Lorcana: Fabled's Starter Decks Review + Upgrades!

Hello, everyone!

With the release of the 9th set, Fabled, in early September, we'll also have two new Starter Decks!

Starter Decks are excellent for beginners, as they provide a ready-to-play deck, and they usually focus on simpler mechanics, which is a great help for those just starting out in Lorcana. What's more, they come with a booster pack, which is a great way to kickstart your collection!

As usual, we'll introduce the decks, strategies, and game plans, and suggest an improved list, combining two Starter Decks and some easy-to-find cards from sets legal in Core Constructed.

If you'd like to check out our reviews of Starter Decks from previous sets, here are the links:

- Archazia’s Island Starter Decks

- Reign of Jafar Starter Decks

Fabled features two new Starter Decks, in two different ink combinations: Emerald-Ruby and Amber-Sapphire.

Emerald-Ruby

The Emerald-Ruby deck is quite interesting, focusing on characters from A Goofy Movie, and featuring synergies around songs and singers.

Furthermore, it also has a secondary focus around the Evasive ability, indirectly protecting its characters. Likewise, it also features characters with the Ward ability, increasing this protection subtheme.

Generally speaking, it's a deck that aims to develop cheap characters with good Lore generation—especially Roxanne - Powerline Fan—and contest the opponent's board with songs like Mother Knows Best and Be King Undisputed.

Alternatively, it will also protect its own characters with Stand Out or You Can Fly! and make positive trades (i.e., when a character that cost little ink removes a character that the opponent invested a lot of ink in). Improvise, Megara - Pulling the Strings and Donald Duck - Sleepwalker are examples of this.

Suggested Upgrades - Emerald-Ruby

As usual with Lorcana's Starter Decks, there's always a main theme which ends up somewhat diluted among several subthemes. This brings variety to the deck (a great thing for beginners!), but it also creates consistency issues, as it won't always be easy to execute the deck's main plan.

Therefore, our suggested upgrades involves focusing on synergies with songs, and consequently, with Singer characters! In fact, characters with Singer in Emerald and Ruby are a somewhat new addition, starting with Fabled, so the deck is very much in line with the new set's design.

Here's our suggested upgraded list:

As you can see, we've maximized all the Singer characters, as well as the songs—we went from twelve songs in the original list to sixteen in the new list.

The overall main plan remains the same, with Lore generation like Roxanne - Powerline Fan and Kuzco - Temperamental Emperor backed up by Powerline - Taking the Stage and Max Goof - Rockin' Teen, since they're able to sing the songs to disrupt the opponent's board.

Our additions from outside the deck include another cheap song, Sudden Chill, which greatly helps with some deck synergies, such as Max Goof - Rebellious Teen and Powerline - Musical Superstar. Another important addition is Hypnotic Deduction, which not only provides some card draw to the deck, but also manipulates the top card, so you always know what you'll hit with Powerline - World's Greatest Rock Star—without a doubt, the best card in the deck.

An important reminder: the list has ten non-inkable cards, but they can be recycled with Bobby Zimuruski - Spray Cheese Kid, so remember to save your 1-Drop, which can be useful even in a longer game!

Amber-Sapphire

The Amber-Sapphire list features a very cool combination of two themes: Princesses and Heal Effects. These themes are very synergistic, as most Princess cards already come with heal effects attached.

Aurora - Holding Court is one of the most important cards in the early turns, speeding up the game to bring princesses more quickly to your board. The healing abilities of Jasmine - Heir of Agrabah, Rapunzel - Sunshine, Cinderella - Gentle and Kind, and especially Julieta Madrigal - Excellent Cook, will keep your board intact and, in the case of Julieta, even draw extra cards!

Some cards help you manipulate your deck, so you can find the right answers to your opponent's board: The Queen - Mirror Seeker, Mulan - Considerate Diplomat, and Dig a Little Deeper. If you have a giant character bothering you, look for World's Greatest Criminal Mind; if you face several small characters, go for Lost in the Woods.

To cash in on the heal theme, Grand Pabbie - Oldest and Wisest is a way to turn all healing effects into Lore. This way, you end up with another path to victory, besides the Princesses themselves.

Suggested Upgrades - Amber-Sapphire

As already mentioned, when analyzing Starter decks it's common to find a lot of subthemes, which brings a strategical variety to the deck, but also impacts a consistent performance.

Once again, our improvements aim to focus on the main theme, in this case, Princesses, and thus develop a game plan based on the synergies between them.

Here's our suggested upgraded list:

The goal was to maximize all Princess-type characters—we went from twenty-five in the original list to thirty-two in the new list!

This makes the deck's main plan much more consistent: quickly establish board presence, preferably with a turn 1 Aurora - Holding Court. Once you have a few Princesses in play, other characters will provide more advantages, such as Beast - Gracious Prince and Hans - Noble Scoundrel. Other defensive characters, such as Nani - Protective Sister and Julieta Madrigal - Excellent Cook, will also be more effective.

As for the songs, Be Our Guest and Look at This Family help you find any needed characters, and with two copies of Ariel - Singing Mermaid, we don't need to invest as many characters to sing.

Finally, our small additions were three copies of Four Dozen Eggs, so we can protect a wide board, and two copies of Hide Away, to deal with problematic Locations and Items.

It's worth noting that we didn't include Moana - Of Motunui in the list, as it's a Rare card and therefore a little less accessible. However, there's no doubt that Moana is a massive upgrade for any Princess-themed deck, so if it's in your budget, consider four copies of it in the list—probably in place of four Aurora - Regal Princess.

These were our reviews and upgrades to Fabled's Starter Decks!

Again, it's worth remembering that our upgrades were aimed at new players, so we went for simpler additions, only a few cards, and always common or uncommon, which are easier to find. The idea is for the lists to be a starting point for beginners to continue developing their deck, while also providing a clear path to deckbuilding improvements.

Please, leave your feedbacks and suggestions in the comments - what other changes would you make to the lists?

Cheers and see you next time!