Who doesn’t love a Top 10?

This will be a list of villains I want to see in the game that aren’t here yet! Obviously personal taste dictates a lot of this, but it is certainly fun to speculate!

10. LADY TREMAINE, from Cinderella

She’s a classic villain, and, honestly, she’s only this low because I don’t have a strong connection to the film. I loved the antics of the mice and the cat, and everything else seemed to be an unwanted destraction from what I thought was the main attraction. I can imagine Prospero Hall having a second crack at a different style of lock token, though I only hope it is better than what they came up with for Ursula. Still, solid pick, and I am rooting for all of you who want her in the game.

9. GANTU, from Lilo & Stitch

Lilo & Stitch is an underrated film. It had so much personality, colour, energy and life in it, and tells emotional stories that many classic fairytales just aren’t built to tell (looking at you, Frozen). There is no better display of sisterly love anywhere (still looking at you, Frozen). Watch the tiniest amount of this film and you’ll see why Villainous would get so much from having this Realm in their ranks.

8. SHERE KAHN, from The Jungle Book

The antagonists in The Jungle Book are all one and done for the most part, but Shere Kahn is the one that reeks of “Main Antagonist”. This abundance of minor villains leads to a whole host of Allies that ooze as much personality as the Villain himself. The real reason for wanting Shere Kahn, though, is for the ability to have Big Cat Battles between Scar, Prince John and Shere Kahn, to see who is the real King of the Jungle.

7. CLAYTON, from Tarzan

Another jungle-themed villain. This one, though, carries his own clout, and is up there on the list of genuinely scary villains. I definitely see a character bringing a lot of items into the game, with lots of ways to keep powerful Heroes with reduced strength. He would be a super interesting character to have, but my concern is how they can make him interesting and unique.

6. MAD MADAM MIM, from The Sword in the Stone

She’s a small character in a B-list film, but she commands full attention the entire time she is on screen. Commited to being horrible and not “Good”, she has the perfect personality to stir trouble in this amazing game. On top of that, her tendency to change forms could lead to some very interesting card play to make her stand out from the crowd.

5. Chernabog

Of course, if you really want pure evil, look no further than Chernabog. The animation gets a little too PG in places, but it wouldn’t be hard to make it family friendly. While he has no real antagonists in the short, save for daylight, his Fate deck would have the challenge of representing the rest of Fantasia. With strong visuals and interesting potential, Chernabog is a character I am most anxious to see in the game.

4. JUDGE CLAUDE FROLLO, from Hunchback of Notre Dame

Speaking of being a little too PG, the biggest concern for this character would be the subject material of Frollo’s evil. No other villain straight up deals with genocide, or sexual lust and assault. I, however, have great faith that the team at Prospero Hall will be able to work around this and deliver this astounding character. Of course, I don’t blame them for taking their time.

3. OOGIE BOOGIE, from The Nightmare Before Christmas

Well, well, well, what have we here? A character who has the vice of gambling? A perfect contender for the character to introduce dice play into the game? With one of the best villain songs, evil aesthetics and a taste for snake and spider stew. I know I am not the only one who will storm the Prospero(us) Hall(s) when they leave this magnificent characters out of this magnificent game.

2. GASTON, from Beauty and the Beast

Beauty and the Beast is my personal Disney classic, and will always be one of my absolute favourite films. Gaston is one of Disney’s most unique villains, without going down that “twist villain” trend that Disney is currently obsessed with. I imagine him being similar to Scar in some of his gameplay, as Gaston is also a Villain who amasses a literal mob of allies. He is only #2 on this list because I feel he is guaranteed to be included at some point. Also, because I love the #1 spot that much.

1. CAPTAIN JOHN SILVER, from Treasure Planet

Look, I get that it wasn’t their best performing movie. But it is their BEST MOVIE (opinion, of course). The only thing that Beauty and the Beast has over it, for me, is obviously the music. Treasure Planet is one of precious few films to give the antagonist actual character arcs, and his “defeat” isn’t from failing, but from changing his perspective and building a relationship with the main protagonist. This in itself, along with interesting quirks in the the movie, makes Captain John Silver not only an engaging character, but the potential for stand out gameplay.

Who do you think I missed? Horned King is an honourable mention. I am not nearly familiar with the film to be “wanting” them, but certainly look cool enough. Also, if Hans from Frozen is included over one of these chosen lot, I think I will cry. I would kinda understand, but I would also cry. #HansIsNotVillainous

Thanks for Reading!

Madness Hattzer

Am I talking about Ursula again? Yes, Yes I am.

But I’m not going to talk about how bad she is to play. I’ve already done that, and if you want to hear more about that, tune into the Let’s Get Wicked Podcast! (link on the home page)

Today, I’m gonna talk about how Ursula fails to be as thematic as she may first appear. I know I’m gonna get a lot of flack for this, but hey! it is an opinion piece, afterall. Feel free to disagree and ignore my rambling if that suits you.

Yeah… so, you see that lock token? How it moves? The more I think about it, the less thematic sense it makes to me. If this Disney Heroes, and we were playing as Ariel, I would totally get it. But Ursula? How is she held away from the surface world? I thought that the whole point was that she could send you to the surface world whenever. It requires magic, but not the kind that really strains her at all.

Besides, it feels like this strain between being on the surface vs under the sea seems apparent in the general location design. You know how you can’t play cards while you’re at the Palace. While it’s a little annoying, it reflects the fact that Ursula is kept away from her Magic Lair, and is weakened in that sense. It seems to me that these design choices both try and illustrate the same point, and make each other somewhat redundant.

I’ve talked about how Ursula deck composition is too passive and reactionary for a victory condition that really needs more proactive plays, but for this segment, I want to talk about how Ursula seems to be focused on the end of the movie, and things that she does at the end of the film, after she has actually achieved her goal that is set for her victory condition.

Cos, in the film, Ursula wins. Sure, it gets taken from her quickly in an admittedly rushed action sequence, but she achieves her goal, unlike Hook or Evil Queen, for example. Grow Giant and Whirlpool and the image for Arrogance are all based on the moments after she gets the Crown and the Trident, (again, both of them at once, cos it’s a package deal).

Granted, Grow Giant is referencing one of the most grandiose and over-the-top moments in the film, and I don’t want to say it shouldn’t have been included, especially as it is one of her most interesting cards. Whirlpool looks generic, though, and there were other ways to implement that kind of card in a way that felt more flavoursome.

The real issue with this warped focus is that it doesn’t capture the kind of Villain Ursula is. She isn’t is giant, whirlpool causing disaster, she’s a cunning, conniving, plotting mastermind. There is one card called Poor, Unfortunate Souls, but there could have been more references to her colourful lines.

“Rake ‘Em ‘Cross the Coals” would have been a much more flavoursome way to do an effect like Whirlpool. Without the Lock Token shenanigans (which I appreciate less and less the more I think about it) Change Form could have become something more actively useful and flavourful. “I’ve Been A Nasty”, which Swaps a contract on a Character with one from the discard pile or your hand. “Tough Choices”, which either gains Power or Moves a Hero to an adjacent space.

Not only do these reflect Ursula’s character better (and give some interesting gameplay decisions), they get the player(s) quoting the character, singing the songs, and ultimately remembering why they love these characters, these films and this game.

Another part that seems strangely unrepresented is the whole voice stealing schtick. That was a whole lot more interesting detail about Ursula than the Changing Form thing. Again, deciding between being human or mermaid was ARIEL’s thing, not Ursula’s. I mentioned in my first article that I thought it would be thematic for the Trident and Crown to be the one card, and for the second card needed at the Lair to be the Magic Shell.

But there is a whole aspect of silencing that could have been really interesting, even more interesting than the changing lock token. Those familiar with Hearthstone know where I’m going with this.

beThink of a card called “La Voce to Me!”, Which lets you ignore the ongoing effects of a Hero. You could have longer-lasting effects, like Eric stopping other Heroes from being moved from his space. These could be worked around with this silencing ability, giving you more ways to work around Ariel’s devastating effect or make it easier to attach a contract on King Triton.

Ursula’s greatest strength is her way for working around problems, which is why the Binding Contract system is actually really fun and engaging. The problem isn’t the system itself, its that it’s her only real method of getting around Heroes, and not a fast or effective one. It would be so much easier to tolerate if she had ways to move around obstacles, like ‘silencing’ them, and/or having location(s) reformatted so they’re more friendly to piling up Heroes.

With these thematic changes, I wouldn’t mind the Fate Deck being able to reflect their true strengths. As Eric is the one who ultimately defeats Ursula, it would be cool if he could actually help in thwarting her plans somehow. With a couple more Heroes actively stopping her, Return To Form wouldn’t need to be so prominent, letting more interesting Effects also enter the Fate Deck.

My one major Thematic gripe left is actually quite minor. The Trickery condition has… an interesting choice. Its artwork is… fine. It is a bit muted and distant, with little in the ways of striking visuals like Arrogance. When I think of Ursula being “Tricky”, there is a particular moment that I visualise. I’m sure you are thinking of it too, but just so everyone is on the same page, here is that moment:

SEE?!?!?!

This was a much more memorable part of the film, and captures the kind of Trickery much more clearly. Why they didn’t think to recreate this image is beyond me.

Thanks again for listening to me rant about Ursula again. I’m sure I’ll discuss something more interesting next time.

Though, if you want me to do more thematic reimagining’s like this, I’m sure I could do another character. Let me know in the discord server!

Until next time,

Madness Hattzer

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.

1. 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!
2. 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!
3. 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.
4. 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

So, I hope you’re “prepared”.

Scar is not the easiest to win with. His goal is vanquishing Heroes, but unlike similar goals, he has to defeat a set amount of them, and he has to start his turn with the win condition in place, which is a lot harder to hold onto than, say, Hook or Yzma.

You need 15 strength in your Succession Pile. What this means is you’ll need at least four Heroes defeated before you can win. The first card in the pile must be Mufasa, who is 6 strength; that’s 9 nine left, and the bare minimum there is either Simba, Timon and Zazu (5, 2 and 2), or any combination of Sarabi, Nala, Pumbaa and Rafiki, which have 3 strength each.

So, where does the trouble for Scar really begin? Rafiki, and Hakuna Matata, that’s where.

For clarification, Rafiki is a Hero with 3 strength, and he must be defeated before any other Hero. Hakuna Matata is an effect that takes Heroes of strength 3 or less out of the Succession pile or, failing that, moves a Hero in the Realm. There are 3 Hakuna Matatas in the Fate deck.

That doesn’t sound like too much, but in a 15 card deck, that’s a whole 5th of your deck!

Remember how I said that you need at least 4 cards in your Succession Pile to win? That means, at best, your Fate deck is now only 11 cards when you’re on the verge of winning. Even less if you’ve got Heroes and Items on the board. Now you’ve got over a quarter of your Fate deck ready to rip your victory away.

Even worse, it’s gonna keep Rafiki on your board.

Once you’ve got your Succession Pile up and running, defeating Rafiki puts him in said Pile. Hakuna Matata can bring him back out, and with the Effect’s high density in the Fate Deck, you can easily get caught in a cycle of defeating Rafiki, only for your opponents bring him back out again.

Now, if I were to go in and actually tweak the game, I would consider a couple of options. Bringing Rafiki to 4 strength would stop this incessant bouncing, but would mean that Scar can secure three cards in the Succession pile for a win, and no way of preventing that, so that’s probably not a good idea.

Maybe Rafiki’s power only effects Heroes strength 5 or more, so that he’s still horrible early on, but once Simba and Mufasa are in the pile, his power doesn’t keep you in a stalemate. Maybe you take out one of the Hakuna Matatas and replace it with a different effect. An Idea for THAT would be “Remember Who You Are”, an effect that takes away Scar’s power for eachHero in his Succession Pile, or something else more thought through than that.

Of course, that’s just wishful thinking now. From here on out, I will be suggesting ways to optimise your Scar plays. They’re not very intuitive, which is what makes him easier only to Ursula to win with, but these strategies are still there, and there are probably more to discover!

1. Keep your Allies spread out

Yeah, Mufasa and Simba are strong, and Prophecy is a massive strength boost. The Hungry Hyenas do get bonkers strong when all in one spot. But building up in the wrong spot is be devastating, and will make you a little too reliant on two Feeding Frenzies.

Ignoring Mufasa and Prophecy, all Heroes can be vanquished by any two allies (except if the location only has a Hungry Hyena and a Stampede), Including Simba when at Zazu’s location. Once Mufasa is gone, You can easily dispatch heroes quickly by having your options covered. It can also be very handy to keep a hyena in the Gorge, for reasons I’ll discuss later.

If you really need to gather your Allies up, Feeding Frenzy will solve that problem, and the Move Ally/Item spot suddenly becomes a lot more helpful, too. Move a third Hungry Hyena into a spot and BLAM, 9 strength to relive my favourite Lion King moment: Telling Simba it’s his fault that his Father died. (I’m kidding!!!! … or am I?)

This is not to say that the “Killing Field” strategy I so often see suggested has not viability, but it is a very rigid strategy and can make it hard to adapt to certain Fate options.

2. Keep your opponent(s) from Fating effectively

When you’re on the verge of winning in a three player game, both opponents fating you in a row will draw four cards from your (at best), 11 card Fate deck. In this late game, holding onto Injustice can be cructial.

Keep an eye on your Fate discard pile, it may be worth playing Long Live the King to get rid of 2 or even 3 Hakuna Matatas. Withh great luck and timing, you could even reshuffle your deck, giving your opponents 7 or 8 Haku-nuh Matnuh-uhs to draw.

Every Hero has access to a top row Fate Action and a bottom row Fate action. When Fating your opponents, covering their top row Fate action, will make it a little harder for them to bombard you with Fates, further securing that win.

3. Stick With Me, and you’ll Stampede through your Vanquishes

With a Stampede, you can perform two vanquishes on one turn, unless you’re at the Savannah. A Stampede gives you a bonus Vanquish action, leaving you free to use the Vanquish at the Gorge. Stick With Me allows for you to do this second Vanquish too, as long as there is a Hyena at the Gorge.

This double Vanquish is a reliable way to stop the Rafiki stalemate, and to remove the stick and the Ally in one fell swoop. Stampede can be a little finicky to pull off, but remember that you can do both in either order, so plot wisely.

4. Is Zazu really a Hero?

Zazu gives a -2 strength to Heroes at his spot, With a decent spread, the +1 to Heroes NOT at his location shouldn’t be too much of a bother, but the -2 makes Timon without Pumbaa with a free Vanquish, and the 3 strength Heroes weak enough for a lone hungry Hyena.

Remember, the Hero you move with the Stampede doesn’t have to be the Hero you Vanquish, as long as there is another Hero in their location. Moving Zazu to other Heroes this way can let you pick up some incredibly cheap Vanquishes.

If you’re struggling for that, however, feel free to defeat him yourself. If he’s sent to the discard pile, a Whisper or a well timed Long Live the King will get him back out and into the most valuable spot. If he goes to the Succession Pile, that’s still 2 strength closer to victory. If you’re in want of his ability, Whisper and target one of those painful Hakuna Matatas, and use them to you advantage for once!

**** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** ****

Well. I hope that was helpful! Keep in mind there are others who are much more experienced with the character than I am, so these strategies may need a great deal of improvement. At the very least, I’m sure they’ll get you thinking! Scar can be as grinding and unfun as Ursula sometimes, but nowhere near as constant, and is avoidable with experience!

I’m sure I won’t keep up this one-a-day pace forever, but it’s nice to be able to build up a foundation. Check out my post on Ursula, if you haven’t already. Next time, I’m gonna tackle Evil Queen.

Thanks for reading,

Madness Hattzer

OOF.

So, when you have a game like this with asymmetry, you’re gonna have a problem balance. By definition, not all characters are created equally. Some characters are gonna be easy to understand, or hard to win, or nearly impossible against certain foes. That’s just a part of these games. That’s fine.

As long as it’s fun.

If anyone is familiar with the “Let’s Get Wicked!” Podcast, or with the game in general, there seems to be a general consensus that Ursula is especially bad, and Evil Queen is especially good. You may not have that understanding, and if you do, you have my immense jealousy!

Evil Queen is a discussion for another time, though I may mention her again. For now, though, we will focus on Ursula.

Most of the Characters are well thought out and incredibly well balanced, especially considering that this is a board game, and you can’t really go in and patch pre-existing characters. Yes, some characters are easier to win with than others, but they all feel plausible, and no victory is one hundred percent particular villain. They are all engaging and fun to play.

Except Ursula.

Ursula is a b**** to play.

As of writing, Perfectly Wretched is yet to come out, but as it currently stands, Ursula is the least loved Villain in the game. She is one of the more complicated to play, and one of the hardest to win with. The only people who actively choose to play her are diehard fools like me, obsessed with finding the ‘diamond in the rough’ (wrong movie, I know), and the people who are new to the game and really want to play their favourite character.

I don’t want you to think that Prospero Hall have put no effort into her character. At first glance there is a lot of flavour and texture to this characters design. Firstly, she has a lock token that moves between the two end locations. This colourfully the transformation between human and mermaid/Octopus-lady, which is a key focus of the film. Secondly, she has a unique way of vanquishing heroes. She plays binding contracts, which defeat heroes after they’ve been moved to the right location, reflecting on how she makes horrible Rumplestiltskin style deals to get what she wants. It’s quite neat.

But not at all cohesive.

See how Ursula has that lock location? It means that she can never move Heroes or Items in or out of one of the end locations at all times. When your whole other gimmick is based around moving Heroes around, you’re going to find yourself tripping over your own feet/fins all the time. It’s a challenge, yes, but is it an appealling one?

And it’s not just her gimmicks that seem antithetical to her goals. Ursula has a very Hero-heavy fate deck. 11 of her 15 cards are heroes or effects to bring out heroes, and the other four are items which must attach to heroes. For a character like Scar (who suffers greatly from having this kind of fate deck anyway) it at least makes sense, as his goal is about defeating Heroes. Ursula hasn’t got anything to do with it, and with only three available locations at any one time for the whole game, she is easily swamped by just a couple of heroes.

Even putting her goal aside, having an extra heavy hero focus can be fine, as long as you have the tools to deal with it. Ursula has not. She has six cards in her whole deck that let you vanquish heroes. That’s only one more than the Evil Queen. Evil Queen, however, has ways of regaining access to her top actions, and her Take A Bite cards have an immediate effect. Also, wouldn’t you know, she HAS to vanquish to win the game, so having this gimmick makes sense thematically AND has interesting gameplay needs.

But Ursula does not have to vanquish to win the game. She needs to get the Trident and the Crown to her Lair. Why does it have to be her lair? Why does she get them as two, very seperate cards, when they seem to be a bind-one-get-one-free package the entire film? Why does the magic shell she traps Ariel’s voice in play no significant part in her deck? Those are minor quibbles of theme, admittedly, but also signifiers of the lack of understanding of Ursula on the whole.

Having little way to deal with Heroes can be fine, though, if you have alternate ways of dealing with them. For this, I think of the Queen of Hearts being able to shrink Heroes, or the locations in Prince John’s and Ratigan’s Realms that have no top actions, ideal for moving pesky heroes to.

A small part of Ursula’s strategy seems to revolve around keeping heroes in her realm, just out of the way. Although her lock token makes this a tedious strategy, she does have a lot of tools to move heroes around. Her cauldron is a card (the only card) that highlights this strategy, rewarding a lot of power for binding Heroes but not defeating them.

Of course, she does not have any particularly suitable location to keep heroes around in like Prince John or Ratigan do, and she has less binding contracts than heroes, making this a difficult and unimpressive tactic with high risk. With a bunch of vital top action spots and a lack of reward for managing overbearing Heroes, this concept seems poorly executed.

A Hero at her lair stops her from using any of her activate abilities. A Hero at Eric’s Ship stops you from accessing the Lair with Grow Giant, making activate cards even more redundant. A Hero at the Shore drastically cuts your most powerful spot to shreds, and removes your ability to discard. A hero at the Palace makes it harder to constantly Fate, which is what many have found to be her only viable, though obnoxious, strategy.

However, if you want the most horrible example of Ursula’s cohesion, look at her actual path to victory: digging. To win with Ursula, you need to dig for your two important cards, which means constant discarding. She has Divination, which CAN let you dig quite deep, and if you discard either item, you can pull them out with Opportunist. Also, if you’re lucky enough to have Arrogance when an opponent defeats a Hero with a total Strength of 4 or more, you’ll get an extra boost as you continue your dig.

In this, she is similar to Jafar. However, Jafar has plenty of ways to deal with intrusive heroes, Solid locations, a permanently removable lock, and plently of valuable cards to play in the meantime, such as Iago, Snake Staff, Gazeem, and so on. He’s hardly top tier, but he has tools and interesting ways to use them.

Most of Ursula’s cards are reactive, however, and highly situational. Even her Allies, Flotsam and Jetsam, have niche usage, and even then rely on a single, top row activation spot. Compare this to Evil Queen. She has an activatable Ally, her only Ally, but the Huntsman has a passive ability that is useful for many situations. On top of that, she has two activate symbols, and “I’ll Fix Ya” to regain access to them.

Ursula, on the other hand, has 16 cards that have no use unless there is a Hero out, and then has minimized ways to play them when they are, thanks to her shrunken board and her location layouts. While she is building to her ultimate goal, she has very little interesting to do, other than to try and stay afloat with Heroes on her board, and drag other players down with her by constantly fating.

This is why I have been going on about cohesion. Because unlike every other character, Ursula’s Deck and Realm seem to be actively working against her own objectives. And that’s not even considering how devastating her Fate deck can be. Triton effect, especially Snarfblatts and Dinglehoppers, would be hard to be rid with even the most favourable board design and hand. You could reach nearly the bottom of your deck, with Trident and Crown yet to come out, and Flounder can completely undo all of your hard work. Ariel sends a somewhat competent board state down the drain, and can grind your gameplay to a halt, and when you have finally overcome her, there are three Return to Forms ready to bring her back and set you even further back.

Hades, for comparison, is also a tough win, but there is a simple goal, and its an easy drive to have. You find you want to succeed. Evil Queen, on the other hand, is the closest thing to a cakewalk in the game so far, but she has a bunch of interesting parts that fit neatly together, and it’s satisfying to pull her off. Each character has give and take, and there’s something there for everyone. But, for Ursula, there only seems to be take.

I can’t find the fun with Ursula. Some are still searching for it, but I am swiftly running out of hope.

For now? I’m gonna pretend she isn’t in the game for the most part. I’ll probably still find the urge to try again sometime, and if someone else plays her, I won’t stop them. But if I’m introducing the game, I’m gonna act like she isn’t in the box. And it breaks my heart.

Because I love Ursula. My idol, Howard Ashman, wrote her lyrics. It’s one of my favourite Disney movies. Based on a Drag Queen for her visual design, she’s the closest thing to queer representation in the Disney canon. She is important to me, and she is important to a lot of my friends. To see her represented in this way, it feels like slander.

Again, I don’t want you to think that I think Prospero Hall intended this. I believe they really thought they did her Justice. I just feel heartbroken, and can only say that they have not. I just hope that Gaston is AMAZING when he inevitably comes out.

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Thanks for reading!

It was a bit long and dark for the first post, I know. I promise the next one will be a little lighter! It’ll still be critique, but much less heavy-handed and intense! I think I’m gonna be talking about Scar next.

Have a great day,

Madness Hattzer