Lorcana Deck Guide - Emerald Ruby Actions

Hello, everyone!

Let's keep on checking out new decks thanks to the new set, Azurite Sea!

Today we will showcase a deck using some very interesting synergies between characters and actions - some of them, in fact, mentioned in our article with some highlights from the new set!

All right, I present to you "Emerald Ruby Actions"!

Decklist

Gameplan and Strategy

Emerald/Ruby Actions is a deck aimed at abusing the interactions between some characters in the selected ink colors and various actions - in particular, actions that ready characters so they can be used again!

In general, in Lorcana characters are usually “more valuable” than actions, since they stay on the board and thus can generate value over several turns, while actions have a one-shot effect and then go to discard. This also means that actions typically have a lower ink cost than characters, as their effects are immediate and non-repeatable. Therefore, having characters that extract more value from your actions allows you to make powerful plays, in which you perform several different effects within the same turn and gain a lot of advantage over your opponent!

On a superficial level, this is an aggressive deck, using low-cost characters to generate Lore quickly. But our "characters-actions synergies" allows us some very strong plays in the midgame, usually when you're between 4 and 8 ink, which can put this deck way ahead in the race to 20 Lore!

Not to mention that the deck can also interact a lot with the opponent, especially through discards or “stealing” Lore, as some cards in the deck take Lore from the opponent while increasing our own reserve.

Let's take a look at the cards and understand their role in the deck:

Actions and Songs!

In total, there are 26 cards dedicated to this section of the deck, with 14 Actions and 12 Songs.

As you can see, the effects are quite varied, from “stealing” Lore, drawing cards, readying characters and even returning discarded actions to be used again.

Strike a Good Match and Hypnotic Deduction play an important role in ensuring that you find not only the Actions, but also the key characters that interact with them, in order to maximize your gain every time you play one of them.

Speaking of key characters, let's get to know them!

The Key Characters

These 4 characters are crucial for the deck, as they all interact in some way with our actions, causing them to generate even more advantage.

Maui - Half Shark combines gaining extra Lore for each action played with excellent stats, especially on the offensive side, and an ability that encourages you to challenge your opponent's board. He can easily dominate a game, all while generating card advantage for you.

Similarly, Ursula - Deceiver of All can abuse specifically the songs in our deck, which we've already shown. With Ursula, you will now be able to draw 4 cards with Strike a Good Match, discard two of your opponent's cards with Sudden Chill or even “steal” 4 Lore with A Pirate’s Life!

Finally, Tigger - In The Crow’s Nest and Robin Hood - Sharpshooter allow you to gain both a Lore advantage and and Ink advantage in the same turn. Being able to find an You Came Back with Robin Hood's ​​Quest effect is devastating, and we even have Hypnotic Deduction to give even more consistency to this plan.

Envision the following sequence: Tigger - In The Crow's Nest on turn 3, Robin Hood - Sharpshooter on turn 4. On turn 5, you quest with Robin Hood, gaining +2 Lore, and hit an You Came Back to make Robin ready again. You quest once more, gaining +2 Lore, and now hit a Do It Again!, returning You Came Back. Once again Robin is readied, you quest again, +2 Lore, and now hit A Pirate’s Life, giving +2 Lore for you and -2 for the opponent.

After all that, now it's Tigger's turn to quest, for +5 Lore. If we add everything up, this simple and modest turn generated THIRTEEN Lore in total, and also took 2 Lore from the opponent! If you managed to also play some low-ink Actions in-between, like Thievery, or have the glorious Maui - Half Shark on the board, the potential gain on these big turns is simply insane.

Support Cards

Rounding out the deck, we have some interactions and card draw to increase consistency and also interfere with our opponent's plans.

Fred - Mascot by Day and Flynn Rider - Charming Rogue serve especially as “lightning rods” for the opponent's removals. As they generate an advantage if they are challenged by opposing characters, normally the opponent will prefer to use some Action to remove them directly, and this reduces the chance of the opponent being able to remove a key character like Robin Hood, for example.

Similarly, Ursula - Deceiver is important to evaluate what tools the opponent has at their disposal, so you can play accordingly, and also removing cards like Strength of a Raging Fire or Be Prepared.

Finally, both versions of Clarabelle - Clarabelle - Clumsy Guest and Clarabelle - Contented Wallflower - help either to deal with annoying items, or to keep up with opponents who draw a lot of extra cards. They have a somewhat niche role in the deck, so don't be shy about putting them down as ink instead of playing them.

Analysis and Turn Strategy

Now that we've highlighted each card's role in the deck, let's understand the ideal turn sequencing during the games:

Starting hand and turns 1-4: it's important to look for cheap characters and actions, such as Fred - Mascot by Day or Strike a Good Match, and pay attention to the opponent's deck so as not to expose your key characters to removals. Play it safe and start with your other cheap characters or with Ursula - Deceiver to make sure there are no threats before playing your Robin Hood - Sharpshooter or Tigger - In The Crow's Nest.

Middle game, turns 4-8: having established a Robin Hood or Tigger, prepare your "one big turn", in which you chain together several actions, songs and quests to open up a lot of Lore advantage and pressure the opponent to immediately answer your board. It's possible that you'll be low on resources after this turn, so save some Clarabelle - Contented Wallflower and other card draws as much as possible.

Long game, turns 9+: if your “big turn” was a success, you should only worry about closing the last few points and get to 20 Lore. If the opponent has managed to fight back, use your card draws to find cards like Thievery and A Pirate’s Life, so you can try to win the game without depending on characters staying on the board. Remember that Do It Again! can also return Lore-gaining cards to your hand!

Conclusion

And with that we conclude another deck, made possible thanks to the new set, Azurite Sea!

This deck, with the ability to make an explosive turn and “take control” of the game, is really fun! As it requires a lot of planning/preparation, this playing style, similar to putting together a puzzle, provides a very interesting mental challenge and many people have a lot of fun with it.

And you, what did you think of the deck? What changes do you suggest in the decklist we presented?

Have you ever played with an explosive deck like this? Share with us!

Hugs and see you next time!