Jafar

> "*Finally, you will bow to me!*"
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**Jafar** is one of six playable Villains in the Villainous base game, *The Worst Takes It All*. He is from the movie *Aladdin*, released in 1992, in which he is voiced by Jonathan Freeman and animated by Andreas Deja. He is illustrated in the game by Fabio Perez.

## Objective

Jafar must unlock the Cave of Wonders, play the Magic Lamp, hypnotize Genie, and move the Magic Lamp to the Sultan's Palace. He can only win at the start of his turn.

## Realm

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

* Sultan's Palace
	+ Play a Card | Activate
	+ Vanquish | Fate
* Streets of Agrabah
	+ Gain 1 Power | Fate
	+ Discard Cards | Play a Card
* Oasis
	+ Activate | Play a Card
	+ Gain 3 Power | Play a Card
* Cave of Wonders (*locked until Scarab Pendant is played*)
	+ Discard Cards | Gain 2 Power
	+ Play a Card | Move an Item or Ally

## Villain deck

The following cards are in Jafar's Villain deck:

* Necessary Sacrifice (×3)
* Palace Guard (×3)
* Scimitar (×3)
* Scrying (×3)
* A Snake, Am I? (×2)
* Deception (×2)
* Giant Hourglass (×2)
* Hypnotize (×2)
* Manipulation (×2)
* Sorcerous Power (×2)
* Gazeem
* Iago
* Magic Lamp
* Razoul
* Scarab Pendant
* Snake Staff

These include 6 total Allies (Palace Guard; Gazeem; Iago; Razoul), 4 total Conditions (Deception; Manipulation), 12 total Effects (Necessary Sacrifice; Scrying; A Snake, Am I?; Hypnotize; Sorcerous Power), and 8 total Items (Scimitar; Giant Hourglass; Magic Lamp; Scarab Pendant; Snake Staff).

## Fate deck

The following cards are in Jafar's Fate deck:

* Wish (×3)
* Crushing Blow (×2)
* Narrow Escape (×2)
* Abu
* Aladdin
* Carpet
* Genie
* Princess Jasmine
* Rajah
* Sultan
* Treachery

These include 5 total Effects (Crushing Blow; Narrow Escape; Treachery), 7 Heroes (Abu; Aladdin; Carpet; Genie; Princess Jasmine; Rajah; Sultan), and 3 total Items (Wish).

## Clarifications

* Once the Cave of Wonders is unlocked, it can't be locked again, even if the Scarab Pendant is removed from the Realm.
* You can Hypnotize the Genie before or after you moved the Magic Lamp out of the Cave of Wonders or into the Sultan's Palace.
* If you Hypnotize the Genie before playing the Magic Lamp, you will need to hypnotize him again after the Magic Lamp is played.

## Strategy

Jafar is a slower Villain, but he makes up for it by being able to relentlessly Fate his opponents, while being almost impossible to stop once he reaches his win condition.

Jafar needs to find the Scarab Pendant, the Magic Lamp, and at least one copy of Hypnotize. If you start with those all in your opening hand, congratulations, collect Power and take your easy win. If not, you need to use the Discard Cards action relentlessly, keeping only those two key Items, Snake Staff, Scrying, Iago, and maybe Deception - everything else should be discarded. If you aggressively discard your hand, be sure to use Necessary Sacrifice on low priority Items, Allies, or even Hypnotized Heroes for a net gain in Power while also freeing cards from your hand. Razoul can increase the efficiency of Necessary Sacrifice even further.

Play Scrying, searching for an Item, at every opportunity until you've found both the Scarab Pendant and the Magic Lamp. If you don't have Scrying, play the Snake Staff, so you can always get back a Hypnotize. If you've found the Magic Lamp before the Scarab Pendant, and also drawn Gazeem, you can play Gazeem and discard the Magic Lamp, as you can get it back when Gazeem is discarded, whether by Necessary Sacrifice or with a Vanquish action. If you have extra Play a Card actions, or no Scrying in hand, feel free to play Palace Guards, Razoul, Giant Hourglasses, and Scimitars just to get them on your board, either to use them to defeat Heroes, or as targets for Necessary Sacrifice as mentioned earlier.

While you search for these two Items, you should be trying to accumulate Power. Spend as little as you need to, visit the Oasis often, and make use of Necessary Sacrifice. You will need 7 Power to play your two Items, and at least 6 Power to Hypnotize Genie, and you should have extra set aside to deal with Abu, Aladdin and Carpet.

Once you've drawn the Scarab Pendant, immediately play it, both to unlock your final location, and to make use of your increased handsize. If you haven't found the Magic Lamp yet, continue searching for it as described previously.

Once you have the Magic Lamp and an unlocked Cave of Wonders, you'll want to play it and move it to Sultan's Palace as quickly as possible - do not delay! This is where Iago is used: play Magic Lamp at the Cave of Wonders, and use the Move an Item or Ally action to move it to the Oasis. Then on your next turn, move to either the Oasis or Sultan's Palace (whichever has an uncovered Activate action), play Iago to the Oasis, and Activate him to move him and the Magic Lamp to the Streets of Agrabah. Then you can move the Magic Lamp to Sultan's Palace on your next turn by moving back to the Cave of Wonders. Without Iago, it will take two extra turns to get the Magic Lamp into place. If Abu or Aladdin take the Magic Lamp first, you can use Sorcerous Power to move them all the way to Sultan's Palace, then either Hypnotize or Vanquish them.

Playing the Magic Lamp also brings out Genie, the second part of your Objective. Part of the reason why you want to move the Magic Lamp out of the way so fast is because it makes the Genie stronger, and thus harder to Hypnotize. Try to get a Giant Hourglass to the Cave of Wonders before you play the Magic Lamp. At the very least, you should Hypnotize Genie as soon as you can, preferably on your next turn (if you visit the Oasis, you can play Iago, move him and the lamp, and Hypnotize Genie, provided there's no Hero there and you have enough Power). Treachery can take your Power, and Wish can buff Genie, but nothing can un-Hypnotize him once he's under your control.

While you do have several Allies, and tools like A Snake, Am I?, key Heroes like Abu, Aladdin and Carpet should be Hypnotized, to prevent them from being used against you again. In fact, if both Abu and Aladdin are Hypnotized, and you've met your Objective, no one Fate card can prevent you from winning. If Abu is also holding two Scimitars, then *nothing* can prevent your win, except for a faster opponent.

Speaking of faster opponents, despite starting with a locked location, Jafar has immediate access to both his Fate locations, and can hop back and forth between them easily. He also has Deception, one of the most powerful Conditions in the game. Most Villains have multiple Items they will want to put in play (see the Deception article for a comprehensive breakdown), allowing Jafar to sneak in an extra Fate, even getting around the Fate token. Even though he only has two copies of Deception, he can also use Manipulation to retrieve it from the discard pile, potentially playing the same copy of Deception twice. Manipulation is also useful for getting back a copy of Hypnotize, either if you don't have the Snake Staff, or can't afford to Activate it.

Countering Jafar must be done proactively. Wish and Carpet only protect Genie if he hasn't been Hypnotized yet. Princess Jasmine is most harmful while Jafar is still hunting for his key Items. Only Abu and Aladdin can stall Jafar once he's met his win condition, and even then, a competent Jafar player can easily Hypnotize them. While Jafar usually takes a while to start seeming like a threat, it's a mistake to think you can go easy on Fating him.

 **Villain deck**
*3 Copies:* Necessary Sacrifice • Palace Guard • Scimitar • Scrying
*2 Copies:* A Snake, Am I? • Deception • Giant Hourglass • Hypnotize • Manipulation • Sorcerous Power
 **Fate deck**
*3 Copies:* Wish
*2 Copies:* Crushing Blow • Narrow Escape
*1 Copy:* Abu • Aladdin • Carpet • Genie • Princess Jasmine • Rajah • Sultan • Treachery

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