Lorcana: Azurite Sea Review - A New Set Upon Us!

Hello, everyone!

On November 15th, Lorcana's newest set, Azurite Sea, will be released!

Many new cards will enter the format, existing strategies get some updates - and, who knows, maybe we might see some new strategies forming?

So, let's take a look at some interesting cards from the new set!

Disclaimer: The cards I'll talk about are not necessarily a list of the best/most powerful in the set, and the purpose of the article is not to make a “buylist” of the set either. The idea here is to point out some interesting synergies and possibilities.

Amber

Lilo - Escape Artist is the first card in the game that can be played from the discard. Until then, we had effects that returned cards from discard to hand, but not played directly from the discard.

In fact, the little Lilo raises some questions regarding the exact moment in which the ability happens, so let's take the opportunity to clarify - at the beginning of the turn, the steps are “Ready, Set, Draw” - Lilo's effect, therefore, happens before the Draw, but after you've already readied your inkwell. So, this is when you can pay 2 and play it from the discard.

Now that we clarified the rulings, let's analyze the card! Lilo is very interesting because it is a recurring threat for aggressive decks. Imagine having 2 of it on the table and your opponent spends their turn playing Be Prepared to rest the board, only for you to spend 4 mana and get everything back! Lilo - Escape Artist gives a certain inevitability to aggro decks, which is a nice balance to the efficiency of removals in the game.

In practice, having Lilo - Escape Artist in the discard is somewhat like drawing 1 extra card every turn - although the character has lower attributes than normal for the cost, the fact that it can quest for 2 Lore means that the opponent cannot simply ignore her the rest of the game. A very interesting card with a lot of potential!

Grand Councilwoman has a very interesting ability, which is particularly effective if you have multiples of itself on the board, or some way of reading characters to Quest again .

Amber also has many cards that return characters from discard, so even if the opponent deals with it, it's possible to build a deck that can always have it back on the board. Many “Alien” type characters are very playable on their own, such as Stitch - Rock Star and Morph - Space Goo, among other new options that also come in Azurite Sea.

This is a card with absurd potential, especially if we consider cards that allow you to move “for free” to Locations, such as Jim Hawkins - Space Traveler and Magic Carpet - Flying Rug, or even the on-theme Sugar Rush Speedway - Starting Line. It's also good to notice that it requires a low ink investment (only 2). Keep an eye out, we'll probably have a decklist built with these cards once the set is available!

Amethyst

Diablo has already shown how strong it can be in Emerald, and now it also gains a great card in Amethyst. It's very similar to other characters in this ink color, such as Magic Broom - Illuminary Keeper or Chernabog's Followers - Creatures of Evil, but the difference with Diablo - Obedient Raven is being able to keep gaining Lore until the opponent decides to use some resource or character to take it off the board, and you'll still draw a card when that happens.

You also need to think about the consistency it brings to shifting a Diablo - Devoted Herald, which could make Emerald/Amethyst an interesting new combination to come in the metagame.

This card is another option of direct Lore gain for Amethyst, similar to Merlin - Goat. Although it does not generate Lore when it leaves the board, compared to Merlin, White Rose costs 1 less, which certainly eases some “bounce” playlines (a nickname given when using an ability that returns cards to the owner's hand).

It is also another option for “Burn” decks, like the one we analyzed in a previous article.

Azurite Sea brings some cards in Amethyst that focus on a new win condition - discarding cards from the opponent's deck, in order to win by default (by making the opponent have no deck to play), an effect that is also nicknamed “milling” (after a card in the game Magic: The Gathering, “Millstone” that also has a similar effect).

Little by little, more cards with this effect are entering the game, and if we consider that, in conjunction with A Whole New World you can constantly force your opponent to lose 7-9 cards from their deck per turn, it is possible that the strategy becomes competitive enough to appear in the metagame.

Emerald

Fred is a very interesting card, especially for a common - if the opponent tries to remove it with another character, you end up rewarded! This means that for a low investment, just 1 Lore, you will potentially receive 3 Lore (1 from the Quest + 2 from the ability), or else your opponent will have to waste a removal card on a 1/1 - and with that, you have indirectly also protected other characters...

…characters like Olivia Flaversham! This is another "high-Lore low-Cost" character, pretty much the dream of Lorcana's aggro decks. Just one Quest from Olivia already puts you way ahead, and if you can protect her with Bodyguards like Simba - Protective Cub, you'll certainly be ending the game very quickly!

This is a card that at first glance doesn't seem like a big deal, but when you read it carefully you notice the fine print. Unlike several other similar cards in the game, You Came Back does NOT come with the restriction that the readied character will no longer be able to Quest for the rest of the turn! This makes you take a whole new look at the effect - at the very least, you're paying 3 ink to gain Lore equal to your best character on the board, but when you consider some "when this character Quests" effects, like Daisy Duck - Secret Agent , or synergies with Genie - Powers Unleashed, suddenly you get a lot more value out of just 1 card!

Ruby

Maui - Half-Shark is probably a "best-card-in-the-set" candidate, and with good reason. Excellent stats for the ink cost, evasive, and with two synergistic abilities, Maui has the potential to dominate a game by itself! And if all this wasn't enough, on top of that it's an “inkable” card, so in the first few turns if you don't think you'll have time to use it properly, you can just put it in the inkwell and carry on with the game.

Let's keep an eye on whether Maui lives up to expectations or not!

And speaking of cards that “combo” with Maui - Half-Shark, look what a simple but extremely efficient card the Ruby color got with Thievery! If we compare it to A Pirate’s Life, even though Thievery only does half the effect, it only costs ONE ink! Being able to have such a similar effect for so less ink allows you to make more plays in the same turn WHILE controlling Lore, both your own and the opponent's.

And one must consider the strong synergy with Maui, as we mentioned before - with him on the board, if you play Thievery, challenge someone with Maui, return Thievery and play it again, in the end you will have obtained 4 Lore and at the same time you will have removed 2 Lore from the opponent for just 2 ink!

One of the things that will make it difficult to widely test cards like Maui is card availability/price upon release. However, an excellent option - whether to complement Maui, or as a “budget” option - is Tigger - In The Crow’s Nest! Good stats for the cost (especially defensive), evasive, and an ability that rewards using multiple actions in the same turn.

Tigger, however, also has potential if you have ways to ready it and use your Quest more than once in the same turn - for example, with You Came Back, which we talked about a little earlier. In a turn that you play two cheap actions, Quest with Tigger, play You Came Back on Tigger and Quest again, you have already jumped ahead by SEVEN Lore! Not to mention the effect that the first actions eventually had. Tigger has a lot of potential to be explored!

Sapphire

Gadget Hackwrench may seem like just another card designed for the inventor deck, but if we look closely we will notice many qualities beyond that.

First, because of the “shift” ability, it can come into play earlier than normal, especially since Sapphire is the color of ink acceleration. Second, its stats are excellent, having 3 strength (which prevents the use of cards like Brawl) and 6 willpower (which prevents the use of cards like And Then Along Came Zeus ).

Lastly, Gadget also generates 3 Lore, so the opponent will be hard-pressed to deal with it. The synergies with items and inventors could end up being more of a “bonus”, the strength of the card relies on where the current meta stands, especially when tinking about the currently most used removals.

Similar to our previous highlight, Sour Bill is another card greater than the sum of its parts. For 3 ink, a 2/3 character that generates 2 Lore is fine (maybe a tiny bit above rate, if we consider it's a common). But its ability often allows a low-cost character to challenge a larger character and survive, giving a lot of tempo advantage. Sour Bill can even have indirect uses, such as reducing the power of an opponent's character so that it is possible to target it with a Brawl, for example!

Look, it's definitely not a Rapunzel - Gifted With Healing, but for Sapphire, it's pretty close. Baymax has the potential to generate a lot of Lore in just a few turns, and on top of that keep your other characters alive - in a way, it helps you regain the tempo you spent using characters to Challenge instead of Questing . The fact that it is also a “Robot” expands on some synergies with other cards in the set, and Baymax seems good enough to see play in some archetypes - and who knows, it might even help Sapphire to find a more “aggro” list to play?

Steel

The new Gantu is basically a “vanilla” character (TCG slang for cards that have no abilities), but it is the first time we have a character that generates so much Lore for such low cost without any conditions (as we see in Flynn Rider - His Own Biggest Fan or Mirabel Madrigal - Family Gatherer). To top it off, it's “inkable” - so even if it doesn't have any special abilities, it can definitely act as a “finisher” for a variety of Steel decks.

What makes Calhoun worth highlighting is a simple line of text: “Resist”. Similar to other cheap but combat-efficient Steel characters, such as Captain Hook - Forceful Duelist, Calhoun is capable of completely stopping an "aggro" deck, such as those focused on characters like Lilo - Making a Wish .

What makes Calhoun stands from the rest is the fact that it helps with the "tempo loss" of using characters to challenge - you are not advancing in Lore, while your opponent has already gained Lore with the character you removed.

One of the best forms of protection in Lorcana so far is the “Ward” ability, which prevents the opponent from choosing the "Ward" character except for challenges. Unfortunate Situation cleverly gets around this restriction, as the person making the choice is your opponent, not you. It may not be an absurdly strong card, but it seems like a potential “flex slot” (that is, a card that you use/adjust in the deck depending on what decks you expect to encounter) for Steel decks, and especially because it is “inkable”.

Conclusion

Azurite Sea is coming with expectations, bringing not only many options for existing decks but also some new or different effects, and also more cards that enable some new strategies too!

So far, it seems like a set that could bring some changes to the competitive metagame, and considering that the next events will be the Regional Championships in Europe and the USA, we should see a lot of new decks and ideas showing up!

And you, what did you think of the set? Which cards caught your attention the most? What decks are you hoping to build or reinforce with the new set? Share with us!

Hugs and see you next time!