The Steel Amethyst Jafar Wheel is a combo-oriented deck that uses Jafar – Striking Illusionist as a main part of its game plan. It’s an off-meta fun choice to play, but it recently performed in a tournament, Zan Syed winning first place with this list!
This is one of the oldest decks in the game, and it continues to evolve every set and can crush games if your opponent doesn’t have the removal options to shut off your combo turn.
Jafar Wheel Decklist
How to Play
This deck aims to set up Jafar – Striking Illusionist, exert him, and start drawing cards. This lets you gain Lore quickly with Jafar – Striking Illusionist‘s ability, becoming a win condition and forcing opponents to remove him ASAP.
The easiest way to have him on the board is by shifting him to characters like Jafar – Royal Vizier or Jafar – Dreadnought.
The Early Start
You’re playing a combo deck that wants to set up all the right pieces in the late game. This means our early game will revolve around keeping up with the opponent’s board development and ensuring they don’t take over the game while we wait to set up Jafar – Striking Illusionist.
Robin Hood – Beloved Outlaw, Chernabog’s Followers – Creatures of Evil, and Diablo – Obedient Raven are our early characters to have on the board. Robin Hood – Beloved Outlaw is a shift target for Robin Hood – Champion of Sherwood, so you’ll avoid questing/challenging with the 1-cost Robin Hood if your opponent can challenge him as he’ll be more valuable as a Shift target on turn 3.
Chernabog’s Followers – Creatures of Evil Quests for 1 Ink, and you can choose Banish to draw a card. This helps you cycle through your deck to find the cards you need. In the late game, it can also be a combo piece to get an additional Lore from 7-cost Jafar.
As for Diablo – Obedient Raven, it’s also adding to our draw ability, and we can later use it as a Challenge when we boost its strength through Jafar – Aspiring Ruler.
We got Robin Hood – Champion of Sherwood on the board on turn 3? Well, we’ve successfully kept up with the opponent’s board development and even created a mid-game threat for them to deal with. Getting to challenge and banish characters with Robin Hood – Champion of Sherwood gives us 2 Lore, forcing opponents to either avoid questing with their low-power characters or find removal tools to deal with our 5-cost Robin Hood.
Since Robin Hood – Champion of Sherwood is a 5-cost, we can use him as part of our combo play, Singing A Whole New World, to gain more value and Lore.
The Jafar Wheel Combo
Jafar – Striking Illusionist is our main win condition, and we want him on the board as early as possible to start generating Lore with every card draw. He’s an Evasive 4|5, so opponents can’t easily remove him from the board, but cards like And Then Along Came Zeus can banish him on the spot.
Playing at 7-cost means we’ll have to wait for a full turn before we can exert him and activate his Lore generation ability. This feels a bit too slow, and in a lot of cases, your opponent might have the tools to deal with him and shut down your game plan entirely.
This is why we rely more on Shifting Jafar – Striking Illusionist onto the board, having him “Ready” the moment he’s played, and using Jafar – Striking Illusionist to sing a song, allowing us to exert him and cast A Whole New World. This discards both players’ hands and draws them 7 cards, which means 7 Lore!
The ideal scenario in the late game is to play A Whole New World, gain 7 Lore, draw into another A Whole New World, and gain another 7 Lore. 14 Lore in the late game should be enough to win the game on the spot.
Jafar Shift Targets
Waiting till turn 7 to play Jafar – Striking Illusionist doesn’t sound like the best plan, so Jafar – Royal Vizier and Jafar – Aspiring Ruler can cheat out our 7-cost on turn 5.
Since we’re reliant on Jafar – Striking Illusionist being “Ready” when played to cast A Whole New World, we cannot challenge or quest with Jafar – Royal Vizier or Jafar – Aspiring Ruler on the turn we shift Jafar – Striking Illusionist.
Draw Cards
Card draw is a key part of this deck’s tactics. It wants to look through the deck to find the combo pieces, Jafar – Royal Vizier, Jafar – Aspiring Ruler, Jafar – Striking Illusionist, and A Whole New World. At the same time, getting to draw cards while there’s an exerted Jafar – Striking Illusionist gives you more Lore.
The Lamp is an item card with 2 effects to choose from. You have to banish it to activate the effect, choosing to either draw 2 cards or return a 4-cost or less Character to the player’s hand. However, to get the draw effect, you have to have a Jafar Character in play, whereas the removal effect requires you to have a Genie in play. You’ll have to choose which effect is best depending on the game, but often, you’ll use it for the card draw to combo it with Jafar – Striking Illusionist and gain 2 Lore.
Friends On The Other Side is a 3-cost Song that draws you two cards, helping you find the cards you need, or use it alongside Jafar – Striking Illusionist for the extra Lore. We can sing it with Giant Cobra – Ghostly Serpent if we don’t use to use the Ink to play it.
Genie – Wish Fulfilled is your strongest play on turn 4, drawing you a card when he’s played. Genie – Wish Fulfilled Quests for 2 Lore, so he’s a target for the opponent to remove immediately. However, the Evasive keyword can make it tough for them to remove unless they have a specific answer. We can also use Genie – Wish Fulfilled to sing And Then Along Came Zeus instead of using our Ink.
Damage Cards
Yes, we’re a combo deck, but every combo needs time to shine! This is why damage cards like Ba-Boom!, Grab Your Sword, and And Then Along Came Zeus are needed to remove opponents’ characters and slow down their Lore gain.
Strength of a Raging Fire deals damage equal to the number of Characters on your side of the board, allowing you to remove a pesky Character from play.
And Then Along Came Zeus is an answer for strong Characters that can pose a threat or Quest a lot of Lore. We can also use it to help remove a specific Location.
Other Cards to Include
- Grab Your Sword is valuable against decks that can go wide on the board with low-willpower characters. Getting to Banish multiple characters will slow down the opponent’s questing, giving you more time to set up Jafar.
- Blue Fairy – Rewarding Good Deeds and Beast – Tragic Hero can continuously draw you more cards, creating that threat of the Lore generation that your opponent needs to interrupt. We want to avoid Questing with them if there’s a threat of a Challenger attacking them. Blue Fairy – Rewarding Good Deeds has the Evasive keyword, so opponents need to have an Evasive character as well to challenge her.
Strengths/Weaknesses
- This deck has answers to Evasive characters that gain Lore or can draw cards.
- The draw engines can keep you in the game against discard decks.
- Damage songs and hard removals can shut down your game plan. Your opponent banishing Jafar – Royal Vizier or Jafar – Aspiring Ruler will slow down Jafar – Striking Illusionist development, giving them time until you can get your combo play-off.
