playstyle, strategically playing Brainy Zombies and protecting them with the power of Solar healing. His classes are superior for bringing the late game early, in a similar manner to Sunbotanist, but what separates him from his Zombie Hero counterpart is his signature superpower. Hat Trick can completely turn a game around, causing the Zombie Hero many woes if the ground lanes happen to be loaded with plenty of powerful Zombies; however, this can also prove dangerous and even fatal to Astrangent M.Z. if his own side of the field is equipped just as well.

Astrangent M.Z.'s classes are full of units that have abilities, especially those that make said unit stronger as time goes on; Zombot Drone Engineer and Pepper M.D. are notable examples. He excels at protecting these units so that they can grow to threatening sizes, with hard removal such as Squash, Whack-a-Zombie, and Rocket Science covering pretty much any Zombie without Untrickable. Even then, he has Plants that destroy Zombies anyways, such as Chomper, Three-Headed Chomper, and Toadstool.

As mentioned previously, Astrangent M.Z. can create lots of extra with Sunflower, Cryo-Brain, Brain Vendor, etc. He will probably not worry about running out of cards, either, since he's Brainy. However, while he can remove enemies from the field well, he has no method of making his units stronger directly. He can only maintain them by healing them or protecting them with weak Team-Up Plants like Lil' Buddy.

Astrangent M.Z.'s signature can be a game-maker or a game-breaker. Astrangent M.Z. can easily wreck havoc on the Zombie Hero if he allows the Zombie Hero to destroy his ground Plants, but he cannot remove his own troops by himself. However, he can recover from the potential harm with healing cards. Note that Astrangent M.Z. still has to worry about Zombies on Heights and the Water.

Astrangent M.Z.'s real issue, however, lies in eliminating Zombies en masse. While he can easily remove a large threat such as a Gargantuar, he can't remove a small but numerous threat such as a lot of Imps. The best he can do is eradicate them one by one with Tricks, prioritizing the most threatening targets first.

Against
Astrangent M.Z. is usually a slow player, methodically setting himself up for the late game. However, he has more than enough cards to topple down anything that the Zombie Hero plans on doing. In addition, he can get extremely dangerous in one turn - he can burn off all of his in a single turn and spell out "DOOM" for a Zombie Hero fairly quickly. In addition, he can put the Zombie Hero at risk if, instead of straight-up eliminating any Zombie threats, he simply uses them against the Zombie Hero with his signature.

Since the Brainy class specializes in using Trickery, anti-Trick cards could help against Astrangent M.Z. Sportacus and Forget-Me-Nuts can really put the squeeze on Astrangent--however, he has Whack-a-Zombie, which, when paired with Rocket Science, means that he can eliminate anything without Untrickable that isn't in a Gravestone. Although he will have a harder time playing these Tricks, he can still play them.