Amber Steel is a popular deck in the Disney Lorcana card game, performing in some of the biggest tournaments in the game. This deck heavily relies on putting board pressure by Shifting Characters into play and Singing Songs to get the most out of your cards.
This guide will help you understand the general game plan of the deck and show how cards synergize with one another.
Decklist
4 A Whole New World
3 And Then Along Came Zeus
4 Ariel - Spectacular Singer
4 Cinderella - Ballroom Sensation
2 Cinderella - Stouthearted
1 Grab Your Sword
4 Lawrence - Jealous Manservant
4 Let the Storm Rage On
4 Mr. Smee - Bumbling Mate
4 Pete - Games Referee
2 Piglet - Pooh Pirate Captain
3 Prince Naveen - Ukulele Player
4 Rapunzel - Gifted with Healing
4 Robin Hood - Beloved Outlaw
4 Robin Hood - Champion of Sherwood
4 Strength of a Raging Fire
3 Ursula - Vanessa
2 World's Greatest Criminal MindHow to Play
The Amber Steel deck has access to early 1-cost characters which you’ll later want to use to Shift on them. This sets up for an earlier stronger board, that can be challenging for the opponent to keep up with. For board control, it runs multiple damage Songs that aid you in removing Characters that opponents rely on as part of their game plan.
Singing is a key part of this deck’s game plan, using Ursula – Vanessa and Ariel – Spectacular Singer to Sing high-cost Songs without having to use up your Ink. You can focus on building up your board while still playing your Songs for either board control or resource value. A Whole New World is this deck’s strongest play, refilling your hand with cards and ruining your opponent’s hand.
Early Cards
This deck includes a couple of 1-cost Characters you’ll need to set up in the early stages. Cinderella – Ballroom Sensation played on turn 1, enables you to play 3-cost Songs like Let the Storm Rage on on the upcoming turn. This grants you an edge over the opponent, allowing you to Banish a character and control your opponent’s side of the board.
Robin Hood – Beloved Outlaw is a 2|2 character that’ll help you keep up with the opponent’s early development. However, if you have a Robin Hood – Champion of Sherwood in hand, you want to keep Robin Hood – Beloved Outlaw safe until you can shift Robin Hood – Champion of Sherwood on turn 3.
Mr. Smee – Bumbling Mater, Piglet – Poof Pirate Captain, and Lawrence – Jealous Manservant let you play more aggressively with the Lore generation they offer. These Characters allow you to win games on earlier turns if you’re up against a slow deck that wants to make it into the late game.
If you have another Character along with Piglet – Poof Pirate Captain, he’ll Quest for 3 Lore, creating a pretty aggressive start. As for Lawrence – Jealous Manservant the 4 Willpower makes him tough to Banish. Although he has 0 Strength, as long as not damaged, Lawrence – Jealous Manservant will get +4 Strength. If damaged, you can remove the damage through Rapunzel – Gifted with Healing, giving you back the +4 Strength to Challenge a Character or put the opponent in a tough spot if they try to Challenge him.
The Singers
Ursula – Vanessa lets us Sing 4-cost Songs by turn 3. So cards like Let the Storm Rage On, And Then Along Came Zeus. and Strength of the Raging Fire can now be easily played to control the board and set the stage for future turns.
Ariel – Spectacular Singer allows you to select a Song from the top 4 cards in your deck and add it to your hand. Moreover, she can sing songs that cost up to 5, which proves advantageous when playing higher-cost songs like And Then Along Came Zeus, A Whole New World, or Grab Your Sword. This allows for a board control approach while still maintaining your development.
Lastly, Prince Naveen – Ukulele Player is our strongest singer. He’s a great follow-up play to Ariel – Spectacular Singer since she’s able to find us a Song worth singing for free with Prince Naveen – Ukulele Player. The free Song is a game changer, we can either go for board control or commit to the Whole New World play. If Ariel – Spectacular Singer is still on the board, we’ll have her as a Singer for a second play, ensuring we stay ahead of the opponent.
Draw Engines
Rapunzel – Gifted with Healing can remove up to 3 damage from one of our characters and for every damage removed, you can draw a card. Since the list has high Will Power Characters, we can set up at least 2 draws with Rapunzel, putting us ahead of our opponent in value. Her 1|5 stat line doesn’t offer offensive pressure, but she can Quest for 2 Lore and can be used to Sing songs.
A Whole New World is the strongest card in this deck for the draw value it provides. The plan is to play as many cards as possible, Ink a card, and cast A Whole New World to draw 7 new cards. At the same time, we’re discarding the opponent’s hand and drawing them 7 new cards. So this finds more value when we’ve played more of the cards in hand before drawing the new cards, putting us way ahead of the opponent.
To play more cards, we’ll prefer Singing A Whole New World rather than spending Ink to play it. Cards like Ariel – Spectacular Singer, The Queen – Commanding Presence, and Robin Hood – Champion of Sherwood can Sing A Whole New World.
Shift Cards
Robin Hood – Champion of Sherwood’s 6 willpower is a significant challenge for opponents to remove. Prioritize attacking and banishing characters with Robin Hood to trigger his effect, granting you 2 Lore. This aligns with your game plan, increasing your Lore while making sure you keep control over the opponent’s board. This makes it difficult for opponents to quest with their character as they’ll end up losing them to Robin Hood.
Cinderella – Stouthearted is this deck’s strongest Character, capable of challenging ready Characters if you’ve played a Song. This shuts opponents down from Questing with a Character, ultimately slowing down their Lore generation. The +2 Resist makes her extremely difficult to Banish and in most cases, opponents are forced to ignore her. Cinderella – Stouthearted can also Quest for 3 Lore, possibly setting you up to win the game.
Control Cards
Damage spells play an important role in board control, addressing threats and slowing down your opponent’s strategy. Let the Storm Rage On is great for banishing low Willpower Characters or damaged ones. At the same time, Let the Storm Rage On will draw you a card, making sure you don’t lose on resources.
The Strength of A Ranging Fire is dependent on your board state. The song deals more damage based on the number of characters you have on the board. Thus, you want to play more characters before casting the song, particularly when facing high-willpower characters.
World’s Greatest Criminal Mind is an answer for high Willpower Characters. You can Banish a Character with 5 or more Willpower, perfect to weaken opponent’s presence without committing too much resources.
And Then Along Came Zeus is your strongest damage dealer, pushing 5 damage to a target and banishing most mid-game threats.
For AOE damage, Grab Your Sword is the best answer to opponents developing multiple low-willpower characters. Simultaneously, it deals damage to higher-willpower targets that your characters can finish off.
Other Cards to Include
- The Queen – Regal Monarch is a 2|2 character that’ll help you keep up with the opponent’s early development. However, she can be a shift target to have have The Queen – Commanding Presence earlier in play.
- The Queen – Commanding Presence proves invaluable with her supportive effect. When she quests, you can reduce an opponent’s Character’s strength by 4 while simultaneously increasing your character’s strength by 4. This enables you to challenge and Banish an opposing character while safeguarding your attacker.
- Ursula – Eric’s Bride can bleed out opponent out of resources. Every turn she Quests, the opponent is forced to discard a non-character card from their hand.
- Sleepy’s Flute is a valuable Item to generate 1 Lore every turn. You have to fulfill the condition of playing a Song to activate the effect, but that shouldn’t be too difficult with how the deck is built.
- Daisy Duck – Donad’s Date is a threat in the early game, forcing players to remove her as fast as possible. The 2 Lore speeds up your win condition and it’s usually worth even though you might draw the opponent a card. Since we’re planning to a play A Whole New World, that extra draw will end up getting discarded.
Strengths/Weaknesses
- Amber Steel can be aggressive with its Shift ability to develop on the board. You can start gaining Lore fast and discourage your opponent from questing unless they’re ready to lose their characters.
- Strong against decks with low willpower characters. You have access to a lot of songs that deal damage.
- Weak against board removal like Be Prepared.
- Struggles into discard decks that manage to remove A Whole New World from your hand.
