I’ve seen comics artist Don Rosa a number of times over the years at Atlanta’s Dragon Con and it always tickles me to see the big hand-written sign that says “THIS IS NOT DUCK TALES” when clearly the pictures of Uncle Scrooge, Donald Duck and of course Huey, Dewey, and Louie suggest otherwise. Mr. Rosa’s fine comics carry on from the tradition of the great Carl Barks, one of my all-time favorite comic book creators, who created the whole Duckburg thing and everything that the classic Disney adventure cartoon Duck Tales is based on. If you’ve not read “The Old Castle’s Secret,” please do so- it is one of my all time favorite books.
Wikipedia/Fantagraphics
And I loved Duck Tales as well — both the late 80s/early 90s afternoon show that ran for three seasons and the recent update featuring David Tennant as Uncle Scrooge. It’s fun stuff and of course that theme song slaps like it created the very idea of slapping. Naturally I was thrilled to see that Duck Tales was coming to Lorcana in Into the Inklands and I’ve had some good fun with a budget deck built around the theme- I even had a custom playmat made, and it goes right along with the Uncle Scrooge deck box and sleeves. Woo-oo!
Here’s my Duckburg deck:
Dreamborn.ink
As should be abundantly clear, this is a very item heavy deck with locations, which I feel is appropriate; Duck Tales is all about treasure and adventure. It’s also a deck about accumulating cards/wealth- another key theme with Uncle Scrooge, the World’s Richest Duck, on board. I do have to point out that there are four very not budget cards in the deck: two each of Jafar, Striking Illusionist and Lucky Dime. The latter in particular has seen prices spike recently due to tournament results that have shown success for decks running it. Jafar was expensive from day one. If you can’t get a hold of these cards, simply sub in Donald Duck, Strutting His Stuff. It’s cheap and although it doesn’t really support the deck objectives it’s a pretty solid midgame play with Ward and a pretty strong statline. And it’s Duckburg!
So in the character suite we have Huey, Dewey, and Louie strongly featured, four each. Early reports from the metasniffers claimed these cards were “unplayable” but I can assure you that they are absolutely playable and when you get their mutual support going (which also helps Lena Sabrewing in her role as your Rushing blitzer) and Huey’s “Three Nephews” ability fires off, giving you a three card draw upon questing you’ll see that they can be a formidable combo. Uncle Scrooge is on board in his Uncle Moneybags and Richest Duck in the World visages chiefly to help get items onto the table- especially that Lucky Dime.
Disney Comics Review/Ducktales Fan Wiki
Magica de Spell is also here for the Dime in three forms. Ambitious Witch is the standard 2-ink base model (with three Willpower for a little more durability), Thieving Sorceress is mostly here for anti-item tech, and The Midas Touch is a 7 uninkable Floodborn shifting at 5 that can win you the game. All Mine allows you to gain lore equal to the cost of one of your items in play- hopefully, that Lucky Dime for a whopping 7 lore.
Somehow Jafar found his way to Duckburg- perhaps he saw The Secret of the Lost Lamp, and as an avid lamp enthusiast he showed up. Lamp Thief is a scry/filter, Keeper of Secrets gets +1 strength per card in hand, and the fearsome Striking Illusionist gives you a lore every time you draw a card. So have a couple of Hueys out (with at least one each of Dewey and Louie) and watch the lore roll in.
The only song is Friends on the Other Side, which I can’t make work thematically but hey, it’s Amethyst and you gotta have it. You want to have a lot of card draw in this deck. The Lamp keys off Jafar and also gives you card draw, Scrooge’s Top Hat is another item discounter, there’s a couple of Eye of the Fates to boost questability, and a Fishbone Quill for some light ramping if you need it to get to the Magica De Spell/Lucky Dime position. Vault Door protects the locations as well as characters at them- it’s surprising how effect Resist +1 can be. Lucky Dime is really the star of this deck; two ink and exertion gives you lore equal to a character’s lore.
Mushu Report
As for the Locations, Montunui, Island Paradise is another ramping option and the Queen’s Castle puts two lore on the board and could potentially drive both the Keeper of Secrets and Striking Illusionist. McDuck Manor has been really popular in the meta lately, with its impenetrable 9 defense and two lore so of course it makes for an auto-include in this deck.
As far as strategy goes, mulligan hard to get at least one each of the Nephews in hand- from there, turns 2-4 should be getting them into play. If they survive, the rest of the game is going to go a lot smoother. This deck can seem a little slow, but in the mid to late game it has explosive potential. You aren’t going to be doing a lot of aggro, but that Keeper of Secrets can be clutch if there’s a nasty character on the table and the support offered by the nephews can give you some control. The two win conditions are the Magica de Spell/Lucky Dime trick where she earns you 7 lore for snatching the coin or leveraging the card draws to gain lore through Jafar.
As with the Jerkules deck I offered last week, be advised that this deck is not likely to win a Challenge event. The current meta decks are not kind to Duckburg, especially discard as you are relying on the Huey/Dewey/Louie combo as well as four specific cards in Magica de Spell and Lucky Dime. I think you could go to three or four of both of those cards and maybe do without some Jafars and there might be a better hit rate on getting that combo into play, but I felt like a B-plan was essential in this deck
Next week – A super expensive meta deck!
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