Yeah… guys, the Evil Queen is OP.
Yes, she can lose. But I have yet to see a game where she truly stuggles. Even when being bombarded by Fates from every opponent, she only seems to be brought down to everyone else’s level. This article is going to list all the things that really make her insanely good. Hopefully this will bring out some of her weak points, which I will try to work out at the end, but you’re gonna to better than me at that regard.
Anyway, here it goes:
It’s like Jafar, but BETTER
Jafar’s goal is to get an item that bring out a Hero, who is defeated with with a special card after unlocking the fourth location. Evil Queen is very similar: Swap the Magic Lamp with a Magic Mirror, the Genie with Snow White, and the Hypnotise with Take a Bite, and the Scarab Pendant with… ingredients. Of course, doing this analysis, Evil Queen’s tools stand superior in every way.
1 – The Mirror is More Diverse than the Lamp
The Lamp is an item that is ONLY a victory condition. It brings out the Genie, which is great, but it makes hypnotising him earlier a fruitless endeavor. Magic Mirror, on the other hand, allows you to Bring out Snow White, ready to be defeated, even if the location is locked. Plus, it gives you a nice cushion against Fate actions. The Mirror can be discarded, But Evil Queen has just as many ways to get it back, and they’re a lot simpler than Gazeem Shenanigans.
So, the Mirror can fulfill its purpose at any time, even when the location is locked, and then is useful AND not vital to win. The lamp has no functional purpose, but is vital to win.
2 – Ingredients are better than the Scarab Pendant
Jafar, like Hook, is looking for one singular card to unlock his location. It has a really great ability of increasing your hand size, but if it’s at the bottom of your deck, you’re in for a doozy of a game.
To unlock the Dwarfs’ Cottage, she needs to play four cards, of which she has two copies of each. Playing each gives you a great immediate effect, and the second copy pretty much becomes an effect in its own right. Playing more ingredients also makes Thunderbolt a more powerful card.
It’s a lot harder to shuffle all eight cards to the bottom that it is one card. And, if you do, Black Magic can have you search your deck for one, after which you can shuffle them away from the top. The dig is a lot more bountiful, and trickles you success over a steady pace, rather than pushing you down and making you hunt for a particular card.
Also, with characters that are supposed to struggle with holding a supply of power, it’s a lot easier to pay 4 power over 4 cards than 3 power for one.
3 – Poisoning works better than Hypnotising
Yeah, about that power struggle…
So, both Take a Bite and Hypnotise basically cost power to play, it’s just the former needs to convert that into poison. This is reflected well in Jafar’s design, and he doesn’t have great Power gain, especially before he unlocks the Cave of Wonders. He has the Snake Staff to keep getting back his two Hypnotises, but that’s just another bill he has to pay.
Evil Queen does not hurt for power. none of her cards cost more than 2 to actually pay, and the highest cost for anything is actually activating the Mirror, which costs 3. Even with the locked location, all of Evil Queen’s locations can give her Power. Jafar has Necessary Sacrifice, which gives him power for discarding a played Item or Ally, and that’s really it in his deck for extra power gain.
Evil Queen has: I’ll Fix Ya to use covered Power spots, Black of Night to use your Power spot twice, Old Hag’s Cackle and The Box to gain Power for Heroes being in your Realm, and Thunderbolt to re-use one of those power gaining Ingredients. With heaps of Power gain and nothing much expensive to spend it on, It’s easy to amass a heap of Power and turn it into Poison.
Thats not counting all the ways that the Evil Queen can bypass the system and gain Poison straight from the supply, either. The Throne, Mummy Dust (and by proxy Thunderbolt), and the Jealousy condition, all do that.
On top of all that, only four cards in her Fate Deck effect have any chance of making a minor dent in her Poison supply, and none of them touch her lofty amounts of power. Meanwhile, poor Jafar have cards that directly block all parts of his win condition, and a card that takes away some of his already measly power.
The only thing that stops Evil Queen from playing Take a Bite on Snow White when she has gathered copious amounts of Poison (which is a trivial task) is Woodland Creatures, which removes a card from her hand, which doesn’t help if she has stockpiled multiple in her hand, or the Magic Mirror draws her another one. Oh, and Doc, who has 3 measly strength.
4 – Snow White is easier to vanquish than Genie.
Snow White CAN go up to costing 15 poison to vanquish, plus one if she has the Wishing Well. But, honestly, Evil Queen often plays so fast that there aren’t really that many, and even if it does, Evil Queen will have likely amassed that much power/poison and then some.
Genie has 6 strength by default, and 8 strength until the Lamp is moved out, and up to 14 strength in total with Wishes. Jafar struggles to get that kind of Power, but it is a little easier with a larger handsize and access to his second biggest Power spot.
Utimately, these are kinda similar, but Evil Queen’s Vanquish instantly wins her the game, while Jafar, at best, has to wait for the start of his turn.
You don’t get countered by Fate, Fate gets countered by YOU
YEAH, All that just now was ONE POINT on a list of strengths!
They get shorter and more concise from no one, though, don’t worry.
Most Villains have a Fate deck that actively holds them back, giving the obstacles that they then have to overcome. Evil Queen doesn’t so much overcome them. She only one of 3 characters that have a Move Hero action, and unlike Hook and Ursula, hers is unlocked right from the start. She has I’ll Fix Ya to reach the spots that ARE covered up by Heroes. Her Magic Mirror and Mummy Dust reward her for being Fated, and Scream of Fright lets you move stacks of Dwarves out of your way.
I look at the Fate Deck for Pete, which is coming out soon, and I see cards that hit as hard as Evil Queen’s SHOULD have. Instead, you have a deck of innaffectual Dwarves and flimsy Pickaxes.
The Fastest Deck Cycling in the West
I’ve already mentioned that Evil Queen has a more consistent run for location unlocks than both Hook and Jafar, since Her unlock is spread out over several cards that are useful in their own right. Despite this already huge advantage, Evil Queen has the best tools of digging through her deck of any character.
She has Magic Tomes, which let her look at the top FOUR cards of her deck (one more than similar effects for other characters). Her condition Vanity is not especially hard to pull off, and allows you to sort through the top three cards of your deck. Oh, also, Magic Tomes is an activate Item, so you can use Black of Night to do it twice in one turn.
Also, When she plays Ingredients, if she hasn’t played this particular ingredient yet, it gets removed from her deck, so she’s really got a 26 card deck by the end of of her first run through her deck–Less if you have lots of items and your Ally out. She may have 5 Take a Bite cards, but she has no problem whatsoever going through her deck to get them back.
So, I’m sure you can come up with more ways that Evil Queen is insanely good, but I’m just gonna leave it here for now. Here are some ways that you can help yourself win against Evil Queen.
- Fate Her into the GROUND. If you’ve got a new person playing as Evil Queen, accept your inevitable defeat and just try to have fun. If you’re all familiar with Evil Queen’s terror, then Fate her relentlessly, until all the Dwarves are out. Evil Queen is an insanely fast character, so there is not a moment to waste!
- Keep Doc on constant loop. Doc is the only card that can directly keep Evil Queen from winning. Remember that horrible thing that happens to Scar with Rafiki I mentioned last time? You need to start doing that to Evil Queen!
- Discard the Magic Mirror. This is not that easy to do, but try and pay attention to the cards she get out with Black Magic and the Magic Tomes. If you think she has the Mirror, Fate her, looking for Woodland Creatures. If she has played the Magic Mirror, you can try to get rid of it before she can use it with Sneezy.
- Gang up! If there are 3+ players, make sure everyone who is not Evil Queen understands how much of a threat this OG Villain is!
And, there you go! You have a good chance that Evil Queen won’t win! Will you have fun? Maybe not. Snow White come out with a Pickaxe or something and force you to play her for Evil Queen? You very well might!
Hope you continue to enjoy the game!
Thanks for Reading,
Madness Hattzer
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