“Places a curse on enemy troops with each attack. When a cursed troop is destroyed, it turns into a building-targeting Hog that fights alongside the Mother Witch. She also bakes great cookies.”
The Mother Witch card is unlocked from the Legendary Arena (Arena 15). She is a single-target, medium-ranged troop with moderate 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, 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 Goblin Giant is an exception to this, as both it and its 2 Spear Goblins can be turned into Cursed Hogs.
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.
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 12 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 hogs.
She 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 matchups where her abilities are less impactful compared to the other cards.
A Mother Witch that is 1 level or higher above a Fireball will not be one-shot by it, allowing it to potentially gain much more value, especially when it is protected with a tank like the Ice Golem.
History[]
The Mother Witch was first available before its general release as part of a Draft Challenge, which started on 7/12/20. Players who achieved at least 7 wins in the Challenge would receive a Mother Witch card as a one-time reward.
On 30/3/21, a Balance Update decreased her hit speed to 1.1 sec (from 1.2 sec), decreased her first attack speed to 0.4 sec (from 0.5 sec) & increased her damage by 14%.
The 2021 Quarter 2 Update moved the Arena to unlock the Mother Witch from Jungle Arena (Arena 9) to Legendary Arena (Arena 15).
On 6/9/21, a Balance Update decreased the Mother Witch's hitpoints by 4%.
On 7/12/21, the 2021 Quarter 4 Update will reduce the hitpoints of the Mother Witch by 18%.
Trivia[]
The Mother Witch is the only troop with "Witch" in the name that doesn't spawn troops periodically, instead relying to the opponent's troops to spawn them.
