Moonrise Menace (PvZH)

Moonrise Menace is an event zombie card and a member of the Brainy class. It costs 4 and has 3/4, and after three tricks are played in the same turn, it adds a Bad Moon Rising to the Zombie player's hand and transforms into a Howling Horror.

This card was created for Gking's Halloween contest!

Card Information

 * Class: Brainy
 * Tribe: Monster Zombie
 * Traits: None
 * Abilities: After you play three Tricks in a turn, gain a Bad Moon Rising and this transforms into a Howling Horror.
 * Rarity: Event

Additional Information
This card's ability activates after you play three Tricks all within a single turn. The tricks must all be played after this card is already on the board (e.g. if you play Teleport into this card, the Teleport will not count toward the three-trick condition).

Howling Horror is a 6/6 Monster Zombie with Bullseye, that says 'Bad Moon Rising gives this Zombie +5/5 instead of transforming it.'.

With
This card is a powerful but slow zombie, and requires some degree of deck building to take advantage of it. It is understatted for its cost, hence you are unlikely to want to drop it on turn 4 since you would need additional Brains to trigger its transformation. This card fits well into a Trick-related deckstyle that has the ability to rapidly toss out Tricks. Once you have played enough Tricks, this card will become more meaningful, having a strong 6/6 statline. The Bad Moon Rising in hand can help swing the board in your favour if you have lots of Zombies already there, and it also gives the Howling Horror a massive kick. It also has the Bullseye trait, hence it cannot be ignored by your opponent.

Avoid boosting this zombie unless necessary, since when it transforms all the boosts will be lost. This card can be played on curve as a distraction, however, if you already have other cards on the board. Nonetheless, it is generally better to hold this card until you can reasonably activate the ability, however if you keep this card until you are definitely ready to activate the transformation it is probably too slow a play to justify the investment. This is generally a high risk/high reward card, and a good addition to any Brainy deck centred around Tricks.

This card's biggest counter is Monster Hunter Weed, which is able to destroy this with its 'when played' effect and do serious damage with the additional Silverleaf Arrows. Since this card and Monster Hunter Weed cost the same, try not to drop this on curve since it can be destroyed immediately if the plant player drops a MHW. Since Guardian heroes have plenty of other cards that can counter this but generally cannot put as much pressure on you as other classes can, it might often be best to hold this card until you can quickly drop it and transform it to surprise your opponent.

Against
If this card is common in the meta, tech in Monster Hunter Weed and use it to snip off Moonrise Menaces as soon as they land. The Silverleaf Arrows are also helpful to get rid of existing Menaces or those that have already transformed into Howling Horrors.

This card cannot be ignored because of its Bullseye trait, which bypasses your Block Meter to do massive damage if it ever hits your face. In addition, the Bad Moon Rising in the Zombie player's hand will prove a challenge because not only will it turn small threats into much more dangerous zombies, but the Howling Horror will get pumped up.

Essentially, while it is a slightly tempo loss initially for the Zombie player, this card can put a lot of pressure on you and it is good to remove it quickly.