Single-Player Precons from Archazia's Island: Deck Guide and Upgrades!

Hello, everyone!

Lorcana continues to grow steadily with every new set release. This means there's always new players for the card game, and they naturally need a starting point to begin their journey.

Although one can always purchase boxes or booster packs, by far the best product for a beginner will be the pre-constructed decks - a product that contains a complete 60-card deck, ready to play, and also a booster pack of the same set, so you can kickstart your collection.

So today, since we're still enjoying the recent Archazia's Island release, we will analyze both single-player decks of the set, understand what their game plan is, and even suggest some upgrades - of course, since they are products aimed at beginners, the suggestions will focus on things that are easier to obtain, mostly common/uncommon cards.

Let's go!

Archazia’s Island's release brought two new Single-Player decks, and just like in other sets, their goal is to showcase some theme or mechanic. The power level is not that high - which isn't to say they don't have good cards, quite the opposite! It's just that they can't be thought as optimized lists, considering the current competitive metagame.

Of course, both decks will contain a booster from the Archazia’s Island Set. Two good news: one, it is the most recent set, so it has a lot of cards that are sought-after since they just came out; and two, it is the first set to have multicolored cards, a very interesting novelty that, from what we've seen, will be a part of the game from now on.

If you want to know more, here's an article summarizing all info on the set, with some featured cards - including some that will appear in the decks we'll be analyzing!

So let's get to know the two Decks from the set: Ruby & Sapphire and Amethyst & Steel!

Ruby-Sapphire

Let's start with Ruby-Sapphire, a very interesting list combining item synergies and character's strength synergies!

The Decklist

The Gameplan

Archazia’s Island has a theme of reusing items, and that is one of the focus of the deck. Through some efficient cards, such as Belle - Apprentice Inventor and Monsieur D'Arque - Despicable Proprietor, you turn your items into free characters or card draws, and grow your resources to develop some characters to Quest, and some for battle in the early turns.

In addition to items, the deck also has another theme which is reusing characters! Some cards allow you to ready your characters and use them again in the same turn - not coincidentally, we see some characters with non-Quest abilities, such as Kida - Creative Thinker, Beast - Frustrated Designer, or Beagle Boys - Small-Time Crooks.

Rounding it out, the new version of Belle, Belle - Mechanic Extraordinaire. A powerful character that can be played for little ink, as long as you have enough items in your discard and have Belle - Apprentice Inventor to use Shift. Belle can potentially generate six Lore per turn, which makes her a very strong win condition.

That's basically the deck's strategy! It's a varied list, but with lots of synergies. The Ruby part of the deck is in more of a support role; the main color, without a doubt, is Sapphire.

Suggested Upgrades

We will focus more on the items theme and less on increasing the power of characters - although there will still be some of that, since we have good cards to take advantage of.

Belle - Apprentice Inventor is one of the best cards to use with items, so the 4th copy is mandatory. Since we also want more copies of Belle - Mechanic Extraordinaire, it's important to have more Shift options as well. Keeping with the item theme and the focus on Belle, we included Belle - Inventive Engineer.

Regarding items, it is regrettable that Pawpsicle was not included in the original list - the best possible card to use on the first turn along with Belle - Apprentice Inventor. Thus, 4 copies were included in the upgraded list, while some less efficient items were out. We have also maxed to 4 copies some of the items that work well with the theme.

In the end, trying to keep it on a budget, we simply maxed some cards already in the original list. In other words, with 2 of this deck, and 4 copies of Pawpsicle and Belle - Inventive Engineer - respectively, a common and an uncommon - you will have our final version:

Worth pointing out that this list has no uninkable cards, which is important for a flexible approach and turn-planning.

Amethyst-Steel

The Amethyst-Steel list has a unique theme from Archazia’s Island, which is the Illusion type characters - a trademark of the evil Jafar, who is also present in the deck.

The Decklist

The Gameplan

Illusion cards have strong stats and low ink cost, but in return, whenever they are chosen by an opponent's action, they are banished afterwards. To mitigate this, Jafar - Newly Crowned will make them return to your hand, instead of being banished.

It's a more aggressive deck, with several cards that take advantage of challenging the opponent's characters - such as Fa Zhou - War Hero or Restoring the Crown -, or cards that move damage counters around - such as Panic - High-Strung Imp.

On the other hand, some cards don't exactly have a clear synergy, like A Very Merry Unbirthday or Training Dummy. As is usual in preconstructed decks, there are cards not directly linked to the main theme, but instead diversify the deck's strategy so that the player becomes familiar with other game mechanics.

Suggested Upgrades

Similar to what we did with Ruby-Sapphire, let's get the deck more focused on the main plan and ensure that it is consistent!

On the illusions theme, we will max our copies of Rajah - Ghostly Tiger and Giant Cobra - Ghostly Serpent, and add one more of Iago - Giant Spectral Parrot. With this, the cards that synergize with illusions will play better: we will also max our Treasure Guardian - Foreboding Sentry and use 2 of Jafar - Newly Crowned.

To make the most of combat synergies, we're also increasing the number of Panic - High-Strung Imp and Fa Zhou - War Hero. Let's also add one more copy of Restoring the Crown, which can completely turn a game around in your favor.

To have more efficient removal that is still inkable, we'll use Ba-boom! instead of Double Trouble. Another card we'll add is Mulan - Disguised Soldier, since her ability allows you to filter out uninkables for more relevant cards.

In the end, similar to what we did with the other deck, with 2 of the Amethyst-Steel deck and 4 copies of Ba-boom! and Mulan - Disguised Soldier - both commons -, you'll get to our final version:

With a very aggressive ink curve - after all, it's a combat-based deck! - and several tricks to return characters to hand and reuse their effects, the goal is to control the board in the early turns and then steadily increase your Lore, while preventing the opponent from getting back on the board with your exert effects.

In general, Single-Player Decks are great products for newcomers to Lorcana - whether they are veterans from other TCGs, or just someone trying out in their first card game and starting a collection.

Being a product that is always in line with the latest set, it is always recommended to look for the most recent Single-Player Decks - especially because one of the product's distinguishing features is that it also comes with a booster pack of the new set!

As shown in this article, it is possible to build consistent and playable decks, and at a relatively low cost - a win-win for beginners. Little by little, you can develop the decks further and upgrade into something closer to the game's competitive metagame.

What did you think of the decks? Did you buy any Single-Player Decks from this set? What changes did you make? Share with us!

Hugs and see you next time!