Amethyst Sapphire is making waves in the Lorcana meta, snagging first place in a major tournament. This deck combines Sapphire’s Ramp powers with Amethyst’s bounce mechanics as part of its game plan. The deck gained new cards in the Shimmering Skies expansion, already seeing a lot of success in community tournaments.
3 Cogsworth - Grandfather Clock
4 Cogsworth - Illuminary Watchman
2 Elsa - Spirit of Winter
4 Elsa - The Fifth Spirit
4 Friends On The Other Side
2 Hades - Infernal Schemer
1 Kuzco - Selfish Emperor
2 Let It Go
2 Madam Mim - Elephant
4 Madam Mim - Fox
4 Madam Mim - Snake
3 Merlin - Crab
4 Merlin - Goat
2 Merlin - Intellectual Visionary
4 Merlin - Rabbit
3 Mickey Mouse - Detective
1 Mufasa - Ruler of Pride Rock
4 Rafiki - Mystical Fighter
3 The Queen's Castle - Mirror Chamber
4 Tipo - Growing SonGameplan
The Amethyst Sapphire deck aims to ramp up fast in the early game, allowing for faster development of high-cost Characters. Early-game Characters help control the opponent’s board while setting up for a dominating late-game play.
Most of the deck consists of Characters, skipping control Songs to deal with threats directly. The deck takes charge of the game tempo by using these Characters to banish threats and slow down opponent Lore generation
Ramp Cards
Ramp cards are key to speeding up gameplay and getting those high-cost Characters out early.
Tipo – Growing Son is perfect to play on turn 2, letting you put a card from your hand in the Ink Well. He can later Challenge a 1 Willpower Character and banish it or be recalled by Madam Mim – Snake or Madam Mim – Fox, either to be replayed later on or Inked.
As for Mickey Mouse – Detective, he can’t be Inked, so we almost always want to play him on the board. He ramps us up but puts the top card of our deck into our Inkwell, so we won’t lose value in our hand.
Bounce Cards
Madam Mim – Snake, Madam Mim – Fox, and Madam Mim – Elephant are our bounce cards. They have good stats that help you keep control in the early game.
We can play early cards like Tipo – Growing Son or Rafiki – Mystical Fighter, quest with them, and bounce them back through Madam Mim. We can use those low costs later to Ink with them. Madam Mim – Fox‘s Rush makes sure that exerted Characters on the opponent’s side will always have to be in danger of her attack.
Madam Mim – Elephant is a 3|7 Character that can remove 2 damage counters from her to a chosen opposing Character. This sets you up to banish low Willpower Characters or put them in range for your attackers to challenge and banish.
The bounce cards can synergize with multiple cards in the deck which I’ll talk about next!
Bounce Value
Merlin – Rabbit is crucial for card draw to gain resources, ensuring you have more options to play on future turns. Bouncing back Merlin – Rabbit after you’ve quested with him gives you more card draw and it’s great for slow games, where the resource game plays a huge role in who gets to win.
On the other hand, Merlin – Goat provides 1 Lore on play and another 1 Lore when banished. If you bounce Merlin – Goat back to hand and replay him on the board, he’s giving you 2 Lore. You’re basically accelerating your Lore generation and either winning the game on the spot or getting closer to that 20 Lore.
More Value Cards
Friends on the Other Side gives you two card draw to keep the engine rolling. You’ll prefer exerting one of your Characters to sing Friends on the Other Side rather than spending Ink to play it.
The Queen’s Castle serves as a Lore generator, forcing players to remove it. If you spend 1 Ink to put a Character at The Queen’s Castle, you’ll draw an additional card. This puts more pressure on the opposing player to find an answer to it quickly.
Protect the Board
Cogsworth – Grandfather Clock gives your other characters Resist +1, which makes it difficult for attackers to banish your characters. Cogsworth – Grandfather Clock having Ward means we don’t have to worry about removal tools that could banish him. You get 2 Lore by questing with Cogsworth – Grandfather Clock. You can hold on questing with Cogsworth – Grandfather Clock if you have other Characters you want to protect with Resist.
Slowing them Down
Elsa – The Fifth Spirit can exert one of the opponent’s Characters and with her Rush, she can Challenge it. Since she is Evasive, the opponent can’t just Challenge her back and remove her, leaving her on the board so you get more value from her. She’s a great Singer for Let It Go.
Kuzco – Selfish Emperor is a meta call, most in the list for his ability to remove a chosen item or Location from the opponent’s board. Removing an Item or Location can mess up the opponent’s plans but you’re also developing a 3|5 Character that can quest for 2 Lore.
Hades – Infernal Schemer can remove an opponent’s win condition off the board. He does give them an additional Ink, but it’s worth it if you’re removing a high-cost threat that enables your opponent’s game plan.
As for Elsa – Spirit of Winter, she exerts two of the opponent’s characters and keeps them exerted on the opponent’s turn. This shuts opponents from questing or challenging them for a full turn, putting you ahead in terms of Lore generation.
In some cases, you might choose to exert and challenge characters if it means you can win the board and ensure you can win the game.
Let It Go lets you remove a threat on the board. You will be giving the opponent an extra Ink, but it’s usually worth it to slow down their win condition. You usually want to Sing Let It Go, instead of spending 5 Ink to play it.