A couple of weeks ago, while I was in NYC with my wife dual-wielding cannoli at the Feast of San Gennaro, the biggest Lorcana events to date went down in Birmingham, England and Las Vegas Nevada. It was a huge weekend for these Disney Lorcana Challenge events to say the least and although I did not attend (and would not have attended), it was fun to watch from afar and my good friend JB reported in his Vegas results, following a few preliminary deck testing sessions we ran for him on Tabletop Simulator. He didn’t make it to day two and wound up in an elevator with Lorcana lead mouse Ryan Miller, who asked if he was having fun. JB replied that he was not. No doubt, it was a super competitive event and despite the best deckbuilding and piloting efforts of many bad matchups, bad draws, and stressed-out misplays winnowed out the ranks until two champions, the somewhat legendary Zan Syed (Vegas) Italy’s Federico Mecozzi (Birmingham) emerged from the pack.
Now, once again, I have to remind you dear reader that I am a filthy casual and I’m over here trying to make decks like “Disney’s Biggest Assholes” and “All the Dogs”. And I’m simply not competitive or invested enough in any game to travel 2000 miles to get bodied by a stranger. But I am still keenly interested in what decks are winning these events as the build speak to what is working and not working in the current design idiom of the game. So let’s have a look at these championship decks, shall we?
PPG Events
Zan Syed’s deck at Vegas was something of an suprise- an updated, Bucky-less take on ye olde Emerald Steel discard/control deck. It was sort of up in the air as to if this archetype would remain viable after the change to Bucky’s ability. But this nasty piece of work does exactly what I think Emerald Steel needs to do. Instead of worrying about countering this and that, teching for various other builds, or trying to cover all the bases in terms of answers, it just takes your cards away. I love shut down decks, and this deck nails that concept.
It’s also a deck that is, I think, kind of obvious. Not in the way that Ruby Amethyst is, but most of the card choices are ones you nod at rather than raise an eyebrow at. The Diablo thing, yeah, do that. That keeps you in cards along with the classic Prince John that profits off all the Sudden Chills, Hypnotizes, and so forth. I always found that this archetype tends to run low on cards without reliable draw power, but Diablo definitely fills in the gap.
There’s also some decent removal baked in here. Anna – Diplomatic Queen is a very nice choice as she offers a discard, a +2 strength buff, or an outright banishment of a damaged character. Which works nicely with the classic Big Tink and stalwart Steel direct damagers like Let the Storm Rage On and Strength of a Raging Fire. We Don’t Talk About Bruno is removal and discard, and The Muses are a cheeky inclusion that plays off Sudden Chill nicely.
I think one of the most impactful adds here to this build is Pete – Games Referee. I love that it’s a hard counter against any action- Be Prepared, Grab Your Sword, Friends From the Other Side and any other song included. Pete can be a decapitating strike against Steelsong if you play him at a clutch moment, and can buy you an extra couple of turns in a deck that risks getting outpaced.
The downside of course is that this is a terrifyingly expensive deck with all those Diablos, Ursulas, and Beasts.
Meanwhile, over in the UK Frederico Mecozzi ran a $400 Ruby Sapphire deck that was really kind of a “greatest hits” of those ink colors. It’s go the Sisu Ice Block thing, ramp, hard removal, Pawpsicle/Flaversham, and a couple of Lucky Dimes to boot. Syed’s Vegas deck was hyper focused and direct, whereas Mecozzi’s looks a little sprawling on paper but appears to come together nicely in play- I really like how he’s refined several archetypes into one consistent but versatile deck.
The 20 Ruby cards included are all heavy hitters to keep the board as clear as possible while the Sapphire cards just pump ink into the inkwell at a ridiculous pace. Flaversham is an essential play as ramp needs to maintain a card income to avoid going hellbent. A couple of selections are pretty inspired to this end- How Far I’ll Go scrys, draws, and inks making it a tremendous value for this build. Vision of the Future scrys and draws as well at a lower cost. With all the extra inking going on a concern is that key cards might wind up One Jump Ahead-ed but Mufasa – Ruler of Pride Rock gives you a shot at pulling back a clutch Be Prepared or Tamatoa.
The items are all well-considered with Fang Crossbow being an unlikely choice as a singleton, but it plays off Sisu and could wind up offing a dragon at a critical moment. Great Stone Dragon is also a great pick as it lets you ink a discarded character rather than something from hand or the deck. And then there’s the Lucky Dime/Tamatoa combo that could be a game winner.
There’s big stuff in this deck, but it’s got the ink to pull it off provided you maintain board control. Back when I was seriously trying to play Sapphire ramp during sets 1 and 2, it felt like the cards weren’t really there quite yet to make it work consistently. And there was always a sense that you had to not over-ramp. But I think Mecozzi has the code cracked with this corker. I feel like this deck might struggle against something like Syed’s deck, where crucial cards might wind up discarded. But there again, this is a deck that has a couple of avenues to victory.
Next time: Be aggressive!
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