Lorcana Deck Tech: Amethyst Ruby Control

Welcome back to another article discussing Lorcana! Today, we are going to look at one of the strongest decks coming out of the First Chapter set.

For those that don't know, as it isn't quite clear, Lorcana competitive play is played in best of threes and currently is a just a 60 card format, so there aren't sideboards. With that in mind, we will cover the 60 cards in the deck and discuss everything you need to know about it if you are trying to pick it up or metagame against it.

If you want more basic information, you can read my last article!

Amethyst Ruby Control is a deck that has a lot of card advantage built into it with Friends On The Other Side, and plays to the board, using high Strength high Willpower characters with powerful effects to control the board.

Once the deck has gotten to the late game, it can clean up with the only Wrath of God effect in Lorcana, Be Prepared, and finish the game with usually Aladdin, Elsa or Maleficent.

Looking at Luna’s list, which Top 4’d one of the first paper Lorcana events, let's examine it and see how it differs from the norm and why.

To understand the card choices, the main thing to understand is that Lorcana is centered around challenging and character trading. This makes a lot of the card choices make sense.

Amethyst Cards

Characters

Archimedes is a 1 Ink 2/2 that can be put in the Inkwell. One important strategy at the moment is to be aggressive and play 1 Ink cost cards that quest for 2. This character provides you with access to challenge them, this way stopping them from gaining two Lore. Ensuring you curve out to keep pace with these Aggro decks is key.

Magic Broom is an interesting choice included in these builds recently. Firstly, it can be put in the Inkwell, so it keeps the mana count high. Secondly, in the late game, it allows you to redraw powerful cards when the games are going to go long.

Finally, you can shuffle another Magic Broom into the deck, so you don't deck out against the mirror or other control decks. This is all while being a 2/2 you can play for 2 Ink and play for the board.

Maleficent is a forceful card. The body isn't a fantastic rate, but the fact it draws a card when it's played is a strong ability. This allows you to play on curve and keep playing to the board, which is essential for this deck, and in Lorcana in general.

Rafiki has a powerful effect which will allow you to get parity back on the board if you have fallen behind. It also allows you to challenge and beat most early Bodyguards, like Simba. Bodyguards played early are there to protect cheap, powerful one costs that quest for two, like Lilo or Maleficent.

In this list, as you can see, only two copies are run. The main reason is due to it not being able to go into the Inkwell and keep those sources high. Hitting Inkwell sources is really important in an Ink-hungry deck like this.

Jetsam may seem like a really strange choice here. But having access to an Evasive character both allows you to take over the game if the opponent can't answer it, and gives you the ability to deal with other Evasive characters, especially if they have Ward. Ultimately, if it is a matchup where Evasive isn't needed, it can just be an Ink source.

Mickey Mouse is a card that really allows your Magic Broom to gain infinitely more value! Making them cost 1 is strong in itself, but allowing them to challenge other characters freely and still get to come back allows you to get so much value, especially when you are in a control mirror.

The Queen allows you to have so much card advantage in one card. Not only does it draw a card every turn, but trading into this can be very difficult.

The opponent would need to use a premium removal action on this or challenge with a character which will either setup for something like Maleficent to trade with or the Queen will already have traded with. The card is incredibly strong at burying your opponent in card advantage when you are trading one for one and really allows you to get ahead in the game.

Ursula is a relatively new threat in these control decks; however, it really impressed me compared to other options like Elsa. Firstly, it's cheaper than other options, which means it can be played sooner and played along with another card sooner. Secondly, its ability is not board state relevant; it is just always good as it replaces itself.

Finally, its body is really annoying to deal with and can challenge and banish a lot of the cheaper characters and survive being challenged by all premium and powerful characters. This means you will be likely able to quest twice with this three-Lore character.

Actions

Friends On The Other Side has been described as a Lorcana Divination or Pot of Greed. Both of those vary in power level in their respective games. However, I do know its card advantage whether you can Sing it or play it for its full cost. You can't really leave home without four copies of this card.

Items

Magic Mirror is another way of gaining card advantage. Four Ink is a lot for one card, but when the match is going into a long game, this is the perfect card to sink your spare Ink into.

Ruby Cards

Characters

Gaston is a perfect example of the meta evolving. At the moment, the two main decks to beat are aggressive decks like Amber/Steel or the Mirror. So, with that in mind, a common route to victory for the Aggro deck is Lilo into Bodyguard Simba. This allows them to protect Lilo from all the one Ink costs, like Archimedes.

Gaston is a two Ink-cost play, so when you are going first, the play pattern of playing Archimedes into Gaston deals with the powerful early turns of Lilo into Simba Bodyguarded. Trading with Simba isn't ideal, but in the current metagame Gaston has its purpose. Then, like most cards in this deck, if it's not ideal, in the worst case, you can play it in your Inkwell. Gaston as a whole, however, allows you to kill more expensive characters as he is such a high Strength character.

Aladdin's main role here is to allow Aladdin - Heroic Outlaw to Shift onto a cheap one. But the main difference between this scenario compared to Elsa is the effect does something when it is played and can cause a critical mass of this effect with other cards like Ursula and Aladdin Prince.

The 3 Ink Elsa and Aladdins in these decks will have a target on their heads to prevent shifting these game ending characters onto them. Finally, playing characters on curve is crucial in this game to ensure you can contest the aggressive strategies trying to quest as quickly as possible.

Maui is another Reckless threat that allows you to trade with much more expensive characters. A 6 Strength 5 Willpower character really allows you to either banish a few smaller characters or trade with larger characters like Stitch Rock Star, Aladdin and Elsa, without affecting your overall game plan.

But again, the real power in these situational cards is being able to place them into your Inkwell when not needed. The more Ink sources you have available, the better your deck will be at executing its gameplan.

Aladdin is one of the threats which will just take over the game if it stays on board. Being able to challenge and still effectively quest allows you to gain some excellent value, along with delaying the opponent further from winning the game. It is similar to Elsa in that it really struggles to be played from an empty board.

Maleficent Dragon is the best threat in this deck, and is an absolute power house, being able to deal with the biggest threat whilst also putting a 7/5 into play.

The real strength in it is when we discuss the Ruby Action cards below.

Actions

Be Prepared is the best catch-all in the game right now, as it is the only clean answer to deal with all of your opponents' characters. Being able to Sing this card is another reason why this card is incredibly strong, as you can play this for free by exerting a character and then still have the Ink to play another character like Aladdin or Ursula.

Dragon Fire is Maleficent's ability on an action spell. Having an effective 8 copies of clean targeted removal really helps fixing every issue you could encounter.

The reason these last three cards are so incredibly strong is because the opponent will struggle to play around them all. If they over commit, Be Prepared will clear the board. If they under commit only 1-2 characters, Dragon Fire and Maleficent will easily take care of those. This is all whilst not including challenging and combat from characters you have access to early, like Gaston and Archimedes.

Sergeant Tibbs is an additional 1 cost that you can play to gain consistency in the Mulligans. Usually, this is a good call if you expect to see many aggressive decks.

Shield of Virtue is a card that really excites me about this game. A card like this would not normally see play in a control mirror. However, this card is excellent in those matches because they are so challenge-focused. Readying a premium threat is great in the matchup, as they can genuinely struggle to handle it.

White Rabbit's Pocket Watch is similar to Shield of Virtue, but instead of readying a character to prevent it from being challenged for 1 Ink, you get to challenge a character with another that usually wouldn't be able to, like Aladdin or Ursula.

Both Elsas are usually the card choice for this deck; however, I believe moving away from these threats really helps hone in on the decks you are having trouble beating. Additionally, I find Elsa (3 Ink) really underwhelming.

Dr. Facilier is a great contender for the threat package, being able to redraw threats and characters to your hand. However, a 7-cost character that you have to already be ahead on board to play has felt very "win more" to me. You could have the 2 Ink Facilier in to help play it early, but it doesn't help with dealing with Simba and other 3 Willpower characters.

Mickey Mouse - Brave Little Tailor would likely take over the Jetsam slot as it is nice to have an Evasive character out. However, Mickey Mouse closes the game out really quickly with four Lore. I wouldn't be surprised if this became a mainstay in future metagames.

These are just some cards I've highlighted, as there are more options to consider.

Mulligans are, I believe, fairly straightforward due to the way this deck is set up.

Realistically, you would like to keep the early game interaction, like Archimedes and Gaston, along with card draw like Friends On The Other Side and Maleficent, as this is the easiest way to win, and all of these cards, if not required, can be used for Ink.

The game plan for this deck is simple. You'll use the early plays and Reckless mechanic to make favorable challenges to ensure you control the board, cleaning up any "difficult-to-deal-with" characters with Be Prepared and Maleficent. Once the opponent is out of resources, use the powerful haymakers, like Aladdin and Ursula, to win the game.

In a control mirror, you can take it slow and gain as much use of your cards as possible. Mickey and Brooms are key at buying back key pieces like Be Prepared, Maleficent and other Brooms as the games will go long!

This deck is the best deck out the gates and definitely the bogeyman of the format; that is clear. But how you tackle your metagame should really be reflected in your card choices! I really hope you can all play this deck and see its true strength! This game is off to a fantastic start and the gameplay is truly unique!

Until next time!

Hakuna Matata!