When my Lorcana journey first began, my chief opponent – and archnemesis – was my daughter. Right out of the gate, she picked up on a strategy that is actually kind of hard-coded into Lorcana’s design – extreme aggro. She wasted no time like I did on trying to concoct combo-heavy decks or clever ideas. She put together what we used to call in MTG a “weenie deck” using what were at the time the weeniest weenies of The First Chapter, Lilo – Making a Wish and Maleficent – Biding Her Time, anchoring the whole thing. My fancy ramp deck with four $35 (back then) Belle – Strange but Specials tanked. My early go at an item deck flopped. Discard was definitely not ready for prime time. Removal and control were just too slow. This stupid little proto-aggro deck was almost unbeatable. And this was before Rise of the Floodborn, when she added in the monstrous 2-ink, 3 Lore Pinocchio – Star Attraction.
Granted, in league play the aggro strategy she picked up on right away (and with this being her first TCG) was a little less consistent as folks were learning to tech hard against it with key cards like Grab Your Sword and even good ol’ Fire Your Cannons. The meta was still very formative though, and I watched her completely destroy many player who left the table shook that she was able to come screaming out of the gate, playing three or four characters on the crucial fourth and fifth turns and questing for 7, 8, 9 lore. If you didn’t have an immediate answer for the flood of characters, you lost.
The meta has come a long way in some regards, but in others, it kind of hasn’t. Despite strong showings like the DLC-winning decks I wrote about just last week, I still strongly believe that hard aggro is in some ways the best and most consistent archetype in Lorcana. I recall talking deckbuilding with my daughter and asking her why she wasn’t running certain cards or why she never challenged and her response was that she felt the best way to win was to have as many characters as possible questing for as much Lore as possible.
In reflection, this way of thinking kind of flew in the face of what I want out of a TCG. I like the big Hail Mary combos. When I was heavy into MTG, I liked the black/blue denial decks, my whole thing was that I liked to play cards that punished the other player simply for following the rules. I was out here trying to figure out the right degree of ramping cards to run. But her approach was so cut-to-the-quick I found it kind of shocking. And in practice, her deck was so hyper-focused on doing the action that you have to do to win the game that it was kind of shocking.
There are other ways to generate Lore now- locations, card effects like that ridiculous Flynn Rider – Frenemy, value-adds like Sleepy’s Flute- but at the time this strategy really made sense. And it was odd because not many people in our community were playing this kind of hard aggro. Remember, this was back in the days of Steelsong and Ruby Amethyst dominance – and we are talking pre-Madam Mim Ruby Amethyst here folks.
Analyzing this approach, despite all of the other cards between now and then and even with the advent of Bucky Discard, Ruby Pawpsicle, Mufasa Highroller, and what have you I still think heavy aggro leaning on cheap characters with high Lore output is a desirable and consistent deckbuilding concept. Simply because, there again, it works because it leans hard into a victory condition with relatively little dependence on combinatorial effects, heart-of-the-cards topdecking, or counter-play. You just have to pump out characters and make them quest.
So obviously the key here is these cheapies like the Lilo and Maleficent or their analogs in other inks, the 1 or 2 cost 1/1s that quest for 2 or 3. A handful of these and a well full of ink can be fatal. Survivability versus removal or challenge isn’t an issue- these weenies get chewed up by anything and everything. The idea is that your characters are practically fire and forget. Sure, you can bodyguard them (and that is something my daughter actually did) but if Pinocchio quests for 3 off a two ink play, he’s realized his ROI and become a Real Boy regardless of the cheeky Plasma Blaster ping.
What is more of an issue with this kind of speedy, weenie-forward deck is running out of cards. It is crucial to maintain a high draw velocity so that you always have cards in hand, preferably characters. Amethyst has plenty of draw options, most notably the staple Friends On the Other Side but virtually any card that replaces itself or lets you draw more is desirable. When discard became a serious concern in Rise of the Inklands, I found that I was finally able to beat my daughter simply by grinding her hand to zero as quickly as possible.
I’ve been playing around a lot with aggro builds lately, usually against my hyper competitive friend. We discussed the whole aggro issue, so I decided to just make a deck extremely focused on getting lore with inexpensive characters. Against his meta-oriented decks, my “wackadoo Amber Amethyst” deck did surprisingly well. I also tried a couple of other builds, including an almost all Amethyst deck with like 8 Ruby cards and had varying results. I had thought maybe the healing and acceleration in Amber wasn’t really necessary to work, but come to find out my daughter seems to have had the code cracked from day one.
I’m still experimenting and trying different ideas to try to come up with the ultimate aggro deck, one that just does the damn thing as efficiently and quickly as possible. Because I think it is likely the way to “beat” Lorcana, and always has been. I’ll report back when I’ve got it in the bag!
Next time: The Lorcana Economy!
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