Mother Gothel is one of the villains you can play in the Disney board game Villainous: Perfectly Wretched. In the game, Mother Gothel is just as obsessed with keeping Rapunzel at Rapunzel’s Tower as her movie character is! This Mother Gothel strategy guide shows you how to win as Mother Gothel and how to stop Mother Gothel from winning!
As Mother Gothel in Disney Villainous, you want to gain 10 Trust and keep Rapunzel away from Corona! Can you get Rapunzel to trust you and keep her as far away from Corona as possible?
This Mother Gothel strategy guide covers:
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- The Mother Gothel Villain Guide
- Strategy to win as Mother Gothel
- Mother Gothel’s Villain Deck cards
- Important cards in Mother Gothel’s Villain Deck
- Mother Gothel’s Realm board
- Mother Gothel’s Fate Deck cards
- How to stop Mother Gothel from winning
The Mother Gothel Villain Guide
Let’s see what tips and strategies the Mothel Gothel Villain Guide offers before we dive into my strategy.
Mother Gothel’s Objective
Start your turn with at least 10 Trust.
‘Start your turn’ is key here! You may get to 10 Trust and then have your plans thwarted before you start your turn.
Special Setup
Place the Rapunzel Tile at Rapunzel’s Tower.
Get used to Rapunzel being around because she’s never leaving your Realm!
Trust
Mother Gothel needs Rapunzel to trust her so that she stays in her tower and doesn’t go running off to Corona!
Some cards will say that you gain Trust. To gain Trust, grab a Power token and put it on your Realm board over the image of Mother Gothel. That shows that the Power token is Trust and not Power.
Trust can’t be used as Power to pay for cards or trigger Conditions that talk about gaining Power.
Rapunzel
The Rapunzel token is unique to Mother Gothel. She’s in your Realm at the start of the game.
Rapunzel is a Hero which means she blocks the top actions on your board and you can defeat her using Vanquish. but when she’s defeated you don’t discard her, instead, you move her to Rapunzel’s Tower.
At the end of Mother Gothel’s turn, you need to move Rapunzel one location towards Corona. If she’s already at Corona at the end of your turn, you can’t move Rapunzel, and you lose 1 Trust.
Moral of the story? Don’t ever end your turn with Rapunzel at Corona!
Controlling Rapunzel
Mother Gothel has abilities that make it easiest to gain Trust when Rapunzel is at Rapunzel’s Tower. So trying to get her there when you have one of these cards is going to give you a boost in Trust!
Keeping Rapunzel away from Corona is really important too! So you need to carefully control Rapunzel’s location.
Fortunately, Mother Gothel has more abilities related to controlling Rapunzel’s location than any other abilities!
- Mother Knows Best – Means that you don’t need to move Rapunzel towards Corona at the end of your turn.
- Patchy Stabbington and Sideburns Stabbington – When you play either of these to Rapunzel’s location, move Rapunzel to Rapunzel’s Tower.
- Now I’m The Bad Guy – Move Rapunzel to Rapunzel’s Tower and lose 1 Trust. Not ideal to lose a Trust, but can be worth it if used wisely.
Gaining Trust
The second-largest group of abilities in Mother Gothel’s deck relate to gaining Trust.
- Hair Brush – When it’s played or moved to Rapunzel’s location, you gain 1 Trust. Hair Brush can be used over and over so it’s a brilliant way to gain Trust.
- I Love You Most – Gains you 1 Trust if Mother Gothel is at Rapunzel’s location, gains you 2 Trust if they are both at Rapunzel’s Tower.
- Let Down Your Hair – Has two abilities for you to choose from. You can either gain 1 Trust if Rapunzel is at her Tower, or you can move Rapunzel up to two locations toward Rapunzel’s Tower.
- Crown – You can gain Power every time a Hero is defeated at its location or you can discard it instead to gain 1 Trust.
- Revenge – Perform a Vanquish action and gain 1 Trust if you defeat a Hero other than Rapunzel.
Strategy Tips
Some cards are more effective if Rapunzel is at Rapunzel’s Tower. Because Rapunzel moves at the end of every turn, moving her to Rapunzel’s Tower or keeping her there can help you to gain more Trust.
Effect and Condition cards and defeating Rapunzel with Allies can move her to Rapunzel’s Tower.
Strategy to win as Mother Gothel in Disney Villainous
Now that we’ve been through the Villain Guide, here are my tips on winning as Mother Gothel.
Play the Royal Guards to Corona
The Royal Guards have a unique ability. When you move one of them, you can move a Hero from their previous location to their new one. There are also five of them in your Villain Deck.
If you play them all to Corona, that’s five chances to move a Rapunzel away from Corona using the Move Item or Ally action. That’s a good way to ensure that Rapunzel is never at Corona at the end of your turn.
What’s more is that after you’ve moved a Royal Guard, they stay in your Realm, just at a different location. So as you move each Royal Guard to The Forest, you can then choose to move them again to The Snuggly Duckling and then to Rapunzel’s Tower to keep Rapunzel even further away from Corona!
Play Royal Riders to opposite sides of the board
Royal Riders can be used in Vanquish actions at their location or at an adjacent location, so spread them out to both halves of your Realm so you’re defended.
Keep Rapunzel’s Tower free from Heroes
Using a Royal Guard that has marched back from Corona and a Royal Rider, you can keep Rapunzel’s Tower reasonably free from Heroes. The Move an Item or Ally action and the Fate action at the top of this location will massively help you to slow down your opponents and to keep moving your Royal Guards around your Realm!
Find the Hair Brush and use it often
Brushing Rapunzel’s hair with Hair Brush is an easy way to get Trust. It’s the only Item in your deck that will let you gain Trust over and over again.
Use the Discard Cards action to get rid of cards that aren’t immediately helpful to you to help you get through your deck faster and find the Hair Brush. It will pay you back!
Move the Hair Brush to Rapunzel’s location at every opportunity!
Cards to discard in the early game are Allies other than Royal Guards and any Effects or Conditions that don’t earn you Trust or move Rapunzel. You’ll do fine without them at the start of the game!
Every turn, Move Rapunzel towards Rapunzel’s Tower
This sounds obvious, but it’s very easy to take your eye off Rapunzel and before you know it she’s at Corona!
Instead, look to move Rapunzel back towards her tower on every single turn. Just make it part of what you do. Then, you’re not constantly on edge worrying about her getting closer and closer to Corona.
Prepare for the worst
While you’ll keep moving Rapunzel away from Corona every turn, at some point in the game, she might get there. Your Palace Guards will help you to deal with that, but so will having an emergency card in your hand to deal with it. Patchy and Sideburns Stabbington are ideal for this.
Maximize your gain Trust abilities
You need at least 10 Trust to win as Mother Gothel and there are only 11 cards in your Villain Deck that help you gain Trust. Some of these cards have multiple options on them, like Revenge for example, “Perform a Vanquish action. If you defeat a Hero other than Rapunzel, gain 1 Trust.”
Make sure you make the most of cards like this! With Revenge, use it to Vanquish any Hero that’s not Rapunzel. Don’t use it to Vanquish Rapunzel unless she’s at Corona and you absolutely have to!
Always, always use cards that can gain you Trust, to actually gain you Trust! You don’t have many of these cards so use them wisely!
Mother Gothel’s Villain Deck cards
Mother Gothel has 30 cards in her Villain deck. There are 16 different card designs.
Mother Gothel’s villain cards by type
In her 30 card deck, Mother Gothel has:
- 14 Effects (I Love You Most, Let Down Your Hair, Mother Knows Best, Misdirection, Now I’m The Bad Guy, Revenge, and What Once Was Mine).
- 9 Allies (Sideburn Stabbington, Patchy Stabbington, Royal Guards, and Royal Riders)
- 4 Conditions (Egomania and Duplicity)
- 3 Items (Crown, Hair Brush, and Knife)
Different cards have a different number of copies.
- Crown x 1
- Duplicity x 2
- Egomania x 2
- Hair Brush x 1
- I Love You Most x 2
- Knife x 1
- Let Down Your Hair x 2
- Misdirection x 2
- Mother Knows Best x 2
- Now I’m The Bad Guy x 2
- Patchy Stabbington x 1
- Revenge x 2
- Royal Rider x 2
- Royal Guard x 5
- Sideburns Stabbington x 1
- What Once Was Mine x 2
Mother Gothel’s cards by ability
Looking at Mother Gothel’s cards, the majority are associated with moving Rapunzel, which makes perfect sense seeing how you need to move Rapunzel towards Corona at the end of every turn!
There aren’t as many cards for gaining Trust as I expected to see, given that you need 10 Trust to win! With only 11 cards that gain your Trust, you really need to make the most use of them. Some of these gain Trust cards have multiple options, some of which will mean you miss the opportunity to earn Trust.
Move/Don’t move Rapunzel or Hero
Moving Rapunzel is so, so important. Not only will it keep her away from Corona, but it will help you to set up and maximize your gain Trust abilities.
Egomania
Number in deck: 2 | Card type: Condition
During their turn, if another player moves an Ally or Item, you may play Egomania. Move Rapunzel to Rapunzel’s Tower.
Conditions are, well, conditional. So the usefulness of Egomania depends on who you are playing against. If you’re playing against the other villains in Perfectly Wretched, Pete and Cruella, then Egomania is great because they both move Items and Allies regularly! It’s also very good for Hades, Jafar, and Ursula.
If you’re playing against a villain that doesn’t rely heavily on moving Items and Allies, then it’s not worth hanging onto Egomania.
Mother Knows Best
Number in deck: 2 | Power cost: 1 | Card type: Effect
At the end of this turn, do not move Rapunzel.
Mother Knows Best is a brilliant card to buy you some time and stop Rapunzel moving forward until you can deal with it.
But where it really shines is when Rapunzel is at Rapunzel’s Tower because then you can make the most of abilities that rely on her being there. Like Let Down Your Hair to gain 1 Trust, and I Love You Most which gains you 2 Trust if both Mother Gothel and Rapunzel are at the tower.
Now I’m the Bad Guy
Number in deck: 2 | Power cost: 0 | Card type: Effect
Move Rapunzel to Rapunzel’s Tower and lose 1 Trust.
“You want me to be the bad guy? Fine. Now I’m the bad guy.”
I think if you have plenty of Royal Guards at Corona and emergency cards in your hand to move her, you don’t need to ever use this. If you find yourself really stuck and you absolutely have to, then try to make it work for you so that you can get that Trust back quickly. Maybe move the Hair Brush to the Tower or move Mother Gotehl to the tower on your next turn and use I Love You Most.
Patchy Stabbington
Number in deck: 1 | Power cost: 3 | Strength: 5 | Card type: Hero
When Patchy Stabbington is played to Rapunzel’s location, you may move Rapunzel to Rapunzel’s Tower.
This is a nice bonus when playing Patchy Stabbington, but he’s quite an expensive Ally to play. You have cheaper cards that can move Rapunzel. In the early game, when you’re looking for the Hair Brush to start earning Trust reliably, you can discard him without too much concern. That’s if you have no Heroes in your Realm and other Move Rapunzel cards available.
When you do play Patchy, ideally play him at Corona when Rapunzel is there. Then you can use his play ability to move her back to Rapunzel’s Tower, and then on a later turn, you can use him to Vanquish Rapunzel to send her back to the tower again!
Royal Guard
Number in deck: 5 | Power cost: 1 | Strength: 2 | Card type: Ally
When Royal Guard is moved, you may move a Hero from Royal Guard’s previous location to his new location.
Royal Guards are absolutely central to your strategy to win as Mother Gothel. Play them all at Corona then you’ve got 5 chances to move Rapunzel away from there! Or if you’ve messed up and forgotten to go to a Move Item or Ally location, you can always use two of them to Vanquish Rapunzel and return her to her tower!
I love that as you Move Royal Guards during the game, they march through your Realm towards Rapunzel’s Tower. It means you can use each one of them 3 times to move Rapunzel toward Rapunzel’s tower! That’s a lot of moving!
Sideburns Stabbington
Number in deck: 1 | Power cost: 3 | Strength: 5 | Card type: Ally
When Sideburns Stabbington is played to Rapunzel’s location, you may move Rapunzel to Rapunzel’s Tower.
Just like his counterpart, Sideburns Stabbington is mainly useful for his ability to send Rapunzel Back to Rapunzel’s Tower. He’s pretty strong too so he can take care of tougher Heroes later in a game.
Gain Trust
There are only 11 of these in your deck and you need 10 Trust to win, so use them wisely!
Crown
Number in deck: 1 | Power cost: 1 | Card type: Item
When a Hero is defeated at this location, either gain 2 Power or discard Crown to gain 1 Trust.
As Mother Gothel, you won’t be short of Power so the most effective way to use Crown is to gain that 1 Trust! See it as paying 1 Power for 1 Trust.
You’ll obviously need to use an Ally too to defeat a Hero to get your 1 Trust, just try to use a Stabbington or a Royal Rider instead of a Palace Guard that you can use to move Rapunzel.
Hair Brush
Number in deck: 1 | Power cost: 1 | Card type: Item
When Hair Brush is played or moved to Rapunzel’s location, gain 1 Trust.
Hair Brush is super important! With so few cards in your villain deck that actually gain Trust, it’s amazing to have one that allows you to reuse it!
Look after Hair Brush and try to move it to Rapunzel’s location on every turn that you can. If it gets discarded by Aging from your Fate deck, use What Once Was Mine to get it back as soon as you can! Every turn without the Hair Brush in play is a lost opportunity to gain Trust!
I Love You Most
Number in deck: 2 | Power cost: 1 | Card type: Effect
If Mother Gothel and Rapunzel are at the same location, gain 1 Trust. If Mother Gothel and Rapunzel are at Rapunzel’s Tower, gain 1 additional Trust.
Try to save this card until you can gain 2 Trust from it by setting up Rapunzel and Mother Gothel. There is no rush to get that 1 Trust, unless you’re at 9 Trust and can win on your next turn!
Knife
Number in deck: 1 | Power cost: 1 | Strength: +2 | Card type: Item
When Knife is played, attach it to an Ally. That Ally gets +2 Strength. When that Ally is used to defeat Rapunzel, gain 1 Trust.
Nice! An Item that’s going to get you Trust. it’s a shame it’s discarded after 1 use. You could use What Once Was Mine to get it back from your discard, but it’s better to save that to get Hair Brush back. It will earn you more than just 1 Trust.
You can, of course, use Knife to strength a Royal Guard to make them tough enough to defeat Rapunzel. However, use it on a Royal Rider instead so that you don’t lose the Move ability on your Royal Guard!
Let Down Your Hair
Number in deck: 2 | Power cost: 1 | Card type: Effect
If Rapunzel is at Rapunzel’s Tower, gain 1 Trust. Otherwise, move Rapunzel up to two locations toward Rapunzel’s Tower.
Unless you’re absolutely desperate to get Rapunzel away from Corona because there are no Allies there or Royal Guards to defeat her, use this for the Trust gain!
Misdirection
Number in deck: 2 | Power cost: 1 | Card type: Effect
Move Rapunzel one location toward Corona and gain 1 Trust.
When I first saw this card I wondered why on earth you’d want to move Rapunzel towards Corona! But then I found myself using it!
When you’re well prepared to defeat or Move Rapunzel if she gets to Corona, then actually Misdirection isn’t a bad card to play. There are two of them in your deck so it’s a nice way to gain 2 Trust.
Revenge
Number in deck: 2 | Power cost: 1 | Card type: Effect
Perform a Vanquish action. If you defeat a Hero other than Rapunzel, gain 1 Trust.
You know who you’re going to use this on, don’t you? That’s right, anyone but Rapunzel! You want that 1 Trust!
Defeat a Hero
Heroes are going to show up in your Realm whether you like it or not. Turns out Rapunzel has friends! Who knew?!
Duplicity
Number in deck: 2 | Card type: Condition
During their turn, if another player defeats a Hero with a Strength of 3 or more, you may play Duplicity. Defeat a Hero with a Strength of 3 or less.
I don’t think Duplicity is worth hanging on to. Across the Villainous Fate decks, a significant number of Heroes are Strength 2. It’s much better to have cards in your hand that you can use when you choose to, rather than waiting on the moves of an opponent!
Plus, the reward for waiting isn’t that great with Duplicity. You can take care of your Strength 3 or less Heroes without this.
Royal Rider
Number in deck: 2 | Power cost: 2 | Strength: 3 | Card type: Ally
When performing a Vanquish action, Royal Rider may be used to defeat a Hero at his location or at an adjacent location.
Royal Riders are useful defenders. Place each of them on both sides of your Realm so you can Vanquish Heroes wherever they show up.
Get cards from Discard pile
What Once Was Mine
Number in deck: 2 | Power cost: 1 | Card type: Effect
Choose a card from your discard pile and put it into your hand.
This card was made for getting Hair Brush back! You need that Hair Brush card to keep getting Trust regularly, so save What Once Was Mine for Hair Brush.
Important cards in Mother Gothel’s Villain Deck
All the cards in Mother Gothel’s Villain Deck will help you to win. However, some cards are a lot more important than others.
Royal Guard
Royal Guards are your most important cards in controlling the movement of Rapunzel. Play them all at Corona and move them slowly towards Rapunzel’s Tower one location at a time, taking Rapunzel with them! Five guards can protect you from five lost Trust!
Hair Brush
Hair Brush is your Trust earner! Find it early and use it at every opportunity!
I Love You Most
The only card that will gain you 2 Trust in one turn. Make sure you use it to its maximum potential by setting up your turn to have Mother Gothel and Rapunzel at Rapunzel’s tower before you play it!
Let Your Hair Down
If you’re playing with your Royal Guards at Corona, you’d be unlucky to need to use this to Move Rapunzel. However, it is a good card to have in your hand just in case you’re in a desperate situation and might lose 1 Trust at the end of your turn.
Mother Knows Best
Fantastic for giving you time to set up your next to maximize cards like I Love You Most.
What Once Was Mine
Save this to recover the Hair Brush!
Mother Gothels’ Realm board
The layout of Mother Gothel’s board is a little different to other villains because she has more actions on the bottom of her Realm to make up for Rapunzel covering a lot of the top actions!
Rapunzel’s Tower
The 4 actions at Rapunzel’s Tower are: Move an Item or Ally, Fate, Play a Card, and Vanquish.
Rapunzel’s Tower is your only location with a Vanquish action so you’ll need to visit here to defeat Heroes unless you have Duplicity or Revenge to play.
It’s also the location Rapunzel will be at to gain you Trust bonuses so be prepared to only use the Play a card and Vanquish actions on those turns because the top two actions will be covered up by Rapunzel!
When Rapunzel isn’t hanging out in her tower, you can Move an Item or Ally and Fate opponents from here too. That Move an Item or Ally action is very helpful when you want to use a Royal Guard to move rapunzel back to this side of your Realm!
The Snuggly Duckling
The 4 actions at The Snuggly Duckling are: Play a Card, Gain 3 Power, Play a Card, and Discard cards.
Visit The Snuggly Duckling on your first turn so you can Gain 3 Power right away to give you options about what you play. It’s also ideal for your first turn because of that Discard Cards action. If you’ve got a handful of Conditions and strong Allies that you don’t need right now, get rid of them!
This location is also a reliable place to visit throughout the game because of its two Play a Card actions. Given that Mother Gothel’s cards are generally quite low cost, you can often pick up that 3 Power and afford to play two cards with it.
The Forest
The 4 actions at The Forest are: Play a Card, Gain 2 Power, Play a Card, and Move an Item or Ally.
The Forest is a great location because it lets you do the three things that are really important as Mother Gothel – gaining power, playing cards, and moving Allies and Items. Even if Rapunzel or another Hero is here, it doesn’t matter too much because it only blocks you from playing an extra card.
Corona
The 4 actions at Corona are: Gain 1 Power, Discard Cards, Play a Card, and Fate.
The actions at Corona are ok, not amazing. It’s the only place with a Fate action at the bottom of your Realm though, so that’s really useful if you notice your opponents are getting ahead!
While you’re there you can still play a card, get a Power and discard any cards that aren’t helpful. So they aren’t terrible actions, it’s just not as good as The Snuggly Duckling or The Forest.
Mother Gothel’s Fate deck cards
Mother Gothel’s Fate deck contains 15 cards of 11 different designs.
There are:
- 7 Effects (Aging, Everyone Has A Dream, and Floating Lights)
- 7 Heroes (Flynn Rider, Frying Pan, Hook Hand, Maximus, Pascal, Queen and King, Shorty, and Ulf)
- 1 Item (Frying Pan)
Different Fate cards have a different number of copies.
- Aging x 2
- Everyone Has A Dream x 3
- Floating Lights x 2
- Flynn Rider x 1
- Frying Pan x 1
- Hook Hand x 1
- Maximus x 1
- Pascal x 1
- Queen and King x 1
- Shorty x 1
- Ulf x 1
Of all the Fate decks in Villainous, I don’t think Mother Gothel’s is too bad. There are cards that will make you lose Trust, but there are only three Heroes with persistent abilities and none of them will prevent you from winning.
Aging
Number in deck: 2 | Card type: Effect
Discard an Ally or Item with a Cost of 2 or less from Mother Gothel’s Realm.
If your opponents are smart they will use Aging to get rid of Hair Brush! There are two Aging cards in your Fate deck so it’s a good job you have two copies of What Once Was Mine to get it back into your hand!
Just hope that Aging is played on Crown or Knife instead, or discarded before you have any Items in play!
Everyone Has A Dream
Number in deck: 3 | Card type: Effect
Mother Gothel loses 1 Trust.
Everyone Has A Dream is actually quite disruptive. Trust is quite hard to come by, so to have three cards in your Fate deck that just get rid of Trust is not great.
You won’t be able to replay the cards that earned you the Trust because they’ll be in your discard pile. But you can gain some of it back with Hair Brush!
Floating Lights
Number in deck: 2 | Card type: Effect
Move Rapunzel to Corona.
Ahh, so pretty! It must be Rapunzel’s birthday!
How annoying this card is depends on how prepared you are. If you’ve got Royal Guards at Corona, it’s no problem, you can just move Rapunzel on your next turn. If you’ve not got anything that can deal with Rapunzel at Corona, then you’ll need to use an Effect card to move her away or play an Ally to Vanquish her.
Flynn Rider
Number in deck: 1 | Strength: 4 | Card type: Hero
When Flynn Rider is played, Mother Gothel loses 2 Trust. When Flynn Rider is defeated Mother Gothel gains 2 Trust.
For the strongest Hero in your Fate deck, Flynn Rider’s ability is not too harsh. At least you can get back the 2 Trust he takes when you defeat him.
You’ll need a Stabbington or a Royal Guard or Royal Rider with a knife to Vanquish him.
Frying Pan
Number in deck: 1 | Strength: +1 | Card type: Item
When Frying Pan is played, attach it to a hero. That Hero gets +1 Strength.
If your opponents are smart they’ll give Frying Pan to Flynn Rider or Pascal because they both have abilities that have a lasting impact on you.
If it’s on Pascal, he’s still fairly easy to defeat. However, if Frying Pan is on Flynn Rider or Queen and King, then you’ve got a Strength 5 Hero to defeat which makes it trickier! Only a Stabbington can defeat them single-handed.
Hook Hand
Number in deck: 1 | Strength: 2 | Card type: Item
When Hook Hand is played, Mother Gothel discards a random card from her hand.
Hook Hand will mess with your plans and you’ll be hoping that you don’t discard a card that you actually want! But otherwise, he’s quite easy to recover from and defeat.
Maximus
Number in deck: 1 | Strength: 3 | Card type: Hero
When Maximus is played, you may move Royal Rider at his location to any other location.
Maximus isn’t too bad. If you’ve got a Royal Rider lined up to defeat a Hero in a specific location he can be annoying. Or worse, if a Royal Rider is all you have to stop Rapunzel from being at Corona at the end of your turn.
But, at least his ability isn’t persistent so you can carry on with your turns as normal afterward.
Pascal
Number in deck: 1 | Strength: 2 | Card type: Hero
When Rapunzel moves to Pascal’s location, move her one location toward Corona.
The absolute worst location Pascal can be played to is Rapunzel’s Tower. If he’s there, it means that you won’t ever be able to set your turns up to get the Trust benefits from Let Your Hair Down and I Love You most. That’s a potential of 4 Trust you’ll miss out on.
If he’s played to any other location he will still make you work harder to keep Rapunzel away from Corona.
Pascal is worth defeating.
Queen and King
Number in deck: 1 | Strength: 4 | Card type: Hero
If Queen and King are played to Rapunzel’s location, Mother Gothel loses 1 Trust.
Another Trust loss card. Ugh. Well, at least it’s only one!
Depending on where Queen and King are played, you might choose to leave them there.
If they are at The Forest or The Snuggly Duckling, they’ll be covering a Play a Card action. But these locations have another Play a Card action that you can still use. So it might be worth hanging onto your Allies instead of using them to defeat Queen and King.
Shorty
Number in deck: 1 | Strength: 2 | Card type: Hero
If Shorty is played to Mother Gothel’s location, you may move Mother Gothel to any location.
Your opponents are unlikely to know what you have planned on your next turn so there is a 1/4 chance that they will move Mother Gothel to the location you wanted to move her to yourself. Then you’ll just have to move her to a different location instead.
So most of the time, Shorty won’t interfere with your plans at all. Covering the actions at the top of your board is more annoying most of the time!
Ulf
Number in deck: 1 | Strength: 2 | Card type: Hero
Allies may not be moved from Ulf’s location.
If you’re lining all your Royal Guards up at Corona, guess where you don’t want Ulf? Yep at Corona.
Unfortunately, you’ll need to Vanquish him wherever he’s played because you need the flexibility to be able to move a Royal Guard from and to anywhere.
How to stop Mother Gothel from winning Disney Villainous
Any card that causes Mother Gothel to lose Trust or takes away her ability to control Rapunzel’s and her Ally’s movements is annoying for her! So use these Fate cards to annoy Mother Gothel!
Move Rapunzel towards Corona
At the end of Mother Gothel’s turn, she needs to move Rapunzel forward one location towards Corona. If at the end of Mother Gothel’s turn, Rapunzel is already at Corona so she can’t be moved on, Mother Gothel loses one Trust. The more times you can do this, the better for you!
Floating Lights will help you do this!
Make sure Mother Gothel Moves Rapunzel
When you play as Mother Gothel, it’s very easy to forget to move Rapunzel at the end of every turn. Not because you’re trying to get an advantage, just because you forget!
The problem is, in forgetting to move Rapunzel, Mother Gothel gets an advantage! So make sure that Mother Gothel actually moves Rapunzel at the end of every turn!
Discard the Hairbrush with Aging
Hair Brush is the only Item in her Villain deck that allows her to gain Trust over and over again. Discard it if you can with Aging! if she gets it back from her discard pile, discard it again!
Get rid of Hair Brush instead of playing Heroes. It will hugely slow her down.
Play Ulf to Corona
The Royal Guards in Mother Gothel’s deck are very useful Allies. When they are moved from one location to another, Mother Gothel can move any Hero in her Realm with them.
To get the most benefit from Royal Guards, Mother Gothel will play them to Corona. By Playing Ulf there, you block a key part of her strategy to Move Rapunzel!
Play Pascal to Rapunzel’s Tower
Mother Gothel has several cards that give her Trust bonuses if Rapunzel is at Rapunzel’s Tower. Play Pascal to Rapunzel’s Tower so that Rapunzel can never be there!
Attach Frying Pan to Pascal or Ulf
Pascal and Ulf both have persistent abilities that hinder Mother Gothel as long as they are in her Realm. But they both have a low Strength of 2 so they are easy to defeat. With Frying Pan, they’ll be Strength 3 which makes them a little more difficult to defeat!
Conclusion – Mother Gothel strategy for Disney Villainous
To win as Mother Gothel, use this strategy:
- Find the Hair Brush early and use it at every opportunity.
- Move Rapunzel back towards Corona on every turn.
- Play Royal Guards to Corona so you have multiple chances to move Rapunzel away from there.
- Play the cards with bonuses at Rapunzel’s Tower only when you have set them up first.
Mother Gothel is a cool villain to play as. To me, she feels like a very active villain – moving Rapunzel, moving Allies, and dishing out Effects to change the lay of the land. You don’t stand still for a moment!
Villainous is such an awesome game! The only thing that lets it down is the flimsy plastic cauldron. But you can get an upgraded Villainous cauldron with power tokens on Etsy! It even fits in the Villainous base game box!
For more Villainous upgrade inspiration see my article – 7 Wicked Disney Villainous Upgrades and Accessories!
If you found this Mother Gothel strategy guide helpful, check out my guides for the other Disney Villainous characters – Captain Hook, Jafar, the Queen of Hearts, Maleficent, Prince John, Ursula, Dr Facilier, Evil Queen, Hades, Scar, Yzma, Ratigan, Cruella De Vil, and Pete.
You can also see my thoughts on the base game theming and difficulty rankings in my Villainous character overview.
You may also like these Disney Villainous articles
- 7 Wicked Disney Villainous Upgrades and Accessories
- Captain Hook strategy guide
- Cruella strategy guide
- Dr Facilier strategy guide
- Evil Queen strategy guide
- Hades strategy guide
- Jafar strategy guide
- Maleficent strategy guide
- Pete strategy guide
- Prince John strategy guide
- Queen of Hearts strategy guide
- Ratigan strategy guide
- Scar strategy guide
- Ursula strategy guide
- Yzma strategy guide
- Villainous review
- Villainous characters overview and rank
Emily
Hi, I’m Emily, the tabletop gamer behind My Kind of Meeple. If this article helped you, I’d be honoured if you’d say, “Thanks!” with a £3 coffee on Ko-fi.
