Trickster

Tricksters are villains that often appear to be more of an annoying nuisance instead of an outright fearsome and brutish adversary. A Trickster villain can and will take on many forms of deception, from disguised con artists to mischievous imps with a sense of thrill and duping delight. These crafty villains enjoy concocting ruses, pulling pranks, engage in hoaxes, cheat the trust of others to get ahead of them, devise schemes to deceive the unsuspecting public for self-serving purposes, create misleading traps/setups to take advantage of their prey, or just generally relish in screwing with the hero(es/ines) by playing tricks on them with some mind games or mischief (oftentimes doing it for the fun of getting under someone's skin and driving their victims insane), which they do more so often rather than doing anything typically violent since they're schemers and trickery is their expertise.

Adventures with trickster-type villains tend to be light and comedy-oriented, and the hero typically finds a way to defeat them non-violently (or given the storytelling, having the heroes foil these villains by duping and outsmarting them in an equally deceptive and unpredictable if not more clever way if the heroes also happen to be sly tricksters themselves). Sometimes, there can be a lesson learned from the trickster, even if it's unintentional; the best example of such a character is Mister Mxyzptlk, who torments several heroes in the DC Comics Universe, especially Superman.

Other times, however, they are dangerous and serious villains that can deploy very sneaky tactics, random plans of chaos and deceptive techniques in order to fool other people, their foes and/or the heroes, as well as breaking and defying rules to get an advantage over others in deceitful and wily ways. In fact, Pure Evils can be tricksters as long as they have no redeeming qualities to show that they are destructive and cataclysmic in their series of ruses and be taken fully seriously to show that they are no laughing matter compared to your average trickster. They can also rely on deception on their opponents whenever it's necessary, even if it means inflicting harm and pain onto people and benefit themselves. (ex. Bill Cipher, Dr. Facilier, William Wharton, Gary Smith, John Ratcliffe, the mainstream Joker, Judge Claude Frollo, Judge Doom, Judge Holden, Zeus from the Greek saga of God Of War, Aku)

NOTE: Not to be confused with liars who trick others; this page is just for villains who fit the Trickster archetype.