by Jay Solomon
Hello, and welcome to another iteration of Why Don’t I Play This Piece?. Today, I’ll be looking at two different higher-cost versions of The Joker.
The Joker has the Batman Enemy team ability, along with two traits and two special powers:
BATMAN ENEMY – When this character makes an attack, you may replace its attack value with the printed attack value of an adjacent friendly character that can use this team ability.
The Joker’s Attack values are consistent as well as decent to high (especially taking Ranged Combat Expert into account), so he’ll likely be lending out his Attack value more often than borrowing, unless he’s in part of a double Penguin chain. In any case, the ability to lend out Attack values that never drop below a 10 can be useful, or potentially being able to borrow a higher Attack value.
(Trait) IT’S THE LAUGHING THAT WILL KILL YOU: The Joker can use Poison. When he does, damage dealt to characters with a lower point value is penetrating damage.
Due to how low-cost most characters are these days in the competitive scene, this Poison will be penetrating more often than not. Poison being traited is always useful as well, especially on a character with Stealth, as well as Blades/Claws/Fangs.
(Trait) MAD AS A HATTER: Other characters can’t use Precision Strike when attacking The Joker.
While this trait won’t matter much when The Joker is on a Mastermind click, it will at least protect him on his Super Senses click. At the very least, when The Joker is on a Mastermind click, it will prevent the Mastermind fodder from being affected by the “damage taken from the attack can’t be reduced below 1” part of Precision Strike.
(Special Defense Power) YOU’LL HAVE TO KILL ME: STOP. The Joker can use Mastermind.
Mastermind on a STOP click is pretty common these days, seen most commonly on AI chase Starfox. While there are ways around Mastermind, at the very least, unlike with Starfox, The Joker’s dial is harder to get through, due to it being longer, and the Mastermind that comes before. Having STOP on the click with the best stats is also nice, to ensure that The Joker will get to use them.
(Special Damage Power) THE KILLING JOKE!: The Joker can use Ranged Combat Expert and Improved Targeting: Ignores Characters. When The Joker hits with an attack, hit characters are each given up to 2 action tokens.
This special power is one of the main draws of The Joker. In addition to the stat modifiers that Ranged Combat Expert gives, the ability to hand out action tokens on top of any attack is essentially an even better version of Stunning Blow, for the old school players reading this. Some good powers to add to The Joker to maximize the effectiveness of the power include Flurry, Energy Explosion, Pulse Wave, and Quake. While all of these powers can be gained via Exospex, some of them can be gained along with some other extra effects from other Equipment-Objects, such as Stormbreaker, which gives +2 to Range along with the Energy Explosion and Quake that it gives.
Overall, this version of The Joker has decent to strong combat values, is hard to KO, and has multiple ways to deal damage, as well as disrupt your opponent’s tempo by handing out action tokens. The Joker is high enough points to call in some characters that most other characters that are played in the competitive scene can’t, including, among others:
125 WKM17-010 Colossus
100 XXS036 All-New Wolverine
(90) XXS037b Professor X
100 XXS059B White Queen
(100) XXS063 Cyclops
80 HQ002 The Joker
100 HQ043B Harley Quinn
90 JW049 Mr. Freeze
I also want to take a look at another version of the Joker, who has some similarities, including starting Stealth and Mastermind, along with a 7-click long dial with a STOP click. This version of the Joker has also only just come into wide distribution, and seems good enough to see play, and not just via ID card. I also wanted to look at this other Joker, since JW The Joker will not survive the rotation, as far off as it is:
This version of The Joker also has the Batman Enemy team ability, along with 3 special powers:
(Special Attack power) I’M GOING TO KILL EVERYONE IN THIS ROOM: Poison. When The Joker uses it, he can use Improved Targeting: Hindering, Characters and all opposing characters within 3 squares and line of fire are considered adjacent.
This special power is Poison but with a bonus, that being the use of Poison at range as well as gaining some valuable Improved Targeting to go with it, including ignoring Stealth. Being able to Poison “at range” can be quite valuable, especially with current options to reposition opposing characters.
(Special Defense power) WITH A DEVIL’S STRENGTH, HE TWISTS…: STOP. The Joker can’t be healed. If the Joker is KO’d by an opposing character, that character modifies its defense -1 for the rest of the game. If The Joker would be KO’d by pushing damage, choose an opposing character and modify its combat values -1 for the rest of the game.
This STOP click will force your opponent to rush the Joker before he can KO himself and give an opposing character of your choice -1 to all combat values. Even if he is just KO’d normally, the -1 to Defense isn’t nothing, and your opponent has wasted another attack or instance of damage on The Joker.
(Special Damage power) CLOWN PRINCE OF CRIME: Leadership, Outwit.
Nothing much to note here, outside of the Leadership being very helpful, in the swarm and pog heavy Monster keyword, as well as not being the easiest power to find (on a good piece) for Arkham Asylum and Gotham City Underworld.
While this second version of The Joker may not be as straight up offensively focused as the other Joker, he also does other stuff, including being almost 50% less expensive, having top-dial Outwit, along with Defenses that are differently annoying to deal with. Also, the Monster keyword is very respectable right now, with a Monster theme team having just won Wizkids’ Singles World Championship. The Celebrity keyword may have an interesting future as well, if it is a common keyword in the WWE set.
Both of these versions of The Joker are not easy to KO, and are high enough points to call in some characters that most commonly used characters can’t. Both versions of The Joker also have some sort of Improved Targeting: Characters, so that their Mastermind fodder doesn’t block their line of fire entirely. Both teams I’ve made with these characters attempt to maximise how much Mastermind fodder they each have, as well as mitigate any weaknesses.
140 JW059 The Joker
-12 WKM Exospex
20 AIG025 Groot
20 AIG025 Groot
30 WKMP18-G001 Tri-Sentinel
25 FFJW004 The Penguin
40 JW050 The Penguin
3 XXSXID-006 All-New Wolverine ID card
5 DOFP-001 Wolverine (Bounty Card)
5 WKMVID-012 Professor X ID card
300
Sideline: EW041 Sinestro, XXS036 All-New Wolverine, XXS053 Wolverine, XXS037a Professor X, XXS037b Professor X, BTAS065 Aquaman, BTAS067 Wonder Woman, BTAS072 Firestorm, BTAS073 Hawkgirl
This team is built around giving the Joker a lot of Mastermind fodder, while also dealing with specific counters to Mastermind, such as Mind Control. The Tri-Sentinel has PROTECTED: Mind Control, so it will not be able to be moved away from The Joker, in the absolute worst-case scenario, and it also has Plasticity, in case an opposing Professor X (or other user of Mind Control) tries to move the Joker away from his Mastermind fodder. Walking Woods are incidental attackers, but they are mostly here to be fodder. Exospex should help The Joker with any mobility issues he has, assuming that dropping Stealth for a turn isn’t an issue, although he will probably be choosing Attack powers more often anyway, for synergy with his ability to deal out action tokens. The Penguins serve two purposes. They synergize with The Joker to give Robo-Penguins the free move actions, along with the Robo-Penguins serving as possible Mastermind fodder. The Loyalty token also makes The Joker quite a bit better, giving him a base 12-Attack along with 7 Range on top of Ranged Combat Expert. The call-ins were specifically chosen to bring out more pogs to Mastermind to, including the Jonathan pog, with Battle Fury, to also not be Mind Controlled.
Monster
100 WKDP18-009 The Joker
20 AIG025 Groot
20 AIG025 Groot
25 TMTG001 Surtur
10 TMTG004 Carnage
10 TMTG004 Carnage
60 UND008 Zombie Abraham Lincoln
25 TMTG002 Ymir
3 XXSXID-006 All-New Wolverine ID card
5 Haha Hacienda Location Bonus
5 WKMVID-012 Professor X ID card
3 WKM-018 Cyclops (Student ID card)
3 WKM-020 Jean Grey (Student ID card)
5 DOFP-001 Wolverine (Bounty card)
5 DOFP Kate Pryde (Bounty Card)
299
Sideline: XXS041 All-New Wolverine, XXS052 Cyclops, XXS063 Cyclops, XXS065 Jean Grey, XXS037a Professor X, XXS037b Professor X, XXS053 Wolverine, XXS039 Sprite, WKMP18-006 Shadowcat
The ID line-up is similar to the last team, along with some more of the usual competitive options. The Kate Pryde Bounty card is here for an offensive option to ignore all terrain and characters, as well as for a risk-free Mastermind option, since the Bounty will disappear after taking the hit. Groot is on this team for the same reasons as the other one, as well as to potentially use Leadership on The Joker, as Groot shares a keyword with this Joker. The +8 map bonus should all but guarantee that the team will play on the Haha Hacienda map, and be able to use the map to make attacks almost every turn.
I’ll also throw in one last team, as a throwback to the old LAMP teams, since JW059 The Joker is very similar to that old version of The Joker:
140 JW059 The Joker
10 JW003A The Joker Thug
75 WKMP18-005 Lockjaw
20 AIG025 Groot
15 HQ044 Kite Man
20 FFTMNT4 B006 Mud Man
5 Haha Hacienda Location bonus
5 XXSXID-025 Wolverine card
5 WKMVID-012 Professor X ID card
5 WKD The Joker ID card
300
Sideline: EW041 Sinestro, XXS053 Wolverine, XXS037a Professor X, XXS037b Professor X, JW059 The Joker, HQGG050 The Joker, BTAS054 The Joker, BTAS065 Aquaman, BTAS072 Firestorm
There’s not much that needs to be said about this team. I may actually try it myself, since it seems the most fun out of all the options.
That’s all I have for this week. Thanks for reading, and remember that whether you’re playing an established competitive figure, or a fringe figure, practice will make your team better, and knowing the rules will help you play your team better.
