Mother Witch

Main article File:MotherWitchCard.png

The Mother Witch is a Legendary card from Clash Royale that is unlocked from the Miner's Mine (Arena 15). She is a single-target, medium-ranged troop with moderate low hitpoints and low damage. When the Mother Witch attacks a troop, that troop will have a curse placed on it for 5 seconds. If the troop dies during the curse's duration, a Cursed Hog will spawn, bearing slightly less health and damage than a Royal Hog. A Mother Witch card costs 4 Elixir to deploy.

## Strategy

* Any troops that spawn sub-troops (smaller variants) upon death will not spawn a Cursed Hog. For example, Elixir Golems, Elixir Golemites, Lava Hounds, and Golems do not turn into Cursed Hogs (they do not even show the tint of being cursed), but Elixir Blobs and Golemites do. Only a troop's final stage can turn into a Cursed Hog. As such, the Cannon Cart can never get cursed since its final form is a building. The Battle Ram and Skeleton Barrel also cannot turn into a Cursed Hog, but the Barbarians and Skeletons which spawn after its destruction can be turned into Cursed Hogs.
	+ The spawned sub-troops are not automatically cursed when they spawn from their parent troops, even if the parent troops was killed or damaged by Mother Witch. The sub-troops need to specifically be targeted and damaged/killed by Mother Witch post-spawn in order for them to spawn a Cursed Hog on death.
	+ The Goblin Giant is an exception to this rule, as both it and its 2 Spear Goblins can be turned into Cursed Hogs.
	+ The Phoenix is another exception to this rule, as it can turn into a Cursed Hog despite spawning a Phoenix Egg on death. Both the initially deployed Phoenix and the Phoenix respawned from an egg are capable of turning into Cursed Hogs. However, the Phoenix Egg is itself immune to the curse.
* Any Cloned troops that the Mother Witch defeats will turn into Cloned Cursed Hogs. A Cloned Mother Witch will spawn regular Cursed Hogs if attacking non-cloned troops.
* Cursed Hogs cannot be inflicted with a curse, but the Mother Witch herself is vulnerable to being cursed.
* The cursed effect does not stack. If two Mother Witches attacked a single unit, and it triggered the curse's effect, only one Cursed Hog would spawn.
* Ice Spirit and the like, along with the Wall Breakers will not transform into Cursed Hogs if they are destroyed as part of their attack, even if they are cursed.
* Effects that activate after death will still activate even if the Mother Witch successfully converts a troop into a Cursed Hog. For example, the Ice Golem will still deal its full death damage, and it will slow down nearby units, as well as the Cursed Hog that spawns after it is defeated. As such, she is slightly less effective against these units.
* Any ranged attacks that have already initiated after the ranged troop was killed will continue until they travel to their maximum distance or their target. For example, the Hunter's bullets will still fire and deal damage to the Cursed Hog that spawns, destroying it immediately, and the Executioner's axe will still fly the full distance even after being converted into a Cursed Hog.
* Mother Witch is good as support for a tank such as Giant or Golem, because she denies fragile troops being used to defeat the tank. Otherwise, the opponent would have to deal with Cursed Hogs in addition to the current push.
* The Electro Giant synergizes with the Mother Witch, as his reflected damage can allow the Mother Witch's curse to take effect more easily. However, they cost 11 Elixir together.
* Unlike the Ram Rider, she cannot switch her attack to other troops, meaning she can be easily distracted by a tank or a mini tank.
* The Mother Witch is good against swarm units because she has a fairly fast attack speed and can easily take them out and curse all of them to create a huge army of Cursed Hogs. She is particularly effective against Skeletons, Bats, and Spear Goblins as she is able to one-shot them (i.e., immediately create Cursed Hogs). However, she still fares well against Minions or Goblins, which will get two-shot, but the Cursed Hogs may be damaged down more due to the swarm staying alive for longer. She also gets countered by mini-tanks like the Knight as she cannot do enough damage.
* The best way of preventing Tower damage against a lone Mother Witch with swarm cards is to simply wait for her to lock onto the Crown Tower before deploying the swarm, so that she does not curse them. This prevents much more damage than trying to have the swarm tank for the Crown Tower, as Cursed Hogs will quickly accumulate. The player should make sure to place the swarm behind her, rather than in front of her, to prevent accidentally pushing her away from the Crown Tower and retargeting onto the swarm. However, if the swarm is large or bulky enough, as is the case with a Skeleton Army or Barbarians, then placing it on top of her will prevent more damage despite the curse effect as the Cursed Hogs will also be defeated quickly.
* The Mother Witch is a perfect counter to Graveyard, as not only will she help the Tower take down the Skeletons, but she will curse a lot of Skeletons, translating the defense into a potentially massive counterattack. Also, the spawned Skeletons will spawn too slow enough to kill the Cursed Hogs.
* The Mother Witch wastes her potential when matched against tanks because it takes a long time to counter them for just one Cursed Hog.
* The Mother Witch is not very effective when paired with area damage units, as she herself does not have area damage. Against swarms, she will only be able to curse one or two units as the area damage unit will defeat them too quickly. However, she can be useful when paired with a Zap or Giant Snowball, to allow her to one-shot Minions or Goblins.
* The Mother Witch is able to be fully defeated by an equally-levelled Fireball or Poison. Therefore, it may be beneficial to bait out the Fireball/Poison for the Mother Witch with other Fireball/Poison-vulnerable cards like the Zappies or Royal Hogs, so that the opponent cannot take her out as easily when she is deployed. Conversely, she can act as the bait herself for the aforementioned cards in certain match-ups where her abilities are less impactful compared to the other cards.

## History

2020

* The Mother Witch was once available in the Mother Witch Draft Challenge, which started on 7/12/2020. In this challenge, gameplay was similar to a regular Draft Challenge, except that one of the players was able to choose who would use the Mother Witch. If the player achieved at least 6 wins, they obtained the Mother Witch early.

2021

* The Mother Witch card was generally released on 4/1/2021.
* On 30/3/2021, the 2021 Quarter 1 Update, decreased the Mother Witch's attack time interval to 1.1 seconds (from 1.2 seconds), decreased her first attack time interval to 0.4 seconds (from 0.5 seconds), and increased her damage by 14%. It also added the Mother Witch to all Draft selections.
* On 7/6/2021, the Summer 2021 Update, moved the Arena to unlock the Mother Witch from Jungle Arena to Legendary Arena.
* On 6/9/2021, the 2021 Quarter 3 Update, decreased the Mother Witch's hitpoints by 4%.
* On 27/10/2021, the Champions Update, increased the Level cap of all cards to 14 (from 13). It also added two extra Star Levels.
* On 7/12/2021, the 2021 Quarter 4 Update, decreased the Mother Witch's hitpoints by 18%.

2022

* On 30/3/2022, the Miner Update, fixed an issue where the Mother Witch's Star Levels used the sound effects of the Witch.
* On 7/6/2022, a Balance Update, decreased the Mother Witch's attack time interval to 1 second (from 1.1 seconds) and decreased her first attack time interval to 0.3 seconds (from 0.4 seconds).
* On 26/10/2022, the 2022 Quarter 3 Update, moved the Arena to unlock the Mother Witch from Legendary Arena to Miner's Mine.

2023

* On 19/6/2023, the Card Evolution Update, increased the Level cap of all cards to 15 (from 14).

## Trivia

* The Mother Witch is based on Circe, a Greek witch that appeared in Homer's Odyssey epic. In Odyssey, Odysseus visits her island of Aeaea on the way back from the Trojan War and she changes most of his crew into swine. He managed to persuade her to return them to human shape, lived with her for a year and received advice on how to continue his journey back to Ithaca.
* The Cursed Hogs are 1 of 7 troops that can jump over the river, the others being Hog Rider, Royal Hogs, Dark Prince, Prince, Ram Rider, and Santa Hog Rider.
* In the Russian and Chinese language setting of the game, the Mother Witch's name translates to "Grandmother Witch". In the Japanese language setting of the game, the Witch's name translates to "Mother Necromancer". In the Malaysian language setting of the game, the Mother Witch's name translates to "Magic Grandmother". In the French, Turkish, and Thai language setting of the game, the Mother Witch's names translates to "Granny Witch", "Old Witch", and "Great Grandmother" respectively.
* It is rumored that the Super Witch has been summoned from all the other 3 Witches, as demonstrated in the Super Witch trailer, hence explaining the combination of all the other Witches' abilities.
* In the card's description, the “*She also bakes great cookies.*” line is likely a reference to Cookie Run: Kingdom and Cookie Run: OvenBreak*,* as the characters are baked by a witch to be eaten.
* The Mother Witch is the subject of 3 Emotes. Her Cursed Hogs are also the subject of 4 Emotes.
* A cloned Mother Witch does not fall from the sky when deployed.
* The initial balance change for Mother Witch on the 7/6/2022 balance changes was an attack time interval decrease to 0.9 seconds (from 1.1 seconds), but it was raised to 1 second last minute.