Lorcana Budget Deck Guide: Amber Amethyst 101 Dalmatians

Hello, everyone!

After presenting some of the top tier competitive Lorcana decks in the last few articles, I thought I'd talk about some more alternative decks, still fully capable of doing well in an event, although less competitive than those already mentioned previously.

Today, we're going to talk about a very fun deck that had good results in some Set Championships across the USA: the Dalmatians deck!

Let's take a look at the list and general strategy to understand the role of each card:

That's right, you didn't read it wrong - we have TWENTY-FIVE copies of the little Dalmatian Puppy - Tail Wagger, and if we also count the 4 copies of Lucky - The 15th Puppy, there are 29 Dalmatians cards total, nearly half the deck!

The deck actually seeks to abuse Lucky's first ability and character cost reducers to build a very wide board with the Dalmatians. Once you have a full board, Lucky's second ability will allow you to generate an absurd amount of Lore each turn, and even if the opponent ends up dealing with individual characters, or even the whole board at once, the deck has resources to continue drawing cards and keep steady on the mission to reach 20 Lore.

The deck's Core

As we already mentioned, Lucky is the big star of the deck, and any game in which you can keep him on the table even for one turn already showcase his strength in the strategy.

His synergy with the Dalmatians allows each activation of Lucky to find between 1 and 3 new cards every turn for you - there are forty-one possible “hits” from the top of your deck, an average of 2 cards per activation.

Cost Reducers

These cards will allow you to make 2 characters (or more) per turn, thanks to the reduced ink cost. Pluto, although not a Dalmatian, is more than capable of helping his canine friends, and is the deck's ideal turn 1 - with him, you can even make a Doc - Leader of the Seven Dwarfs on turn 2 and from turn 3 onwards you already have two cost reducers on the table!

Pride Lands - Pride Rock requires a “King” or “Prince” type character on it for the reduction to work, and so the deck uses copies of Kuzco and Simba to activate this synergy. Even if the reduction isn't active, Pride Rock will still generate 1 Lore every turn, and can be useful to help defend your Lucky (and other characters as well).

Card Draw

Besides the beloved Lucky - The 15th Puppy, these cards above will help you keep your hand full so you can continue flooding the board with dalmatians. Kuzco and Magic Broom draw cards and are low-cost characters, and thus have synergy with Lucky, which helps to find more copies of the Dalmatians. Finders Keepers is the alternative when we don't find Lucky in time and need to fill our hand - in practice, it's like having 3 extra copies of it, with the small advantage that the card can turn into ink when it's not needed.

Protections and Interactions

The strategy of “flooding” the board with characters already makes it difficult for opponents to fight with single-target removals, but nonetheless the deck also has two important cards to protect your board and interact with the opponent.

Simba - Protective Cub is the Dalmatians' bodyguard, keep in mind he also has the “Prince” subtype to activate the ability on Pride Lands - Pride Rock. Its low cost also allows it to be found by Lucky, and often with cost reductions you can even play it for zero ink!

Elsa's Ice Palace - Place of Solitude can be used to stop a strong character from the opponent, either a threat to your board, like Maui - Hero to All, or a powerful Lore generator that can get out of control, like Piglet - Pooh Pirate Captain. On top of that, it's a Location that generates Lore every turn, which forces your opponent to waste time attacking it.

When all goes wrong

Eventually, your opponents may be able to deal with your Dalmatian army, with cards like Be Prepared or Sisu - Empowered Sibling. If this happens before you have managed to fill your hand again with Lucky or Finders Keepers, you will still have good counterplay with the powerful Chernabog, which can often be played for 3 or even less ink!

Analysis and turn strategy

We're aware of what each card is here for, so now let's understand how the deck is sequenced:

Starting Hand and turns 3-4: Lucky, Lucky, Lucky. This is the card you need to see, and if your starting hand doesn't have it, preferably look for draw cards like Kuzco or Magic Broom to cycle the deck and find Lucky. Furthermore, it is always important to have reducers like Pluto or Doc to ensure that you'll make more characters than your opponent. If you know you're up against a fast deck, Elsa's Palace can also be a good option to keep in your starting hand.

Mid-game, turns 4-8: Try to develop 2 characters per turn starting from your 4 ink-turn, and use Lucky or Finders Keepers to refill your hand. Ideally, Lucky should give you at some point a turn of 8+ Lore, meaning it threatens to win the game on the next turn if the opponent can't answer it.

Long game, turns 9+: Cards like Pride Lands and Elsa’s Palace guarantee Lore gain even if you don't have characters, and force the opponent to use resources to deal with them. Chernabog will help in games that involve a lot of removals, and ideally you will have filled your hand to make more Dalmatians and regain a favorable position on the board.

Conclusion

And we have reached the end of our article! As I mentioned at the beginning, the idea was to bring a fun and cheap deck, without neglecting the competitive potential. The Dalmatians deck can, under the right conditions, combine an “aggro” strategy with card draw that keeps you going in the long game, so it's important to adapt during the game depending on the opponent's deck.

And you, what did you think of this first analysis of a “budget” deck? Share it with us!

Hugs and see you next time!