Pumpkin King: the Minion that turns lost HP into ATK. Decks, combos and my take

Wiki deduction: with E empty tiles, the King receives the effect 1 + E times, and only he does. At level 10 the bonus is still 3 per step, so with 5 steps and 4 empty tiles that's 5 × 5 × 3 = 75 ATK on him. At level 12, with 5 per step, 125. It's a carry that wants an empty field, the opposite of the base text, which rewards having many Minions. The wiki doesn't know whether the tile he enters counts as occupied, or in what order the game counts the empty ones.

The Pumpkin King joined the deck builder's simulator on Nov 2, but the wiki hasn't measured these decks yet, so there is no score or percentage here. These are wiki builds from the card texts.

1. Wounded Deck (the low-HP deck, with the King)

Boom Shroom, Jack-o'-Licks I, Headless Jack (or the I), Pumpkin King, Bardcore Onion, Berrinetta and Tomato Twister. Greenkeeper II in reserve.

The wiki already measures a low-HP deck where Boom Shroom and Jack-o'-Licks spend HP on purpose to feed Headless Jack. The official video plays with Headless Jack in the shop next to the King, which fits. The King comes in as the fourth piece, after the first rounds took the Commander to around 50%: Boom Shroom takes 4% of Max HP and Jack-o'-Licks I takes 6%/5%/4% per round. Bardcore Onion and Berrinetta give the ATK SPD and the slow that the wiki has seen this deck ask for, and Tomato Twister closes rounds.

The danger is the Boss. If you lose the round, the Boss deals 30 on R3, 60 on R6 and 90 on R9. With 150 HP that's 20%, 40% and 60%. With 105 HP, 29%, 57% and 86%. Greenkeeper II heals 4 HP at the start (up to 14 with level), less than one step at any rank, so it costs the King almost nothing and keeps the match alive.

2. Full-board Dracula

The Captain Count Dracula with a wiki Promotion or Summon deck, which already fills the field, and one tile left for the King.

There's no Boom Shroom or Jack-o'-Licks here, because Dracula already gives 3 to 5 steps. The plan is to build the field on rounds 3 and 4 and place the Pumpkin King last, so the bonus catches everything. Deploy works when you place the card on an empty tile, so with 9 tiles it's at most 8 Minions plus him: with 5 steps, +80 ATK in total. It's the safest of the three decks and it earns less than the Wounded one, because it's stuck at 3, 4 or 5 steps.

3. Hiss and the King

Mister Hiss, Pumpkin King, Will-o-Cut, Shamaness and Tomato Twister.

Hiss corrodes every enemy for 20%/27%/40% of his ATK every 2.6 s, so every point of ATK the King puts on him becomes damage across the whole field. Hiss's Astral Blessing absorbs 15% of the other Minions' ATK on Ready and gathers in one place what the King spread out. Will-o-Cut removes a Minion and spreads 120% of its ATK among the others for one round. If it comes before the King, it opens an empty tile for level 10. If it comes after, it recycles the bonus the removed Minion received. The order is a choice, and the wiki doesn't know yet which pays more.

The problem is access: Hiss comes from Lucky Recruit and the King from the Glory Pass.

• Pumpkin King + Headless Jack. Both read the same lost HP. Headless Jack reads it live, every round. The King takes a snapshot when he enters. Placing the King with the Commander already low is what makes the snapshot worth it.
• Pumpkin King + Jack-o'-Licks I + Headless Jack I. Jack-o'-Licks I takes HP on Ready, which feeds the King. Headless Jack I gains +2/4/8 every time the Commander takes damage, doubled if it happens on Ready. Wiki deduction: Jack-o'-Licks I's loss counts as damage and doubles. That makes a round where the Commander loses HP, Headless Jack grows twice as much and the next King gets cheaper.
• Pumpkin King + Count Dracula. Described above: 3 to 5 free steps.
• Pumpkin King + Mister Hiss. Hiss's damage is a percentage of his ATK, and the King's bonus goes straight into that ATK.
• Pumpkin King + Boom Shroom. Boom Shroom is the most direct way to spend HP: it attacks all enemies and loses 4% of Max HP. Below 4% HP it only attacks the front line, which protects the Commander.
• What doesn't fit: healing. Greenkeeper and Greenkeeper II give steps back to the Commander, and Gourmand Baker's Astral Blessing, live since Nov 3, heals 3/6/12 HP on Ready. They work as insurance, not as a plan.

• The bonus enters once, when you place him, and the text doesn't say "Temp.", so the wiki reads it as permanent. Buying early gives zero steps. Buying late can be too late. Wiki deduction: only Minions already on the field when the King enters receive the bonus.
• Boss rounds and low HP mix badly. The King wants the Commander at 50% to 70%, and an R6 or R9 Boss that gets through takes 60 or 90 HP.
• +2 per step is little for 8 Sun. With 5 steps, a 100 ATK Minion gains 10%.
• The Astral Blessing discount helps, but the wiki doesn't know whether it counts per hit or per round, or whether the price has a floor.
• He has 10 ATK. Alone he's a weak body, and all his value is in the bonus.
• It takes the Glory Pass. Without it you can't play him, and the wiki won't treat the King as a standard deck piece.

Opinion, with no simulation behind it. The in-game card made the King much weaker than the notice promised: a 3★ with the Commander at 50% gives +10 per Minion, not +40. He's still the natural fourth piece of the low-HP deck, beside Headless Jack, but now as a boost rather than an engine. In a normal deck he's an 8-Sun Minion with 10 ATK waiting for a condition the deck doesn't create.

The part that interests us most has changed: since the star doesn't matter, his game is about cheap copies, with the Blessing lowering the price and each new King giving the bonus again. If every copy's Deploy counts, as we read it, two or three Kings in a low-HP match start to make a difference.

Level 10 makes us wary. It pulls the King toward an empty-field game, and the rest of the card pulls toward a full field.

Potential: medium in the Wounded Deck and in Dracula. Confidence in our reading: medium, until we measure the decks in the simulator. When we do, we'll update this post.

All wiki deduction.

• The King's deck lives with the Commander low. Pressure on the Commander's HP before the King enters is what undoes the plan.
• Ghost Orchid steals 5%/9%/16% of the highest-ATK enemy Minion's ATK, at least 1/2/4. A Minion inflated by the King is a good target.
• DandeLion takes 2/4/8 ATK (Temp.) from every enemy Minion on Ready, a flat value since the Oct 27 patch. Against a small Minion inflated by the King, those points add up.
• Valkyris gains 45%/70%/100% of the difference when the enemy's total ATK is higher than hers. Against a field inflated by the King, the difference tends to be on her side.

• How the game rounds the 10% step.
• Whether the percentage uses Max HP already including Dracula's bonus. The wiki assumes it does.
• Whether summoned Minions, or ones placed after the King, receive the bonus.
• Whether merging copies triggers Deploy again.
• When the level 8 bonus is 2 and when it's 3.
• How the Astral Blessing counts damage, and whether the price has a floor.

If you have the King, send a screenshot through the feedback button of the field before and after placing him, with the Commander's HP visible. With that we can answer almost everything on this list.

See the card page, the decks the wiki already measures in the tier list and build yours in the deck builder.

• In-game card sheet: screenshots sent by the wiki owner on Nov 2, 2026 (level 7, confidence "checked in game").
• Official notice on the game's Discord (Oct 22, 2026).
• Official video "Plants on Fire New Minion // Pumpkin King Story & Gameplay Preview":
• Wiki rules: Commander HP by rank (official game table), 5 damage per unit (devs, Oct 10), Boss damage 30/60/90 (devs, Oct 10) and 3★ = 4 copies.
• Deduction and opinion are marked in the text. Nothing here comes from simulation.