Horned King

> "*Arise, my messengers of death! Our time has arrived!*"
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>
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**Horned King** is one of three playable Villains in the Villainous expansion, *Despicable Plots*. He is from the movie *The Black Cauldron*, released in 1985, in which he is voiced by John Hurt and animated by Phil Nibbelink. He is illustrated in the game by AJ Nazzaro.

Horned King has a special Villain card, The Black Cauldron, that is not in his deck, but printed on a tile. It starts off the game set aside, and must be claimed in order to put it next to his Villain portrait. It is double-sided, and must be activated to flip it to its Power side, which will allow Horned King to play Cauldron Born.

## Objective

Horned King must have a Cauldron Born at each location. To do so, he must play Ancient Soldiers and claim The Black Cauldron then Activate it. The Black Cauldron can be claimed by playing Show Me the Black Cauldron or We Have Made a Bargain, or by defeating Hen Wen. Once The Black Cauldron is activated, Horned King may use it to swap Ancient Soldiers for Cauldron Born.

## Realm

Horned King's Realm contains the following locations, from left to right:

* Morva
	+ Play a Card | Fate
	+ Discard Cards | Gain 1 Power
* Fair Folk Kingdom
	+ Play a Card | Gain 3 Power
	+ Play a Card | Vanquish
* Dungeons
	+ Play a Card | Move an Item or Ally
	+ Fate | Gain 2 Power
* Throne Room
	+ Vanquish | Discard Cards
	+ Play a Card | Move an Item or Ally

## Villain deck

The following cards are in Horned King's Villain deck:

* Ancient Soldiers (×5)
* Cauldron Born (×5)
* Horned King's Henchmen (×3)
* Gwythaints (×2)
* Only Moments Away From Victory (×2)
* Our Hour Has Arrived (×2)
* Show Me the Black Cauldron (×2)
* Visions (×2)
* We Got You Now, Pig Keeper (×2)
* We Have Made a Bargain (×2)
* Captured!
* Creeper
* Guard Dog

These include 12 total Allies (Cauldron Born; Horned King's Henchmen; Gwythaints; Creeper; Guard Dog), 2 total Conditions (Only Moments Away From Victory), 11 total Effects (Our Hour Has Arrived; Show Me the Black Cauldron; Visions; We Got You Now, Pig Keeper; We Have Made a Bargain; Captured!), and 5 total Items (Ancient Soldiers).

The Horned King also has a two-sided tile to represent The Black Cauldron and its Power.

## Fate deck

The following cards are in Horned King's Fate deck:

* I Believe in You (×2)
* Reunited (×2)
* Doli
* Dyrnwyn
* Fair Folk
* Fflewddur Fflam
* Gurgi
* Gurgi's Happy Day
* Gurgi's Sacrifice
* Hen Wen
* Princess Eilonwy
* Taran
* The Witches of Morva

These include 6 total Effects (I Believe in You; Reunited; Gurgi's Happy Day; Gurgi's Sacrifice), 8 Heroes (Doli; Fair Folk; Fflewddur Fflam; Gurgi; Hen Wen; Princess Eilonwy; Taran; The Witches of Morva), and 1 Item (Dyrnwyn).

## Strategy

   Horned King is a solid midrange Villain, whose speed does depend on how quickly he can claim The Black Cauldron, but is usually neither too fast nor too slow. In addition, his Cauldron Born are fantastic Allies, letting him keep his board quite clear. However, he does have some quite crippling Fate cards, so a Horned King player must play around them carefully, and as Morva has neither a bottom-row Play a Card nor Vanquish, it is relatively easy to Fate lock him. That said, Horned King has plenty of tools to recover from being Fated, and can often dish out quite the onslaught himself, making him a very formidable opponent indeed.

The first task for Horned King is claiming The Black Cauldron. The best way is to simply play Show Me the Black Cauldron, but if you draw into We Got You Now, Pig Keeper and a strong enough Ally instead, take that route. It is highly unlikely you'll use We Have Made a Bargain, but that's also an option if it crops up. Once it's claimed, flip it over as quickly as possible, either using Ancient Soldiers or Our Hour Has Arrived, whichever is most convenient.

While looking for a way to claim, as well as afterward, your next priority is getting Ancient Soldiers into play. If you're facing a Villain who plays lots of Items, or is required to play one or two, try to make Only Moments Away From Victory work, but don't hold on to it for too long; the Power saved is usually not worth the time wasted. The best case scenario is having multiple Ancient Soldiers in hand with your Condition, and playing one of them while you wait for your opponent to help you out.

Once you have a Powered Black Cauldron and Ancient Soldiers in play, start playing Cauldron Born. Make sure you're gaining enough Power to do so. Don't delay; if you have the Power and the card in hand, play it at the start of your turn, as you want to reach your Objective quickly and avoid I Believe in You.

Everything else in your deck is discard fodder. They all have their niche uses, such as using We Have Made a Bargain to reclaim lost Ancient Soldiers or Cauldron Born, or We Got You Now, Pig Keeper to get rid of a weak Hero, and the Power gain from Visions and Show Me the Black Cauldron is quite nice indeed, but you need to remember your priority: Ancient Soldiers and Cauldron Born. Nothing else matters, so chuck the rest and dig through your deck as quickly as possible. If you have Ancient Soldiers and Cauldron Born in hand, visit Fair Folk Kingdom and Dungeons more often; if you don't, visit Morva and Throne Room more often. Play Effects opportunistically as needed, and only play non-Cauldron Born Allies if you're floating more than 5 Power, or if you're at a non-discard location and need to get them out of your hand.

There are three Fate cards to watch out for:

* Gurgi's Sacrifice - the most obvious. Try to discard a Cauldron Born from a spot where you have multiple, or if there's also an Ancient Soldiers at that location. Flip the Cauldron back over ASAP - the best way to do this is to either hold onto a copy of Our Hour Has Arrived, or make sure you can always move to a location with Ancient Soldiers on your next turn (or play one).
* Fflewddur Fflam - the hardest hitting. He'll likely be played to either Morva or Throne Room. Try to get a new Ancient Soldiers down on the other side of the board, as that will reduce the turns required to recover immensely. Once he's on the board, don't Vanquish him unless both Reuniteds have gone by, or if you desperately need to Fate and he's at Morva.
* I Believe In You - your opponent's gamble. This can either help or hinder you. If this forces you to discard Cauldron Born, be on the lookout for We Have Made a Bargain to shuffle them back in, otherwise discard like mad to force a reshuffle naturally.

There's nothing you can do about the order of your Fate deck, but you can play your Ancient Soldiers and Cauldron Born strategically to minimize damage, and you can also make sure to cover the top Fate of your opponent to slow down their onslaught. It can also be helpful to play Allies even if they aren't immediately useful as keeping them in the realm reduces the number of cards Horned King has to go through to find the cards he needs, but this should only be done if there isn't another more important play that can be made at the moment.

Once you have a Cauldron Born in each location, you win! There's no need to wait until your next turn, but it will still be a fair amount of effort just getting there, as without Conditions, you need as much power as Prince John to pull it off.

Countering Horned King is relatively straightforward - be on the lookout for the three main Fates mentioned, as well as Hen Wen (after the Cauldron has been claimed) and The Witches of Morva. Cover Morva to keep him from Fating you (and discourage his discarding) and after Fflewddur has been played, cover Dungeons to slow down his moving of Cauldron Born.

 **Villain deck**
*5 Copies:* Ancient Soldiers • Cauldron Born
 *3 Copies:* Horned King's Henchmen
 *2 Copies:* Gwythaints • Only Moments Away From Victory • Our Hour Has Arrived • Show Me the Black Cauldron • Visions • We Got You Now, Pig Keeper • We Have Made a Bargain
*1 Copy:* Captured! • Creeper • Guard Dog
 **Fate deck**
*2 Copies:* I Believe in You • Reunited
*1 Copy:* Doli • Dyrnwyn • Fair Folk • Fflewddur Fflam • Gurgi • Gurgi's Happy Day • Gurgi's Sacrifice • Hen Wen • Princess Eilonwy • Taran • The Witches of Morva

 **Wicked to the Core**
 **Evil Comes Prepared**
 **Perfectly Wretched**
 **Despicable Plots**
 **Bigger and Badder**
 **Filled With Fright**
 **Sugar and Spite**
King Candy • Shere Khan