Lorcana: Deck and Deckbuilding Guide - Amethyst-Steel Illusions!

Hello everyone!

On October 4th, I'll reach a very special milestone: one full year since I started writing Lorcana articles!

It's been a wonderful and very fun journey! Lorcana is undoubtedly one of the most interesting card games available, with several features that make it unique—in addition, of course, to being a Disney card game, and the entire magical universe behind it.

It also gives me watery eyes when I look back at my first article and recent ones, and I realize how the game's content has diversified: we've had deck guides, rotations, news, spoilers for new sets, competitive analysis, reports from major events… a little bit of everything!

In today's article, I'll address something that's often asked, especially by newer players: how do I build a deck? What do I need for a successful list?

So, let's do a mix of deck guide and beginner's guide, and tackle an Amethyst-Steel list that's a bit different for the current metagame, focusing on Illusion-type characters! Let's go!

To start off, it's always important to consider what exactly we're looking for with the new deck: is it a theme deck? Are we going to use characters from a specific Disney movie? Or is it a more specific game theme, such as an ability, a card type, or even a subtype?

Once the theme is defined, we then have to choose ink colors. In Lorcana, you can use up to two different colors. Many themes are already restricted to two colors, which makes this step much easier, but sometimes the cards are somewhat scattered among the colors, and you'll need to make some decisions: which ink brings the best cards or combinations for the archetype? What support cards do you have access to, and works best for the idea you've developed?

Now let's tie it all up with an example: today's deck idea began with a theme around Illusion-type characters. Illusions' main advantage is their excellent stats and abilities versus their low ink cost. However, they also have a weakness: the Vanish ability, which causes them to be banished if the opponent plays something that chooses them - even if it's beneficial!

If we used all existing cards with this subtype, and the maximum 4 copies of each, we still wouldn't have enough to complete 60 cards. Therefore, we need to look at the best support cards available. Fortunately, not only there are several ones, but they are also concentrated in two ink colors: Amethyst and Steel.

With that in mind, we choose Amethyst and Steel as our inks, and the basis of our Illusion-themed deck. Since the main factor is having strong characters, we know that the deck will be directed towards a more aggro playstyle, and looks to keep as much characters on the board as possible, to extract advantages both in Lore Generation and in Challenges.

The List

This is what our decklist looks like:

Let's discuss our main choices when building this deck:

Main Theme - Illusions

With 24 cards featuring the Illusion subtype, we'll often have one or more characters on the board with this characteristic. Characters of this type are well-distributed across the ink curve, from 1 to 6, which greatly facilitates our deck choices.

Our main cards are Giant Cobra and Iago, each for a different reason. Cobra is an above-curve monster, and its ability puts real pressure out of nowhere on your opponents. Iago is a great answer to decks with a lot of Evasive characters, and will often benefit from its ability itself to be one of our main Lore generators!

The other cards have great stats and help to keep the pressure on opponent from the first turns of the game.

Also a nice reminder: they're all inkable cards—another important feature we'll talk about shortly.

Support - Jafar!

[cardside](1 Jafar - Newly Crowned || 1 Treasure Guardian - Foreboding Sentry || 1

Jafar - High Sultan of Lorcana || 1 Scarab)

Thematically, Illusions are linked to the villainous Jafar, and so we have cards that synergize with each other, combining these characteristics. Almost all of them are, of course, linked to the Aladdin franchise!

Both Jafar - Newly Crowned and Jafar - High Sultan of Lorcana directly support Illusions, albeit in different ways: Newly Crowned is a pseudo-card advantage when the opponent clears your board, while High Sultan leads to a more active playstyle, with a strong Lore generation and potential to gain 3 or more ink in a single turn.

Treasure Guardian is, in practice, a 3-3 that replaces itself, in addition to Questing for 2 Lore. A great card for the midgame, that remains useful even in a long game.

Lastly, Scarab is a form of card advantage, albeit uncertain; To compensate, it can be activated every or almost every turn, since with the deck's low curve, with 6 or 7 ink you can already play anything that you hit off the top!

Answers and Interactions

[cardside](1 Mulan - Disguised Soldier || 1 Captain Hook - Forceful Duelist || 1

Razoul - Menacing Guard || 1 Jafar - Royal Vizier || 1 Jafar - Aspiring Ruler)

To address deck consistency issues, we chose some staples in the colors of choice, or cards that at the very least synergize well with each other.

Mulan is the main tool for filtering the deck and getting rid of non-inkable cards, or even cards that don't offer much for the current board state.

Captain Hook is another excellent 1-drop, perhaps one of the best in the game, and helps you to establish some initiative from the first turn.

Razoul is an interesting answer to use against item decks or even against a specific item that is very troublesome to deal with. For this reason, we also included more copies of Jafar, both 2- and 3-cost, which are good cards in their own right, but also help Razoul gain additional value.

The Flex Slots - Final Touch

To finish off the deck, a perhaps controversial card, but one that in my opinion adds a fun twist while also enabling very powerful turns.

Restoring the Crown is an ideal Action when both boards are full—especially if your opponent's board is bigger than yours but with overall smaller characters.

Restoring the Crown's role in the deck is, essentially, to guarantee a Lore push in the late game, or to exhaust a key character that your opponent needed to keep at the board, so you can deal with them before any advantage is gained.

Paths not taken

It's always good to consider the deck's flex slots, as you'll often find many options.

For example, in our deck, we could replace Restoring the Crown with something more reactive, like Fire the Cannons! or even Strength of a Raging Fire. Among the characters, we could also include The Sultan - Royal Apparition, and use other 1- and 2-cost characters that would provide different support, replacing Treasure Guardian, Jafar of 2 or 3 costs, and even a few copies of Jafar - High Sultan of Lorcana.

In the end, the list shown was the preferred one, due to the special flavor with Restoring the Crown. The ink curve is quite efficient, from turn 1 to 5-6, which helps the deck get on the board from the first turns.

Of course, building decks is fun, but don't forget the main rule for new decks: test, test, and test!

After all, as mentioned in the Paths not Taken section, you need to understand what the deck is doing consistently, and what doesn't work or isn't consistent enough to make the list.

That's all we had for today! Once again, I'm thrilled to reach one year of Lorcana articles, and already I look forward to the years to come! I also want to say thank you to everyone who reads and shares the articles. May Lorcana continue to grow!

Hugs, and see you next time!