Mortar

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> Mortar
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> The Mortar
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> ### Mana Cost
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> 4
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> ### Type
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> Building
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> ### Release Date
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> 5 April 2023
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> ***"Long range attack. Can not attack near units. Only attack ground units."***
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Mortar is a 4 Mana card. It is a long-ranged, moderate-hitpoint building that deals moderate area damage and can be used offensively or defensively. It has a blind spot and can only attack ground troops. It fires explosive shells slowly, and like the Machine Gun and Bomber Girl, is capable of attacking a Tower from your side of the Arena.

## Strategy

* The Mortar can be used to eliminate large swarms of troops or assist in eliminating medium to high hitpoint troops. However, its slow hit speed and mediocre damage means that it is less effective on higher hitpoint troops, such as the Brute.
* As a defense, the Mortar can be placed in the center of the player's territory, preferably closer to the Viking's Tower, so opposing troops cannot get to the Towers without defensive resistance.
* The Mortar is able to target the enemy's Towers from the player's own side, making it an effective offensive building. With its cheaper cost, ability to deal area damage, and its dead zone, the Mortar can be used as a cheaper, more versatile, and less risky alternative to the Machine Gun. However, the Mortar deals much less damage per second than the Machine Gun, and with only 6 shots, the total damage output is significantly lower.
* The area damage can also hurt enemy units that are close to the Tower, maximizing damage output.
* Use the Cyclone to bring units closer to the Tower to utilize the Mortar's area splash damage. Units can also be pulled out of the range of the Mortar, either pulling them into the Mortar, or simply out of the range of it.
* It is recommended to place a tank, splash unit, and/or splash building to protect it from troops in its blind spot and allow it to deal more damage to the Towers.
* It also will not get distracted by any troops like Giants that are placed near it while it's deploying due to its “blind spot”.
* When facing the Mortar, try to place slow building-targeting troops with high hitpoints, like the Explorer, one tile into the other lane. This will distract the Mortar completely, due to its low DPS, the slow movement speed, and the high hitpoints of the placed defending unit.
* Generally, the player should consider attacking in the other lane with their main offensive cards, in order to prevent the Mortar from attacking their Tower. The exception to this is for decks that use the General, in this case, it is better to attack in the same lane with the General against the Mortar.
* While the Mortar is very powerful, it should be noted that fast troops such as the Super Ape can get towards it quickly, making them untargetable due to the fact the Mortar cannot target troops that are very close to it. However, this can be to the attacker's advantage, allowing the Mortar to lock onto something else, such as a Tower.
* A Mortar takes 3.5 seconds to deploy, giving the defender ample time to place cards to distract the Mortar and prevent it from locking onto their Towers, as well as deal with its supporting troops. With sufficient cards, this can then be turned into a punishing counterpush. Placing the distraction unit at the last second is usually the most effective way to distract the Mortar as the opponent won't be able to react to the unit and eliminate it before the Mortar finishes deploying.
* Having an area damage spell in hand when attacking with the Mortar is very effective, as it can allow the player to defeat low or moderate-hitpoint troops nearly instantly, allowing it to lock onto a Tower.
* It is possible for troop spawners to distract the Mortar due to the quick troop spawn rate that can be faster than the Mortar's fire rate and that the Mortar aims at the troops that are spawned.
	+ However, due to its blind spot, long-range and area damage, the Mortar can also be a good counter to troop spawners if it manages to lock onto the building itself.
	+ Similarly, the blind spot of the Mortar can be utilized to defeat support troops behind the tank when the tank is in the blind spot of the Mortar.

## History

2023

* The Mortar card was released with Boom Arena's game launch on 4/5/2023.
* On 6/30/2023, the Mortar got a 3.5 tile blind spot, its range was increased from 11.5 to 11.9 tiles, and its Mana cost increased from 3 to 4.

## Trivia

* It's the Boom Arena equivalent to the Mortar, to the point of sharing the name. Its hitpoints are between level 12 and level 13 of the equivalent, but its damage and damage per second are between level 11 and level 12.
* This card is one of the only two cards in the game to have a deploy time that isn't 1 second. The other is Machine Gun, and they're both buildings with an equally long deploy time.