Out of the Shadows…is a series of articles highlighting fun, helpful cards that aren’t getting a lot of attention. They may or may not be meta-worthy, but are definitely worth looking at for casual play.

The Joker: Not Funny Anymore

This week’s OOTS highlighted card is brought to you by a suggestion from our very own SuperK, who suggested this one to me.

The Joker: Not Funny Anymore is a card from the JUSTICE (JUS) Campaign box, and is one of two versions of the character in the box. This one is a four cost fist character, with two affiliations (Legion of Doom and Villain). His ability reads: “While The Joker is active, when an opponent fields a character die sharing at least one energy type with another active character die that player controls, deal that opponent 2 damage.”

Why is this special?

If you’ve been playing this game that we all adore here at dm-north, and you’ve been reading our fantastic What Have You Played? articles, you may have noticed something. Teams that often tend to do well, are teams with energy type synergy.

When you’re building your team, you’re probably thinking, as we are here, that if you have multiple characters or actions with the same energy type, it’s a benefit. For example, if the character whiffs and rolls energy, you have that energy to buy another character, or perhaps use a handy Global Ability that has a synergy with your energy types. You also may have noticed that characters and actions of certain energy types have abilities that complement one another. So it is not uncommon to come across a team that has multiple characters that need to be fielded in order to achieve it’s win condition, and that those characters are the same energy type.

This is exactly the type of situation where our Joker shines! Let’s say your opponent is running a bolt team. In your opponent’s field, there’s a Parasite: Maxwell Jensen (JUS). He’s a handy 2 cost bolt character. His A & D can be added to any attacking character die, but he gets to hang out in the field and wait around for the next turn. Your opponent has paired him up with Yuan-Ti Pureblood: Lesser Humanoid (TOA), who is unblockable when your opponent uses an action die, and is another 2 cost bolt character. Maybe there’s a Thrown Brick (HQ) in the mix, a nice 2 cost action die that preps itself as long as you don’t KO a character with it. And for additional shenanigans, your opponent has a Firefly: Ted Carson (BAT) on the team. Another cheap bolt (3 cost), who, when fielded, does 1 damage to you for each bolt character in the field. Here’s your opponent’s party:

On our side of the table, Joker comes out and sits in the field. Now, as soon as your opponent fields another bolt character, your opponent is going to take 2 damage. OUCH! Is it worth it? Does your opponent have non-bolt characters on the team? Your opponent will be looking for ways to get rid of our Joker, stat, or the entire win con may fall apart.

What else can he do?

Two damage. That is the magic number these days, especially when you’re talking about direct damage from a character ability. Two damage became more important in the Modern meta (at least in my mind) with the introduction of the Promo Black Widow: Agent, as her character ability reduces damage from opposing character abilities by 1. Therefore, when I’m team building, I always look for characters that deal 2 damage instead of 1, in case this Black Widow makes an appearance across the table.

What do you think about The Joker: Not Funny Anymore? Have you used The Joker on any of your teams? Do you think he could be a competitive-level card, considering how often teams use characters that share energy types? Or is is 4 cost, with a potential 2 cost to field, just too expensive for his ability?

We’d love to hear from you, let us know your thoughts or questions in the comments!

-jbouwme

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