What? Another Joker? Why is he in the Man of Steel set? How about if I mention that his version name is Emperor Joker, and that he became Emperor by way of Mr. Mxyzptlk? OK, now I think I’ve got your attention. So how does a psychotic manage to get himself an 8-drop character with such a grandiose version name? By hook or by crook, of course. Mr. Mxyzptlk thought it would be fun to give the Joker 1 percent of his power, but the Clown Prince tricked him into giving up 99 percent. Emperor Joker remade the world in his image—he made heroes go evil, he made the bad guys the good guys, and he slaughtered Batman a different way day after day. Finally Superman, working alongside a chagrined and desperate Mxyzptlk, saved the day.

Hey, look at that! Another “instant win” card for the Arkham Inmates (Rigged Elections from DC Origins being the other). And loyal readers will note that I got to preview Man of Steel’s other “instant win” card, so don’t go looking for any more, ‘cuz there aren’t any. Oh sure, there certainly are several cards that will cause your opponents to cry out, “Aww, you’re going to instantly win with that!” but you know what I’m saying.

I’m sure you already have a few questions about how The Joker’s power plays out during a game, so before I go any further, let’s get some technical talk out of the way. The power that will “instantly win” you the game is a triggered power, so the character’s got to be unstunned for it to trigger. If Emperor Joker is stunned in the moment that your opponent’s deck runs out of cards, the game continues on. The payment power, however, endures. If Emperor Joker has had his payment power resolve this turn, and he and another character stun each other simultaneously, the payment power's effect replaces the stun endurance loss for that opponent, meaning he or she loses a bunch of cards off the top of the deck. However, if that empties that opponent's deck, because The Joker is already stunned, his triggered power is already “turned off” and doesn't trigger.

In fact, with his smallish-for-an-8-drop stats of 17 ATK/17 DEF, it is quite likely that Emperor Joker will be stunned right away during combat if your opponents have the foresight to play 8-drops as well. Your opponents can’t take the chance of letting the Emperor stick around if their decks are dwindling. If they stun Emperor Joker and run out of cards in the same turn, they aren’t out of the woods yet. They need to win the game that same turn, or they’ll lose the game at the start of the next turn. You see, if you recover Emperor Joker during the wrap-up at the end of the turn, he’s now face up and the game sees his triggered power. You won’t win right then, though, because the triggered effect that should have you winning the game doesn’t actually resolve until the next time you gain priority. Neither player has priority during the wrap up, so effects can’t resolve then. Instead, they resolve at the next possible moment in time when you do get priority, and that is during the draw phase. This means that even if you recover Emperor Joker, if you’re losing the game because you have a lower negative endurance total than your opponent, you still lose. If the game goes to turn 9 and your opponent is out of cards, if you remembered to recover Emperor Joker at the end of turn 8, you win instantly during the draw phase on turn 9.

If you’re going to go with a serious deck depletion strategy, you might want to run a couple of Rise From the Graves, which will let you get Emperor Joker back on his feet before the recovery phase. As long as you have at least 5 endurance, you can pay the cost of the card. If the secondary endurance loss takes you down to -8 endurance, so be it. If your opponent is out of cards, you win. The “instant win” happens before the game checks for a winner during the recovery phase. Recovering Emperor Joker during your opponent’s last attack of his or her attack step is probably the best time to do it, as the game will end immediately, before the attack even resolves if he or she is already out of cards.

Your deck should be focused on a deck depletion strategy if you’re going to use Emperor Joker’s payment power. If your opponent still has 40 cards left in his or her deck and is at 13 endurance, you’re better off not paying the 1 endurance. Just go for the normal win. But if it’s even close, or you’re already losing the endurance race badly, why not go for it? If you’re using cards like Overpowered and the various other deck-depleting or deck-manipulating cards, you’ll probably be able to deplete your opponent’s deck faster than you can drop his or her endurance. Team Superman has a few cards that can help this strategy, as crazy as that team-up sounds. The Spider-Friends are also a good candidate for helping the strategy, thanks especially to Madame Web. But too many cooks will spoil the broth. Emperor Joker has loyalty, so don’t get too carried away with the team-ups.

However, the way you manage to get him into play doesn’t really matter. 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? I expect we’ll see it happen in Sealed Deck play before we do in Constructed, since the typical 30-card sealed deck should be easier to burn through. Be sure to let me know if you manage to do it in an upcoming Superman, Man of Steel sneak peek tournament. Although, as he’s an Arkham Inmates character with loyalty, even that won’t be easy . . .

Questions and comments may be sent to mhyra@metagame.com.

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