The World Championship Is Almost Here!Hello, everyone!On August 29th and 30th, every competitive player will be looking at Anaheim, California, where the North America Continental Championship will take place.This event will undoubtedly define the Core Constructed meta for the following weeks, including, potentially, the Brazilian Championship, which will take place on September 19!While we wait for the Championship, let's have some fun this week with another budget deck that focuses on some very interesting synergies, including damage, healing, and, to top it off, a few songs!Let's get started!Amber-Ruby Healing ZeusToday's deck is an Amber-Ruby list that combines synergies between Singers and, naturally, songs, as well as characters that deal damage to themselves and cards that heal them and create value while they're at it!Let's go through this list, discuss its main strategies and game plan, and then take a closer look at which role each card plays.List and Game PlanThis list combines characters and healing effects to get ahead on the board and in Lore!However, one of the main issues with healing-related effects is that they only really work if your characters take damage. This means those characters are challenging other characters instead of Questing, so they're not exactly helping you with your main win condition.That's why Amber healing effects go so well with Ruby characters that deal damage to themselves when played! The idea is to take advantage of these characters, which offer good value for their cost but make up for it by damaging themselves when played, and get around that drawback with healing effects.This list also plays some relevant healing effects tied to songs, so, obviously, it plays several Singer characters as well!Ultimately, the idea is simple: develop early-game characters, ideally combining self-damaging characters with healing effects, and keep them on the board. Use those healing effects to create value from occasional challenges and, to finish things off, set up the combo that names this deck: Zeus - Defiant God and I'm Never Not by Your Side, healing and gaining 4 Lore directly, while also leaving a 5/5 character on the board that gives you 3 Lore.Let's take a closer look at which role each card plays in this strategy.1-Drops: Early SetupThese 1-drops are only the tip of the iceberg. They set up our turn-2 and turn-3 strategies with either healing effects or songs.Meilin Lee is both great for singing (though she only sings Sing Together songs, but this list plays twelve of them in total) and can take some damage early on because she has 3 willpower. She can survive a lot, so you can use your healing effects on her.If you play Mulan with a healing effect in the following turns, she can be an excellent challenger, but at worst she'll at least let you fight one of your opponent's 1-drops.Finally, Angel is your Underdog option. It's a 1-drop when you don't start the game. Thanks to her Singer ability, she does speed up the early turns a lot and is an excellent opener alongside Meilin Lee.2-Drops: Singers and Creating LoreYou'll keep setting up your main game plan with your 2-drops. Keep in mind you won't always have a turn-1 play.Your singers, Powerline and Vanessa, can either sing some songs on their own or help your 1-drops - especially Meilin Lee - with Sing Together songs. The idea behind Vanessa was to include an option with more willpower, but depending on your meta, you can also play Alan-a-Dale - Loyal Bard.Fa Zhou and Pedro Madrigal deal damage to themselves, just like Mulan. The difference is that Fa Zhou is great at creating Lore, while Pedro Madrigal, with 3 Strength, can be more relevant in challenges as well.Finally, Roxanne takes advantage of the fact that this deck plays 16 Singers. She is another very strong option, both for challenging and creating Lore.3-Drops: Getting ResourcesThese 3-drops are key in the strategy you'll set up early on.Julieta has a lot of willpower, is great at healing, and draws cards, an excellent combination for just 3 Ink. She can heal a Fa Zhou, and like so draw a card and make a character that gives you Lore a bit more resilient, or heal a challenger such as Mulan or Pedro. She's also a Madrigal, so any Pedro that enters play after her will already heal himself. Finally, remember that in an emergency, when you need to draw more cards, you can use her to heal your opponent's characters!Woody is a bit more subtle, but it's just as important. While Julieta will keep characters on the board by healing damage, Woody will keep them there by stopping challenges. He's also an excellent option when you use your Singers early on and leave them exposed. Woody will make sure that your opponent can't get any kind of free trade from your board.4-Drop: And Then Along Came Zeus!Your only 4-cost character, Zeus - Defiant God, does two things. First, he's extremely efficient at creating Lore, as he gives you 3 points per turn if your opponent can't interact with him.And, as we mentioned in the game plan, Zeus goes extremely well with I’m Never Not by Your Side. These two cards will give you 4 Lore immediately and put a 5/5 on the board. It's the kind of burst that can completely turn a game around!SongsFinally, now that we went over all the characters, let's look at the songs. After all, this deck is full of Singers!Heal What Has Been Hurt is an efficient way to go around the drawback of early characters such as Mulan and Fa Zhou without even losing a card! Keep in mind that if you need to draw a card, you can use this song without healing anything, since it heals up to 3 damage.We've already talked about I'm Never Not by Your Side extensively, especially because of its synergy with Zeus - Defiant God. But this song actually enables numerous interesting plays, particularly because it can heal several characters! In other words, if you don't have Zeus, you can wait and use it on, for example, two Fa Zhou or Mulan at the same time. You can even challenge something solely to make a character take damage and then heal it afterward.A Pirate’s Life and Look at This Family mainly support Meilin Lee (as she can only sing Sing Together songs), and together with I'm Never Not by Your Side they make up 12 possible options.A Pirate’s Life is great when you gain a lot of Lore at once, as then it can potentially end the game or slow down your opponent long enough for you to take the lead in Lore.Look at This Family is another way to get resources and potentially increase your hand or find specific options such as Woody or Zeus, depending on the board state.ConclusionBesides many synergies, today's deck has another important feature: it only plays Inkable cards, so during the game you can always see what you should keep in your hand and what you should turn into Ink.This makes this deck more versatile and consistent. Not bad for a budget-friendly list!I hope you enjoyed reading this article! As always, leave your feedback in the comments below.And next week, we'll recap the NA Continental Championship!Take care, and see you next time!
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