Lorcana Competitive Analysis - Reviewing the North America Continentals!

Hello, everyone!

From January 10th to 12th we had the very first Lorcana Continental Championship in North America!

The event took place in Anaheim, California / USA, right within the Disneyland Resort! It was undoubtly a huge celebration of the game and of Disney itself, which gathered not only the main event participants, but thousands of people interested in getting to know and having fun with the card game!

In addition to the various side events of the most varied types - Constructed, Drafts, Sealed, etc. - we had the main event, the North American Continental, which will be the focus of our analysis today. Let's go!

A Rocky Start

With the recent news about the severe wildfires raging across California, there was concern about the integrity of the event and whether it could be affected.

There was a press release the week before the event from the organizers, guaranteeing that it would take place normally, and that all precautions would be taken despite the event area not being among those affected by the fires. Out of respect for those who might have problems with travel plans, their tickets to the event were refunded.

In the end, fortunately there was no interference or risk to the participants. But it's always good to know that the organizers were attentive and tried to anticipate potential problems.

The Metagame - Analysis and Popular Archetypes

With the European Continental establishing the initial metagame after the release of the Azurite Sea set, the path was paved for a more consolidated metagame on the North American Continental.

However, what we saw was more diversity in the decks, partly also because the NA event had more participants - 126 in total, while in Europe there were 96. Just a reminder, Continental Championship is an invite-only event, where you needed to be among the top16 in one of the Lorcana Challenges throughout the year, or win one of the Last-Chance Qualifiers that take place on the eve of the tournament.

In the end, the decks chosen by the 126 players were divided as follows:

If we compare it with the European metagame, as mentioned before, there was a greater diversity in the archetypes. While 85% of the metagame in Europe was concentrated in 4 ink combinations, in North America the same 85% of the metagame would be equivalent to 6 ink combinations.

Observing and comparing the 2 metagames further, it is interesting to note that the most popular deck was the same: Ruby Sapphire Items, which we already analyzed in a previous article. It is, without a doubt, one of the best control decks in the meta. In addition to being the most popular deck in both Europe and North America, it also had almost the same percentage participation in the meta, around 1/3 of the players.

Those who opted for this archetype for the tournament in California undoubtedly had the opportunity to better prepare it for the new metagame, as the ink pair proved very successful. Six of the Top 16 used similar lists, including one of the finalists:

The second most popular ink combination, Amber Steel, may seem at first glance to be a huge difference between the two metagames. In fact, that's because there are two distinct archetypes within the same combination: the popular and traditional Amber Steel Songs, and the recent and successful Amber Steel Dwarfs, which we mentioned in our preview article for the tournament.

As there was no division by archetypes, but by ink combination, it is not possible to know for sure what proportion each different build had in the tournament. However, we had two participants in the Top16 with the Amber Steel Dwarfs build, and one participant in the Top8 with Amber Steel Songs - with the following list:

The list features some important innovations, such as Ariel - Sonic Warrior and World's Greatest Criminal Mind. We've already made a guide for the deck, but expect a more detailed analysis featuring this updated list in a future article!

Back to the metagame, some less popular archetypes in Europe showed their presence and strength in the North American event, especially Amethyst Steel Tempo. The deck looks to combine Steel's excellent board control in the first turns with Amethyst's card draw, evasion, and direct Lore gain. The following list went all the way to the semifinals of the event:

Another archetype that frequently shows good results, especially in the USA, is the Emerald Steel Discard deck, based on synergies with Diablo - Devoted Herald. The deck also reached the semifinals of the Continental:

The Champion - Ruby/Amethyst Bounce

Wait, why do I have a feeling of déjà vu? Jokes aside, once again we saw Ruby Amethyst Bounce achieve 1st place in another Continental!

In addition to how strong the deck itself is, it is also necessary to praise the masterful precision and plays of the champion, Edmond Chiu. If the name sounds familiar, it's because Ed had already been champion of the Lorcana Challenge in Texas, back in July/2024, and was also recently champion of Battle of the Bay, an independent tournament in the USA that had 138 participants! Throughout all these, he was always playing with some version of his beloved Ruby Amethyst, and it was no different this time:

The greatest innovation in this list, which even carried many victories throughout the Top16, was the strong location The Library - A Gift for Belle. In addition to being a Location with enormous willpower - a whopping eight! -, it has the ability to passively generate Lore AND indirectly protect your characters, since every time someone is banished while there you'll get a new card from your deck. One must note, however, that nowhere it says it has to be banished by an effect from the opponent! If your character goes down challenging an opposing character, or even by its controller's own Be Prepared, you'll still get an extra card.

Between this Location and other card draws, such as Friends on the Other Side, Merlin - Rabbit and practically all the 1-drops, the speed with which you cycle through the deck is astounding, and it certainly was fundamental in helping the champion find the right cards at the right time to answer whatever the opponent was doing.

It is also worth highlighting the absence of Genie - Wish Fulfilled on the champion's list! As observed by many, Genie is considered one of the best cards in Azurite Sea. However, since the European Continental, he was more and more being targeted within the metagame, and many lists were prepared to combat him. Once again, we see the intelligence of the champion, Edmond Chiu, in removing Genie from the list and thus playing a mind game with the opponents, who had no way of knowing that he wouldn't have the card in his deck.

Conclusion

With the Continentals season concluded, attention now turns to the First Lorcana WorldChampionship, in March.

However, until then, we will still have the Azurite Sea Set Championships, as well as the launch of the next set, Archazia’s Island, at the end of February. In other words, many new cards will still enter the format and the metagame may adjust a lot.

Meanwhile, for the next few weeks, it's great to see a healthy metagame with countless ink combinations showing competitive potential!

So tell us, what did you think of the Continental NA results and decks? Are you going to participate in a Set Championship? Has the Continental influenced which deck you will play? Share with us!

Hugs and see you next time!