Deck Guide: Sapphire-Steel Items - Lorcana's new Bogeyman?

Hello, everyone!

The new set, Archazia's Island, was released less than a week ago, and already we see a lot of different decks adapting within the metagame.

One list that got a lot of attention in this first week brought a package of new cards, especially those that interact with items. As we already mentioned in our article analyzing the set, many cards interacted with items in a lot of new ways, and some players were already able to innovate and brew an archetype that has shown good results - good enough for some pros in the community declare that this deck would be the new driving force of the metagame!

Let's analyze this new Sapphire-Steel Items!

Decklist and Gameplan

Although there are several versions and variations of the archetype, we will showcase the list used by Jeremy Bertarioni to win the 10-Case South Side Gaming event, in the USA - a tournament with almost 140 players!

At first glance, this list may seem strange - have you ever seen a Sapphire deck that doesn't use ramp cards like Sail the Azurite Sea or How Far I'll Go? Or a Steel deck without A Whole New World or Mr. Smee - Bumbling Mate?

Well, there's a first time for everything! The items archetype needs to give up some staples in their ink colors to make room for other cards that, although in a vacuum are inferior in power level, in the context of the deck end up being more important due to their synergies!

Basically, the idea of ​​the deck is to abuse interactions with items - play them for free, use them to play characters for free, banish them to draw cards and even use them to obtain the necessary Lore and win the game - sometimes in one go!

Some key cards brought by the new set solved a serious issue that plagued the archetype: if you use your available ink at the beginning of the game to play items, you invariably give up control of the board - since opponents would be investing their ink in characters and thus be ahead in tempo. Now the deck has some solid characters to play in the first few turns, and thus make a better transition between the early and late phases of the game.

Let's analyze the list in more detail and identify the role of each card:

Beginning turns - Establishing characters AND items

Right away we see two new cards in action!

Belle - Apprentice Inventor and Scrooge McDuck - Resourceful Miser have proven to be the solution to the early game problems of the items deck. Although they don't have any special effects after they are played - Belle is basically a vanilla 3/3, while Scrooge is a 4/4 that maybe draws a card when played -, the fact that they can be played since the very first turn - in the case of Belle - or even in later turns without using ink, gives the archetype a tempo advantage like the game has never seen until now.

Also, having 3 or 4-cost characters early, without having to invest heavily in ink, also influences the use of some excellent Steel board control cards, such as the ones we will see next!

Board Control

It's not a coincidence that all of the above cards are Songs, because they are meant to take advantage of higher-cost characters that you can play early, such as Belle and Scrooge! In a perfect scenario, if you play a 1-cost item on your first turn and banish it to play Belle for free, by turn 2 you will be able to deal with almost any threat from your opponent, by using Belle to sing Let the Storm Rage On.

This way, the deck can actively answer more aggressive archetypes, that focus on wide boards with small characters. However, it also has the tools to prevail in a longer game, thanks to some cards that can generate immense value:

Playing for the lategame - Card Draw and Lore Gain

Once again, we see characters with item synergies, in addition to some items themselves that put the deck far ahead in terms of card and Lore advantage once the game reaches the final turns.

Hiram and the two versions of Tamatoa use items directly - both in play or in the discard pile - to generate value, either by drawing extra cards or gaining Lore. Hiram is the perfect threat to play in the midgame, when players are around 4-7 ink, as it is very difficult for the opponent to stop his Quest without falling too far behind at the board.

Similarly, Tamatoa - So Shiny! is a threat that must be answered immediately, or it will win the game by itself in 1 or 2 turns. The difficult part of answering Tamatoa or Hiram is the fact that, just by being played, they already draw cards, so the opponent always falls behind in these exchanges.

Speaking of items, Maurice’s Workshop takes even more advantage of the deck’s item package, allowing its owner to accumulate more and more extra cards for a low cost - just ONE ink per item. Lucky Dime also has the same role, just replacing the word cards with Lore - Scrooge's coin is one of the deck’s best win conditions!

This set of cards is the engine that keeps the deck's value plays running, transitioning from the early to the late turns of the game. But there are some cards that further reinforce this strategy, and also give the archetype an almost combo deck angle:

The Combo Side of the Deck

Oswald is an important piece that really speeds up the deck's plan.

Using basic math, considering that the deck has 20 items among its 60 cards, Oswald's chance of a hit is approximately 33%. Since the deck is capable of putting more than one card in the inkwell every turn - and Oswald has no limit on how many times the ability can be used -, it will often be possible to extract more value from Oswald - The Lucky Rabbit than one might imagine.

Even without the little rabbit, the ink acceleration cards - all in Sapphire - help to bridge the gap between the early and late game, allowing bigger characters like Tamatoa - both versions! - to be played as soon as possible.

Rounding out the list

Last - but not least! -, we have some slight disruption with Pete - Games Referee, which ideally will be played after you set up your board, in order to ensure that your opponent will have a hard time answering everything - no Be Prepared, no Brawl, and even no A Pirate’s Life that could mess up Lore counts.

There is no doubt that the power level brought by Archazia’s Island will affect the competitive metagame - the set has a mix of strong cards, innovative designs and, for the first time in the game, multicolored cards.

Of course, the first weeks of every new set are also a moment of testing and mixed results, since most lists are not yet optimized. There is also the fact that certain strategies find weak spots on the previously established metagame, and thus give the impression that new archetypes are unbeatable. Well, if one continues to play the same decks while the entire metagame around them adapts and changes, it will certainly give the impression that everything new is impossible to beat.

The items deck is one of the frontrunners of the new set, since after all it uses no less than eleven new cards - it's behind only to the second set, Rise of the Floodborn, with nineteen cards. This is an archetype that had been for a few sets on the fringe of being competitive, and it is great to see that it has received enough support to break through in the metagame.

We will continue to monitor more results with Archazia’s Island, and let's hope that new decks continue to appear and stand out!

And you, which deck do you think deserves a highlight in this first week of the new set? Did any interaction catch your eye? Share it with us!

Hugs and see you next time!