Lorcana Deck Guide - Amber Ruby Self-Damage

Hello, everyone!

A mechanic that was introduced in some cards, specifically in the Ruby ink color, are those that involve self-damage - that is, in return for some strong effect or character with good stats, you cause damage to your own characters .

The idea of ​​today's deck is precisely to take advantage of our cards' ability to cause damage on themselves, and with that, not only enable some cards that depend on our characters being damaged, but also abilities that remove that damage! Let's go!

Decklist and Card Analysis

First and foremost, let's show our decklist and lay out the general gameplan:

As you can see, the deck has several synergies between characters that deal damage to themselves and cards that take advantage when your characters have damage.

The idea, therefore, is to establish some strong starting characters, use healing cards to renew them and thus control the board in the first turns.

As the game progresses, our characters also increase in size, which allows the deck to transition between the early and midgame. Through some combinations, which we will explain later, it is possible to quickly obtain 5-7 Lore in the same turn without needing to Quest, giving you a nice Lore boost to close out a game.

Now, let's understand each card's role and interactions!

The Self-Damage Cards

The 4 cards above, which total 14 copies in the deck, are the basis for activating many synergies involving damage counters. Don't be fooled when you see 1 and 2-cost cards, since the idea is to take advantage of them throughout the entire game, and not just at the first turns!

Teeth and Ambitions is a good example of this, as it will be used to deal with the opponent's initial characters, but, as the game goes on, it will be a source of self-damage without depending on challenges or characters to dry.

Similarly, On Your Feet! Now! is another action that will damage all your characters, and this will turn on several synergies in addition to the effect of readying everyone on your side of the board - something that will be especially good for some of our characters focused on challenging the opposing board!

Mulan and Mother Gothel are characters with above-average stats for their ink cost, but with a self-damage clause to compensate. However, this penalty is mitigated especially by the cards we will see in the next section!

The Healers

We have in total 12 copies of cards that heal our characters, and sometimes even something in addition to the healing itself!

Snow White - Lost in the Forest is a great option to follow a Mulan - Injured Soldier played on turn 1 - you will end up with two good characters on the board who can easily dominate the beginning turns! And eventually, in a long game, Snow White will help keep characters on the board for a low ink cost.

The powerful Juliet and Rapunzel combine character healing with card draw, so they keep our board healthy and resistant while at the same time increasing our resources in hand! They are essential for keeping everything under control while we prepare our next turns with the new cards drawn.

Synergies with Damage Counters

Healer characters will not always be available, or maybe the amount of characters with damage will outnumber the characters that heal. But that's not a problem! Our deck also takes advantage with several cards that get better by having damage on our characters!

Raya - Fierce Protector and Ratigan's Party - Seedy Back Room allow constant Lore generation just by having characters with damage on them. Note that Raya generates Lore before the challenge is resolved, so even if she is banished after the fight, the Lore will already be guaranteed. Similarly, Ratigan’s Party only requires the character with damage to be in the Location - which has a nice and strong 7-willpower -, meaning if you keep them safe and on the board, once you have the turn back you can start to passively generate Lore.

Donald Duck - Not Again! has a limitation of only checking his own damage to generate more Lore, so he is an excellent target for Teeth and Ambitions. Thanks to being Evasive, it can survive many turns and thus continually quest for a lot of Lore.

Finally, we have the mighty Gaston - Pure Paragon! A 9-cost character, but it's unlikely to cost all that ink in our deck! Thanks to the cost reduction, it wouldn't be surprising to be able to play him for 3 or 5 ink, and he will undoubtedly dominate the board with his strong stats. As seen above, we made a point of showing him alongside Maximus - Team Champion, who synergizes wonderfully with Gaston. Being able to play Gaston on turn 5 into a Maximus on turn 6 will put you way ahead in the Lore race!

Rounding out the deck

Lastly, in the remaining slots we opted for some cards that are individually good, and in the context of our archetype can still provide some bonuses.

Daisy Duck is a character that combines good defensive stats with fast Lore generation, which means that the opponent needs to deal with her as soon as possible and often won't be able to do so in just one turn. She will probably receive some damage, and with that we will have the opportunity to put our different synergies to use on our turn. Furthermore, as we sometimes depend on the opponent having a character for us to challenge - for example, the effect of Raya - Fierce Protector -, our dear Daisy Duck can fill the opponent's hand and thus force them to play a cheap characters that maybe they didn't want to in the first place.

The Bare Necessities is - pardon the joke - necessary against opponents with cards capable of destroying the entire board, like Be Prepared. Because it has the flexibility of being inkable, if you face an opponent who doesn't use mass removal, you can simply use the song as ink.

Maui - Hero to All works practically as a removal in our deck, and it is also a way for us to have access to more characters that will potentially have damage in them, and thus activate our synergies. It is also worth noting that it can be a Plan B when we find Maximus but do not find Gaston - in this case, Maui will at least guarantee the minimum 2 Lore.

And finally, Goofy - Super Goof ends up having a similar function to Raya, which is to generate Lore even though it is used for challenges and not quests. Its higher defense, combined with our damage synergies, means we can get a lot out of it, and having Rush is also one of the best ways to get the last few Lore points in a game.

Conclusion

As we mentioned, today's deck aims for an aggressive/fast plan from a different angle than expected, as cards that self-inflict damage are normally a disadvantage.

The main focus here is in the progression of threats, since even with damaging our characters, we are able to continually keep them on the board and quickly develop great attackers like Maui and Gaston. Normally, when using characters to challenge instead of questing, you are not advancing the victory condition, but in our deck some characters can do both jobs at the same time! This is what gives us an upper hand against other aggressive decks in the format.

It must be warned that te may have some difficulty against decks that use the Steel ink, as it is the ink color with most direct damage effects, such as Fire the Cannons!, And Then Along Came Zeus, and the like. Use copies of The Bare Necessities wisely to disrupt the opponent and guarantee plenty of Lore in these matchups!

So, what did you think of our deck today? Have you ever thought about a similar list, have you had success with it? Share with us!

That's all for today, lots of hugs and see you next time!