Shere Khan

"Now, I'm going to close my eyes and count to ten. It makes the chase more interesting ... for me."

Shere Khan is one of two playable Villains in the Villainous expansion, Sugar and Spite. He is from the movie The Jungle Book, released in 1967, in which he is voiced by George Sanders and animated by Milt Kahl.

Shere Khan has a unique mechanic in Fire tokens, which can cover individual actions in his locations, preventing them from being used much like a Hero blocks the top row of actions in a location. These are placed and moved by Fate cards, and removed by Villain cards, and he must remove any present in his Realm before he can win.

Objective

Shere Khan must defeat Mowgli while there are no Fire Tokens in his Realm. To do this, he must bring Mowgli into his Realm, either by being Fated, or by playing Sure to Pick Up His Trail, which can also be used to defeat Mowgli, who can also be defeated in the usual way via a Vanquish action. However, he must hold off on defeating Mowgli until all Fire tokens are removed from his Realm, and he is guaranteed to have at least one, as Mowgli adds one when he is played. Fire tokens can be removed by playing It's Me, Shere Khan or activating Monkeys.

Realm

Shere Khan's mover.

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

• The River
  • Discard Cards
  • Fate | Play a Card | Vanquish
• Council Rock
  • Fate
  • Play a Card | Gain 1 Power | Move an Item or Ally
• The Ancient Ruins
  • Gain 3 Power
  • Play a Card | Activate | Discard Cards
• The Wastelands
  • Activate | Play a Card
  • Gain 2 Power | Play a Card

Villain deck

Shere Khan's Villain deck card back.

The following cards are in Shere Khan's Villain deck:

• Monkeys (×6)
• Everyone Runs From Shere Khan (×3)
• Young and Helpless (×3)
• Bravo! Bravo! (×2)
• Hey Cuz (×2)
• How Interesting... How Delightful (×2)
• It's Me, Shere Khan (×2)
• Sure to Pick Up His Trail (×2)
• Trust in Me (×2)
• You Will Inform Me First (×2)
• Kaa
• Kaa's Coils
• Kaa's Eyes
• King Louie

These include 8 total Allies (Kaa; King Louie; Monkeys), 4 total Conditions (How Interesting... How Delightful; Trust in Me), 16 total Effects (Bravo! Bravo!; Everyone Runs From Shere Khan; Hey Cuz; It's Me, Shere Khan; Sure to Pick Up His Trail; You Will Inform Me First; Young and Helpless), and 2 Items (Kaa's Coils; Kaa's Eyes).

Card Gallery

6 Copies:

3 Copies:

2 Copies:

1 Copy:

Fate deck

Shere Khan's Fate deck card back.

The following cards are in Shere Khan's Fate deck:

• Man's Red Fire (×5)
• He's My Friend (×2)
• Wolf Pack (×2)
• Bagheera
• Baloo
• Mowgli
• The Jungle Patrol
• Tiger by the Tail
• Vultures

These include 8 total Effects (He's My Friend; Man's Red Fire; Tiger by the Tail) and 7 total Heroes (Bagheera; Baloo; Mowgli; The Jungle Patrol; Vultures; Wolf Pack).

Card Gallery

5 Copies:

2 Copies:

1 Copy:

Strategy

Shere Khan is a curious Villain. With the right cards, and a friendly opponent, he can win on turn 3 (provided he starts with at least 2 Power, such as following Introduction to Evil's setup rule). However, there are essentially no dud Fate cards in his Fate deck; basically any time he is Fated, it will set him back. This can become frustrating if you are playing against a Villain who cannot be Fate-locked, and can simply Fate you turn after turn. Much as the character in the film, winning with Shere Khan requires patience, planning, and knowing when the best moment is to strike.

The first question you must ask yourself is: can you Fate-lock your opponent? That is, can you cover an upper Fate action and prevent them from being able to Fate you for a turn? If the answer is "yes", you can take a more relaxed approach, knowing that you can always buy yourself at least one turn to recover from a Fate. If the answer is "no", then you must be much more methodical in your strategy.

Either way, you need three things:

1. Mowgli in your Realm
2. Allies to defeat him
3. A way to remove Fire tokens

For the first, you are reliant entirely on Sure to Pick Up His Trail, as there is no way for your opponent to be forced to play Mowgli for you. For the other two, Monkeys suffice for both, but you also have access to Kaa (and his Items) and King Louie for the vanquishing, or using Sure to Pick Up His Trail again, and It's Me, Shere Khan for removing Fire tokens.

If you are facing a Fate-lock-able opponent, you can do all of this in any order. Find Mowgli as soon as you have enough Power to play the card that finds him, remove the Fire he brings with him (and any more your opponent sends your way), play out your Allies, then finally eliminate him. It's perfectly alright for Mowgli to sit around for a couple turns, as that is preferable to Sure to Pick Up His Trail just sitting in your hand.

If you are up against a Fate spamming opponent, you must be much more cautious. Fill your Realm with Monkeys. Play Kaa and King Louie. While you are doing this, plan where you eventually want Mowgli to appear - The River is the most innocuous, as all you lose is the upper Discard Cards action. Use Young and Helpless to rack up Power as you accumulate Monkeys. Remove any Fire tokens or Heroes your opponent gives you as quickly as possible. Ideally, you want to reach a state with these conditions:

1. No Heroes in The Wastelands
2. Another location with a Monkeys and one other Ally
3. Sure to Pick Up His Trail and Everyone Runs From Shere Khan in your hand
4. At least 7 Power
5. No Baloo or Fire tokens

If you ever start your turn with those conditions met, and you are able to move to The Wastelands, go there and win. Play Sure to Pick Up His Trail, bringing Mowgli to the location with the Monkeys. Activate the Monkeys to get rid of the Fire token he brings with him. Then play Everyone Runs From Shere Khan to use the other Ally to vanquish him.

Now this is an ideal situation. Sometimes you need to take a risk if your situation is not ideal. Remember that Monkeys can remove any number of Fire tokens from their location, so this is still doable if you have Fire at the location of the Monkeys, and enough extra Power to get rid of it. Use How Interesting... How Delightful to move stray Fire into position for this. Or if you have lots of extra Power, you can use two copies of Sure to Pick Up His Trail to bring out Mowgli and defeat him immediately.

What you should not do under any circumstances is bring out Mowgli, then set yourself up to defeat him on your next turn. The only Fate that won't stop you is precisely He's My Friend and The Jungle Patrol, and only as long as The Jungle Patrol doesn't find an Effect to play. (Wolf Pack is also permissible if you have a spare Monkeys you can afford to discard, but this requires you to have three Monkeys in one location.) The odds of you getting exactly that Fate are very slim. There are some avenues out from such situations, but they require an open Wastelands (as they all require a double play), Monkeys everywhere, and an excess of Power. Do yourself a favor and just don't put yourself in that situation; only bring out Mowgli when you're ready to kill him that very turn.

Countering Shere Khan is quite simple: cover his Realm in Heroes and Fire. He can become quite Power starved with his Gain 3 Power action covered, so The Ancient Ruins should be a priority for Heroes. As for which action to cover with Fire, go with whatever he most needs in the moment. Covering an Activate is always solid, as that makes it harder for him to remove Fire, and near the endgame covering his Vanquish is also useful.

It is possible to softlock Shere Khan by covering all his Discard Cards and Gain Power actions, if he is at 0 Power and has no Conditions or copies of Bravo! Bravo! in hand. However, that requires him to be in a very losing position in the first place, and a competent Shere Khan player should not let things get quite so out of hand.