Lorcana - Deck Guide: Alice in Damageland!

Hello, everyone!

Over the past month, with the First Lorcana World Championship, as well as the event's results, analyzed here, we focused on the competitive side of the game: lists, results, metagame, etc.

So, since we're in a transition period between the first and second competitive seasons of Lorcana, it's a great time to remember how fun the game is, and how sometimes just enjoying yourself and building a different deck can lead to great moments.

In today's article, we'll talk about a theme list—but don't underestimate it, you'll be surprised! Let's go!

Recently, while teaching Lorcana to some friends at my local store, one of them asked me for a favor: a deck built around Alice in Wonderland, their personal favorite. Since they had also just learned the game, I tried to include more recent cards, and it ended up becoming a budget list, yet extremely effective and fun. This is the deck I'll share with you today.

So, let's get to know Alice in Damageland!

Our Emerald-Ruby deck seeks to exploit some damage counters synergies, especially from the most recent sets.

Objectively, it's a midrange deck—it's not designed to be especially fast, nor extremely slow. It concentrates its strongest plays around 4 to 6 ink, and in some games you might even fall behind in Lore at the start, but there's no shortage of tools to catch up (and overtake!) your opponent.

This plan becomes even clearer if we look at the deck's ink curve: we have twenty characters that cost 2 or less ink, and twenty-eight that cost 3 or more. In addition, of course, there are some Actions, which, although cost 1 ink, should be saved for specific moments.

This highlights the importance of the initial mulligan. Always look for a good character curve, and avoid having strong cards with high ink costs stuck in your hand. In order to easen the early game, only four of the sixty cards in the deck are non-inkable, so you'll rarely run out of options to increase your inkwell.

Let's break down the cards in the list by their ink cost and role:

Initial turns - building a board

Our deck isn't an aggro deck, and it's not focused solely on generating Lore with its early characters. On the contrary, the idea is to establish efficient characters and counter the opponent's early plays.

Card Soldiers is a great option for the first few turns, as it can easily create a positive trade—when a character deals with a character that cost more ink than itself, thus creating a tempo advantage. With the help of Dormouse, for example, Card Soldiers can Challenge and Banish a Daisy Duck - Donald's Date, and remain on the board!

Speaking of Dormouse, several of the deck's synergies are activated thanks to the little damage it deals. Both Card Soldiers, as mentioned earlier, and Queen of Hearts—both Emerald and Ruby versions—will benefit from the damage counter.

Finally, the little Morph has a specific role in the deck—it's the only way to make your Alice - Clumsy as can Be viable as a turn 3 play. Since it's inkable, if you don't have Alice in your hand ready for the next turn, just use Morph as ink!

Middle game - Taking over the board

Starting at 3 ink, the deck's characters' will always look to generate some value, beyond their stats and Lore generation.

Mr. Snoops can trade and eventually draw you a card, which is very important for the deck's development. Also at 3 ink, Winterpop helps with its high willpower, allowing it to finish off opponents' characters without being banished, thus staying on the board to generate more Lore.

Alice and March Hare are also ways to control the board. Alice reinforces positive trades by readying characters, or it can also be used as anti-challenge on an important character. March Hare punishes opponents who keep important characters with damage on them, and is another greatly synergistic card with Dormouse.

At 5-cost, the characters greatly reinforce our board, and are the key turning point when the deck starts to generate Lore, and prevent the opponent from stopping us. Tweedledee, in practice, prevents the opponent from ever having new characters on the board, even if they were played last turn—with a little help from Alice - Clumsy as Can Be, of course. Mad Hatter is a strong Lore-generating option, and will give you cards if the opponent deals with it with Challenges.

Late game - Damage and Lore

Rounding out the deck's characters, these are the one's whose role is to secure Lore and prevent the opponent coming back from behind.

Alice, on 6-ink, is one of the deck's multicolored cards, and can even be played ealy if you use Shift—with two options for it, Morph - Space Goo and Alice - Courageous Keyholder.

Alice ensures that nothing on the board will be without damage counters, and with that, she alone guarantees numerous synergies for the deck. We already mentioned a few, such as finishing off opponent's characters with Queen of Hearts or March Hare, returning any character to hand thanks to Tweedledum, guaranteeing 2 Lore for Winterpop, and also a great interaction with our other finisher: Go Go Tomago.

Let's talk about her, then! Go Go Tomago - Darting Dynamo is almost like a combo card in the deck. It can be used both to gain the final Lore points needed to win a game, and as a 2-cost character on curve to give you some board presence when needed. Remember that if you deal 1 damage to Go Go Tomago, you can return it to your hand with Tweedledum or Wake Up, Alice! and reuse it to gain more Lore!

Actions - Support role

Finally, let's talk about the two Actions, which have a more supportive role.

Mosquito Bite is almost like having extra copies of Dormouse. The effect turns on several synergies in the deck, so even though it only deals 1 damage, it's very valuable if saved for the right moment.

Wake Up, Alice! is the deck's answer to very large or defensive characters. Smaller characters probably won't stay on the board, especially if you have Alice - Clumsy as can Be in play. To complement Tweedledum, we use Wake Up, Alice!.

Aside from their good support role, both cards are inkable, so if you don't need their effects at the moment, don't hesitate to use them as ink!

Thinking ahead of the Rotation

This list has a budget aspect, as it doesn't include high-end cards commonly used in Ruby or Emerald ink in the metagame's most popular decks. However, if you want to build this list, it's important to remember that some cards may not be reprinted in Fabled, and will therefore require replacement.

Of these 3, Morph is perhaps the most sensitive loss, since the Emerald-Ruby colors do not currently have a 1 or 2 cost Alice character, which could on turn 3 allow Alice - Clumsy as Can Be by Shifting. We can hope for a Morph reprint in Fabled, or else revisit the options to have a finisher in the deck.

As mentioned at the beginning, today's deck emerged from a learn-to-play game session, and it was a blast to have this deck-building exercise - I recommend it, whether you're new or veteran to the game!

The process of building a deck makes you become familiarized with cards and themes from different sets, and introduces you to effects and cards you might not have even know existed in the first place.

Furthermore, because it's thematic, it's extremely fun to play, which is crucial for attracting new players to the world of Lorcana!

I hope you enjoyed it! Plase leave your feedback in the comments.

Cheers, and see you next time!