Disney Villainous, Evil Comes Prepared Villain Review
Evil Comes Prepared is the first expansion I picked up for Villainous, for me Scar is an iconic villain, and the songs from the Lion King are well known and loved; the theatre production is fantastic as well, with beautifully designed costumes. The Emperor’s New Groove is another well loved movie, and I eagerly anticipated adding both Yzma and Scar to my previous villains. Whilst Ratigan was unknown to us, he has quickly become a firm favourite.
This is the third part in a series of reviews I’ll be doing for Disney Villainous, focusing on each character in turn. I’ll be ranking the difficulty of each Villain, placing them as easy, medium, or hard. I’ll also outline a basic strategy that I tend to follow when playing that villain, although it is by no means the definitive way to play. I’ll pick out my top 3 cards for each villain, although I’ll largely ignore those directly required for the villain to achieve victory – cards like the Crown and Trident for Ursula, Titans for Hades, Kuzco for Yzma, and so on – unless I feel they contribute heavily to victory.
Ratigan
Ratigan tries to gain as much Power as possible to play the Robot Queen.
Difficulty: Easy
Ratigan is a great villain to play, and a firm favourite in our house. He is the only villain whose objective can completely change mid-game (Pete’s move places); when playing Ratigan, I often find the second objective – to defeat Basil – is the one that cause Ratigan to win more often, Ratigan must gain lots of Power to play the Robot Queen, which means that when Basil is played, he can use field Allies with ease to defeat him. Ratigan wants to focus on playing as many Gears as possible to reduce the cost of Robot Queen, and then move her quickly to Buckingham Palace, using Ruffians for extra actions or the Airship to take her straight there.
Top 3 Cards:
That definitely looks like more than three cards!
Felicia (and the Bell)
Felicia is your strongest Ally, and one of the strongest in the game, although she has a hefty cost to reflect this – costing either 5 Power, or 3 Power and an Ally. She’s perfect for vanquishing Basil and the Mouse Queen – two Heroes that directly affect your victory – but can be used to defeat any Hero singlehandedly (provided the Makeshift Parachute hasn’t been attached to them). I find it best to hold Felicia in your hand and play her after the Hero is played, so that your opponent can’t play the Hero at a different location. You can also claim Felicia back from your discard pile, or search through your deck for her, using the Bell.
Tools (and Gears)
Ratigan has a lot of Items, and this reduces the cost of all of them by one – this means a lot of your cards will be free. As Ratigan needs reach fifteen Power to play the Robot Queen, this means you can achieve the necessary power significantly faster. Tools synergises well with Gears, as each Gear essentially becomes 3 Power at the cost of a play. The earlier you play Tools, the better, as you’ll benefit more in the long run – be warned, this will be a target of Basil and Sabotage.
Ruffians
The Ruffians are great Allies. Whilst not strong, they allow you to perform an action at a location where they’re played – perfect for getting those extra plays or moving the Robot Queen. I generally use them to gain Power, by playing them to either Flaversham’s Toy Shop or Big Ben, meaning they’re essentially free.
Special Mention:
Airship
The Airship is great for sneaking victory unexpectedly. Whilst your opponent focuses on covering up your Move an Item or Ally spots, you can play the Airship. If you wait until you’ve played the Robot Queen, and then play the Airship whilst at the Secret Lair, you activate it to move the Robot Queen straight to Buckingham Palace. This bypasses the 3-5 turns it would otherwise take to move the Queen.
Scar
Scar is joined by his Hyena allies as he attempts to rule the Pride Lands.
Difficulty: Hard
Scar is very fun to play, however, playing him can sometimes feel like running into a brick wall. His gameplay is very simple, defeat Mufasa, and then defeat other Heroes until you have Heroes totalling 15 Strength in your Succession Pile (a collection of defeated Heroes). Hungry Hyenas can become one of the strongest Allies in the game, able to reach a Strength of 9 each if Simba isn’t in play. In some ways Scar’s objective seems as simple as Prince John’s or Captain Hook’s. However, countering Scar is very easy, you can choose not to Fate him, and force him to dig through his cards to look for Long Live the King and Whisper on top of the Allies he’s already searching for. Alternatively, you can Fate him heavily: getting Prophecy and then Rafiki’s Stick onto Mufasa or Simba can bring Scar’s game to a grinding halt – Hakuna Matata can also be used to take Heroes out of Scar’s Succession pile, so he must defeat them again.
Top 3 Cards:
Scar has lots of Allies in his deck - it’s no wonder two of them appear here!
Ed
Playing Ed early is incredibly beneficial to Scar, he reduces the cost of all Hyenas played to his location, which synergises well with the Strength benefit Hyenas receive from being played to one location. Ed also provides to the Strength of Hungry Hyenas, and in a pinch, can be used to help Vanquish Heroes. If Banzai can be played to the same location as Ed, then any Hyenas played to their location are essentially free – Ed reduces the cost, and Banzai means each other Hyena discarded from his location is free.
Be Prepared
Be Prepared is a great way of cycling through Scar’s Villain Deck, as you discard cards from the deck and then look through your discards for an Effect or up to two Allies to add to your hand. It’s great for reclaiming Scar’s Allies from his discards, meaning he doesn’t have to worry so much about using Allies to defeat Heroes, and I’ll most often use it to replay Shenzi, Stampede, or Hungry Hyena. If you’re struggling to get Heroes into play, you can also use it take Long Live the King or Whisper out of the discards, to give you more options. In essence, Be Prepared lets you reuse the cards you need from your discards – or if there’s nothing else you want in there, you can pick up a different Be Prepared to cycle through your deck!
Stampede
Stampede is one of Scars methods of moving Heroes around – the other being Whisper – but it also allows you to Vanquish the Hero you move. As Scar needs to Vanquish Heroes to win, this card can be essential to Victory. Stampede can also make your opponents less likely to Fate you, as they can be unwilling to play Heroes in locations adjacent to your Allies, as you can use Stampede to kill them – this really forces your opponent’s hand when they Fate you. Stampede is also useful for killing Simba, or other Heroes when Simba’s in play, as they are unaffected by his Strength-limiting ability.
Special mentions:
Long Live the King/Whisper
Long Live the King and Whisper are essential to playing Mufasa, if you don’t get lucky enough for an opponent to play him for you. Once Mufasa is defeated, you can also use them to play Heroes to a location that you choose, so you can put them where you Allies are to Vanquish them quickly. Whisper is also really useful for playing Prophecy and Rafiki’s Stick to the Heroes you want, so they can’t be played on Mufasa and Simba – who are already the Strongest Heroes in your deck. I generally find playing Prophecy and Rafiki’s Stick on Zazu really useful; by moving Zazu around – using Hakuna Matata or Stampede – instead of killing him you can make the other Heroes weaker and easier to kill.
Yzma
Tipo and Chicha thwarts Yzma’s attempts to find and defeat Kuzco!
Difficulty: Hard
Yzma is a villain with a unique Fate mechanic, which completely changes how she plays. Instead of one Fate pile, Yzma instead has four, one for each location in her realm, which she must search through to find Kuzco; Heroes are played to the location below their respective Fate piles. I like to remove the Fate pile above The Palace first, either with Smash It with a Hammer or After Them! (or both) – I find the Power incredibly useful, as Yzma can struggle for Power and the Move an Item or Ally spot necessary to eliminate Heroes. Because Tipo and Chaca must be vanquished before any other Hero, playing Yzma can be incredibly frustrating, because there are five cards in the Fate decks that let these two be returned from the discard pile.
Top 3 Cards
Four cards? Counting is definitely a struggle today!
Kronk
Kronk is an incredibly strong Ally, one of the strongest in the game. Not only this, but he doesn’t get discarded when used to defeat them! As such, he’s ideal for killing Heroes – not just Kuzco. Because Kronk can be turned into a Hero, it can sometimes be wise to hang onto him until you’ve managed to narrow down one of the possible options for Kuzco – preferably the Palace or Mudka’s Meat Hut – otherwise you may need to move him more than you’d like! It can be tempting to move him to kill Tipo or Chaca, but I generally find it better to use Imperial Guards or Ferocity if possible, because you may have to move him back again. Right-Hand Man and The Path That Rocks are your best way of keeping Kronk as an Ally; Right-Hand Man you can use to put him back in your hand (or find him if you haven’t played him yet), and The Path That Rocks lets you remove the Power from him, and add it to your own!
Smash It with a Hammer
Early game Smash It with a Hammer is really useful for narrowing down the possible locations that Kuzco can be; if you don’t know what’s in any of your Fate piles, it doesn’t matter about hitting Kuzco with this. This is also a good way of removing Beware the Groove, On the Run, Tipo, and Chaca from your Fate piles, all cards which make it difficult to win.
Eavesdrop/After Them!
Cheating a little here, with two cards in one, but functionally these are very similar. These cards are mainly used for finding Kuzco, but are also great for learning where cards are in your Fate decks. By finding where certain cards – Beware the Groove, On the Run, and Tipo and Chaca – are, you can remove them from the game with Smash It with a Hammer, or work out the best location to play your Allies to. Knowing what’s in your Fate decks works well with Superiority, otherwise it becomes situationally useful.
After Them! is a double-edged sword in this regard, as you must play all the revealed Heroes, and it also lets your opponent know what’s in your Fate deck. You will also be subject to the effects of Wrong Lever, so make sure you gain any Power after playing After Them! so you don’t lose the Power.
Thanks for reading this - I hope you find it helpful for your own games! Do you agree with what I’ve put? Let me know in the comments below! Next time I’ll be reviewing the villains from Wicked to the Core: Hades, Evil Queen, and Dr Facilier!
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Happy gaming!
Chris