Welcome back to another Team Build everyone! I hope you remembered to pack your toothbrush and that old gas mask you keep in case of emergency because it’s time for another visit to Uncle J’s! Today is all about two different Joker’s in the new Batman: The Animated Series set!

Things have finally mellowed out a little bit for me, so I figured it was time to jump back into the fold with both feet and make up for the last week or two and all the damn set reviews. Today I’m giving you a double helping of Joker mayhem! Each of these Clown Princes of Crime will get their own section on the strengths and weaknesses, followed by their team build.

Now, these builds aren’t necessarily going to be competitive as I’m a little rusty thanks to every which way my brain is running right now and as of this writing, trying to get my mind straight for the big ROC event on July 28th. Plus, there’s just so many options in modern right now, even after rotation. So think of these builds as a little more on the fun side, but still having some grit.

First up, I want to cover the easier of the two to get ahold of; the Fast Forces Joker!

The Fast Forces Joker costs 75 points and has 6 clicks of health, an average dial length for the cost. The Joker has standard combat symbols, 4 range with a single target, and of course, the Batman Enemy team ability. As with most Joker’s, Keywords are light with just Arkham Asylum and Gotham City Underworld, but this set did a lot to buff those.

Joker’s dial isn’t anything staggering by itself; the Probability Control is nice, but his values are rather lackluster and his defense is straight bad for most of the dial. However, that doesn’t really matter thanks to his trait:

WHAT’S IT GOING TO BE, BATS?… CATCH ME OR SAVE GOTHAM?: The Joker takes a maximum of 2 damage from an opponent’s attack. When The Joker takes damage from an opponent’s attack, after resolutions generate a standard light object named The Joker Bomb within 4 squares. At the beginning of your turn, heal The Joker 1 click if there are one or more (unheld) The Joker Bomb object(s) on the map. He can’t be healed any other way. Protected: Pulse Wave.

This adds the Fast Forces Joker into the insanely hard to KO club along with HAHA Joker from almost two years back as it takes at least 4 attacks to KO him (although you can Poison or Shredder him if so inclined). The second portion of this trait also gives Joker free healing, although it does lock him out of healing any other way. The secret to these Joker Bombs is that they can be placed anywhere within 4 squares, so hugging walls is a great idea with him. Protected: Pulse Wave is icing on the proverbial poison cake.

The other reason Joker is very good is his special attack power, which he has for almost his entire dial:

YOU’LL NEVER SEE THIS ONE COMING: When The Joker attacks, if his attack roll is doubles, modify damage +3.

Giving Joker an automatic max on damage value on doubles is HUGE, and allows you to save number boosting for his attack value. After all, this power doesn’t say that the target becomes hit on doubles, just that it ups his damage, meaning you’ll still need to mitigate that 10 attack. That seems like a killer trade off to me though. And with his Probability Control up front, you have decent odds to have this come into play. +1 for the name of this power; that’s some great flavor!

Roll everything together and you get a very strong dial that’s very difficult to actually deal with for the low cost of 75 points. Chances are good that The Joker is going to cause a lot more problems and board control than most figures in his point range, and the amount of work you have to put in for such a small reward should keep him relatively safe to do whatever he wants.

Tools for Success

Let’s start off with the support trio of Outwit, Perplex, and Probability Control. Since Joker has Prob, we don’t necessarily need more (although it’s never a bad thing). Outwit can work well with him, but there’s no huge interaction here. If he lands doubles, Invulnerability isn’t going to dampen his output that much. The real gem we want is Perplex and lots of it. The higher we can boost Joker’s attack value means the better chances we have of dishing 6 damage on attacks because more doubles will actually hit. For example, if you boost him to a 12 attack, he only needs a 6 to hit an 18 defense, meaning double 3’s, 4’s, 5’s, or 6’s will grant you 6 damage and a hit.

Joker is also rather slow, so a good taxi would work rather well with him, or TK if you want to be a little more aggressive. TK serves dual roles with him because you can use it to move the Joker Bombs further out and basically lock healing for Joker on the next turn, so I would go that route.

Tie-up pieces seem to work well with him to offset his slowness, particularly tiny figures with Plasticity so that Joker can easily see over them.

Retaliators are another avenue that work well with Joker because of his fantastic dial length thanks to his trait. Chances are you’ll be able to trigger a few retaliations a game with Joker, and if they take the time to KO the colossal, that just gives Joker an easier time to hit them back for big damage.

Last up, equipment seems to be a very good avenue to offset some of Joker’s weaknesses in both raw numbers and powers.

Both teams today will be 300 Modern.

300 Modern Fast Forces Joker Team

First up on the build is Man-Bat, which he’ll be getting his own team build in the near future since he’s my favorite figure in the set. Man-Bat serves a few different roles on this team. Starting out, he can carry The Joker to anywhere he needs to be (to pick up his equipment) and since he has Indomitable, he can snap into action on the following turn with his Hypersonic Speed. Depending on his target, he can serve as a reverse TK since he can bring characters closer to our team and drop them off right by Joker for the big damage. He’s also hard to hit and clicks into an 11 attack which he can share with Joker via the Batman Enemy team ability.

Next up is our source of Perplex (and a whole lot more) with Title Batgirl. Barbara really does have a fantastic dial and her +1 plot point ability gives her access to Perplex on top of her Prob on her first two clicks. That’s a ton of support for our team while still having a decent dial herself. She’s also got access to Outwit with a free attack afterwards, and free movement if she’s having trouble getting around the map, or you need to save actions. Plus, she’s another Indomitable piece so we have pretty good odds at out-actioning teams.

Trelane is the obvious choice for Joker, and the reason why I didn’t opt for a Theme team since he only has Cosmic. More than Prob, this guy will allow us to pocket anything from a 3 up to roll doubles and actually hit. He can safely hide in the back of the map and supply new rolls all game. If you do manage to roll a 1 or a 2, make sure to throw that out as soon as possible so that you can get a better number.

Groot seems like the optimal choice for a retaliator; he brings Leadership to keep our tempo up (and remove tokens from Trelane to get more dice substitutions) and drops two Plasticity pieces with Flurry. Yes, Leslie Evans does sort of screw over our team because none of our characters want to be Outwitted, but Man-Bat does have a large swing that doesn’t care about Stealth, so I think we’ll be okay.

Last up is the equipment for Joker and I just couldn’t help myself but add Scarface. While the minimum 4 range nor the Energy Explosion doesn’t do us any favors, the Ranged Combat Expert pairs incredibly nicely with Joker and his Sidestep since we can use it to up our attack by +2. Now we don’t really need the Perplex from Barbara, or we can use it to boost Man-Bat’s attack up. Speaking of Man-Bat, Scarface works with him in a pinch as well, by giving him 4 range in Hypersonic Speed. Since it’s a minimum, it’s the last thing that checks and gives us another 4 squares for him to steal an opposing character from, and since his power doesn’t say it has to be a close attack, you can pull this off as a neat trick! If Scarface isn’t your optimal choice, the Symbiote does a decent job as well since you have a chance at raising Joker’s combat values by +1 or making Man­-Bat even more of a pain.

Next up, let’s roll the calendar forward to December and talk about Christmas Joker!

Whatta know, this Joker comes in at 75 points as well, only this version has no range. Everything else is very similar as our last Joker with 6 clicks of health, standard combat symbols, the same team ability, and the same keywords.

Unlike our last Joker, this guy is a bit more all-in. His stats are quite a bit better with half of his attack values sitting at 11, but the Willpower as defense does seem a little scary. This Joker goes through three distinct ‘modes’; he starts off as a melee Blades/Claws/Fangs piece, transitions into your typical Plasticity/Poison Joker, then moves into a precise and counterplay attacker that keeps some decent damage. Like most figures with somewhat weak-looking dials, his trait and special powers ups his value quite a bit.

Giver of the Christmas Present: The Joker may start the game with BtAS #S003 Christmas Present equipped EFFECT: FREE: Roll a d6. 1: (You’re No Fun, Batman) Christmas Present is KO’d. 2-5: (Pie in the Face) This turn, this character can use Incapacitate with a range value of 3 as FREE. 6: (Drop the Family… Off) Choose an opposing character within 6 squares and line of fire. That character can’t be given actions except MOVE actions during it’s next turn.

Joker’s trait simply adds his Christmas Present to him to start the game off, and it’s not bad. Odds are quite good that you’ll roll between a 2-5 and get to hand out Incap for free within 3 squares, which Joker can do every turn. I’ve always looked at Incap as a power that many take for granted, but it’s incredibly strong, especially when you can do so for free. This gives Joker some fantastic tempo control, and if you manage to roll a 6, you get to completely lock someone down for anything except MOVE.

Next up, his special movement power which is only on his first two clicks:

Jingle Bells, Batman Smells, Robin Laid an Egg…: Charge, Plasticity, Sidestep

That’s a nice combo, especially for a melee piece. Plasticity is always welcome on these figures that like to get in your face, and when you add in the FREE Incap from the present, this gives Joker a lot of potential on an engagement. Sidestep is always nice and let’s Joker move into position without having to use his Willpower so that he can attack twice in a row.

On those same two clicks, we have Joker’s special damage power:

…Batmobile Lost A Wheel, And Joker Got Away: Outwit, Perplex. When The Joker uses either, his minimum range value is 9.

We all know how good Outwit has become, and adding Perplex gives this piece a lot of options. Layer in the 9 range on either of these powers and suddenly Joker becomes a lot more of a finesse figure to play. Do you force a fight early and basically negate that 9 range, or do you Sidestep around and have your goons do the heavy lifting to start while providing support from afar, and then Charge in when the time is right? The fact that this power gives you those options makes him better than your typical Charge + Blades piece.

This is all well and good, but the Joker is still sitting with just an 18 Willpower to keep him alive. I realize that 18 is better than average, but without anything at all like Super Senses, Shape Change, or Combat Reflexes/ESD, it makes him a little scary to play.

Tools for Success

Where our last Joker brought Probability Control, this Joker brings the other two support powers in Outwit and Perplex, so it’s basically flip-flopped from our last; bring some Probability Control. I would argue that this is almost a necessary since you’ll be working with a lot of luck to try and keep The Joker alive and keep your opponent’s rolls low. This version of Mr. J isn’t as slow as our last, so a taxi or TK isn’t all that necessary, but could still help potentially get him out of trouble if he needs it.

Healing seems like a great asset for Joker as well, as is Perplex to boost his defense values. Most figures these days don’t hit for 6 damage, so he has a good chance of surviving a hit, but it’s best to get him back up to his top dial as quickly as you can, so healing and mitigation is the name of the game. Something like Red Leader who can double Perplex would be a huge benefit for Joker.

Although we could technically tap into equipment since you don’t have to use the Present, I think that’s a lame route to go. This figure is all about theme and the tempo the present can provide is pretty fantastic when you don’t have to pay for it or waste turns equipping it.

Speaking of theme, map choice isn’t all that important to Joker since he excels at both melee combat and ranged control, so it’s dealers choice in this department.

300 Modern Christmas Joker Team

I went with a theme team this time to give a little more control and abuse some tech based on the actual team composition, and I’m going to talk about these pieces in a different order.

You’ll notice that Scarface once again makes an appearance, but he isn’t going on Joker. Instead, he’s going on Mr. Freeze from Joker’s Wild. Freeze has a fantastic trait that says whenever he hits with a ranged attack, he gives each hit character an action token (and then ices one of his targets making them easier to hit and take more damage, along with immobile), so with Energy Explosion, he gets to throw a ton of action tokens out, which combos well with the Present giving Joker free Incap. Freeze is also a very formidable attacker, and giving him Ranged Combat Expert is also very good.

The next member I want to cover is Clock King. While he doesn’t offer much aggression, he gives a ton of board manipulation in the form of his bombs, which give action tokens to enemy characters in a 5 square area regardless of terrain. It does take two turns to trigger this, but for 40 points that’s a pretty good deal. Clock King does also have Outwit to help Joker peel through damage reducers or get around Shape Change/Super Senses.

For support on The Joker, I ended up picking the Fast Forces Harley since she’s a themed way to increase stats, and while we can’t pick damage, we can pick defense to give Joker a nice 20, or attack to make it incredibly easily to hit. I don’t necessarily like this dial all too much, she does have potential for a ton of damage on her second and third clicks thanks to Flurry with 10 attack, 3 damage, and Perplex.

I also picked up two Joker Thugs to utilize with Joker. While they aren’t giving an actual power like a reducer or Shape Change like the Symbiote, they do save Joker from one attack and work well for tie-up with the bombs we’ll be dropping.

Kite Man was almost immediate to the team as he’s the best taxi you can get for Gotham City Underworld, and it’s fantastic that if Joker rolls a 2-5 for a free Incap, he can be carried around first to maximize the utility. Kite Man can also serve as Mr. Freeze’s primary mode of transportation since he’s rather slow.

Since we’re running theme, we get the full 5 uses of theme team prob to backup Joker on rolls (or help him avoid attacks), and we’ll most likely get to pick the map. I would elect for something with tight corridors that are long so that the bombs from Clock King have more impact and push your opponent where you want them to go. The Star Trek Caverns map is a great example and could work really well with this team.

True, there isn’t a lot to specifically support The Joker on this team, but it does do a good job of slowing your opponent down and letting you pick when you engage in fights. Chances are with all the lockdown, Joker will be free to run around and Blades everyone he wants while Freeze takes pot shots with either big damage, Energy Exploding ice shards, or Penetrating shots. This is a team that I would imagine would function a lot better than it looks on paper.

What are your thoughts on these two Joker teams? How do you like these two as opposed to the Joker’s we got in The Joker’s Wild? How many more times can I say Joker in a single paragraph about Joker teams? It’s up to you, Bats!

I hope you guys enjoyed this team build featuring Mark Hamill. Stay tuned next week over on Clix Fix when I start building around some of my favorite pieces in the set and we coast into some calm waters before another set release and the ROC World Cup in October.

Take care everyone and remember, the real fun begins when you’re Two Clicks From KO!