Disney Villainous is a tabletop game that is a joy for fans of the entertainment juggernaut. Rather than playing as the heroes, players take control of classic villains like Jafar, Maleficent and others as there use items, allies, effects and condition cards to complete their own unique objective before their opponents.

While there is quite a bit of luck involved depending on how your deck is shuffled, there are definitely good characters to play and others that are more difficult to win with. Here are the strongest characters in the game alongside the weakest. Note that we are including characters found in the expansions Wicked To The Core and Evil Comes Prepared.

Updated December 23rd, 2020 by Patrick Mocella: With a base game and a third expansion entitled Perfectly Wretched released at the beginning of 2020, Disney Villainous has captured the hearts of Disney fans and tabletop gamers alike. Players eagerly anticipate a heavily rumored fourth expansion featuring Beauty And The Beast’s Gaston but for now, we will sort the remaining five villains in the game into either a best or worst side. It’s worth noting that even if a character is in the worst side, it’s entirely possible that you can still win and dominate a match if you practice their deck long enough.

15 Strongest: Queen Of Hearts

In direct conflict outside of this game, Queen Of Hearts would fall to many of these magical villains. However in Disney Villainous, Queen of Hearts from Alice In Wonderland is a powerhouse.

It’s incredibly easy for her to convert her Card Guards into wickets with either their “activate” abilities or effect cards in her deck. The Queen does suffer in the long term however as she can be trapped out of winning entirely via Alice and Mome Raths “fate” cards. In the early game though, she is incredibly dangerous.

14 Weakest: Jafar

Oh boy, poor Jafar. He might be one Disney’s most powerful villains inside his movie, but he’s hugging to the bottom tier position in Disney Villainous like it’s the magic lamp.

Jafar’s main issue is that he has to search his deck for not one, but two cards, play them in a specific order, hypnotize the Genie and then move him and the lamp over to the location that’s furthest away from where you play the lamp. Not only is that a lot of steps, but things can go wrong if heroes like Aladdin or Abu get played which steal your precious items. No matter how you slice it, you need a Genie’s wish to win with this sorcerer.

13 Strongest: Prince John

By far the simplest character to use in Villainous is also one of the best. From the classic Robin Hood, Prince John’s objective of having 20 Power at the start of his turn is easy for new players to understand and frightening for other players to face off against.

Prince John is especially scary to play against in games with a small number of players as he can bounce back and forth from the Jail location to gain 3 power every turn. What players should definitely watch out for are John’s condition cards which allow him to play allies for free (saving him the need to use Power) and also just simply going +3 on Power. If he could win as soon as he got 20 Power instead of needing to have it at the start of his turn, he’d be very hard to stop but as is he is still a great choice.

12 Weakest: Ursula

Between the two villains of the seas in this game Ursula definitely gets the short end of the stick. Ursula’s gimmick revolves her lack of “Vanquish” actions, instead using “Binding Contracts” to deal with heroes but it proves to be her undoing.

While drawing one of them isn’t a problem, you have to ensure that you then move the hero to the right location on the board to kill them. Not only that, but Ursula’s Fate deck can hit with nasty results like Ariel who can mess up your day badly. Combine that with having to worry about a constant locked location and you have one of the worst Villains in the game.

11 Strongest: Captain Hook

This obsessive, one-handed pirate’s objective is simple: kill Peter Pan… at the Jolly Roger location of course. Captain Hook’s single goal is reflected via his deck as many cards are focused on finding Peter Pan and pulling him out of your fate deck.

While there are some cards in the Fate deck that can hamper Hook (most notably Tick Tock, which forces you to discard your entire hand when moved to his location), for the most part Hook has doesn’t have much to fear. His deck is full of strong allies and cards which give him more actions which make him a strong character in the game.

10 Weakest: Scar

In terms of mechanics, Scar is likely the most simple of all the expansion characters. All he has to do is kill Mufasa and then have a total of 15 strength in his “Succession” pile, which is formed after killing the Lion King.

While simple in theory, Scar’s deck lacks an Effect card that allows him to kill heroes outright like other villains’ decks have. Thus, he must rely heavily on his allies and vanquish actions to be rid of heroes slowing him down considerably. Also, if Mufasa is shuffled to the bottom of the Fate deck, it can really screw this throne usurper up.

9 Strongest: Dr. Facilier

With (albeit extremely limited) potential to end the game in three turns, you knew Dr. Facilier was going to be on this list under the best section.

If a Dr. Facilier plays aggressively in getting the cards they need into their Fortune pile, the game can end very quickly. Not only that, but Facilier can mill through his deck faster than most characters which ensures that he has what he needs at almost all times. Facilier definitely suffers the longer a game goes but if he can strike quickly, Facilier can be the easiest to win with.

8 Weakest: Hades

A fan-favorite villain amongst many Disney fanatics, Hades from Hercules is the ruler of Greek Mythology’s Underworld but the only thing he’s under in Villainous is the heels of better villains.

Hades’ main weakness stems from how slow his progression can be. Speaking of titans, Hades’ goal requires him to move 3 Titans out 5 in his deck from his left most location to Mount Olympus (the one on the far right). However, he is limited in ways to move them and they can easily be set back or even trapped by Hades’ Fate deck.

7 Strongest: Ratigan

A lesser-known but still loved villain in Disney’s catalog of baddies, Professor Ratigan a deceptively easy character to play and win with.

A unique character amongst the evil beings of Villainous, Ratigan actually has a backup objective in case his first one of moving The Robot Queen to Buckingham Palace doesn’t pan out. The beautiful part about it though is that even if The Robot Queen is discarded, your new objective of killing Basil is actually easier. Better yet, Basil needs to be played to stop the Robot Queen so essentially if opponents don’t keep Ratigan down to low power, he can become unstoppable.

6 Weakest: Yzma

Even though Yzma is on the weakest side, this doesn’t necessarily make her a terrible character (there’s only 15 characters in the game at the time of writing). However, Yzma needs to have a lot of luck on her side in order for her to be effective.

Since her objective revolves around finding Kuzco in one of four Fate piles and killing him, Yzma can be strong if she finds him quickly or incredibly weak if he keeps slipping out of your grasp. There’s also a risk of accidentally discarding Kuzco without Kronk which will set you back to square one. If it’s any consolation, Yzma is one of the most fun characters  in Villainous. But alas, this isn’t what this list is about.

5 Strongest: Evil Queen

As one of the oldest villains in Disney history, people should expect a lot of respect given to the villain of Snow White & The Seven Dwarves. Evil Queen from the Wicked To The Core expansion is a powerhouse.

Evil Queen’s goal is to simply vanquish Snow White, but the catch is that she will be locked away at the Dwarves’ Cottage and to open it she must play four different “Ingredient” cards. Queen’s main strength is her draw power and ability to search. Her overpowered “Magic Tomes” card lets you look at the top four cards of your deck to put one in your hand and discard the rest. Many of her Fate cards are road blocks she can easily smash through making her one of the strongest in the game.

4 Weakest: Mother Gothel

Mother Gothel was introduced in the Perfectly Wretched expansion as the newest Disney villain in terms of her movie’s release date. Unfortunately while she does have a few bright spots in her deck, she just cannot keep pace with the other baddies.

Her goal is to hold 10 “trust” at the start of her turn. Gaining “trust” isn’t too hard but getting to 10 and holding onto it for a whole round is a nightmare. Many of her “fate” cards let an opponent directly decrease her trust and disrupt her strategy heavily. While her powerful allies and items can set her up for success, it takes too much time to get there and an opponent will most likely win before you reach your objective.

3 Strongest: Cruella De Vil

Cruella De Vil is the cover star for the latest expansion Perfectly Wretched and despite the rulebook suggesting that Cruella is good for beginner players, it takes a seasoned veteran of the game to make Cruella achieve her full potential.

Cruella has a similar goal to Mother Gothel, but more easily achievable. She must collect 99 puppies from locations across her realm and with the right strategy, she can collect these with machine precision thanks to her trusty allies Jasper and Horace. When all her deck’s mechanics work in tandem, Cruella’s victory can sneak up on opponents and make her one of the stronger characters to play.

2 Weakest: Pete

One of the most unpredictable characters to play as and compete against, Pete from the original Mickey Mouse cartoons has an extremely unique objective where he must complete 4 mini goals littered across his realm.

How strong Pete can be is reliant on where his four out of a possible five goals are placed at the start of a match. Sometimes, everything falls into place for his extremely recyclable allies and deck manipulation cards to win the game while other times the poor luck of the draw and Pete’s troublesome “fate” cards can set him back long enough for other villains to surpass him.

1 Strongest: Maleficent

Possibly the most powerful villain in Disney history, the witch Maleficent rightfully takes her place among the strongest characters in Disney Villainous.

In terms of speed, this witch Maleficent can out-blitz any other character in the game if she gets her hands on her Raven ally which lets her perform one action from any location she doesn’t go to on her turn (aside from “Fate” actions.) This can ensure that Maleficent has a never-ending supply of power to fuel her “Curses” which are the core of her objective. Once Maleficent starts her turn with a “Curse” card at each location, she wins the game. While her “Fate” deck can truly destroy her progress, her “Curses” can be stacked to protect themselves ensuring her villainous scheme is completed.

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