Lorcana: Upgrading the Whispers in the Well Single-Player Decks!

Hello, everyone!

With the release of the new set, Whispers in the Well, on November 14th, we also had the release of two new Single-Player Decks!

These Starter Decks are excellent for beginners, since, in addition to being a ready-to-play deck, they usually focus on simpler mechanics, which greatly helps those taking their first steps in Lorcana. On top of that, they come with a booster pack from the set, which helps you start building your collection!

As usual, we will present the decks, strategies, and game plans, and suggest an upgraded list, combining 2 Starter Decks + some easy-to-find cards from the sets valid in Core Constructed.

If you want to check out our analyses of Starter Decks from previous sets, just click on the links below:

- Archazia’s Island Decks.

- Reign of Jafar Decks.

- Fabled Decks.

This set features two new Starter Decks, in the following ink combinations: Amber-Emerald and Sapphire-Steel.

Probably many higher rarity cards could also contribute, but the idea here is to focus on easily accessible cards and propose something fun and focused so that a beginner can take their first steps in Lorcana!

Amber-Emerald

We begin with the Amber-Emerald list, which focuses on the set's new ability: Boost! This ability allows you to place cards under your cards already on the board, activating various bonuses and synergies.

Often, the cost to activate Boost can prevent you from further developing your board, and this deck circumvents that by using cards like Emily Quackfaster - Level-Headed Librarian or Blessed Bagpipes, among others.

Furthermore, by using cards like Mrs. Beakley - Former S.H.U.S.H. Agent, and stronger characters like Hook Hand - Unexpectedly Friendly, you discourage your opponent from challenging your characters.

In terms of strategy, it's a typical midrange deck: it uses progressively better characters and gradually dominates the board, and before you know it, high-value characters will stick to the board, like Simba - King in the Making!

Upgrading the list

As usual, even though the list has a main plan, it ends up being somewhat diluted by using too many cards with other subplans. For example, in addition to the Boost cards, the list also uses many Shifts, which are another way of having cards under others.

To make everything a bit more consistent, our suggestion is to focus on the Boost characters, increasing to 4 of each, or 2 in the case of Simba - after all, it's a Super-Rare, and only 1 comes in each Starter. Furthermore, we maximized some support cards, such as Blessed Bagpipes, which are excellent in multiples - each will grant a bonus if your opponent challenges your board.

Finally, to further improve this consistency issue, we added 4 copies of the song Be Our Guest! With this, you gain another tool capable of finding the Boost characters, which are so important for activating various deck synergies.

In the end, our list looks like this:

Sapphire-Steel

The Sapphire-Steel list also features a theme from the set, which in this case is the synergy around Detective type characters! There are 25 characters with this type, almost half of the deck, which greatly helps with cards like Judy Hopps - Uncovering Clues and Nick Wilde - Persistent Investigator, among others.

In addition to detectives, there are also some cards with Boost, again showcasing the set's new keyword, although on a much smaller scale.

There are also small synergies involving discarding and reusing cards, such as items, and recovering them from the discard pile, with Pluto - Clever Cluefinder.

Finally, the deck also features excellent Locations, which help with the consistency and resilience of the characters.

Upgrading the list

Themed decks offer a bit more ease in upgrading, since the first step is basically to increase to the maximum number of copies any cards involving the deck's main synergy.

In our case, the list went from 25 detective type characters to a whopping forty-six! This makes some cards much more efficient, such as Judy Hopps - Uncovering Clues and Nick Wilde - Persistent Investigator, and also Judy Hopps - Lead Detective.

We made two additions to the deck, and both are detective characters: 4 copies each of Basil - Practiced Detective and Inspector Tezuka - Resolute Officer.

The deck's lower curve now allows it to be played more aggressively, with a constant focus on Quest, leaving it to the opponent to find a way to control the board.

Furthermore, with more Locations available, the deck also gains a second way to obtain Lore without relying on characters – always making life more difficult for the opponent, since they have to choose whether to challenge the Locations or the Characters.

In the end, our list looked like this:

And with that, we conclude our analysis of the new Starter Decks!

The Whispers decks give the impression of being slightly ahead of other Starters already released, but there's also the natural issue of the overall power creep in the game with the new sets.

We're also seeing a bit more consistency in the Starters' game plan, something that, since Reign of Jafar, makes this product increasingly recommended for Lorcana beginners, or even for those who want to experiment with the mechanics of the new sets.

I hope you enjoyed it! Please also share with us other ideas for developing and improving the Starters from the new collection!

Cheers, and until next time!