
Most Exciting Cards from Azurite Sea
The newest Disney Lorcana set is out – Azurite Sea! Let’s check out the most exciting cards!
In December, thousands of fans and players from around the world came to Disneyland Paris for the first ever Disney Lorcana Challenge European Championship. Illumineers everywhere travelled to celebrate Disney, meet their favourite characters, and play the game they’ve come to love this last year.
If you couldn’t join us this time, check out what happened at the Disney Lorcana Challenge European Championship here.
The Disney Lorcana Challenge European Championship became the first official event held at a Disney resort, at the Disney Newport Bay Club in Paris. The entrance already set the tone for the whole tournament, with pristine white columns and beautifully carpeted floor. Large standups of Rapunzel and other Disney characters welcomed players through the double doors and into the main celebration hall, The Ballroom.
The Ballroom was truly a sight to behold. Constant sounds of awe and amazement were uttered by participants as they made their way to one of the hundreds of tables to play. Renditions of Disney’s best songs would be playing while thousands of Illumineers would sit down to play, trade, and meet new friends.
At the very front of The Ballroom was the main stage. The Ballroom was the hall for the open play and side events while the main championship event took place in its own event hall.
Every round, two players would take to the main stage to display their abilities as some of the best Disney Lorcana players in the world.
Speaking of people around the world: We had four streams set up broadcasting the whole event. Fans who could not make it to Paris watched the action unfold in their language of choice in English, French, German, or Italian.
The live stages for each stream encircled The Ballroom so that fans in the venue could get photos with some of their favourite Disney Lorcana casters and content creators.
The main play area of The Ballroom was dedicated to The Turbo Zone, a dedicated play area where attendees and guests could sit down for some Pack-rush, Constructed, or even multiplayer games.
Participating in the event got you the coveted Kuzco, Temperamental-Emperor, and Baymax, Armored-Companion promo cards.
If you ever needed a break from the constant gameplay, Disney character meet-and-greets were held regularly throughout the weekend as well as artist signings where players could meet the creators behind some of the most iconic cards in the game.
Fans could meet Grace Tran, Nicholas Kole, and César Vergara throughout the entire weekend, chat with them, and have their favourite cards signed or altered.
Starting out the weekend were the 32 flights of Last Chance Qualifiers. 1024 players fought for their spot in 32 mini-tournaments to qualify for the European Championship. Instead of one large tournament with the top 32 progressing, we saw several smaller 5-round tournaments where only the undefeated player received the invite for the championship the next day.
Fortunately for many, there were two rounds of events, one in the morning and one later in the day. The later rounds gave some players who lost early on to have a second attempt in the afternoon. This was pivotal for especially one player, Domingo Martinez Rodenas, who lost his very first game in the morning tournament, but then went 5-0 in his afternoon flight.
The main event took place in a separate private tournament hall where only the qualified players and their guests could spectate in person. At the end of a long first day with 7 rounds of Swiss Constructed played in a two-game format, only the top 16 players remained.
On Sunday, the 16 players who advanced from day 1 returned for their top cut matches. These were held as best of three single elimination matches. Additionally, these games were played with open decklists.
Following the top 16, the top 8 decklists looked very Amethyst-heavy: Six of the eight decks used Amethyst, one of their two colors, with the only outliers being two Ruby-Sapphire decks. These were not to last as by the end of the top 8 we saw three Amethyst-Ruby decks and one Amethyst-Emerald continue on.
In the final match to determine the first ever Disney Lorcana Challenge European Champion, we had Michele Assirelli piloting an Amethyst-Emerald deck going up against Domingo Martinez Rodenas on the classic Amethyst-Ruby build.
Michelle Assirelli’s take on the Amethyst-Emerald deck is one of aggression and inevitability. Utilizing cards like Cursed Merfolk and Go Go Tomago, provides easy Lore on bodies that are inconvenient to remove. Diablo, Obedient Raven and Chernabog’s Followers provide early Lore as well but smoothly transition into the midgame with their abilities to replace themselves with newer cards.
The aim of the deck is to hit the ground running and get ahead on Lore as early as possible, and then take control of the early to mid game with good tempo plays. Ursula, Deceiver plays a pivotal role in this deck removing key songs from the opponent’s hand, being able to hit an early Friends On The Other Side or Let The Storm Rage On, or even a later game Be Prepared. Kit Cloudkicker, Tough Guy comes in on turn three keeping the opponent’s board clear and allows your characters to quest for another turn as well.
The inevitability aspect comes in when after building a lead, cards like Merlin, Goat and the latest addition from Azurite Seas The White Rose provide instantaneous Lore gain to close out the game. Go Go Tomago also provides this benefit in the endgame, making keeping wounded characters in play quite risky.
Domingo Rodenas brought out the iconic Amethyst Ruby deck that’s been a tournament mainstay since Rise of the Floodborn. A very versatile deck, this take on Amethyst-Ruby provides a powerful early game with Flynn Rider, Frenemy followed by Sisu, Emboldened Warrior being the bread and butter start that demands an answer.
The deck transitions into a mid game value plan very easily with Genie, Wish Fulfilled providing great stats on an evasive body that additionally draws you a card when played. After sticking a couple characters, Maui, Hero To All, Madam Medusa, and Lady Tremaine, Imperious Queen keep the opponent’s board clear, and if needed, Be Prepared can suddenly shift the tide of the game into your favor when things get out of hand.
The deck also packs the Merlin, Goat and bounce package to close out the game and squeeze out the last bits of Lore in dicey situations.
For the final match of the Disney Lorcana European Championship, Domingo Martinez Rodenas and Michele Assirelli were battling it out in a best-of-5 format. The first to three wins would be crowned the European Champion.
Game one started off all according to Michele’s plan, opening with a Cursed Merfolk and on turn two dropping Diablo and Magic Broom, Illuminary Keeper. Michele maintained his early Lore lead, forcing Domingo to take care of the board while he continued to quest and increase the Lore lead. Ursula, Deceiver came down before Domingo’s turn 7 to remove the potential Be Prepared threat but didn’t see any in hand. Unable to efficiently deal with the board, Domingo lost game one and opted to go first in game 2.
Game 2 seemed to be a similar story with Michele dropping a Cursed Merfolk turn 1 and another turn two with Chernabog’s Followers. Domingo opted to play Madam Mim, Snake and started proactively cleaning up the board. By turn 3, Michele was once again ahead in Lore at 6 total, but this time Domingo had a well developed board to keep Michele’s side clean. Michele dropped an Ursula, Deceiver again on turn 5 to scout for a Be Prepared. Seeing none, he committed to going wide on board.
At this point in the game, Domingo began to play cards like Madam Medusa and Lady Tremaine stabilizing on board. This time, Michele was too far from 20 and couldn’t squeeze out the last bit of Lore, and Domingo took game two.
Michele lost game three with a first turn advantage which swung the match into Domingo’s favour. Opting to go first again in game 4, Michele started out strong and managed to close it out, bringing the score to a nail biting 2-2. Both players were now just one game away from becoming the European Champion. Game 5 began with Domingo opting to go first.
Domingo dropped a Chernabog’s Followers on turn 1 and Michele responded in kind with a Cursed Merfolk of his own. Domingo returned the Chernabog’s Followers to hand with a Madam Mim, Snake, a good play to keep the field clear and also keep his hand full for discard fodder when he has to discard when attacking the Cursed Merfolk. Domingo proceeded to ink the followers and discard a Madam Medusa to the Cursed Merfolk trigger while developing a Sisu on board.
Michele played his Ursula, Deviver hoping to discard an early Friends On The Other Side but instead sees Sisu, Empowered Sibling, meaning if he can’t deal with the 3-cost Sisu quickly, there could be a potential clearing of his board as early as turn 6.
As the game progressed, we saw Michele developing as wide a board as he could, but Domingo matched the pace with Genie and Merlin, Rabbit drawing cards to offset the ones discarded by Cursed Merfolk. Domingo even discarded his Sisu, Empowered Sibling, seeing his characters are enough to maintain a healthy board state. No matter what Michele played, it just didn’t seem to stick. The gap in Lore became less and less and eventually Domingo caught up at 11 Lore each. Michele held a Go Go Tomago in hand looking for one large Lore gain, but couldn’t seem to find an opening to play it with Domingo who pushed closer and closer to 20 Lore.
Slowly, Michele flipped the top card of his deck, and didn’t see a way to end the game. He played his Go Go Tomago and Cursed Merfolk, extended his hand, and conceded the game. Domingo grabbed his hand, shook it, and sat in shock for just a moment as the realization hit that he had won.
Domingo Martinez Rodenas has become the first ever Disney Lorcana European Champion.
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