Pre-emptive Strike is an Exotic Powercard in Bloons Card Storm, introduced in version 4.0. It destroys the next Bloon played by the opponent. If the next Bloon has an On Play effect, that effect triggers before the Bloon is destroyed. It triggers from Bloons played by card effects (e.g. Red Bloon Storm, Necromancer's Zombie Blue Bloon), but not by the Storm. There is no visual indicator while the card effect is active, only a sound after playing. The player can play multiple copies of this card before the first usage triggers, but only one use triggers, wasting the other uses.
The card artwork depicts a Pre-emptive Strike Monkey Sub firing a ballistic missile at a Red Bloon. It is set at a lake with green hills during a partially cloudy day.
Against aggro players, this card is best saved until after the opponent has played all their weakest cards first, to improve the odds that it destroys a more valuable target or deters them from sending more Bloons until they draw another weak Bloon to trigger it.
The recipient of this card can use it to their advantage to instantly destroy The Eternal or a Volatile Bloon. When using this card, it may be worth waiting to see if the opponent has The Eternal before playing it.
Red Bloon Storm or Red Bloon Apopalypse can be used to waste this card. This card will pop the first Red Bloon right after it is summoned, but the remaining seven Red Bloons will still summon, filling the entire board if there was at least one Bloon in play before playing Red Bloon Storm or Red Bloon Apopalypse.
If the Pre-emptive Strike user has many Bloons on their side, sending a Volatile Bloon will guarantee as a board clear.
Intercepting with Volatile Bloons is more common when baiting Stage 1 Dreadbloon.
Since there is no visual indicator for this card, the best way to verify when the last Pre-emptive Strike was used by the opponent is to use the card history menu.
Pre-emptive Strike now removes the effect of the ARBITR when it destroys it (bug fix)
Icon
