Lorcana Deck Guide: Emerald-Sapphire Ramp Control

Hello, everyone!

In today's article, following the initial results from major events featuring the new set, Wilds Unknown, we'll highlight a list that emerged victorious in an event with nearly 150 Illumineers!

Although the current competitive focus is heavily geared towards the Infinity format, due to several Disney Lorcana Challenges around the world being in this format, it's worth remembering that the Core Constructed format remains prominent and highly relevant as one of the most played formats in local game stores.

Furthermore, it's worth noting that the Second Disney Lorcana Challenge in Brazil, taking place on July 4th and 5th in São Paulo, will also be in the Core Constructed format! If you're interested, be sure to check out the official event information in this link.

Well, let's get to today's deck: Emerald-Sapphire Ramp Control!

Our featured deck today took first place in a special event held in Italy on May 23rd: the Lore League Italia, with the Spring edition tournament, which had 146 participants! You can check out the complete event details at InkDecks.

The champion was Gabriele Di Gennaro, who took the top spot with the Emerald-Sapphire Ramp Control deck, using a few new cards from the recent set!

Here is the champion's list:

Let's analyze the deck's gameplan and talk about each card's role in the list.

Game Plan

This Emerald-Sapphire deck isn't aimed at ending the game in the early turns.

The idea is to use the initial turns to accelerate your inkwell, thus reaching the strongest threats as early as possible. The deck has fifteen cards – that is, 25% of the list – that cost 7 ink or more! Therefore, ink acceleration is essential.

From 6 ink, which the deck usually aims to reach on the fourth turn, it's possible to start several high-value plays, such as clearing the opponent's board, or drawing many cards and thus accumulating resources for the next turns.

Therefore, even if the deck isn't aiming to end the game quickly, the first turns are essential. You need to find ink accelerators, especially against very fast decks, to avoid falling too far behind, and then, once you are safely in control of the game, you can close it out in a few turns.

In short, the word that best defines this deck is: precision. You always need to think a few turns ahead and be precise, to identify when it's the best time to use a removal, an acceleration, or when you just need one more character on the board for next turn.

Let's analyze the deck's cards, in blocks, according to their role.

The Acceleration

As mentioned in the game plan, these cards are essential to the strategy. Any starting hand with two of them will already be well on its way to establish the deck's early turns!

Sail ​​and Tipo are the ideal plays on turn 2, and you need to exchange as many cards as possible in your starting hand to ensure you have one of them on turn 2.

Cinderella is a natural option for your third turn, after you perform one of the accelerations on turn 2. Basically, Cinderella is another consistent option to accelerate once you reach 4 ink and onwards.

Card Selection

These cards help you dig through your deck in search of something specific.

Develop is especially good on turn 1 to eventually find that acceleration card you were missing from your opening hand, but it also remains good in subsequent turns to find options from the top of the deck for only 1 ink.

Vision, on the other hand, is a higher-cost card, but it also reveals many more cards: five instead of just two, like Develop Your Brain. Therefore, it's much more suitable when you're looking for certain combinations within the deck!

The Combinations!

Now we'll discuss some very important synergies within the deck, which are basically the archetype's greatest strength:

The synergy between Malicious and Prince Phillip allows you to banish all characters from your opponent's board!

Since Malicious doesn't deal damage, but rather places damage counters, it can even bypass the Resist ability. And since Prince Phillip banishes characters without choosing them, it also bypasses the Ward ability!

The icing on the cake is the 3-cost Prince Phillip, who at first glance seems like just a vanilla character with Ward. But the main thing is that, on the turn you reach exactly 6 ink with him on the board, he can sing Malicious, Mean, and Scary and, thanks to Shift, you can then play Prince Phillip - Vanquisher of Foes, banishing all characters on your opponent's board immediately!

This is one of the deck's fundamental plays, and also one of its strongest, so familiarize yourself with it!

Clarabelle is another key character in the deck, as she will single-handedly recover all the cards you spent dealing with your opponent's board. She alone can immediately draw 3 to 4 cards, depending on your opponent's hand, and ideally will do so over several turns.

Also, Clarabelle is especially good in combination with the song You're Welcome, which will not only remove a card from your opponent's board but will also increase your opponent's hand – that is, it will allow Clarabelle to then balance the number of cards, making you draw more as well.

And don't forget, since your deck also aims at having a lot of Ink, you'll probably be able to play most of them on the next turn, thus emptying your hand and thus allowing Clarabelle to refill your hand again and again!

This last combination is interesting because it doesn't necessarily depend on both cards being on the table together, and it's also a quite subtle one.

Basically, Milo allows you to discard a card to return a character to its owner's hand… and that card can then be transformed into ink by Moana!

Of course, both of them are individually good, since Milo has a great effect when played, and on top of that it has Ward and generates 3 Lore with its Quest, while Moana indirectly generates card advantage, since you stop using cards from your hand to transform them into ink, thus gaining more resources.

It's also important to note that Milo is a nice innovation from the 12th Set! And there's another card from that set as well, which we'll talk about in the next section.

Rounding out the Deck

The other card from the 12th Set, Merryweather, might seem a bit… vanilla. But in reality, she's extremely efficient, as she not only combines very strong stats: 4 Strength, and 5 Willpower, but on top of that she also has the Ward ability, and all that for only 4 ink!

In other words, it's an ideal character to use, for example, against decks that flood the board in the early turns, since you'll play your acceleration on turn 2, and on turn 3 you can already play Merryweather, which will likely dominate the board!

Clarabelle, costing 1, allows a Shift target for Clarabelle - Light on Her Hooves, and can eventually banish items when needed.

Under the Sea is another important answer against fast decks, and especially important with the popularity of Amber-Emerald Dogs in the format.

Finally, Ink Geyser is a card designed for longer matches, as it will generate an immense amount of resources for you, and in a way for your opponent as well. The secret lies in preparing well the turn in which you will use Geyser, so that you can immediately make 1 or 2 extra ink, and thus play out your hand faster than your opponent on the following turns.

And that was our analysis for today!

Little by little, the cards from the new set, Wilds Unknown, will continue to be explored and tested, but it's great to see some of them already appearing prominently in competitive lists. It's always good to see decks develop and adjust!

Without a doubt, this new set has improved Emerald-Sapphire's game plan, which was already emerging as another competitive option in the format, and now seems even better.

I hope you enjoyed it! Leave your feedback in the comments below.

Lots of hugs, and until next time!