The Amber Steel deck is a tier 2 deck that can top cut tournament. Although it’s not as popular as it used to be back in Set 3, it’s still one of the top performers and a potential deck to bring to the tournament. Learning how the deck plays out helps you understand the matchup and what to expect when going up against it.
Decklist
4 A Whole New World
2 And Then Along Came Zeus
4 Ariel - Spectacular Singer
2 Cinderella - Ballroom Sensation
2 Grab Your Sword
4 Let the Storm Rage On
4 Mr. Smee - Bumbling Mate
3 Pride Lands - Pride Rock
4 Rapunzel - Gifted with Healing
4 Robin Hood - Beloved Outlaw
4 Robin Hood - Champion of Sherwood
4 Sleepy's Flute
4 Strength of a Raging Fire
1 The Bare Necessities
4 The Queen - Commanding Presence
4 The Queen - Regal Monarch
3 Ursula - Vanessa
3 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 spells, removing targets that advance the opponent’s game plan.
To ensure we don’t run out of late-game resources, the list has card draw tools that you’ll rely on to keep options open.
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.
Both The Queen – Regal Monarch and Robin Hood – Beloved Outlaw are 2|2 characters that’ll help you keep up with the opponent’s early development. However, you want to avoid getting them banished as the goal is to Shift the 5-cost The Queen – Commanding Presence and Robin Hood – Champion of Sherwood as early as turn 3, which can be difficult for the opponent to match.
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.
Lore Generation
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.
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
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.
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.
Control Cards
Damage spells play an important role in board control, addressing threats and slowing down your opponent’s strategy. And Then Along Came Zeus is your strongest removal tool, dealing 5 damage to a target and effectively banishing most mid-game threats.
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.
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.
This is one of the strongest cards in this deck. World’s Greatest Criminal Mind can banish a Character with 5 Power or more. So we usually will be playing this in the late game. There are matchups where you won’t find a use for this card, so you might as well Ink it.
Other Cards to Include
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.
Ariel – Sonic Warrior can Shift on Ariel – Spectacular Singer for 4 Ink. She’s a board control card, letting you deal 3 damage to one of the opponent’s Characters every time you play a song. 3|8 stat line makes her difficult to remove off the board.
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.