We’ve barely had time to catch our breaths with Shimmering Skies and now we are already heading out to the Azurite Seas, it looks like, for Lorcana’s sixth set. But there’s still time to make some fun decks before we get inundated with more cards. It looks like it’s going to be a killer set with Big Hero 6 and Rescue Rangers showing up, and we’ll discuss that more later, but I’ve been enjoying some of the new decks that Shimmering Skies has made possible- particularly with the keywords. In this two-parter, we’ll look at two casual decks that I think are really fun to play even if they aren’t going to consistently beat the prevailing aggro and Steelsong archetypes out in the meta right now. I’m also aiming to keep these decks inexpensive and accessible so nothing super expensive on the single market.
First up: Princess Knights!
With a totally bad-ass Snow White Knight joining the totally bad ass Cinderella Knight – and all seven dwarves donning armor – it’s a sturdy deck with some muscle and durability. And it’s also an opportunity for me to foolishly include the 9-ink Goofy Knight, which is simply one of my favorite cards to play in the game despite the elitists who don’t realize how awesome it is. This is a $30 deck so it’s affordable and there’s plenty of room to mod it a bit to your liking.
Characters
Of course this whole deck is anchored by Snow White, Fair-Hearted and Cinderella, Stout-Hearted (the totally bad-ass Anna Knight couldn’t join due to ink color restrictions). The former is a Dreamborn, uninkable 5-cost character that is well nigh-unkillable if you’ve got a few Knights on the table, which is what this deck wants to do anyway. Resist +1 per knight will keep Snow questing for 3 hopefully for a couple of turns. It’s a little weird that she’s not Floodborn like Cinderella, but so it goes. To that end, the additional Snow White cards offer some healing for these robust Knights and some discounts for the Dwarves. Battle-ready Cinderella has been around a couple of sets and is Floodborn and thus comes with her Knight in Training variant not only for an early shift, but also for her classic “Simbarella” turn 2 scry effect. Snow and Cindy on the board are a quite formidable formation- these ladies are your finishers. And then Goofy just barges in at the end- maybe!
The remaining characters are self-explanatory- you bring all the knight versions of the Dwarfs. They offer a variety of versatile effects, none of which are exemplary on their own but in aggregate they make for a wide-ranging suite of cards that covers a lot of bases. Quantities here are a “season to taste” situation. I’ve found that Doc- Bold Knight and Grumpy- Skeptical Knight are less desirable or useful so I have them at 2, the rest I like at 3. There’s plenty of Knightly synergy to enjoy among the lads, and they work well especially with Snow White. Arguably, you could bring in some of the “vanilla” Dwarfs from Rise of the Floodborn to take advantage of some of their utilitarian effects (such as Doc, for example) but I’m keeping to theme here.
Songs
As for songs, Grab Your Sword is always a Steel banger and it’s a perfect tech against many aggro builds relying on cheap, weak characters. Be Our Guest isn’t very knightly, but the character scry could be crucial to get Snow or Cindy or a particular Dwarf out in a clutch moment- especially with limited card draw in this build. Part Of Your World is a post-Be Prepared rebound if you lose one of your big Knights. And these songs also power Cinderella to take out ready characters, which is a good way to clear out nuisances that aren’t challenging or questing.
Actions
I’m light on actions with this build, but I picked a few that I felt were worthwhile- there’s a lot of flexibility here to slot in other options for healing, more Resist, or Challenger effects. I like that Revive can bring Snow White back from the dead and Invited to the Ball is another way to get playable characters into hand. Duck for Cover adds a pip of Resist but more importantly counters Evasive when you absolutely positively need to get rid of Diablo.
Items
I’m also light on items, but I like Weight Set so that Snow and Cindy can be gym buddies and help draw a card- it’s not a great card, but it fits thematically and this deck needs some draw- it’s also inkable. Imperial Bow gives a little Challenger boost and another anti-Evasive option. The Dwarfs have some Evasive countering, but the folks I play with LOVE Evasives so I´m likely overcompensating with this and Duck for Cover in the Actions set. But better safe than sorry!
Locations
Rounding out the deck is a thematic location- Seven Dwarfs’ Mine – Secure Fortress. It’s a cheap, inkable location that dishes out two points of damage when a Knight moves in. It’s always nice to have that one or two points of pinger damage to finish off a character or to eliminate pests such as Cursed Merfolk or Pinocchio, Star Attraction.
I’ve enjoyed playing this deck because it makes me happy but it does struggle against heavy aggro and discard for sure. In casual settings, the deck tends to fare much better and offers up a fun, flavorful game with some solid strategic choices to make and a fairly robust tactical quality. I’m hoping we see all the princesses emerge as “x-hearted” knights and the possibility of other ink combinations for this kind of deck.
Next time- Maleficent Madness!
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