Lorcana: Deck Guide - Amethyst-Steel Evasives!

Hello, everyone!

After Fabled's pre-release weekend, many organizers are already promoting larger events with the Core Constructed format's Rotation in effect. This means that only cards from sets 5 and onward are legal, although having reprints means you can use the cards from their original set.

In addition to the reprints, we also have new cards from Fabled that are showing strength in the first competitive events!

Today we'll highlight a list that took first place at 6k Orange County, with a gameplan around Dumbo - Ninth Wonder of the Universe! Let's go!

Although Fableds full release will happen on September 5th, since the pre-release, some organizers have already allowed events using the new set, and also the Core Constructed format with Rotation - click here to learn more about how it works!

Last weekend, we had some events hosted by independent organizers around the world, both in the Infinity and Core Constructed formats.

One of the highlights was the 6k Orange County, which had 180 players! And today we're going to analyze the winning deck from the event, an Amethyst-Steel Evasives, played by SaltDuckSplish:

Before we continue, thanks to InkDecks for featuring the events' decklists!

As we can see, the deck combines two important factors for success in any card game: card draw and board control.

In this case, the Steel ink allows you to swiftly answer the opponent's threats, whether through direct removal, or Challenges. Meanwhile, the Amethyst ink provides constant card draw, and even better, it's tied to evasive characters, which means opponents will have a hard time interacting!

This combination undoubtedly favors the deck's game plan, which isn't particularly aggressive—it doesn't look to generate Lore quickly in the first few turns—but it's also not entirely slow-paced, since once you have board control, it's possible to achieve 20 points of Lore in a matter of a few turns.

Let's take a closer look at each card and understand their roles in the deck:

The 1-Drops

To start it off, we have eleven 1-Drop characters. This might lead you to believe there's an aggressive focus on quickly generating Lore, but that's certainly not the case. All characters here generate no more than 1 Lore per Quest—their role is, undoubtedly, to be good challengers.

From the first turn, therefore, the deck seeks to establish some board presence and prevent the opponent from accumulating too many characters. It's important to note that, with a boost from Fire the Cannons! or Hypnotic Strength, any of the 1-Drops here can handle high-willpower characters like Daisy Duck - Donald's Date or Nala - Undaunted Lioness.

The 2-Drops

The 2-Drops are still focused on board control, especially Calhoun, which needs to an answer by the opponent or it could single-handedly carry the game away with its Challenge + Lore Gain combination.

Mr. Smee, like Happy, helps counter threats with Evasive, and will also be very useful in a longer game if you keep Dumbo on the board. Similarly, Doc is one of the deck's card draw sources, although somewhat conditional—it only generates card advantage if you're empty-handed. Doc is best used in a longer game, where you've spent a lot of resources, and then it regains cards for you.

Finally, Seven Dwarfs' Mine - Secure Fortress is a high-defense Location with a synergistic effect with Happy and Doc, although it'll work with any character. The Mine has several roles, from finishing off smaller characters, to contributing some initial damage so you can finish off a Challenge - especially if you have Calhoun* available.

The 3-Drops

3-Drops is where you start to see a spread in strategy, in addition to all of them also bringing good value in terms of ink-cost and stats.

Genie is another Evasive character during your turn, and he's also a great 3/4 for 3 ink. His synergy with Dumbo is also important, as we'll discuss later.

Giant Cobra is one of the most versatile cards in the deck, being able to be used as a low-cost 4/4, for Challenge purposes; or as a finisher, with the ability to generate Lore when played; or even to help empty your hand and enable a full-value Doc afterward.

Lastly, Lilo plays an important role in allowing your weaker characters to make positive trades through Challenges. It's worth noting that the deck doesn't feature any Alien-type characters, so her Quest ability is irrelevant, but her on-play more than makes up for it. Lilo is one of the new Fabled cards in the list, and we'll talk about the other one in the next section!

4 and 5-Drops

Combining the 4 and 5 ink curve, we have the deck's midrange core, where we find the main ways to draw cards and sustain the game plan.

Genie and Elsa are characters that both generate a lot of value and are Evasive, which gives them great synergy with Dumbo. Elsa, in particular, allows you to break parity and Challenge a character your opponent has played on their last turn.

And now let's talk about the deck's key card: Dumbo - Ninth Wonder of the Universe. All the Evasive synergy is leveraged here, as of the forty-six characters in the deck, twenty-three of them—half!—have the ability, at least during our turn. This means Dumbo can help you get 2+ extra cards every turn, without damaging your Lore generation!

Of course, Dumbo will be much more effective in longer games, since against ultra-aggro decks the focus is on quickly controlling the board. But in a midrange mirror, or against any deck that can't easily deal with Evasives, one Dumbo - Ninth Wonder of the Universe can carry the game. Remember this and play accordingly, so you can always get some value out of Dumbo!

Actions and Interactions

Rounding out the list, we have a 10-action package, all focused on interacting with your opponent's board.

Fire the Cannons! and Strength of a Raging Fire are efficient, tried-and-tested cards, and for that reason, they're great reprints that keep Steel ink as one of the best board control inks in the game.

Hypnotic Strength is also quite effective, mainly because it contains this beautiful line of text: draw a card. This ensures it never loses value, and if your character survives the Challenge, it's practically card advantage. On top of all that, it's also an inkable card!

Some Other Options Available

It's always important to remember that the deck we presented is a great starting point—after all, it's a winning deck already!—but it's not necessarily a perfect, untouchable, and final list.

Some cards, like those shown above, could replace others on the list, such as Jafar - Aspiring Ruler replacing Lilo - Best Explorer Ever, which, despite affecting just one character, can compensate by generating 2 Lore when Questing.

You could also try to get more value from Lilo's Quest, replacing Dumbo - Ninth Wonder of the Universe with Stitch - Alien Troublemaker, for example. This would also put the deck as a nice budget option, but still quite functional.

Other interesting options would be Mulan - Disguised Soldier to help dig for specific cards, or Bruni - Fire Salamander in place of Genie, to increase the deck's inkables.

The first competitive tournaments with Fabled are just a sample, but they clearly demonstrate how resource optimization is always crucial in any game.

It's no coincidence that the most successful decks at this early stage are Steel or Amethyst based, since, as we mentioned, these are the inks with the most access to board control and card draw tools.

We'll continue monitoring the upcoming events, and with that, we'll have an increasingly clear understanding of how the new metagame for Core Constructed turns out!

I hope you enjoyed today's deck guide! Let us know in the comments how would you build your version of this archetype, or what other decks you'd like us to highlight.

Cheers, and see you next time!