Trickmaster

The Trickmaster is a Heartless boss from Kingdom Hearts, Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, and Kingdom Hearts coded. It is one of the bosses at Wonderland.

Kingdom Hearts
The sneaky Trickmaster was a Heartless that Sora and his friends encountered in Wonderland while searching for the missing Alice. Throughout most of the adventure in Wonderland, Trickmaster is referred to as the shadows or as the darkness (especially by the Cheshire Cat).

Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories
Trickmaster briefly appears as a figment of Sora's memory. It stole the Queen's memory, and she accused Alice of the crime.

The Trickmaster also appears to Riku, as a figment of his memory and a representation of the darkness within him.

Kingdom Hearts coded
It seems he is the source of the Bug Block corruption and is the one who stole everyone's memories in Wonderland.

Design
A Trickmaster is a bizarre Heartless with spindly legs resembling scissor jacks, arms that appear and sound like they're made of paper, and a head that is made of several segments balanced of top of each other. Each of these segments sports its own face—though all of the faces have the same glowing yellow eyes and jagged mouths—and they alternate in color from red to black. Its arms are black and it often juggles clubs with zig-zagging, purple and lavender stripes on them. It wears black armor with large, red shoulder pads, a black codpiece, and has a very thin and small red body. The upper halves of its legs are red, while their lower halves are black. Its feet are black, flat, and curl at the tips. Much of its upper body and head sport gold highlights.

In Kingdom Hearts Final Mix, the red sections of the Trickmaster's body becomes lavender, the black sections become red-violet, save for its arms, which become a dark shade of steel blue. Its clubs becomes striped with black and white, and its feet and the gold tinges on its body and head both become yellow with a slight green tint.

The Trickmaster's name references the Heartless's ability to skilfully juggle its clubs in its hands while attacking.

Kingdom Hearts
In battle, the Trickmaster uses its juggling batons and its size to attack opponents. It can also light them on fire to increase attack power or blow fireballs from them. On a lesser note, it has been shown to be an expert acrobat and juggler, as it can perform somersaults with ease and constantly juggles throughout its battles.

This tall boss monster can only be fought while Sora and the others are small, and its immense size is the only advantage it needs. Physical damage is the way to go in this fight - hop onto the table and attack its head for best results. When the Trickmaster goes and lights its juggling sticks at the stove (using the Fire spell on it also causes them to light, and damage from a lit stick is doubled).

The Trickmaster's weak spot is located high on its chest, and so can only be hit with aerial combos or from an elevated position. Occasionally, it will collapse, which is the perfect opportunity for some quick combos. It will also drop HP orbs that can be useful. Get as many hits in as possible, as it will soon regain its height.

Attacks:
 * Juggler's Mangle - He will swipe at Sora with his batons
 * Stew Pot - A non damaging move. He will waltz to the stove and reignite his batons.

Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories
One of the best ways to beat Trickmaster is to have plenty of Fire cards in your deck. It is helpful if they are high numbers, therefore making them successful without a combo. However, it is not imperative to have them so. When the battle begins, you will start on the table so you should make use of it. Jump and attack him either with a high attack card or combination of lower attack cards. Most likely the first card in the combo will not hit him, so make sure the last two cards are pretty high, ergo making them prone to success (don't worry about jumping if you happen to be on the ground, lock on, and Sora will automatically try to get up there, and as he does that, he swings, skipping the first card). Make sure you don't use the combos too often, as you will run out of cards. Sleights won't be really helpful since they take place on the ground. In any case, make sure you don't accidentally activate one, wasting your cards.

Now, after a while, the table will go away. Not a big deal; it's actually easier to avoid some of its fire attacks on the ground. The only attack you have to beware of is the area-wide ground attack, as the Trickmaster throws his batons in the air and brings them down again. In order to avoid this attack, try jumping. Now, unload those fire cards. Stock them in sets of three, to activate Firaga, or two, in which case make the last card a magic refill card. This does a load of damage, and as long as you are locked on, the fire will track him down. It is a definite hit and does massive damage. Activate the Red Nocturne card to boost your Fire power.

Make sure you balance out your combos with the Fire cards. Try using individual attack cards as well. Shortcutting the Cure card will always be helpful, but remember to look at the Trickmaster's card to be sure your Cure card is higher than his. Jumping on the table is somewhat hard, but it is a good time to Cure and replenish your deck, especially when he executes the big ground attack. You avoid it automatically if you are on the table.

Reverse/Rebirth
If you happen to have picked Wonderland for Basement five and above, tough luck: no matter how much AP you seem to have, you are reduced to seventeen cards - namely the enemy cards and Soul Eater cards numbered one to five. The occasional six to zero cards will only appear in the form of a King Mickey friend card, so you might have a hard time breaking the Trickmaster's attacks. For this, you are recommended to be in Level 50 or above. Unlike the first Kingdom Hearts, its batons are automatically lit, and will remain lit throughout the battle, so be on your guard.

The best way to get around this is by several Card Duels. Note that most Duel Sleights involve breaking cards numbered three, four and five (particularly Impulse). If you successfully transform into Dark Mode, this is a plus. Dodge the Trickmaster as much as you can, and if you do not have enough cards to parry the Trickmaster's attacks, do not stand on the table. If you have finished the Halloween Town episode before Wonderland, save the Oogie Boogie card for emergencies only.

First battle
In the first battle, you need only dodge his fire attacks or guard it, when he sends out a collection of fireballs, dodgeroll to the side in quick movement or you can guard it. He may send a single fireball once or twice which can be guarded and can also be dodged. Make sure to follow him around the battle area and keep shooting the orbs of energy, or you can use the lock on to fire five at one time that can't miss. In no time he'll fall.

Second battle
In the second battle, you will be fighting it along with the damage blocks it summons, they may include prize blocks as well, make sure to use these. In this part, it'll use a new move, it'll summon balls of fire energy that will bounce and eventually break, you can shoot these with the orbs of energy to break much faster. It will also use the moves in the first battle. You can predict what move it'll use by the glow of it's batons. If they glow red, it's going to use the fire attacks. If they glow purple, it'll summon obstacles. However most of this battle is avoiding the obstacles it sends out, you'll be able to finish him quickly.

Third battle
In the third battle, it will use all of its moves from both the first and second battle. This is also the last battle against it. Keep using the same strategy of hitting it with the orbs of energy. Make sure to avoid its attacks as well, and keep your concentration, it might change the screen direction. You can still predict what move it'll use by the glow of it's batons. If they glow red, it's going to use the fire attacks. If they glow purple, it'll summon obstacles. And if it glows a lighter shade of purple, with a red core, it means it's going to jump and flip the scenery. The Trickmaster may also make himself catch on fire, and throw flaming rocks at you, they home in on you, but you can dodge them with Dodge Roll.