Phobies - Ultimate Phobie Usage Guide

You want the best team fight initiator in the game.
You have a strong team to offset Akira’s high cost as a support Phobie.
You are able to keep the enemy at bay for 2 turns until its ability becomes ready.

Counter With:

Akira.
Stasis Phobies.
Early pressure.
Furkin Leepricarn.

Matches:

Alastor

Use When:

You are in an endgame where Alastor can win an attrition war.
You are on a map where Alastor can control space near abyss tiles.

Counter With:

Phobies positioned to ensure Alastor cannot harass you for free.
Pull units that can pull alastor in to be killed in one turn.
Debuffers that stop Alastor’s lifesteal.

Alley Gator

Use When:

You need a massive health wall to dive into the enemy team.

Counter With:

Heavily grouped team positioning.
Heavy melee damage.
‘Stop’ Phobies.
Fighting around Alley Gator instead of striking him directly.

Ash

Use When:

You have a heavy hitting initiator and you want to initiate safely and with flexibility.
You want to get safe ranged harassment on an opponent’s Phobies.
You want to pull a Frozen Phobie back out of attack range.
You want to pull a Stopped Phobie back out of attack range.

Counter With:

Proper team positioning.

Attractor

Use When:

You want a very high degree of map control on a Phobie that is hard to take down.
You want to slow the match down.
You want an AoE team fight initiator.

Counter With:

Akira.
Furkin Leepricarn.
Buffed 100% AoE damage combined with mobile strike Phobies.
Grouping your team together so that Attractor’s AoE pull puts you in reach to counter.
Buffed Creepy Devil.

Matches:

AWOL

Use When:

You need the highest from-keyhole damage possible for 1 key.

Counter With:

A Phobie that can kill AWOL in one hit.
A trap.

Baaaad Sheep

Use When:

Your opponent has multiple high-value non-mechanical Phobies to poison.
You are able to poison multiple high-value targets at once.

Counter With:

Furkin Leepricarn.
Creating a wall of mechanical Phobies to block out Baaaad Sheep.
Having an AoE cure ready to go.

Baba Yaga

Use When:

You want a mobile trapper effective against all Phobie types.
You do not want to risk friendly fire damage from Fire Ant traps.
You only want a Phobie for its traps, and not its fighter value.

Counter With:

Attacks before Baba Yaga can set up a lot of traps.
Paying close attention to where Baba Yaga has been.
Trap detonators.
Terrorform.
Flyers on walls and abyss tiles.
Tile disables.

Baby Snakey

Use When:

You need an above-average damage melee hitter.
You want a versatile late-game brawler.

Counter With:

Ranged attacks.

Bad Omen

Use When:

You push into the enemy formation and want to punish the counter-push.
You want an initiator for a team push.
You want to stop an enemy team pushing on your heart.
You can hit multiple high-value enemy Phobies with his debuff.

Counter With:

Spread-out Phobie positioning.
Furkin Leepricarn.

Bad Sushi

Use When:

Your opponent has no heals left, no non-mechanical Phobies, and you control space.

Counter With:

Ranged harassment.
Mechanical Phobies.

Badside Manners

Use When:

You want a high health sustainable turret to control space.
The opponent lacks high damage or poison.

Counter With:

Displacement.
Strong poison effects.
Long range.

Barzilla

Use When:

You need a fire Phobie.
You have access to heals to recover Barzilla’s enormous health.
You want a Phobie that can survive in a team fight and keep retaliating.

Counter With:

Debuffs.
Fighting around Barzilla.

Batula

Use When:

You need a cheap dimensional puller.
You want to capture a panic point and get a little free damage on an enemy.

Counter With:

Body blocking your own Phobie from the dimensional pull.
Using the dimensional pull to score a second hit on an enemy Phobie.
Finishing Batula off with a 1-key to minimize losses.
Poison Ivy’s trap can 1-shot Batula.

Beauty

Use When:

You need a high aoe damage flyer Phobie
Line attack

Counter With:

Smiley.
Burst damage – to kill it before it can retaliate.

Matches:

Benny

Use When:

You want a turret with high potential staying power.

Counter With:

Keeping a Phobie in proximity to step off and on bones without weakening your position.

Blast-0 Matic

Use When:

You need a tanky turret.
Need a line attack for backline Phobies.
Need to deal with mechanical Phobies.

Counter With:

Eratic.
Debuffers.
Traps.
Spreading out to avoid its AoE.

Blinky

Use When:

You need a tanky flyer Phobie.

Counter With:

Poison.
‘Stop’ or action removal Phobies.

Bloat

Use When:

You need a cheap tank with AoE damage and a dimensional pull.
You need cheap electric damage.
You are facing multiple one key Phobies.

Counter With:

Ranged harassment.

Blondie

Use When:

You want to initiate with the largest AoE debuff in the game.
You can wait for Blondie to get into position.
You want a high-health, high-damage tank to follow up on the team initiation.

Counter With:

Strong electricity Phobies
‘Stop’ or action removal Phobies.
Furkin Leepricarn.
3-range harassment.

Blue

Use When:

You are facing AoE damage Phobies.
You need a cheap flying Phobie.
You are facing a heart rush.

Counter With:

Using an expendable cheap Phobie to kill it.

Blue Speedola

Use When:

You plan to use Red Speedola.
When the combined mobility of Blue and Red Speedola are valuable in your match.
You want a versatile threat on a map with lots of disease tiles.

Counter With:

High-damage electricity Phobies.
Ranged harassment
Focus-fire on one of them (usually Blue Speedola) to remove their buff.

Bluelien

Use When:

You need sustain healing.
You are dealing with AoE poison Phobies.
You are dealing with disease Phobies.
You want to remove poison 4 hexes from your keyhole.

Counter With:

Playing aggressively.
Stand in Bluelien’s spas to use them for yourself

Bogart

Use When:

You have an AoE pusher in play to combo with Bogart’s ability.
Your opponent has used Brony.

Counter With:

A spread-out team.
Limiting Bogart’s targets.
Positioning to kill Bogart after he uses his ability.

BoMangles

Use When:

You want cheap, durable, and strong space control.
You want offensive capability in a turret.

Counter With:

Coordinated team attacks that take advantage of Bo’s low mobility.

Boofairy

Use When:

Your opponent has a single high-damage Phobie that you need to neutralize.

Counter With:

Place something between your high-damage Phobie and Boofairy.
Lure it to over-extend when using its ability.

BOOM

Use When:

You need a cheap potential threat to multiple Phobies.

Counter With:

AoE Phobies that can kill it incidentally.
3 range Phobies that can safely kill it.
Any 1-key.

Matches:

Boomer

Use When:

You are dealing with displacement Phobies.
You need a tanky 1 key to delay your opponent’s development.
You need a Phobie to tank the damage/body block.

Counter With:

Poison.
Using its last act ability to reposition, without taking damage.

Boss

Use When:

You want a general high-value all-purpose damage-dealer.
You want to damage backline Phobies.
Your opponent has multiple low-health Phobies that you can group.

Counter With:

Furkin Leepricarn.
Tile disables, particularly Honeybear.
Damage debuffs, particularly Blue, Woolly Bully, or Oopsy Baby.
Traps to control Boss’s dive angles.
Opening up the play area with terrorform.

Brony

Use When:

You need to shut down a heart rush.
You want to lock your opponent out from defending a heart rush.
You want to lock down a panic point advantage.

Counter With:

Furkin Leepricarn; Brony has a very long cooldown.
Indirect damage sources such as poison, disease, and traps.
Debuffers, to prevent the opposing team from dealing damage while you are debuffed.

Brutewurst

Use When:

Your opponent has valuable high-health non-mechanical Phobies.
You need a sturdy tank.
You have some support Phobies that can help it get in to position faster.

Counter With:

Ranged harassment.

Cassowary

Use When:

You need a cheap high damage Phobie.
You need to protect multiple panic points.

Counter With:

Body blockers.

Cecilia

Use When:

You want a Phobie that can clear disease tiles.

Counter With:

Ranged harassment.

Cerberus

Use When:

Your opponent has low single-target damage.
You want to slowly push on the heart and force a response.
You have a puller or movement-support Phobie to help close distance.

Counter With:

Ranged harassment.
Poison and then evasion.
Traps.
‘Stop’ or action removal Phobies such as Rusty or Dial.
Push Phobies.

Charon

Use When:

You want to delay a match by disabling enemy panic points to prevent heart damage.
You want to accelerate a heart rush by disabling enemy panic points.
You want to shut down essential map tiles as part of a strategy.
Your opponent is using many Phobies with fire tile effects.
You want to dive into an area that is covered in traps.
You want a mobile and continual tile disabler.

Counter With:

Poison or disease.
Direct attacks.

Chuck

Use When:

You can win a fight of harassment and attrition.
You have sufficient mechanicals on the board to protect Chuck.

Counter With:

Poison or disease Chuck, then try to evade
Debuffs.
A team rush.
Late-game: resurrect units such as Daisy that Chuck can’t directly kill.
Heartbreaker.

Clinico

Use When:

You have a high-value Phobie that has been significantly damaged or poisoned.
You are in an attrition-based endgame scenario.

Counter With:

Only attacking enemy Phobies for the kill.
Follow-up poison after the initial cure.

Clobster

Use When:

You need a Phobie that can get to the fighting zone/enemy heart quickly.
You need a Phobie that cannot be cornered easily.

Counter With:

Action removal, to prevent it moving then attacking.
High pressure units to kill clobster whenever he dives.

Cluck Norris

Use When:

You are planning to dive and can plan in advance.

Counter With:

Poison.
Ranged harassment.

Contortio

Use When:

You have already used Razor Mouth.
The 10 damage benefit over Razor Mouth makes a difference.

Counter With:

Direct damage.

CottonTale

Use When:

You want a cheap and flexible trap detonator.
Your opponent cannot step on bones without losing a Phobie.

Counter With:

Keeping a Phobie in proximity to step off and on bones without weakening your position.

Cowbell

Use When:

You want a slightly above average health 1-key.
You want to differentiate your Phobie types to avoid poison/disease.

Counter With:

Nothing in particular.

Creep

Use When:

Your opponent has an undead Phobie you want to soften up.
Your opponent has a 1 movement dimensional Phobie far away from the vault.

Counter With:

Cheap healers (especially Muffintop).
Healing spas.

Creepy Devil

Use When:

You want to snipe out a backline low hp Phobie.
You are on a map with a high amount of poison or fire tiles and need burst damage

Counter With:

Traps reveal creepy devil’s location.
Heavo 3.0 / Puff will reveal his location with fire.
Guess where he’s hiding by placing a Phobie on the tile you suspect.

Cupcake

Use When:

You need one-off extra damage for a Phobie.
You need an expendable buffer to have more room for a same-turn Phobie summon.
You can benefit from a quick heal or cure.

Counter With:

Pre-calculating possible damage received when Cupcake is used.

Matches:

Daisy

Use When:

Your opponent has over invested in 1 movement Phobies.
You are in an endgame against a single 1 movement Phobies.

Counter With:

Droney.
1 keys kept in proximity.
Playing flexible teams.

Dial

Use When:

You are facing tanky melee Phobies.
You want to limit a high-value Phobie’s options.
You want to minimize the enemy’s retaliation opportunities.

Counter With:

Positioning your Phobies to kill Dial when it tries to debuff.

Matches:

Doctor Dermic

Use When:

You can benefit from his full heal value.
You are not worried about recurring poison sources.

Counter With:

Continued pressure while Dermic recovers.

Doom Doom

Use When:

You are dealing with multiple trapper Phobies.

Counter With:

Damage Doom Doom when it’s deactivating traps.

Doughzer

Use When:

You are dealing with tanky melee Phobies.
You need a very tanky turret.
You can afford the tempo loss incurred by his slow movement.

Counter With:

Multiple coordinated turrets.
Long-range push Phobies to keep it at bay.

Droney

Use When:

You need to step on a resurrect Phobie’s bones.
Need to take a further panic point.
You need emergency positioning for a push/pull orientation.

Counter With:

General mindfulness of a potential Droney snipe from the vault.
Traps that can instantly kill Droney.

Edgar Allen

Use When:

You can benefit from multiple Phobies receiving individual damage buffs.
Your team is spread out or far away from the vault, and you need damage support.

Counter With:

Positions that limit your opponent’s engagement options.

Electricat

Use When:

Your opponent is playing heavy mechanicals.
You need a 1-key with above-average health.

Counter With:

Body blockers.

Eternal Knight

Use When:

To deal high dimensional damage upon dying.
Using the pull effect to your advantage from AoE attacks.

Counter With:

Use a fire Phobie to avoid receiving the last act damage.
Use another Phobie to body block to avoid the pull.
Kill him with a 1 key to minimize impact of dimensional damage.

Eratic

Use When:

Your opponent has played at least one high-value mechanical Phobie.
Your opponent has played several low-value mechanical Phobies.

Counter With:

Poison or disease (eg from Sheeping Gas), then outmaneuver it.

Fantome

Use When:

You need a cheap teamfight initiator.
You have a Phobie that can devastate a team, but has difficulty approaching.

Counter With:

Ensuring that Fantôme dies on the turn after it uses its ability.
Rushing before its ability lock is done.
Furkin Leepricarn.

Fetch

Use When:

You need a pusher that also has high damage.
There is a slow melee Phobie on the enemy team.
The board is generally empty and you need a powerful 1v1 Phobie.
You need high melee damage with 2 movement.

Counter With:

Poison.
Ranged harassment.

Finnigan

Use When:

You need a cheap pusher.
You are on a map with damage or abyss tiles.

Counter With:

Understanding the push rules so you can control Finnigan’s displacement.

Fire Ant

Use When:

Use in a stale game to plant multiple traps.
You are dealing with a freeze Phobie.
You are playing on a map with a lot of obstacles.

Counter With:

Attacks before Fire Ant can set up a lot of traps.
Paying close attention to where Fire Ant has been.
Trap detonators.
Terrorform.
Flyers on walls and abyss tiles.
Tile disables.

Matches:

Fishtank

Use When:

You want a high damage melee tank.

Counter With:

Any electricity option.
‘Stop’ or ability removal Phobies.
Tanky melee units that can survive and retaliate against Fishtank.

Fleshcrawler

Use When:

You want a melee AoE damage initiator.
You want large AoE damage.

Counter With:

High range.
Defensive positioning that allows you to punish his dive.
Furkin Leepricarn, to lock out an incoming dive or enable one.

Flopsy

Use When:

You want a cheap and flexible trap detonator.
Your opponent cannot step on bones without losing a Phobie.

Counter With:

Keeping a Phobie in proximity to step off and on bones without weakening your position.

Fowl

Use When:

You need a high damage melee fighter.
The disease could also come in handy.

Counter With:

Positions that ensure Fowl dies when he dives.
Bluelien to stop the targets Fowl diseases from dying.

Furkin Leepricarn

Use When:

You need to deactivate an enemy Phobie’s ability
Use to protect your own Phobie’s ability from an enemy’s Furkin Leepricarn.
You want to play a turret and there are abilities you can disable.

Counter With:

Furkin Leepricarn.
Using Phobies with no ability, or ones with a short cooldown.
Using multiple strong abilities, as Furkin can only disable one.

Furnaceface

Use When:

You want to defend against a heartrush.
You are facing multiple aoe damage Phobies.

Counter With:

Furkin Leepricarn can stop its ability in a key situation.
Use displacement Phobies to pull enemy’s out of the smoke or away from your Phobies.
Placing your own Phobies in the smoke (Greylien works well for this).

Frosty

Use When:

You need high single target damage to mechanical Phobies.
You need to freeze multiple targets.

Counter With:

Furkin Leepricarn.
Avoid positioning in perfect lines.
Kill it with burst damage (eg electricity) due to its low health.

Matches:

Gargles

Use When:

You can use Gargles’s ability to lock out an essential part of the map.
You want a temporary obstacle that you can still move and fire through.

Counter With:

Furkin Leepricarn.
Ranged harassment.
Terrorform to open up the map and remove valuable choke points.
Prepare enough damage to kill it when it transforms back.

Gesundheit

Use When:

You want a cheap sacrificial damage Phobie.
The combination of ranged and flying are important to you.
Your opponent is too close to your vault.

Counter With:

AoE damage.
3-range Phobies such as In-oculus to prevent it approaching.

Giggles

Use When:

You want a high damage turret.
Your opponent has poison and disease on the board.

Counter With:

Electricity Phobies that can survive its attacks, such as Eratic.

Ginsting

Use When:

You need a flexible damage dealer.
You need a lower-cost 2 movement ranged unit.
Your opponent has grouped Phobies close to your keyhole.

Counter With:

High-stat turrets.

Goon

Use When:

You need a line attack Phobie.
You need a tanky unit with high sustain.
You want a melee unit that has a ranged option for versatility.

Counter With:

Poison.
Avoid lining up to allow devastating line attacks.
Furkin Leepricarn, if you need to line up your Phobies when attacking Goon.

Gonzo Bonzo

Use When:

You have an AoE damage Phobie.
You want to need additional damage on defense to deter a dive.
You want to extend your damage potential in multiple map directions at once.
One of your Phobies will get to attack twice in the same turn.

Counter With:

Furkin Leepricarn.

Grave Digger

Use When:

You want to remove obstacles in a map for superior positioning.
You have an opportunity to place a wall to shut down your opponent’s options.
You can remove a wall to enable a kill.
You are playing AoE Phobies that can benefit from targeting the terrorform obstacle.

Counter With:

Early pressure.
Cheap poison.
AoE Phobies that punish his obstacle placement.
Your own terrorform Phobies.

Greylien

Use When:

Your opponent plays a very high-value target that must be pulled.
You are willing to sacrifice 7 keys to remove a target.
Your opponent plays Furnaceface and uses his cloud ability.

Counter With:

Positions that place your high-value targets behind low-value targets.
Furkin Leepricarn.

Grimes

Use When:

Your opponent is using an excessive number of 1 key Phobies.
You are playing pullers that can guarantee Grimes as the last hit.

Counter With:

Positioning to ensure that Grimes will take damage or die after last-hitting.
Dimensionals, for their pull on death.
Baiting Grimes into a position where you can kill it.

Haphe

Use When:

You want a cheap blocker.
Your opponent is using AoE Phobies.

Counter With:

Indirect damage, like traps and lava tiles.
Ignoring Haphe if you can play around his positioning.
Knowing when it is safe to damage it.

Hazmat

Use When:

You want to remove poison tiles to comfortably play non-mechs on those tiles.

Counter With:

Coordinated strikes that make Hazmat fall back.

Heart Breaker

Use When:

You are on a map with abyss tiles so Heart Breaker’s ability can instant-kill.
Your match is at a stand-still and you can pick off targets one at a time, slowly.
Your opponent has a high-value target that you want to remove.
You want to combo with strong abilities such as Freeze or mind-control

Counter With:

Low-value body blockers.
Stasis body blockers.
Ensuring that Heart Breaker dies on the turn after his pull.
Rushing Heart Breaker before his ability lock is done.
Furkin Leepricarn.

Heavo

Use When:

You want a cheap, tanky lobber.
You are playing on a map with a good number of walls to profit from Heavo’s lob.

Counter With:

Coordinated strikes that make Heavo fall back – he has low damage.

Heavo 2.0

Use When:

You have other high-impact Phobies to combo with in a coordinated strike.
Your opponent has Phobies out who are particularly susceptible to push.
You are on a map where push effects are strong due to abyss, lava, etc., tiles.
You want to limit enemy retaliation options.

Counter With:

Furkin Leepricarn.
Spacing your team out to minimize AoE push combos.

Heavo 3.0

Use When:

You want a general high-value all-purpose damage-dealer.
Your opponent has weaker backline Phobies that Heavo 3.0 can soften up for your team.
You are in a position to continually AoE harass the opponent’s team.
You are in a map where lobbing is strong.
You have a terrorformer.

Counter With:

High HP electrical Phobies like Eratic.
Tile disables.
Damage debuffs, particularly Blue, Woolly Bully, or Oopsy Baby.
Traps to control Heavo 3.0’s dive angles.
Strong single-target Phobies.

Heavo Plaid

Use When:

You want a mobile lobber.
Your opponent is playing low health mechanical Phobies.
There are a lot of angles for you to abuse Heavo Plaid’s flexible approach.

Counter With:

High HP electrical Phobies like Eratic.
Traps to control Heavo Plaid’s dive angles.
Protecting your low health mechanicals.

Matches:

Hematic Ginsting

Use When:

You want a general high-value all-purpose damage-dealer.
Your opponent has weaker backline Phobies that Hematic can soften up for your team.
Your opponent is susceptible to high-value burst damage.
You have a terrorformer.

Counter With:

A damage debuffer Phobie.
Furkin Leepricarn.

Henrietta

Use When:

You can get value from Henrietta’s poison.
You want to control space vs cheap undead Phobies such as Creep and Gravedigger.

Counter With:

Aggressive play. Henrietta’s damage and poison are both weak.
Mechanical Phobies.

Hercubees

Use When:

You want a general high-value all-purpose damage-dealer.
Your opponent has weaker backline Phobies that Hercules can soften up for your team.
Your opponent is susceptible to high-value burst damage.
You have a terrorformer.

Counter With:

A damage debuffer Phobie.
Reposition to avoid taking the maximum damage.

Hi-Five

Use When:

You want to heart rush.
You need something more durable than Squiggles.
You want a tanky melee brawler.

Counter With:

Body blocks.
Debuffs.
Ranged attackers.

Honey Bear

Use When:

You want to delay a match by disabling enemy panic points to prevent heart damage.
You want to accelerate a heart rush by disabling enemy panic points.
You want to shut down essential map tiles as part of a strategy.
Your opponent is using many Phobies with fire tile effects.
You want to dive into an area that is covered in traps.
You need a long-range, flexible trap disabler.

Counter With:

Direct attacks.

Hoovey

Use When:

You want to play a stall strategy and keep your heart healthy with safe pulls.

Counter With:

Normal play.

Hydra

Use When:

You want a very high HP, high damage Phobie for a full team dive.
You plan to use a puller or movement support Phobie to increase Hydra’s threat.

Counter With:

Solid electricity Phobies eg: Eratic.
‘Stop’ or action removal Phobies.
3-range harassment.
Push Phobies, especially ranged ones.

I-Scream

Use When:

You want cheap space control.
Your opponent has not played fire Phobies.
You expect your opponent to dive with high HP Phobies.

Counter With:

Furkin Leepricarn.
Fire Phobies.

In-Oculus

Use When:

You want cheap, high-damage, far-reaching space control.
You are willing to play high-health Phobies to protect In-Oculus from dives.

Counter With:

Flexible assault Phobies that you are willing to sacrifice.
Pushes in on In-Oculus once it chooses to engage.
AoE damage to make it more susceptible to single strikes.

Jackalope King

Use When:

You have another Jackalope out, and King’s damage buff will land you a kill.

Counter With:

Keeping a Phobie in proximity to step off and on bones without weakening your position.
Droney.

Jammy Fish

Use When:

You want to sacrifice early game tempo for mid game value.
You are willing to protect Jammy Fish so you can generate value from him.
You can ensure the game does not go late.
You can make use of a defensive flier.

Counter With:

Aggressive play.

Jar Cannon

Use When:

You have a vault snipe opportunity.
You are on a map with many protective walls.
Your push needs flexible 3 range support.
You are on a map with a defensive stimpad.

Counter With:

Phobies that can kill Jar Cannon in one hit.
AoE phobies.
Buff units that enable other Phobies to kill Jar Cannon in one hit.

Jaws

Use When:

You have a wounded Phobie you would rather sacrifice than heal.
You need a tanky Phobie to urgently cap a point from spawn.

Counter With:

Careful positioning.
Attacking Jaws before he can buff.

Jeeves

Use When:

You want to slowly lock down the map.
You think your opponent is saving up for a big push later.
Your opponent is not playing trappers.
Your opponent is not playing fire Phobies.

Counter With:

Attacks before Jeeves can set up a lot of traps.
Paying close attention to where Jeeves has been.
Trap detonators.
Terrorform.
Flyers on walls and abyss tiles.
Tile disables.
Setting up an AoE or beam fire Phobie ahead of time to defrost your Phobie.

Jill

Use When:

It is hard for your opponent to step on bones.
You can spare turns to position her.
You want a cheap tanky option.
You want to detonate traps.

Counter With:

Phobies positioned to safely step on and off of Jill’s bones.
Displacement on to lava tiles (destroys bones).
Terrorform on bones.
Keeping potential surprise bonus damage from Ted in mind.

K-9000

Use When:

You need a cheap, flexible melee option.

Counter With:

Ranged harassment.

KABOOM

Use When:

You are playing a puller or movement support Phobie.
You want to eliminate a high value target with a single strike.
You want to deal high damage then free up a space for another attacker.

Counter With:

Furkin Leepricarn can prevent its ability for 1 turn – when it really counts.
AoE, if KABOOM is hiding behind friendly Phobies.

KERBLOOM

Use When:

You want big cheap AoE damage, but cannot afford KABOOM.
Your opponent is playing melee that you can push back.
You are on a map with damage or abyss tiles.

Counter With:

Furkin Leepricarn can prevent its ability for 1 turn – when it really counts.
AoE, if KERBLOOM is hiding behind friendly Phobies.

Klepto

Use When:

You want a general high-value all-purpose damage-dealer.
Your opponent has weaker backline Phobies that Klepto can soften up for your team.
You are on a map with walls to lob over.
Your opponent has space issues so it’s hard for them to spread out.

Counter With:

Debuffers.

Le Shovell

Use When:

You want a cheap teamfight initiator.
You want to be able to poke the enemy team for free damage.
You have a heavy hitter that you want to give free movement to for a double strike.
You want to give your carry what is effectively a 3rd action in one turn.
You are playing a slow heavy hitter and want to boost their approach.

Counter With:

Being wary of your spacing.
Having knowledge of the game’s push mechanics.

Leshy

Use When:

Your team has taken a lot of damage.
You have a lot of poison to cure.

Counter With:

Attacks that kill, not wound, enemy Phobies.
Poison/disease targeting Leshy.

Lila

Use When:

You want to turtle against non-mechanical Phobies so the disease can pay off.

Counter With:

Attacks before Lila can set up a lot of traps.
Paying close attention to where Lila has been.
Trap detonators.
Terrorform.
Flyers on walls and abyss tiles.
Tile disables.

Maestro

Use When:

You have a team of mostly undead.
Your opponent is trying to wear your undead down with poison or disease.

Counter With:

Minimizing leech opportunities through positioning.

Maggie

Use When:

You need cheap sacrificial damage.
You need the flexibility that flight provides.

Counter With:

Attacking Maggie before it strikes – it has low health.
Positioning your Phobies away from walls that protect Maggie’s approach.

Medibot

Use When:

You need an emergency heal from 4 tiles away from the vault.
You are fighting on two fronts and want to be able to heal wherever it’s needed.

Counter With:

Assuming your opponent has Medibot access and can pull off an emergency heal.

Mike Roscopic

Use When:

You want a cheap flying turret.
You are on a map with walls and abyss tiles to perch on.

Counter With:

Coordinated team threats.
Poison.

Mildred

Use When:

Your opponent has low health Phobies that Mildred can one shot.
You are in a match of attrition.
You can slow the match down to negate Mildred’s cooldown time.
You have terrorform on your side.

Counter With:

Furkin Leepricarn, then pushing in while it can’t retaliate.
Smiley.

Minotaur

Use When:

You are confident that you can dive and hit multiple targets.

Counter With:

Positioning Phobies to limit Minotaur’s approach options and reward.
Positioning to ensure Minotaur dies when he dives.

Misanthrope

Use When:

You have immediate need for a high-health tank.

Counter With:

Positions that limit the effectiveness of Misanthrope’s body blocking.
Attacking around Misanthrope.

Miss Moffat

Use When:

You need a cheap pull to initiate.
Your opponent has a high-value target.
You are on a map with abyss tiles.

Counter With:

Stasis Phobies.
Offering low-value pull options, after which you are able to kill Moffat.

Moley Bully

Use When:

You need to reach a walled-off area, and do not want to use a flyer or terrorform.
You want a solid melee fighter who can reposition effectively in a cramped fight.

Counter With:

Ranged harassment.
Ensuring that Moley Bully dies after a dive.
Protecting areas behind walls where Moley Bully might sneak an attack.

Mopsy

Use When:

You want a cheap and flexible trap detonator.
Your opponent cannot step on bones without losing a Phobie.

Counter With:

Keeping a Phobie in proximity to step off and on bones without weakening your position.

Morty

Use When:

You can snipe a Phobie straight from your vault.
You need an emergency panic point capture from a Phobie that can fight.
You need immediate heart rush backup.
Your opponent is relying on one high-cost Phobie that you need to burst down

Counter With:

Positioning your Phobies so that they cover one another if Morty attacks.

Motherload

Use When:

You want a high health ranged attacker.
You see potential to dive the enemy team for high AoE damage.

Counter With:

Team coordinated strikes that force Motherload to dive or back off.

Mount Crushmore

Use When:

You need a terrorformer with solid combat ability.
You need a flexible lobber.
You want to remove obstacles in a map for superior positioning.
You have an opportunity to place a wall to shut down your opponent’s options.
You can remove a wall to enable a kill.
You are playing AoE Phobies that can benefit from targeting the terrorform obstacle.

Counter With:

Coordinated team strikes that force Crushmore back.
AoE Phobies that punish his obstacle placement.

Mr. Tramples

Use When:

Your team is diving into enemy territory and you need fast backup.

Counter With:

Team positions that control Mr. Tramples’s charge targets.

Muffintop

Use When:

One of your Phobies has been poisoned.
A high-value Phobie needs a cheap heal.
You do not want to spend a substantial number of keys on a dedicated healer.

Counter With:

Plan around your opponent potentially using Muffintop once per match.
Do not sacrifice Phobies to apply poison that can be conveniently removed.

Mummy

Use When:

You can capitalize on multiple Mini Me spawn opportunities.
You want to negate dimensional pulls.

Counter With:

AoE targeting the Mini Mes.
Glob.
‘Stop’ or action removal Phobies.

Murder Wing

Use When:

You need a cheap, flexible, high-damage striker.
Flight is important.

Counter With:

Cheap or AoE poison sources.
AoE damage dives.

Numbskull

Use When:

You want a tanky 1 key Phobie.
You can afford to wait for Numbskull to position himself.
You want a 1 key Phobie that is capable of pushing and tanking for the team.

Counter With:

Ranged harassment.

Noxious

Use When:

Your opponent has a significant number of non-mechanical Phobies.
Your opponent’s team has to respond to a dive by grouping.
You are on a stage with a lot of walls or abyss tiles to strike from.
You already have a supporting team ready to make up for Noxious’s downtime.

Counter With:

Spreading your team out.
Pre-playing healers.
Playing mechanical Phobies.
Ensuring that Noxious dies when he dives.
Furkin Leepricarn.

Octo Naughty

Use When:

You want a more flexible puller than Moffat.
You think the additional health over Moffat will let Octo survive a pull.
Moffat is already dead.
You are on a map with lots of abyss tiles and want multiple pullers

Counter With:

Body blockers.

Ogre

Use When:

Your heart is low but heart rush is controlled.

Counter With:

Body blockers to absorb his high damage.

Omega

Use When:

You are about to make a major team push.

Counter With:

Furkin Leepricarn.
Brony.

Oopsy Baby

Use When:

Your opponent has a high value damage dealer.
You want a tanky 3-range harasser.

Counter With:

Team dives to overwhelm Oopsy.
Pullers to threaten Oopsy’s ranged advantage.

Paddles

Use When:

You have a high-damage Phobie that can benefit from additional movement.
You want a cheap initiation tool.

Counter With:

Carefully positioning your team around the additional options Paddles offers.
Attacking the enemy team during Paddles’s substantial cooldown period.

Pasgetti

Use When:

Your opponent has a Phobie near your vault that you cannot kill, but can disease.

Counter With:

Ensuring that Pasgetti will die for any disease it applies.
Offer a high-value Phobie for bait / a trap.
Healing spas to counteract the disease it applies.

Poison Ivy

Use When:

You want to slow the match down.
Your opponent is playing high-value non-mechanical Phobies.

Counter With:

Mechanical Phobies.
Attacks before Ivy can set up a lot of traps.
Paying close attention to where Ivy has been.
Trap detonators.
Terrorform.
Flyers on walls and abyss tiles.
Healers to remove the poison.
Tile disables.

Matches:

Primate #9

Use When:

You have already lost Cassowary and want another melee diver.
You are fighting in multiple small skirmishes and want a flexible melee option.

Counter With:

Positioning to kill Primate #9 when he dives.

Prometheus

Use When:

You need additional positioning on lava tiles to stage an attack.
You want to remove lava tiles for a positional advantage.
You want an easy way to destroy resurrection Phobie bones.

Counter With:

Ranged harassment.

Psyclops

Use When:

You want a solid well-rounder.

Counter With:

Coordinated team strikes.

Puff

Use When:

You need a flying Phobie with good damage.
Your opponent is using freeze Phobies.
You can force or trick your opponent into lining up their Phobies.

Counter With:

Avoid positioning in perfect lines.
Checking across the whole map before submitting your turn, just in case.

Matches:

Quagmire

Use When:

You need a panic point tanker in a big map with hard to defend panic points.
You need a “hard to punish” body blocker.
You want a Phobie who can easily survive in the endgame.

Counter With:

Coordinated attacks to make Quagmire retreat.
High damage poison to slow down his passive ability healing.

Radihater

Use When:

You want a flexible melee initiator.
Your opponent has multiple low-health Phobies susceptible to AoE damage.

Counter With:

Phobie body blocks.
Harassment on Radihater’s cooloff turns.

Rambolina

Use When:

You need a 3 tile mover in large maps.
You want to cause chaos in a team fight or expose weaker Phobies.

Counter With:

Stasis Phobies – just be mindful of the splash.
Fliers that Rambolina can’t knock into the abyss.
Remembering that Rambolina’s ability can target obstacles or the heart.

Ray Chargels

Use When:

You want flexible electricity damage to take down mechanical Phobies.
You are on a map with walls and/or abyss tiles.

Counter With:

Direct attacks – Ray has low health.

Razor Mouth

Use When:

You want a solid option to start your match.

Counter With:

Red Speedola

Use When:

You plan to use Blue Speedola.
When the combined mobility of Blue and Red Speedola are valuable in your match.
You want a versatile threat on a map with lots of disease tiles.

Counter With:

High-damage electricity Phobies.
Focus-fire on one of them (usually Blue Speedola) to remove their buff.

Repeller

Use When:

You have other high-impact Phobies to combo with in a coordinated strike.
Your opponent has Phobies out who are particularly susceptible to push.
You are on a map where push effects are strong due to abyss, lava, etc., tiles.
You want the flexibility offered by 3 range harassment.

Counter With:

Furkin Leepricarn can disable it when it really matters.
Spacing your team out.
Buffed AoE damage.
Flexible sacrificial damage Phobies.
Invisible Phobies such as Creepy Devil.

Matches:

Rocketman

Use When:

Your opponent has a high-value target you can freeze.

Counter With:

Furkin Leepricarn.
Placing your high-value Phobies behind others.
A fire Phobie that is kept near Rocketman’s potential targets for instant defrost.

Rockus

Use When:

You need to protect your team from pulls.
You can benefit from a flexible tank that does AoE damage and a dimensional pull.

Counter With:

Ranged harassment.
Positioning your Phobies so that Rockus cannot hit AoE.

Russell

Use When:

Your opponent has excessive undead.
Your opponent has no healing options.
The match is at a standstill, and offense is difficult.
You want to force your opponent to make a move against you.

Counter With:

Playing a team of balanced types.
Keeping 1 Phobie slot open to play an emergency healer in a standstill.

Rusty

Use When:

Your opponent plays a high-health, high-damage melee Phobie.
You want to stop an enemy Phobie from retreating.

Counter With:

Keeping your melee or over-extended Phobies away from Rusty.

Sabian

Use When:

You need a flying mech.

Counter With:

Ranged electricity harassment.

Sasquatch

Use When:

Your opponent plays a high-value target that can be sniped.

Counter With:

Traps.
Heavo 3.0 / Puff’s fire can reveal his location if it hits.
Unpredictable movement patterns.
Protecting your low-health Phobies.
Offering low-value trades.

Scritch

Use When:

You need a flexible buffer for a spread-out team.
You already have Gonzo and Cupcake in play and want more buff power.
You have an AoE damage Phobie.
You want to need additional damage on defense to deter a dive.
You want to extend your damage potential in multiple map directions at once.

Counter With:

Furkin Leepricarn.
Direct attacks.

Sheeping Gas

Use When:

You need to counter high health undeads

Counter With:

Use cheap high tanky mechanical Phobies to body block.
Use healing if the poisoned Phobies are not undead.

Sir Probesalot

Use When:

You want to protect a high-value target from attacks and effects.
You want to limit retaliation options when you plan to push.

Counter With:

AoE damage to remove shield charges.
Weak attacks to remove shield charges before your heavy hitters strike.

Skinwalker

Use When:

You want to go all-out on the attack.

Counter With:

Freeze.
Stop.
Damage debuffs.

Slammer Head

Use When:

You need a pusher that has high health.

Counter With:

Ranged harassment.

Slayerrrrrr

Use When:

You need to protect a Phobie from poison.
You want a cheap tank but it’s not urgent.

Counter With:

Ranged harassment.

Smiley

Use When:

Your opponent is playing high-value AoE susceptible to disease.
Your opponent is using a lot of non-mechanical Phobies grouped together.

Counter With:

Mechanical Phobies.
Poison Phobies.
Healing spas to keep diseased targets alive.
Aggressive play.
Freeze Phobies (such as I-Scream) if it comes too close.

Matches:

Smother Mother

Use When:

You want a high health, flexible puller.
You want massive flexible damage.

Counter With:

Limiting Smother Mother’s pull options.
Positioning to ensure Smother Mother dies when she pulls.

Snappy

Use When:

You want a high health turret to control space and soak damage.

Counter With:

Fighting around Snappy – his damage is low.
3 range harassment.

Snowball

Use When:

You can kill a Phobie straight from a vault summon.
You need an emergency support attacker during a push.
You need a long-map runner.

Counter With:

Poison, especially if Snowball will die from one tick.
Attacks during Snowball’s cooldown period.
Sturdy Phobies that force Snowball to back off.

Sockassin

Use When:

You want to control space with a cheap Phobie option.
You want to force your opponent to use Muffintop early.
You want to apply very high poison damage at a low sacrificial cost.

Counter With:

Murder Wing and other options that threaten to 1-shot Sockassin.
Traps, especially if they can 1-shot it.
Mechanical Phobies.

Sparky

Use When:

You need immediate high electricity damage in a team fight.
Your opponent has a single, high-cost Mech with limited support.

Counter With:

Direct attacks from non-mechs.

Squiggles

Use When:

You need a heartrush supplement.

Counter With:

Body blocks.

Spud

Use When:

You want a flexible and fast lobber.

Counter With:

Direct damage – Spud has low health and damage.

Sssizzzle

Use When:

You need to counter freeze Phobies
You want very high last act damage.

Counter With:

Kill with an expendable Phobie.
Fight fire with fire: use fire to get the last hit.

Stabby

Use When:

You want cheap, durable, and strong space control.
You want defensive capability in a turret.

Counter With:

Cheap poison Phobies.
Use fire or lava to get the last hit.

Staremaster

Use When:

You want high, ranged damage for a heart rush.
You need a good vault sniper.

Counter With:

Direct damage – Staremaster has low health.

Subnoxious

Use When:

You need poison straight from the vault.

Counter With:

AoE cure effects.
Healing spas.

Suckee

Use When:

You need a cheap tank.
You want a solid pusher.

Counter With:

Ranged harassment.
Fighting around Suckee.

Ted

Use When:

It is hard for your opponent to step on bones.
You can spare turns to position him.
You want a cheap tanky option.
You want to detonate traps.

Counter With:

Phobies positioned to safely step on and off of Ted’s bones.
Displacement on to lava tiles (destroys bones).
Terrorform on bones.
Keeping potential surprise bonus damage from Jill in mind.

Temptresss

Use When:

You need a cheap, flexible electrical damage source.

Counter With:

Non-mechanical Phobies.
Positioning your mechanical Phobies behind your non-mechanical Phobies.

Terrordactyl

Use When:

You want a high-damage flyer to control space with.

Counter With:

Displacing Terrordactyl onto obstacles when reducing his health to 0.
Droney to stomp the bones after killing terrordactyl.

The Collector

Use When:

You want to severely limit your opponent’s retaliation options.
Your opponent has a composition weak on damage output.
Your opponent is lacking in 3-range Phobies to harass The Collector.
You have movement support Phobies to help The Collector get in position.

Counter With:

Ranged harassment.
Stop.

The Glob

Use When:

You need to disable a high-value target.
You need a very high-health tank.
You can coordinate The Glob with a puller or movement support Phobie.
Your opponent is low on keys and has limited counter options.
Your opponent has low team damage.
Your opponent has mostly slow Phobies that cannot avoid The Glob.

Counter With:

Cheap poison.
Dial.
Ranged harassment.
Ranged push Phobies.
Displacement to pull The Glob off of a Phobie he is digesting.
Flyers on walls.
Stop.

Thunder Rocks

Use When:

Your opponent has an expensive mechanical Phobie you are certain to land a hit on.

Counter With:

Positioning your mechanical Phobies away from Thunder Rocks.
Ensuring Thunder Rocks dies when it strikes.

Tick

Use When:

You want a cheap source of disease damage.
You need a cheap 100% AoE damage Phobie.
You need to zone the enemy.

Counter With:

Keeping your vulnerable Phobies out of range.
Ranged harassment.
Avoiding to group all your Phobies.

Matches:

Tickles

Use When:

You want a tanky 1-key, and are not so concerned about potential damage.
You can potentially capture a panic point for free due to Tickles’s high health.
You have traps on your side of the map that you want to safely disarm.

Counter With:

High-damage ranged Phobies, positioned so Tickles dies on a panic point capture.

Matches:

Tiny Tim

Use When:

You want to try and run wild by capturing back-end panic points.
You want to continually recapture a contested point, on a map with a healing spa.
You want a super wall for a relatively cheap cost, with the ready threat of high-damage.

Counter With:

Poison.
Disease.
Fire.
Traps.

Tooth Fairy

Use When:

You want a cheap defensive flyer.
You can benefit from Tooth Fairy’s combined flying and dimensional pull.

Counter With:

Poison.
Direct strikes that make Tooth Fairy fall back.

Tri-Volta

Use When:

You want a flexible Phobie that can fight at range and debuff as well.

Counter With:

Direct damage – Tri-Volta has weak stats.

Unbearable

Use When:

You want to control space around a wall with a cheap option.

Counter With:

Harassment from 3-range Phobies.

Uni Corn

Use When:

You want a cheap turret that can set up a strong defense.
You want to start a map with a 1 key while also setting up a turret.
You want a cheap trap disabler.

Counter With:

Attacks before Uni Corn can set up a lot of traps.
Paying close attention to where Uni Corn has been.
Trap detonators.
Terrorform.
Flyers on walls and abyss tiles.

Venus

Use When:

You want a solid tank that has a pseudo-ranged attack through its traps.
You want to detonate enemy traps safely.

Counter With:

Attacks before Venus can set up a lot of traps.
Paying close attention to where Venus has been.
Trap detonators.
Terrorform.
Flyers on walls and abyss tiles.

Werewolf

Use When:

You want a runner that can also join in the fight later.
Your team push needs fast backup power.
You have healing available to top Werewolf up between phase changes.

Counter With:

‘Stop’ Phobies.
Action removal Phobies.
The Glob.

Whiskers

Use When:

Your opponent has an abundance of traps out.

Counter With:

Ranged space control.

Whuffalo Will

Use When:

Your opponent has a high-value Phobie to steal.
You have other Phobies to coordinate with Whuffalo will to land his ability.

Counter With:

Furkin Leepricarn.
Dial.
Staying away.
Offering low-value Phobies to steal.

Wiggy

Use When:

You need cheap sacrificial damage.
You can land a solid melee hit during a push.

Counter With:

Ranged harassment.
Space control.

Woolly Bully

Use When:

Your opponent is using an AoE damage Phobie.
You can benefit from a flex tank.

Counter With:

Place your AoE damage Phobie behind another low-priority target.
Coordinate your team to punish Woolly Bully when he tries to debuff.

Yeti

Use When:

You need to freeze a high damage Phobie.
No fire Phobies present on the board.
Your opponent only has 1 Phobie left.

Counter With:

Furkin Leepricarn.
Fire Phobies.

Zappy

Use When:

Your opponent is playing high-value mechanical Phobies.
You want to soften up high-health mechanical Phobies with Zappy’s damage reflect.

Counter With:

Eratic.

Zomboni

Use When:

You need AoE poison removal.

Counter With:

Poison.