When asked to name his favorite word, a famous young actor confessed that it was a tie between “zesty” and “tangy.” That sentiment reminded me of my philosophy of Vs. System strategy. I believe there is only one card that is both zesty and tangy. That card is The Joker, Emperor Joker.

The Emperor Joker myths are perhaps the craziest moments in DC comic history. The Joker became ruler of reality through a zany plot twist involving Mr. Mxyzptlk. It seems that Mr. Mxyzptlk had become bored with life in the Fifth Dimension. This happens quite often to people from higher dimensions and explains the infinite waiting list to be incarnated as a human being. Mr. Mxyzptlk decided to have some laughs on Earth to ease his tedium, and The Joker specializes in humor.

The Joker’s humor is not funny to his mortal enemies or to his friends. The Joker can make a room full of the deadliest villains in the world go silent when they see him. He's the guy who they tell stories about to scare each other. The Joker is a total psychotic, completely divorced from reality. He is as likely to turn on his allies as his enemies.

To a being from the Fifth Dimension, The Joker is a hoot. Mr. Mxyzptlk wanted to see how hilarious things could get, so he offered The Joker 0.1 percent of his powers just for fun. But The Joker had other ideas. He tricked Mr. Mxyzptlk into speaking his real name so he'd get 99.9 percent of the imp’s powers instead. This immediately allowed The Joker to crown himself king of all reality. He became The Joker, Emperor Joker.

Emperor Joker made the people of his kingdom honor Bizarro as the greatest hero in the world. Superman became a despicable villain. Emperor Joker saved his sickest acts of wickedness for Batman. He terrorized and killed Batman daily in an endless array of zesty ways. Then the caped crusader was resurrected for more tangy torture on the following day. Batman had absolutely no options for escape and lost his mind completely.

In Vs. System, Emperor Joker makes sure that your opponent has absolutely no options to escape defeat. This is one of the few cards that offers an alternate win condition. If The Joker, Emperor Joker comes into play or recovers while your opponent has no cards left in his or her deck, you win the game. If your opponent draws the final card from that deck while The Joker, Emperor Joker is in play, you win the game. When Emperor Joker takes control of the last thread of reality, all hope is lost.

Since Vs. System does not penalize a player for drawing all the cards in a deck, depleting was not a very helpful strategy until The Joker, Emperor Joker appeared in the Man of Steel set. When Matt Hyra previewed the card, he challenged the community like this:

“What really matters is who will be the first player in Vs. System history to win a Constructed Pro Circuit or $10K game by decking an opponent with The Joker, Emperor Joker. I expect we’ll see it happen in Sealed Pack play before we do in Constructed, since the typical 30-card Sealed deck should be easier to deplete through. Since he is an Arkham Inmates character with loyalty, even that won’t be easy.”

To my knowledge, this challenge is still unsatisfied. It is a strategy that’s extremely risky. Does that mean that the community has given up on the quest? No, that will never happen. Let’s look at some of the zesty and tangy Emperor Joker ideas that have been floating around the metagame, both past and present.

Where should we start? Let’s start with a PC Champion who has won over $60,000 playing the game. Ten months ago, when Matt Hyra first issued the Emperor Joker challenge, Ryan Jones posted this rough deck concept on the forums at VsRealms.com:

4 Dusk

3 Jessica Drew ◊ Spider-Woman
4 Spider-Man, Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man

3 Madame Web
4 Black Cat, Felicia Hardy

3 Will O’ the Wisp
4 Garth ◊ Tempest
4 Mattie Franklin ◊ Spider-Woman
3 Ezekiel
2 The Joker, Emperor Joker

4 Daily Bugle
4 Overpowered
4 Flying Kick
4 Spider Senses
2 Tragic Loss
4 Clone Saga
4 Twist of Fate

Jonesy’s concept uses traditional defense to force the game to last for eight turns. It uses Overpowered to deplete the opponent’s deck and Garth for recursion. Daily Bugle helps recycle plot twists to get all opposing cards from deck to KO’d pile, and Mattie Franklin provides even more plot twists by replacing redundant resourced characters. Clone Saga allows Garth and The Joker, Emperor Joker to be played, as it satisfies their loyalty requirements.

Clone Saga decks might still be the most popular archetype for Emperor Joker strategists. After ten months, though, there are a wealth of new cards to help our madman rule reality. The pure defensive tricks of Jonesy’s deck are usually replaced by stall tactics, which open up a whole new can of risky worms. As Daniel “Flaming Walnut” Henderson says, “Like so many of my decks, it is splitting out in so many different directions!”

Prankster is a bird of Emperor Joker’s feather, and they stick together. If Prankster’s ability hits, he can control the game like no other character. Combined with our zesty alternate win condition, this 1-drop character is a truly tangy trickster. Bruce “Deleriad” Mason takes Prankster depleting theory to its highest level:

 
To get some extra juice out of Prankster, think of Fifth Dimension. You can recruit one Prankster while the other one is hiding. Next turn you have two Pranksters. You can also use Fifth Dimension as a Prankster hiding place in general, for all those moments when your opponents are gunning for him.

If you want to add insult to injury, there’s always Xavier’s School for study lessons. And if The Penguin happens to be around and you have a little team-up going on, then you can have Prankster play his jokes four times a turn, and that’s not counting any Rogues or Mimics he may have trained at Clown School.

Steve “Kamiza” Garrett is a quality human being who has been a stalwart of the Vs. System community since the beginning. He developed an Emperor Joker deck that has serious competitive potential, though that may be an oxymoron in itself. His strategy uses Manhunters to control the early game, because Manhunter Giant can deplete an opponent’s deck like no one else. I will let him explain the rest:

Kamiza’s Kingdom

5 Manhunter Protector
6 Manhunter Guardsman
4 Pan
1 Hush
6 Manhunter Giant
3 Mr. Freeze
3 Two-Face, Split Personality
2 The Joker, Emperor Joker

4 Gravesite
4 The Fall of Oa
4 Overpowered
3 Fire Support
3 Acrobatic Dodge
3 Have a Blast!
3 Plans Within Plans
3 Pleasant Distraction
3 No Man Escapes the Manhunters

I get a better success rate with this build than with Clone Saga. Fire Support is not a major defensive card, but the “not ready this turn” effect really helps matters. Plans Within Plans is great for getting multiple uses out of Overpowered.

I think the contribution that Two-Face, Split Personality makes to the Emperor Joker strategy is huge. No longer do we have to rely too heavily on the depleting emphasis of all of our previous drops. Two-Face can deal so much damage that Emperor Joker’s payment effect will generally take the game.

Prankster is one of my favorite 1-drops in the game. His ability is awesome, especially if you know what you’re playing against. With my Prankster version, I came up against Fantastic Fun, so I just kept calling 1 or 2 and hit four cards almost every single turn. Any way you can replay Prankster is worth doing. I would often play two copies on turn 2 instead of Puppet Master.

The Source does, of course, make New Gods a consideration, but in my latest exercise, I am trying to get Emperor Joker as close to playable as possible. I don’t think the multi-team version will do it. I might try throwing it together to see how it plays out.

Ryan Gutierrez, the VsRealms Online Tournament Commissioner, has a working Emperor Joker strategy that is as sick as the madman himself. It is the zestiest and tangiest idea I have heard for controlling the reality of a Vs. System match. It is described here by Spideysean102, one of Ryan’s unfortunate victims:

He teamed up, put all his dudes in front, and exhausted them to The Fall of Oa. Then he attacked with Super Skrull, used his ability, readied all his front row guys, played another Fall of Oa, used Press the Attack to attack again with Super Skrull, and used Manhunter Giant to KO his guys.

Here is an overview by Ryan Gutierrez himself:

Anybody who has ever played with me knows that I have like 22 different versions of this deck, each of which relies on the same basic principle but uses an incredibly different route to get to the end product.

My personal favorite (and this is the one that Sean mentioned) has been the Manhunters/Skrull Soldiers engine. Using Plans Within Plans to get back Press the Attack or Overpowered, Press the Attack, Fall of Oa, and Super Skrull, you are able to clear your opponent’s board. (I have to recommend From the Shadows here, as if you don’t run it, you are asking for your Super Skrull to be stunned on turn 6 and your combo to be killed before you even go off). You’re also able to take a good 15-plus cards off your opponent’s deck with even a below-average draw. A good draw will usually net you 30 or more cards. Follow this up by your choice of stall card, and you should make it to turn 8 to remove the rest of your opponent’s deck. The best part about this deck is that if you do have a good draw and use the 7-drop Spidey on turn 7 with Clone Saga like I recommend, you should be able to draw your whole deck and subsequently lock down your opponent.

This deck is extremely fragile (and draw dependent, as are most combo decks), and I don’t quite recommend taking it to a PCQ any time soon due to lack of serious testing, but it’s an interesting take on a great concept.

Speaking of great concepts, I am ending this week’s risky ritual with a mystery out of left field. Like Emperor Joker, it is zesty and tangy and completely unexpected. Greg “Keleko” Williams got beaten two weeks ago in a Hobby League match by an outrageously risky strategy, and we don’t have the name of the perpetrator. Does anyone out there know who did this? Until then, I leave you with a description of the act. Enjoy!

I know he had Crushing Blow and Sucker Punch along with Spectacular Spidey. He used Smoke Screen on offense to protect Punisher, Jury. Micro-Chip, Dagger, Wild Ride, and Midnight Sons are givens, and I’m pretty sure he had some Fizzles too. Daredevil was his 5-drop.

On turn 8, I had my 3-, 5-, 6-, and 8-drops out. My opponent had played Dr. Strange and moved his and my characters to the hidden area, except for Punisher, Jury. He’d teamed-up with Gotham Knights and played a Burn Rubber on Punisher, Jury. He then proceeded to play four Batmobiles on Punisher, Jury—one for each of my attacks. He had Salvage to replay one, and he had three in his hand. Alfred had been used to get some others during the game.

The end result is that I did not stun Punisher, Jury, and he took 0 damage that turn. He then hit me directly for the win.

He should call the deck “Batmo-Shield” or something. It was quite a combo.

Rian Fike is also known as “Stubarnes” in the Vs. System community. Send questions, comments, and zesty or tangy suggestions to rianfike@hattch.com.