Spudow

Always tries to keep his head in tough situations. Always loses it.

### Other Superpowers

**Spudow** is a plant hero in *Plants vs. Zombies Heroes* and the leader of the Kabloom and Guardian classes.

His signature superpower is Tater Toss, which makes a Hothead on a selected ground or heights lane, which does 6 damage to a zombie in front of it when it is destroyed.

He is the hero version of Potato Mine.

## Origins

Spudow is based on the Potato Mine, a major recurring character in the *Plants vs. Zombies*, with his visible sclera and two buck teeth invoking Potato Mine's appearance in the *Garden Warfare* games.

His appearance bears a resemblance to Baymax of the superteam Big Hero 6 as he appears in the Disney animated adaptation of the same name. His sharp nails and brown appearance also resembles a mole, which fits with him living in a cave. His ability of detaching and regrowing his head appears to take some influence from regenerative healing superheroes such as Marvel Comics' Wolverine and Deadpool.

His name is a reference to the onomatopoeia "SPUDOW!" that appears when a Potato Mine explodes, or the achievement itself, SPUDOW!.

His description is a gag to how Spudow uses his signature superpower, Tater Toss, in which he loses his head to make a Hothead and respawn his head afterward. Also, the fact that he can take off his head, throw it, and then regrow it may be alluding to Potato Mine and Primal Potato Mine's Plant Food ability in *Plants vs. Zombies 2*, in which they send out copies of themselves and then regrow in a similar fashion.

His entry animation alludes to the way Potato Mines take time to arm in other games.

One of his Strategy Decks, Bear Necessities, is named after the song *The Bare Necessities* from the 1967 Disney animated adaption of The Jungle Book.

## Statistics

* **Classes:** Kabloom, Guardian
* **Superpowers:**
	+ **Signature:** Tater Toss - Make a 1 Hothead that says "**Team-Up**. **When destroyed:** Do 6 damage to a Zombie here."
	+ **Other:**
		- Bubble Up - Move a Plant. It gets +4.
		- Storm Front - All Plants get +1/+1.
		- Meteor Strike - Do 3 damage to a Zombie.
* **Boss Fights:**
	+ Zombie Mission 02: The Great Cave Raid
	+ Zombie Mission 16: Attack of the Explosive Spuds!
	+ Zombie Mission 26: The Spud Must Be Stopped!
	+ Zombie Mission 33: Spudow Blows Up
* **Battle Area:** Cave

### Hero description

*Always tries to keep his head in tough situations. Always loses it.*

## Strategy

### PvZHeroes.com strategy

*Spudow can use aggressive Anti-Hero Plants to put the hurt on the enemy, while his explosive direct damage effects knock enemy defenders out of the way.*

### With

Spudow can be quite formidable when played properly. The best strategy for Spudow is playing defensively at the start and being on the offensive only at the later stages of the game (similar to The Smash). He can use his Guardian plants like Wall-Nuts and damaging Kabloom tricks such as Berry Blast to delay the match until he is able to bring out heavy hitters like Dandy Lion King and Soul Patch. Additionally, he has many cards that can boost the strength or health of his plants.

Being a Kabloom and Guardian hero, Spudow has access to **Anti-Hero** plants like Poison Oak and Poison Ivy, and **Bullseye** plants such as Jugger-Nut. As such, he is meant to hit the zombie hero directly as much as possible, especially during the late game. If there is a zombie blocking a plant, Spudow can use tricks like Gardening Gloves to move the plant out of the way or play damaging tricks to take out the zombie directly.

However, he lacks ways to draw cards, as Gardening Gloves and Petal-Morphosis are the only choices and only one is drawn at a time. Opponents can drain his cards and win from there, so Spudow needs to keep an eye on the cards in his hand.

### Against

Like what Dr. Zomboss stated when Spudow is first fought against, you would want to defeat him quickly as he becomes more aggressive as the match progress. Hearty heroes are ideal to take care of Spudow's defenses since they have access to Rolling Stone and Weed Spray that can take care of bulky Guardian plants with little to no strength easily. If the late game occurs, you might want to prepare tricks such as Rocket Science to dispose of his high strength plants. The best way to take care of him, however, is to bait him into using all of his cards, preferably with a rush deck.

## Strategy decks

*Main article: Community-built decks/Spudow*

## Trivia

* Spudow has a color scheme that no other Potato Mine in the franchise has, excluding Hothead.
* Strangely, Spudow has the head of a *Plants vs. Zombies* Potato Mine, but when he takes his head off and it becomes a Hothead, it resembles a *Plants vs. Zombies 2* Potato Mine.
* In the comic strip that introduces Spudow to the player, a Gargantuar Prime is shown, despite not being a zombie card.
	+ Poncho Zombie is also present in the comic, despite not being a card in the game.
* In the title screen, Spudow has one buck tooth only.
* Spudow is one of the two plant heroes to have unique battle themes. His theme is a remix of the collection screen.
	+ The other hero is Green Shadow, who shares the melody of Citron and Captain Combustible, but with different instruments.
* The third panel of the old comic strip that appears when the player receives Spudow shows the shadow of what is supposedly a Dancing Zombie, while the new one shows a Poncho Zombie instead.
* His eyes are similar to the Potato Mine's from *Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare*.
	+ He also has the trait of buck teeth shared with every rendition of the Potato Mine throughout the games.
* The name of Spudow's Super-Rare Strategy Deck is a reference to the Clone Wars, an event depicted in the *Star Wars* canon as well as the animated film and cartoon series of the same name.
* Solar Flare, Chompzilla, Spudow and Wall-Knight are the ones that can be chosen as the starter hero.
	+ Initially, the player is offered to choose between him and Solar Flare. If he is not chosen, the player will later have to pick between Spudow and Wall-Knight.
* His versus panel image resembles the captain from the Pixar film, *WALL-E*.
* Before the Triassic Triumph update, Spudow's Colossal strategy deck, "Double Trouble", mentioned Transfiguration in its description, but didn't have it in the deck.
	+ Additionally, before the release of the Colossal Fossils update, Spudow's Colossal strategy deck was named "Pearadise Found."

## See also

* Potato Mine
* Tater Toss
* Hothead