Disney Lorcana TCG: Winterspell Brings a Touch of Magic to the Coldest Season
Let’s take a look at some recent events and see just what is performing well after the release of Winterspell.
“Costco Hot Dogs” - Amber/Emerald
When predicting the meta-game for the upcoming Disney Lorcana Challenge, we, of course, have to look at the winning deck of the previous DLC. Dillon Leduc piloted his deck, affectionately called Costco Hot Dogs, to win the entire tournament. This streamlined Amber/Emerald archetype has seen success over the past few sets and has been a consistent performer even at DLC Bologna.
The overall strategy of the deck is fairly straightforward. You’ll want to overwhelm the opponent with an unstoppable tide of dogs and other characters. This, backed with efficient tempo options highlighted by Emerald Chromicon as well as efficient card draw and card advantage, can quickly leave your opponent in the dust. Emerald Chromicon can be used to return expensive characters to your opponent’s hand, making it difficult to remove more than one or two characters at a time. But it can also be used to return cards like Nani – Stage Manager to your hand in a pinch to dig for even more characters.
The early game is simple: develop as many bodies on the board as possible. Daisy Duck – Donald’s Date quests for 2 lore, and if not dealt with early, can easily gain you 4-6 lore before being removed. Of course, seeing either Lady – Dream Dog or Lady Elegant Spaniel leads to some crazy lines: hypothetically you could play the newest addition to the deck, Grandmother Willow – Ancient Advisor, and follow it up with Tramp – Enterprising Dog or any one cost character. Should all three stay on the field, you can have a Tramp Street-Smart Dog on your board by turn 3.
Of course, you’ll need some protective options, especially from actions that could efficiently remove your field. Both Mowgli – Man Cub and Ursula – Deceiver offer cheap characters that can strip would be counter play from your opponent’s hand. And while you’re stripping cards from your opponent’s hands, you can continually gain card advantage by playing Lilo – Escape Artist from your discard, or keep recurring cards with Lady – Miss Park Avenue.
To fill out the deck, we have a lot of tech cards like Go Go Tomago – Darting Dynamo to close out games from behind, Bobby Zimuruski – Spray Cheese Kid for added consistency and as another one-cost character, and a host of other utility cards that help to maintain your board.
A huge congratulations again to Dillon Leduc for winning Disney Lorcana Challenge Melbourne. You can see his deck list below!
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“Fluffy Bear” Blurple Amethyst / Sapphire
We can’t talk about Dillon Leduc without mentioning his opponent in the finals, Jonathan Lam. Jonathan Lam’s Amethyst Sapphire is one of the premier control-focused decks in the game. A truly versatile deck with aggressive removal options, making full use of the reprinted Let It Go in Winterspell.
The early game is easy enough with your goal of developing Tipo – Growing Son or playing Sail The Azurite Sea on turn two and immediately following up with powerful units such as Genie – Wish Filled or Iago – Giant Spectral Parrot. Large evasive characters that can either quest well or easily dispatch your opponent’s characters will help you develop control of the board.
If you’re going up against a deck like the Amber Emerald deck shown above, playing Royal Guard – Octopus Soldier can really help manage the early game as well. Cheshire Cat – Inexplicable also provides a multifaceted way of removing pesky characters with his ability to move damage around.
One of the best ways Emerald decks stay even on the board is the use of Emerald Chromicon. Hades – Infernal Schemer, Into The Unknown, and Let It Go are all amazing ways to deal with characters without banishing them. I also enjoy the fact that, if you already have characters on the field, using Hades – Looking for a Deal puts your opponents in a tough decision. Either they let him remove a character, or you get to draw two cards and use a song in your hand and remove the character anyway.
Overall, the deck looks like a versatile control deck with ways to draw cards and deal with threats from various angles. There isn’t much you can do to deal with items, however, so you may run into some trouble if you can’t close out games fast enough. However, the sheer amount of single target removal, along with the inevitable lore production Dumbo – Ninth Wonder of the Universe and all your evasive creatures is undeniably strong.
Fast Lore and Faster Games - Amethyst/Steel
Going nearly across the globe, we saw a 268-player event in the United States, the Ink Ink Open CCQ. While we saw Amber/Emerald dogs take down the event as well, we saw some more decks that have a lot of potential. LuxFerrante piloted this aggressive version all the way to the finals, and shows us why Amethyst is one of the most versatile colours.
Unlike the Amethyst Sapphire deck shown previously, we’re looking to flood the board with as many characters as possible, and constantly empty and refill our hand. Doc – Bold Knight, Yzma – Conniving Chemist, and Demona – Scourge of the Wyvern Clan all achieve their maximum potential while you have no cards in hand. In fact, keeping your hand size low will net you more cards overall in a lot of cases.
In the early game, Captain Hook – Forceful Duelist can trade up, taking down 2 and maybe even 3 cost characters. Diablo – Obedient Raven may gain you a lore or two before being removed, and even then, will almost always replace itself with stronger mid to late game characters. Even Christopher Robin – Joining the Fun can come in clutch should you find yourself going second.
Calhoun – Marine Sergeant continues to be a Steel powerhouse, removing early game characters and gaining lore, all while staying alive. Giant Cobra – Ghostly Serpent and Angel – Experiment 624 help gain your lore and remove units as well, respectively, all while feeding into the strategy of keeping your hand size low.
If Amber Emerald would be classified as an aggressive deck, and Amethyst Sapphire as a control-oriented deck, this Amethyst Steel deck fits snugly in between, representing a more mid-range game plan. It has strong units and a good amount of card and value generation. It can pivot to challenging characters of more aggressive decks, and push out a lot of units against slower control-oriented decks. This is definitely an archetype to keep an eye out for.
Spicy Tech To Beat The Best Deck- Amethyst/Ruby
There’s no doubt that the Amber Emerald deck is the litmus test for the current metagame. If your deck can’t deal with all the characters it plays out, it will struggle to perform in large-scale tournaments like Disney Lorcana Challenge Ghent. For the last deck I want to touch on, I’d like to take a look at Nagele97’s Amethyst/Ruby deck from the Ink Ink Open CCQ.
When looking at the deck, the majority of the Amethyst package remains the same when compared to other Amethyst decks. The powerful draw engines are there, and the efficient challengers as well. We do see Palace Guard – Spectral Sentry as a large early-game body. His four willpower when paired with the addition of Belle – Accomplished Mystic and the already popular Cheshire Cat, makes this a great way to deal with ready characters.
Belle and Cheshire Cat also synergise with the spicy inclusion of Mulan – Injured Soldier. Not only does she enter with two damage ready to distribute with Cheshire, but she is a shift target for Mulan – Elite Archer. Being able to challenge and deal damage to up to two other units at once is invaluable in a metagame where a lot of decks can develop a wide board so quickly.
We also see the inclusion of Sisu – Emboldened Warrior for the 4 willpower and 2 lore, as well as The Headless Horseman for more single-target removal and board buffing. I like the inclusion of Ruby a lot, and with Mulan being one of my personal favourite Disney princesses, I do hope to see this deck in action quite a bit at Disney Lorcana Challenge Ghent.
Where Lore Becomes Legacy
With Winterspell released worldwide and several weeks of testing under players’ belts, the spotlight now shifts to Disney Lorcana Challenge Ghent. The metagame is tight, and several strategies seem viable. Whether aggro keeps racing, evasive stays untouchable, or midrange rises to claim the crown, Ghent promises high-level play and defining moments. We cannot wait to celebrate with you all and welcome you to one of the largest Disney Lorcana Challenges to date!
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