The Healing Power of Laughter

My wife… she loves the Joker. Aside from the fact his significance to the literary history of comics, he’s just a fun villain. Well… maybe not ‘fun’ like playing a game of football fun, but I don’t think fun is inappropriate. Anyway, the way things go he’s got some powerful effects. Let’s look at what The Joker has going for him:

Modern Versions:

Crazy for you, 6 Drop, Arkham Inmates, 12/12 Whenever The Joker is discarded, you may remove him from the game. If you do, shuffle your hand into your deck, then draw a card for each card you shuffled in.

Not that useful outside an Insanity deck… but super powerful in that madness. Still, he won’t make the cut.

Out of His Mind, 3 Drop, Arkham Inmates, 5/4 Whenever The Joker is discarded, you may remove him from the game. If you do, shuffle your hand into your deck, then draw a card for each card you shuffled in.

Interesting enough, but I don’t have the play experience to make the judgement. Still, holding him out for a power-up replaces a dead hand with a few extra pumps.

The Man Who Laughs, 1 Drop, 2/1 Arkham Inmates Whenever The Joker stuns a character, you may discard a card at random. If you do, target opponent loses 3 endurance.

I’ve posted a strategy thread on this guy. I think he could make for interesting rush Tek. Still, not for the deck we’re building.

Headline Stealer, 4 Drop, 8/7, Arkham Inmates*Injustice Gang, Each opponent can’t play plot twists from his hand with cost less than the number of cards in his hand.

The greatest of Jokers. He kills opponents dead. A staple in IG decks, and Joker Legend decks. An auto include.

Killer Smile, 6 Drop, 12/12, Arkham Inmates/Injustice Gang Whenever The Joker causes breakthrough, you may stun target character with cost less than the number of cards in its controller’s hand.

Wow. A powerful Game ender. He gets worse once you work in the fact that their handsize is going to be huge by Injustice Gang. So then, how to make the Joker realize true power? Well, the Joker’s Wild Pack.

Wildpack’s big draws are: Bounty Hunt, Capture Net, and Powell. Bounty Hunt fills your hand. Capture Net removes their character from the board and fills their hand. Powell goes straight to the KO’d Pile to find Criminal Mastermind, Bounty Hunt, and your Team-Up. Add to that a sniper situation with Hovercraft, and you have yourself a nasty set-up. Run Wild Pack rush through turn 3. On turn 4 you rock out Joker with Lex Luthor, Metropolis Mogul to complete their shutdown. Turn 6 brings in Killer Smile, and The Joke’s On You!.

IG has, hands down, the best pumps in the environment right now. Power Siphon and All Too Easy! make things nasty, and quick. Throw Laughing Gas on Killer Smile and we find ourself in a terrible predicament. We’re burning for our handsize, losing our biggest character because Killer Smile punked the 3 drop that’s survived this far, in addition to any break through and stun damage. As with every concept it needs work, but I think Joker’s Wild could be vicious in the wrong hands.