Updated Deck Guide - Amber Steel Songs

Hello, everyone!

With the end of the Continental Championships season - if you weren't able to catch up, we analyzed the results from both the European Championship and the North American Championship - we enter the season of Set Championships for the Azurite Sea set!

The Set Championships are tournaments that look to reward local game stores within Lorcana's Organized Play, and are an important competitive experience, especially for those who are taking their first steps in events for this card game.

With that in mind, today we will review and update the list of one of the most popular archetypes in Lorcana, the famous Amber Steel Songs. Let's go!

Understanding the deck

First of all, we need to understand what the deck's game plan is like, that is, what makes it work. Some ideas here had already been mentioned in our first article about the deck, but It is always worth refining and remembering some concepts.

Amber Steel Songs, as the name suggests, is a deck that makes use of Songs, one of the most unique mechanics in Lorcana, to create a tempo advantage in the game. Let's explain this idea a little further:

A game of Lorcana is initially defined by the development of your inkwell, that is, the resources you use to play your cards. Once per turn, you can transform a card in your hand into ink, and thus progressively increase the amount of ink available every turn to make your plays.

The Songs are cards that have the potential to break the ink parity between you and your opponent, because when a character is used to sing the song, you are saving ink, which thus allows you to make more plays in the same turn.

Imagine, for example, the following scenario: your opponent starts the game, inks a card and passes. Your turn, you also ink a card, play your first character - Cinderella - Ballroom Sensation - and pass. Your opponent makes a second ink and a character like Flynn Rider - Frenemy and passes.

On your second turn, you make your second ink and use Cinderella to sing Let The Storm Rage On, removing Flynn Rider from the board. Then, use the two available inks to play another character, for example Ursula - Vanessa. In other words, in the second turn, you were able to make two plays against just one from your opponent, thanks to the song mechanic!

It is through these small turn-by-turn advantages that Amber Steel Songs takes the initiative in games and is thus able to control the board using little ink. This way, you end up playing more characters turn by turn, and with that you grow in Lore quickly until you reach 20 for victory.

Why is it a good choice for a Set Championship?

Traditionally, Set Championships tend to feature many more decks aimed at winning *quickly” - that is, focused on cheap characters that generate a lot of Lore. Classic examples would be Lilo - Making a Wish or Maleficent - Biding Her Time. The idea is usually to combine these characters with other defensive characters, such as Simba - Protective Cub or Donald Duck - Musketeer Soldier, among others.

Amber Steel Songs has an excellent matchup against these aggressive decks, as it has several responses in the first turns for fast characters and also plays more robust characters itself when it reaches the midgame.

Furthermore, the song deck also adapts against more controlish opponents, with a plan to exchange resources and use songs to preserve their own characters on the board, forcing control to waste time to retake it.

Finally, decks that attack the opponent's hand, usually focused on Diablo - Devoted Herald and others, may have difficulty maintaining characters to combat the Amber Steel Songs board, as well as the deck's draw power thanks to the song A Whole New World.

In short, the deck is a good choice for a more diverse metagame like the Set Championships, due to its ability to play well against the most varied archetypes!

Analyzing decklists and card choices

Let's begin showing Shawn Leung's decklist, with which he made Top8 of the NA Continental Championship:

It is important to keep in mind that the list was designed based on the metagame expected for the NA Continental, so be careful not to just copy/paste it to your event!

Let's talk a little about the role of each card and analyze some possible variations:

The Deck's Core - Songs and Singers

The cards above make up the main pieces of the deck's engine, and it's unlikely you'll see a list that doesn't have 4x of each one.

In particular, Cinderella and Ariel, since they are the most efficient Singers for the archetype. Cinderella is, to date, the only 1-cost character with the Singer ability in the game, and Ariel is also unique in that it allows you to search for a song card among the 4 at the top of the deck - in practice, it draws you a card.

The 3-cost songs are essential for the deck's early board control as we pointed out earlier, and A Whole New World is what allows the deck's most absurd turns, when around midgame you use a character to sing and this way you get seven new cards in your hand, with all your ink available.

Supporting our Strategy - other singers and effects

These characters give consistency to the plan around songs, since not every game you will get a starting hand with Cinderella or Ariel.

Ursula and Gaston are Singer alternatives with good stats, while Prince Naveen is a somewhat double usage of ink in the same turn in which it is played.

Rapunzel is a card that can also be considered essential for the strategy - in fact, this is more to do with how absurdly efficient this character is within Amber ink. However, it is also one of the most expensive cards on the secondary market, especially because it is from the first set of Lorcana, The First Chapter. In case you have some real difficulty getting your copies, a possible replacement would be Julieta Madrigal - Excellent Cook - but let's be clear, Rapunzel has a much superior effect, and this replacement would be for purely budget reasons!

Finally, Ariel - Sonic Warrior is a character option with great stats and can further help with board control for longer games. It is also important as an answer after you replenish the opponent's hand with your A Whole New World, as it will respond to the opponent's new threats making your songs generate even more value.

Other supports and interactions

These characters put the finishing touch on the deck, combining some important effects and interactions depending on what you're playing against.

Daisy Duck and Mr. Smee are important Lore generators, although Daisy Duck is riskier to use given that, as we explained, Set Championships tend to be metagames with more aggressive decks. Some recent lists replace Daisy Duck with Simba - Future King, to not only improve the number of inkable cards but also to filter your hand when looking for some specific card for the game.

Lawrence and Pete are the 3-cost cards that will help, respectively, with challenges against opposing characters - notice the synergy between Lawrence and Rapunzel! - while Pete mainly serves to protect your board from the opponent's removals, especially Be Prepared.

When filling the slot for character with a starting version and the Shift version, the choice for The Queen - Commanding Presence instead of Robin Hood - Champion of Sherwood is due to the 2 cost of Queen against the 3 cost of Robin Hood. It is more efficient in board control, and against an opponent with a slow deck it forces a very quick response, since on top of that it also generates 2 Lore with its quest. It ends up, indirectly, being a kind of Singer too, since if you start with the 1-cost Queen and Shift her on turn 2, you can also sing any of the songs in the deck.

Our suggested list for Set Championship

Taking everything we discussed so far into consideration, this is the list we recommend for your next Set Championship:

We tried to combine the ideas presented here in the article, and some small changes to the Continental NA Top8 list.

Simba - Future King takes the place of Daisy Duck - Donald's Date due to the number of uninkable cards in the deck and because we expect more aggro decks in store tournaments;

The Bare Necessities complements the hand-disruption package besides Pete - Games Referee, and is an inkable song if necessary. It also has a low cost and can be used to protect a strong character like The Queen - Commanding Presence.

Finally, we added another copy of Lilo - Escape Artist, as it interacts well with Simba - Future King!

Conclusion

When all's said and done, Amber Steel Songs stands out in the Lorcana metagame for being a very adaptable deck, and for focusing on one of the game's unique mechanics.

On top of that, it's extremely fun to play, especially because it brings some of Disney's famous and favorite songs to your game table.

So, what did you think of our suggested list? Have you ever played a Set Championship, and happened to play with a Songs deck? What was your list like? Share with us!

Hugs and see you next time!