Berry blast isn't a bad card by any means. It's quite strong even. However, it's vastly overused and often put in decks without question. Hopefully, this post can make you consider whether you should actually be running berry blast or not.

What Does Berry Blast Do?

It does 3 damage anywhere, obviously.
Jokes aside, it's important to establish what role berry blast actually has. There are 2 main roles it has, alongside a few secondary roles, which is what makes it appear as such a strong card.

Role 1: Small Removal
Damage kills zombies. Berry blast does damage. Berry blast doesn't do a lot of damage, so its ability to remove is pretty limited. As such, it's good for removal, but only for zombies with 3 or less hp. This makes berry blast a primarily early game option, and especially nice for control decks.
Role 2: Unblock
Lets say you have a gravitree that you really want to hit the opponent with, but they put a cheese cutter in front. Fortunately, berry blast can remove that blocker, netting you 7 damage and saving hp on your gravitree in the process. This can be very pivotal, especially if that damage is a lethal blow. As such, berry blast can be an enticing option in aggro decks, as they want to push for damage as fast as possible.
Minor Role 1: Hitting Face
Berry blast can hit the zombie hero directly, which is best used to either proc the block meter, or kill them if you're otherwise 3hp or less from killing them. Both of these situations are... honestly pretty uncommon, though they do appear from time to time. Berry blast should NOT be run with the express purpose for these things (especially when considering how inefficient it is to spend 2 sun to do either of those things). However, it can be a nice additional draw to put in an aggro decks since it serves other roles as well.
Minor Role 2: Correcting Trades
Even if berry blast isn't killing, it is still dealing damage. This can be great in some instances to change the tides of battle. If your wild grapes is about to die to a supernova garg, a berry blast can turn things to an equal trade, not only removing their huge threat, but also saving you from taking 5 damage. This can make berry blast not too bricky in the late game since it can still be at least occasionally useful if the situation calls for it. Again, berry blast shouldn't be put in your deck with this exact purpose in mind, but it is useful for aggro or midrange decks to have a card with this property.
Minor Role 3: Instant Removal
Playing a minion with 3 damage seems like it would do the same thing as playing a berry blast, but that's not the case in a real game. The zombie hero has an entire tricks phase to do a variety of things, such as buffing or moving their zombie, or even killing your plant that was intended to remove their zombie. Berry blast circumvents this by killing zombies before the tricks phase, denying any tricks as resources. Again, sounds really strong, but it's not as relevant as you might think. Berry blast is an early game small removal option, and the zombie hero will not have a lot of brains in the early game to both deploy threats AND protect them with tricks. While being instant removal is nice, it's only useful on occasion in the early game.

All this sounds good. Great even. It is. However, it's rare that you need a card to do all these things. Not to mention, berry blast isn't even the only card that can do these things. This leads to the main discussion:

But Why Berry Blast?

Other removal options can also check most of these boxes. While berry blast is the only one that checks all of them (mainly because most removal can't target face), they all still get quite close. Let's look at some examples in the kabloom class:

Banana bomb:
This one literally covers every role except for hitting face (which is the least important thing ever), and it does it for cheaper. Is bbomb better? No, not really. Its use case as instant removal is even less relevant as an even more early game option than bblast. However, it's really great at removing fragile chump blockers or correcting trades for the lowest cost in the game. It can be used as a turn 1 removal option as well, though that's rarely necessary since a 2 atk plant can fill that role already. However, if you lack 1 cost plants, this can be a great fit. While berry blast is overall better, bbomb can certainly fit if your deck lacks 1 drops or needs really cheap trade corrections and/or unblock.

Sizzle:
This doesn't check the small removal box, but it does serve as medium and small removal. It's less efficient, but only marginally. In return, you get a LOT of flexibility. It's nice for unblocking (though its reduced efficiency means you can't unblock AND develop threats at the same time very easily). It's AMAZING for removal. It's even more amazing as instant removal, since it can not only remove bigger threats, but it can remove things way later on which will more likely disrupt potential tricks that the zombie hero wanted to use as protection. Sizzle can also correct trades, but it's so good at removing (and so expensive for correcting trades) that you don't really use it for that very often. This is already occasionally ran with bblast since the two usually don't compete for the same slot, but it usually is run at 2-3x to prevent bricking while bblast is run at 4x. Decks that really care about versatile removal should definitely consider swapping those ratios and having more emphasis on sizzle.

Fireweed:
This one is a bit harder to compare, since it's not instant removal, can't unblock, can't fix trades, but makes an environment. It does deal more damage, doing 4 damage to a zombie in combat and than additional damage in each proceeding combat. In terms of raw damage for its cost, fireweed is amazing. It also clears threatening environments as a bonus, and can even be used to push damage. Not to mention, fireweed is a minion, which means it can be used as evo fodder or to chump block. It certainly has a lot of gives and takes compared to berry blast, but if your deck already has a lot of instant removal (also remember that early game instant removal isn't very useful for previously mentioned reasons) and doesn't care much about trade correcting or unblocking, you should be on 3-4x fireweed before you even consider adding a berry blast.

Let's also look at some options outside of the kabloom class as well. Some of these have some additional use cases that berry blast doesn't even cover.

Hot Date:
This card is just straight up underrated. It deals the same damage as berry blast, is extremely good for unblocking (unless the board is crowded), and can fix bad trades by just avoiding them entirely. Not only that, but the fact that hot date isn't instant removal is actually a secret upside in some situations. There's the (debatably niche) interaction with barrel of deadbeards, but also the (very much not niche) interaction with graves. Notably, graves are completely immune to instant removal, but hot date ignores that entirely. Graves still bypass the unblock though, so its extra utility against graves is still a bit limited. Like fireweed, it is also a minion, and it happens to be in a class where it can also be used with blockbuster, so it's solid evo fodder if it's feeling bricky in a game. Sure, it can't hit face directly, but with how good it is at unblocking I'd argue it's still the superior option for pushing damage. It also is better defensively by virtue of it being able to redirect zombies, chump block, and deal with graves. This isn't even mentioning potential synergies that moving zombies allows. It's honestly a really flexible card, and I have a hard time justifying berry blast over it whenever I'm using spudow. It can be weak against black hole though, so keep that in mind if that card already causes problems for you.

Primal Potato Mine:
This is more comparable to hot date (mostly worse, but still a card worth considering). It's not only very cheap, but it's the cheapest source of 3 damage in the whole game. In terms of sheer efficiency, it's completely unmatched. It also becomes even better as fodder or a chump block with the cheaper cost. It's also a root, which is relevant in this meta. Sadly, that's where the upsides end, and the downsides are pretty costly compared to hot date. Being completely unable to fix trades, unblock, or redirect can hurt a lot. It can't even target the water lane, which can cause a toxic waste imp or synchronized swimmer to get out of control on occasion. It's an AWFUL topdeck in the late game since all of its upsides are only relevant in the early game. If you are running a deck that needs that early game help though, primal potato mine is great at filling that niche. It also isn't uncommon for a guardian deck to run both ppm and hot date.

Water Balloons:
While it can't hit face (oh no, anyway...), it is so, SO good at correcting trades. Not only can it correct some losing trades into equal ones, but it can even turn equal or losing trades into WINNING ones. It's also great even if it can't kill. In cases where neither berry blast or water balloons can kill a zombie (let's say they have an out of control waxer with 6+hp), water balloons will be MUCH better. There's a LOT of zombies that can't be killed by small removal, so this utility of weakening surviving zombies cannot be understated. It does do less damage, so you might want to run berry blast if there's a lot of threatening 3hp cards in the meta. This doesn't matter if the game draws past turn 5 though, since it just becomes a strictly better removal card than berry blast at that point. It's usually not that relevant since you don't want to be drawing small removal late, but water balloons already has some late game use and being stronger from turn 6+ just amplifies that. It also can deal with garg throwing imp, which happens to be really relevant at least in this meta, though it's pretty niche overall. Unless you really need to deal exactly 3 damage, water balloons is just so much better than berry blast. It's hard for me to run berry blast as solar flare when water balloons exist.

This is probably a good segue to mention what heroes (likely) want what removal, and whether you really should be defaulting to berry blast:

What Should I Run?

Solar Flare:
As previously mentioned, water balloons exist. In most cases, you should just be running that. There is the argument that water balloons does become a bit redundant since solar flare already has weed whack, but you only get that in around half of your games, and you only start with it a quarter of the time. It is at least worth keeping in mind, as maybe you only need 3 water balloons instead of 4. Hammer is also a great option since it works with both weed whack and water balloons alongside dealing with high hp threats. I wouldn't run bbomb since sig covers that 25% of the time, and even without sig you still don't care for turn 1 removal nor for the efficiency in the following turns. Solar has a lot of highly defensive early game options so you don't need more specialized early removal (also another reason why bblast just isn't that good for solar flare). Sizzle is also great for solar flare, as that can fill in the gaps before you drop briar rose or cob cannon. It also protects your sun shroom if it survived (tbh the opponent is already cooked if your sun shroom is alive on turn 2). Fireweed also exists, and covers a lot of weaknesses from the solar class (namely no way to deal with environments), so there's that as well. If you're running berries, you'll want berry blast. Otherwise, it really shouldn't be your first choice.

Spudow:
Hot date is cracked. Most archetypes from spudow greatly prefer that. Primal potato mine exists as well, but hot date will be your best bet if you're looking to fill most of berry blast's roles. It's arguably just more flexible than berry blast since you can deal with early graves as well. Spudow also has meteor, which is literally berry blast but for 1 mana, so the demand for a berry blast effect is even lower. Fireweed and sizzle are also great. Shamrocket is a nice big removal (and the instant removal part of that is even more relevant than with sizzle). Bbomb can be good on occasion if you need cheaper unblock than hot date, but generally hot date will have you covered. Just be sure to be mindful of the ratios of your removals, and accommodate for what you need.

Captain Combustible:
Now THIS is a hero that should actually be running berry blast... sometimes at least. They have meteor just like spudow, so they still don't need it at least at 4x. It still can be nice to have it at 3x, since most Combustible decks tend to be very fast. If you need to be even faster, bbomb is worth considering, but generally the flexibility from berry blast is better (especially since 3hp can be an annoying threshold for Combustible). The hitting face aspect is also genuinely relevant with Combustible since he likes to push for lethal out of nowhere before the zombies can play tricks, but even still it's not hugely important. If you're running a moss deck, I'd probably run 4x bbomb before adding any bblasts since you want cheaper tricks (but you really should run at least 6x of both combined). Sizzle is nice, but slow. Fireweed is ok since it's a minion as well, but it can't unblock so it's not ideal in fast decks. Bbomb and Bblast are your main friends with Combustible. Run whatever best fits your curve (or run both).

Nightcap:
This hero also tends to prefer berry blast since sig acts as a much stronger bbomb. It's common for nightcap to run a lot of cheap minions, so your topdecks end up being REALLY bad as is, and bbomb just makes it even worse. Berry blast still isn't great for topdecking, but you still need the removal and bblast is better than nothing. You do also have spring bean, so if you find you don't need berry blast, or you need more than just berry blast, you do have that in a pinch (you have the whirlwind power though, so it's usually not needed). Spring bean is a terrible removal option outside of aggro decks though, so it probably shouldn't be your first choice. Sizzle will be better outside of aggro. In cyclecap, bbomb can be ok to make things run more smoothly after you've gotten your cycle going, but bblast is still generally better to deal with conman or hit face. It's not a bad idea to run both bbomb and bblast, and maybe even include jelly bean or spring bean for some heavier removal. In other decks, bblast will usually be best, but you should still test to see if it actually fits your deck.

Conclusion

Berry blast is a great card, don't get me wrong. It's not always the best card for any given situation. You don't always need some of the qualities that berry blast brings, and while it does a lot, it doesn't do everything well. It also comes with some downsides that need to be accounted for. I'm not saying that you should cut berry blast from all your decks, but you definitely shouldn't blindly run 4x in every deck. Test it like any other card. Consider "Would I rather have drawn berry blast, or something else?" Experiment with other removal options. You'd be surprised to find how well some other options work.

Quick Aside: Bungee is Overrated Too

Not to nearly the same degree as berry blast. It's especially important in this meta where it counters sun shroom and has strong synergies with mustache waxer. It's also just a really, really good card. For sure better than berry blast. Some heroes really need to run 3x copies in every deck. However, it's still a bit overused, particularly with zmech. If you're running black hole and no binary stars, PLEASE run rolling stone. It still counters sun shroom and gives a lot more milage in terms of removal due to the synergy with black hole. You also have 2 bolts, so low hp plants tend to not be problematic anyway. Also, rolling stone counters sun shroom BETTER than bungee, so it's even more relevant in this meta.

There's a lot more in detail I could go, but I've written enough and this is already going to take forever to proofread lol.