Lorcana Deck Guide - Amber Ruby Speedway Aggro

Hello, everyone!

With the new set, Azurite Sea, we have a ton of new cards and ideas to test out!

So, today, I present you the first of many new decks with the new set, a mix between an aggressive deck with a Locations shell, something I even mentioned when I reviewed some cards from Azurite Sea in my last article! Let's go!

Gameplan

"Speedway Aggro" is a fast deck, focused on (pardon the pun) racing your opponent to 20 Lore. Instead of just using characters to generate Lore, the deck also has several Locations, and in particular the “Sugar Rush Speedways”, which have very strong synergy between them. Thanks to them, you have the ability both to gain Lore and recover cards throughout the game - something that aggros decks normally have difficulty with. As a result, you are able to constantly present more threats and pressure the board, making it hard for your opponent to deal with everything.

Let's analyze some card choices in our Speedway Aggro deck!

The main plan - Speedways!

Well, as you can tell by the deck's name, our main plan is to use the interaction between the two “Speedways” to gain both lore and cards, and thus always be ahead of the opponent in the race for 20 Lore.

Basically, you can move any character of yours promptly to the “Starting Line” (since the cost to move there is zero), and once you have “Finish Line” on the board, just exhaust the character, deal 1 damage to it and move it from “Start ” to “Finish” - thus fulfilling the condition and gaining 3 Lore and 3 new cards in hand!

ATTENTION: it is important to highlight that the character needs to be “dry” in order to use the “Starting Line” ability! In other words, a character you just played from hand won't be able to instantly finish the race - you need to wait for the next turn to do so.

Other Locations

In addition to the Speedways, we also have some copies of other Locations, leaving our total at fifteen out of 60 cards in our deck - a reasonable number, 1 in every 4, which means we have a high chance of getting 1-2 Locations in our starting hand for the game.

Even though our other Location don't have direct synergy with Speedways, they can generate Lore every turn, which already helps to pressure the opponent into dealing with them. Furthermore, in a longer game, The Underworld - River Styx can generate a lot of value, returning discarded characters to our hand, which indirectly “draws” extra cards.

This multiplicity of threats - Locations and Characters - will make it difficult for the opponent to deal with everything on the board at once, which is part of the deck's plan. Furthermore, several of our characters interact with Locations, as we will see next!

Location Synergies

All these cards are linked to our plan involving Locations, although not specifically Speedways - but they work very well with them as well!

Fix-It Felix, Jr. - Delighted Sightseer will reward you with a card just for having any Location in play, and being a character he is also a candidate to enter the Speedways and help finish the race!

Voyage and Tuk Tuk - Lively Partner will facilitate characters' mobility between the different Locations - and if you have the “Finish Line” and any other Location on the table, it's possible to promptly complete the race, as long as there is a character available!

The Islands I Pulled From The Sea helps with the consistency of having the right Location at the right time. Usually, you'll use it to get the missing Speedway, or a second copy of “Finish Line” to keep the race going.

Finally, Minnie Mouse - Pirate Lookout will allow you to recover the “Finish Line” several times, and continually complete the race and accumulate more Lore and more cards every turn! It's one of the most important interactions in the deck, so make sure you always manage to get at least one use out of Minnie before your opponent deals with her - for example, play her only on a turn in which you can follow it by putting a card on the inkwell next.

Sticky Characters

Part of the combo between Speedways involves having characters that the opponent cannot readily deal with, so we chose some that, although don't have the greatest individual Lore gain, have a greater chance of surviving.

Nala - Mischievous Cub is an excellent defensive option, and is inkable, which is why it was chosen over Daisy Duck - Donald’s Date - a change that also helps with the decks' budget.

Lilo - Escape Artist is so far the only card in the game that can return itself from discard, and in doing so it'll gradually chip away the opponent's resources. Since it also has 2 Lore, she'll be also relevant even in a longer game.

Minnie Mouse - Stylish Surfer, and here we can also include Tuk Tuk - Lively Partner, is an evasive character, which limits the interactions that the opponent can use against it. It's also a character with 2 Lore, a good threat on its own.

The "Plan B" Characters

Rounding out our deck, we selected some characters that help when the Speedways plan ends up not working - or, if it does, they'll improve its efficiency!

Both Vanellope von Schweetz - Gutsy Go-Getter and Taffyta Muttonfudge - Sour Speedster require Locations, but not specifically Speedways. The “small” Taffyta Muttonfudge - Crowd Favorite also has the requirement, although it should be played more with the idea of a slight disrupt - just enough to give you some breathing room in order to finish ahead. The goal of these characters is to keep Lore generation high, without even depending on Quests - you can even choose not to Quest with them precisely to avoid exposing them to your opponent's challenges!

Since there is a certain “dependence” on Locations, it is natural to include some copies of Fix-It Felix, Jr. - Niceland Steward, as he makes all Locations more resistant. It's also a character with good offensive and defensive stats. Because it is “inkable”, the higher cost ends up not being an issue, since if the game state doesn't require his effect you can just turn him into ink.

Analysis and Turn Strategy

Starting hands and turns 1-4: First and foremost, look for the Speedways - it's always good to have at least one of them in your starting hand. Also, look for cheap characters that you can play. Remember that to go from the “Starting Line” to the “Finish Line”, without using other cards, the character needs to be “dry” (already on the board at the beginning of the turn), so ideally you want to make a character on the first or second turn, and on turn 3 play both Speedways, and immediately complete the race (using the “Starting Line” ability). Also good to start with a 1-Ink Location if you have Fix-It Felix, Jr. - Delighted Sightseer on turn 2, to guarantee you'll draw a card.

Mid-game, turns 4-8: With the cards draws from completing the first “lap” in Sugar Rush, you want to prepare the next one! Look for more copies of the Finish Line, either with The Islands I Pulled From The Sea or with Minnie Mouse - Pirate Lookout, or just drawing them naturally since you have a lot of extra card draw. Try to keep reusing the ability and finishing as many laps as you can, to surge ahead of the opponent both in Lore and cards.

Long game, turns 9+: If your Lore generation through Speedways is disrupted, focus on Taffyta Muttonfudge - Sour Speedster and its interaction between Locations to accumulate Lore every turn, without Questing. If you can get two of them on the board, even better! The goal is to reach 20 Lore before the opponent is able to completely control the board, since it'll be difficult to fight back. The Underworld - River Styx is also an excellent tool on long games, because it'll return key characters from your discard.

Conclusion

And with that we conclude our first deck with Azurite Sea!

“Speedway Aggro” may still need some refinement (specially since the list we showed has few ways of interacting with the opponent), but the focus was on presenting the idea of ​​an aggro that can constantly redraw cards and therefore play better in a long game! Furthermore, because it involves a strategy with Locations, the deck is able to get around opponents who are very focused only on character control.

So, what did you think of the deck? What changes would you make to the list? Have you ever built and played with a similar deck? Share with us!

Hugs and see you next time!