Lorcana: DLC Richmond 2026 Review

Hello, everyone!

On the weekend of January 10-11, we had the first Disney Lorcana Challenge of 2026 in the United States, more precisely in Richmond-VA.

The event was remarkable, with the usual highlight being the large turnout from the game's community, which transformed DLC Richmond into much more than just the main event.

The event also had a special focus with the official broadcast, which covered all rounds up to the grand finals, and what we saw was a very high level of Lorcana, showing that the most competitive players master multiple aspects of the game: deck building, sequencing, knowledge of the opponent's deck strategies and possibilities, etc.

So let's talk about the event, the metagame, and some standout decks!

Richmond had a larger turnout than the previous one, DLC Milwaukee, last October. We went from 1,934 players to 2,052 players in the main event !

The event itself followed the same pattern as previous DLCs, with a Swiss-style Day 1, and on Day 2 the top finishers played a few more Swiss-style rounds before the Top Cut with the top 32 finishers. From there, the matches were elimination rounds until a champion was crowned!

Metagame

The two most popular decks at the event are basically the same from previous Challenges. The solid and consistent Amethyst base, built around card draw and Evasive threats, mainly Dumbo - Ninth Wonder of the Universe, can be mixed with Steel - thus gaining board control actions and more aggressive characters - or with Sapphire - thus gaining ink acceleration and strong threats, such as Hades - Infernal Schemer).

The next tier of decks is where we begin to see reactions to this Amethyst-centric metagame, with Emerald-Sapphire and Amber-Emerald as the next ones in order of popularity.

Somewhat surprisingly, we have Amethyst-Ruby in fifth place, which can even be seen as a clear demonstration of the strength of this Amethyst base, since Ruby, considered the weakest ink at the moment, occupied the last 4 positions along with the other possible combinations.

On Day 2 of the event, we had some minor changes:

Basically, Amethyst-Sapphire took the lead as the most popular deck, indicating a good conversion rate, while Amethyst-Ruby fell from fifth to seventh place.

Although they didn't change positions, both Emerald-Sapphire and Amber-Emerald improved their numbers, meaning they also had a good conversion rate.

We'll discuss some of the event's decks next, and as always a huge thanks to InkDecks for helping to organize and make everything available!

Highlighted Decks

Amber-Emerald Aggro, affectionately known as ChromiDogs, was one of the best aggros in the event, with player Eddie Caudill reaching the Top 8 with the following list:

We discussed the archetype in this article, so let's focus on the changes Eddie brought to fight back at the metagame.

The highlight is the 4 copies of Under the Sea, allowing the deck to have counterplay against other aggro decks even when it's not going first. A few copies of Ursula - Vanessa help with this strategy, and finally, they also opted for a little more card draw, with 4 copies of characters like Clarabelle - Contented Wallflower and Donald Duck - Perfect Gentleman.

Another deck that stood out is the one that ended up being the most popular on Day 2 of the event, Amethyst-Sapphire Control:

The deck continues to perform well in the hands of the current world champion, Dinh Khang Pham, but the list we highlighted above is the one played by Rob de Haan, who reached the semi-finals of the event.

The deck uses Sapphire's ink acceleration to bring out the best threats and card draws from Amethyst even faster, and with access to powerful characters like Hades and Demona to never lose control of the board again.

The Champion

With Amethyst dominating the metagame, it's natural that decks specifically designed to counter it would emerge at some point, and we saw that in the DLC Richmond finals!

An almost mirror match – that is, two almost identical decks – faced off in the finals, and neither of them used Amethyst. On the contrary, throughout the weekend, the finalists demolished purple deck after purple deck with their Emerald-Sapphire combination.

In the end, in a best-of-five series that went to the limit, James Gray won the final 3-2 and became the DLC Richmond Champion! Here's the list:

A few months ago, we analyzed this archetype, but before the release of Whispers in the Well. This new set solidified the deck in the metagame, thanks to new additions like Malicious, Mean, and Scary and the powerful Cinderella - Dream Come True.

With Cinderella, the deck gains a tool similar to How Far I’ll Go, in the sense that it's a 4-ink card that continues the acceleration without losing you a card in the process. With more accelerations, the deck can also use strong, high-cost Emerald threats, such as Clarabelle - Light on Her Hooves and Prince Phillip - Vanquisher of Foes.

Without a doubt, a very well-thought-out and tested deck for the expected metagame of the event, and therefore a very well-deserved result!

And that's another Disney Lorcana Challenge reviewed!

DLC Richmond brought many important lessons about reading the metagame, as seen in the decks that made it to the finals. In other words, besides consolidating strategies with Amethyst as the center of the metagame, it showed that there is room to counter them.

And, of course, once again we must praise and acknowledge the wonderful Lorcana community, which transforms the event into much more than just a tournament, but a celebration of Lorcana and all the fun it can provide to all types of players.

A big hug, and until next time!