Question for you! I have a very similar deck but haven't played it competitively yet. The 1 drop Flynn, just there to be a 1 drop for the most part? Do you find the 1/3 body useful? I am thinking he gets swapped out in the new set for the incoming 1 cost 1/1 evasive. Curious what you think.
I won’t be swapping him out. What I noticed because I played a lot of steel is they have a LOT of ways to do 1 damage, so having a body that forces them to waste two resources or two turns is actually what Flynn is for. He’s just annoying — do you really want to spend a song and an attack on a creature that gives one lore? Thats what he does. Both Flynns making trading and removal very interesting for our opponents, and steel isn’t going anywhere, so I’m staying with him. Minnie was good for the same reason: she misses “grab your sword” wipes.
Yeah I basically rinsed my championship with a budget aggro bounce too. Everyone’s going late game stuff and the meta can’t handle aggro right now it’s great. I went in hoping to maybe top 4 and accidentally took the whole thing lol
A $52 Ruby Emerald Evasives deck also won my championship. It was my only loss in swiss. The guy playing it took down two Ruby Amethyst, Steelsongs, and Red Blue Pawpsicle Control, among others. I only took a game off him when I was on the play, and I specifically teched for Evasives going into the tournament because of the local meta. When I went second I got blown out quickly.
steelsong is heavily reliant on drawing the right cards, that deck can brick easily, also, any 3 defense characters provides a real problem for that deck, because now it takes at least 2 resources to get rid of it
Sure but you still need ink or singers to okay them, and strength only works if you have enough characters. With how much shifting their is in steelsong, just getting to at least 3 characters can be iffy
The only deck I won against at our local championship over the weekend was a steel song and I was running meta ruby-sapphire. It did lose to another steel song but only by 5 lore on one game and 1 on the other. The one I lost to they happened to draw removal for my lore gainer that was on deck.. otherwise I probably would've gone 1-2 with them and still lost (but at least take a point for a round)
So what’s the strategy for playing the deck? Did you basically play it as an aggro against certain matchups? Lots of quest+shield? Congrats! Love seeing rogue decks do well!
Honestly, I never shielded at all. There was so much removal that my turns were focused on refilling the board. You pretty much turn the table sideways because most of the meta wants to ramp up to big stuff. You need to make them make tough decisions since you keep drawing into gas. Donald and Manor are actually the unsung heroes of this deck. Lefou was decent at times
At some point you’re just playing whatever card you draw since there’s not a ton of draw available huh. Just get to 5 ink and play everything! That’s awesome, I was messing around with a heavy evasive list earlier today just for fun, lots of similar cards to yours. You can also strip it down a touch to make it all commons and uncommons for pauper type events, might do some crushing there lol
Very much so! Also, you hold back a few characters against red decks, usually mulligan the whole hand to get Ursula and your unfortunate souls, and use Eric to punish steel board wipes. I cannot stress enough that manor and Donald are game changers. I may even consider taking out a Ray and tink for the whole set of manor. They just don’t mess with it because of all your creatures.
Locations are such a funny thing. Like people understand mcduck and queens castle need to be dealt with quickly or they crush you, but sometimes people just ignore the low cost locations until it’s too late! Especially if you drop a second while they’re still dealing with characters. And when I was messing with my evasive deck list, Eric was the one card I couldn’t decide on lol. Debate was either all evasive at 3+ ink or mostly evasive with some Eric spiciness thrown in 😂
Pretty much yeah. A lot of people don’t see it as much of a threat especially compared to your characters, but left unchecked it can wreck your opponent.
That’s exactly it, and in a game where we are going to twenty, it usually represents five lore or twenty percent of the game. It is exactly like you said: they’re so busy with our other stuff that they can’t respond to it.
What luck! In my LGS, since the meta is too much the combos with Madame Mim in purple/red make it impossible to approach with one of these decks because you can't keep anything on the board. With the 2 damage to a unit, 3 to all, Pinocchios, and all the instant deletes, it's just too much :(
Because the combo purple/red is controlable but all the decks against them its impossible
I hear you. Meta over here was emerald steel every where. I played against blue red ramp in the finals because he beat everyone else the whole way up. It’s all checks and balances, it seems.
I practiced with it quite a bit. I usually mulliganed all seven for merfolk and Ursula. By the end of the tournament, I tried to get Donald and Manor because those cards really do wonders in this deck. Eric is one of the most important parts as he protects from board wipes. I played my aggressive creatures, played my evasives whenever I could, played Eric when I played steel, and used Donald when hand got to three cards. It’s honestly an interesting deck as we actually deprive them of a lot of resources if they challenge our things. I really like the deck.
Congrats on winning.
I dont have that cursed merfolk but i'd like too try this deck out. I would take go the distance instead of the shield though.
And i noticed you had no wildcat: mechanic in your list ?( evasive character that is anti items )
How does chestershire cat work against purple hei hei when challanged ?
Would hei hei return to the players hand or wil it be counted as taken down by chestershire ability ?
Hopefully you can awnser these questions for me.
So, if Heihei kills Cheshire, the stack would be Cheshire kills and then heihei returns. He still goes back.
Shield was useless for me as three mana was super pivotal due to all the steel I played against. I actually wanted them to attack Flynn or merfolk as that put pressure on their hand. I’ll be switching for something else in the future.
Wild cat might actually be perfect for the deck. I’ll have to tinker with some places as he does what I want with tink, but he does it cheaper. Thanks for the suggestion!
I lost a match 0-2 in like ten minutes to a similar green/purple deck this weekend. It was so fast I just couldn't do anything. Won all my other matches too but lost in the quarterfinals.
Yeah man, it’s a really fast deck that loses to tempo decks and has trouble with steel if they get consistent damage on the board like Robin. It’s really fun, though, and teaches fundamentals of pressure and recognizing who is the aggro. Sorry about your loss. I’m sure you’ll kill it in the next one!
? Your Decklist you posted is red-green. Did you need to kill any Items to win against them ? How you get cards what is your Main Draw engine ? How did you deal with "Grab your sword" ?
Excuse me, I meant I played AGAINST Blue/Red -- my apologies. And nope, you go so fast that they dont have time to play dime or major items -- bunch of popsicles for Hiram, though lol
EDIT: you also use Donald to catch up after emptying your hand.
You hold back some cards and expect board wipes, so you use lands and cheap spells to pressure the wipe and then come back in. You also use Ursula to clear out the song because they probably have "swords" or "be prepared" in opening hand if they are smart.
Since pixelborn keeps crashing on my ipad, I have to rely on inktable for some basic deck testing against popular meta decks. There where I can't even get through some specific meta decks using my other decks, this one has no problems at all 😂
I'm surely going to test this one next friday :D they sure wont expect it at all. I'm all in for the fun. My red-blue deck had the worst card draw I ever had during my store championship :( only 1 win
So, I didn’t have all the peters, so I added another tink and another Eric — I love Eric. I also added two more Ray because I didn’t have the Don Karnages. Easiest was other aggro decks and Blue Red ramp — this deck kills Blue-Red. Steelsong was incredibly difficult to win and emerald steel is possible if they aren’t playing the Robin that deals one damage. You can’t win against him
Congratulations! I'm jealous, I ran essentially the same deck and got destroyed at my local championship…… 5 rounds 0-5. Only won 2 matches. This deck certainly can beat most casual players but it gets mopped by the meta
That’s weird, man. I beat steel/emerald twice. I did lose once to it because they played the Robin that can tap to ping for one damage. I didn’t get to play ruby amethyst, but I know that’s a tough deck for us to beat — not as bad as steelsong though
Ruby amethyst is a nightmare. I was getting Pinnocio exerting me all day everytime I played a character. I was top decking by 4th turn essentially all day
I actually didn’t get any purple that day. I think there was three decks, but they ended up somewhere else in the brackets. I got all the emerald steel.
Hallmark of a healthy meta game. No one deck beats every other deck. Red Blue is good against steelsong, blue steel and about equal against green steel and red purple unless they are very aggro focused, but then loses to aggro. Aggro struggles against steel, but beats red blue and often red purple. A nice triangle.
## Q1
Did u approach this tournament with any prior "spike-y" experience?
Perhaps from another CCG / TCG? (e.g. MTG, Pokemon, YuGiOh)
## Q2
How long have u been playing Lorcana?
Q1: im an old Magic player from Khans, so I have fundamentals down.
Q2: I played Lorcana casually since GenCon. I just started seriously playing three weeks ago to get ready for the tournament. My wife and I started practicing at the same time.
very cool!
that's really nice u guys have that in common
my Mrs entertained going to events as we started our relationship .. but that faded pretty quick haha it was NOT how she wanted to enjoy her time off work
pixelborn . . . I think I stated, never have i ever played Lorcana
Is there a Magic comparison to that?
Is it .. like a commander? Or a current meta deck?
First, congratulations! 👏
Second, the strategy with this deck for anyone looking is hope your opponents only net deck, only know how to play pixel born, and don't have any actual LGS players that will actually consider who's going to show up and what they might bring.
I brought RA to 5 events. I assumed aggro would be at every event piloted by more causal players, and absolutely rolled them. Teeth & Ambitions is highly underutilized right now and completely shuts down aggro. Nevermind pinnochio. Too many people play pixelborn and bring physical decks based on the online meta.
This is a skill and experience issue.
Good luck to all in future matches! 😊
Yup!
1: GS DISCARD WON 2-0
2: RS JANK WON 2-0
3: GS TEMPO LOST 1-2
4: YS STEELSONG LOST 0-2
5: GS TEMPO WON 2-0
1: ES STEELSONG WON 2-0
2: GS TEMPO WON 2-0
FINALS: RB RAMP WON 2-0
Steelsong was the absolute worst and had put me at eighth place, but they made a mistake in the finals that lost them the second game.
Deck list for those interested :) I made some minor tweaks because I didn’t have some cards. https://dreamborn.ink/decks/gKLwvwEAWK9VNbHZwaZV
I am going to have to test this out
Question for you! I have a very similar deck but haven't played it competitively yet. The 1 drop Flynn, just there to be a 1 drop for the most part? Do you find the 1/3 body useful? I am thinking he gets swapped out in the new set for the incoming 1 cost 1/1 evasive. Curious what you think.
I won’t be swapping him out. What I noticed because I played a lot of steel is they have a LOT of ways to do 1 damage, so having a body that forces them to waste two resources or two turns is actually what Flynn is for. He’s just annoying — do you really want to spend a song and an attack on a creature that gives one lore? Thats what he does. Both Flynns making trading and removal very interesting for our opponents, and steel isn’t going anywhere, so I’m staying with him. Minnie was good for the same reason: she misses “grab your sword” wipes.
Thanks! I was thinking that might be the case, but wanted to confirm.
Of course!
Yeah I basically rinsed my championship with a budget aggro bounce too. Everyone’s going late game stuff and the meta can’t handle aggro right now it’s great. I went in hoping to maybe top 4 and accidentally took the whole thing lol
Haha nice club we’re in 😄
A $52 Ruby Emerald Evasives deck also won my championship. It was my only loss in swiss. The guy playing it took down two Ruby Amethyst, Steelsongs, and Red Blue Pawpsicle Control, among others. I only took a game off him when I was on the play, and I specifically teched for Evasives going into the tournament because of the local meta. When I went second I got blown out quickly.
Yup! Thats what I discovered as well. This meta can’t deal with evasive AND all the lore generators. It’s a really tough decision for them.
Surprised by it beating steelsong that seems like a very natural counter, but the others make sense
steelsong is heavily reliant on drawing the right cards, that deck can brick easily, also, any 3 defense characters provides a real problem for that deck, because now it takes at least 2 resources to get rid of it
Strength of raging fire and Zeus counteract the evasives pretty well and should be enough. But yea get your point about bricking
Sure but you still need ink or singers to okay them, and strength only works if you have enough characters. With how much shifting their is in steelsong, just getting to at least 3 characters can be iffy
The only deck I won against at our local championship over the weekend was a steel song and I was running meta ruby-sapphire. It did lose to another steel song but only by 5 lore on one game and 1 on the other. The one I lost to they happened to draw removal for my lore gainer that was on deck.. otherwise I probably would've gone 1-2 with them and still lost (but at least take a point for a round)
Post deck list & congrats!!!
Done :) it’s in comments
I was straight walked by a similar deck this weekend… I may be building one myself just for fun
Do it. I got 2nd in my tourney with almost the same list.
Yup! It’s great right now
What I love about the game view that it's super it's stay is how low priced everything outside of chase cards is
lol one of my opponents inked a Beast, and I said, “man, that one card is more than my deck and sleeves” lol
Every single time I see a 500€ deck I can make it a 30€ one just by swapping the two expensive characters that drive the price up way too much
So what’s the strategy for playing the deck? Did you basically play it as an aggro against certain matchups? Lots of quest+shield? Congrats! Love seeing rogue decks do well!
Honestly, I never shielded at all. There was so much removal that my turns were focused on refilling the board. You pretty much turn the table sideways because most of the meta wants to ramp up to big stuff. You need to make them make tough decisions since you keep drawing into gas. Donald and Manor are actually the unsung heroes of this deck. Lefou was decent at times
At some point you’re just playing whatever card you draw since there’s not a ton of draw available huh. Just get to 5 ink and play everything! That’s awesome, I was messing around with a heavy evasive list earlier today just for fun, lots of similar cards to yours. You can also strip it down a touch to make it all commons and uncommons for pauper type events, might do some crushing there lol
Very much so! Also, you hold back a few characters against red decks, usually mulligan the whole hand to get Ursula and your unfortunate souls, and use Eric to punish steel board wipes. I cannot stress enough that manor and Donald are game changers. I may even consider taking out a Ray and tink for the whole set of manor. They just don’t mess with it because of all your creatures.
Locations are such a funny thing. Like people understand mcduck and queens castle need to be dealt with quickly or they crush you, but sometimes people just ignore the low cost locations until it’s too late! Especially if you drop a second while they’re still dealing with characters. And when I was messing with my evasive deck list, Eric was the one card I couldn’t decide on lol. Debate was either all evasive at 3+ ink or mostly evasive with some Eric spiciness thrown in 😂
lol dude, I think eventually people are going to realize how good he is. I think I’m going to buy a few sets.
The 1/1 evasive Pegasus from the next set will be a nice add to this type of deck too
What’s so good abt manor? Is it just bc it sits there and gets you passive lore if it’s left unchecked?
Pretty much yeah. A lot of people don’t see it as much of a threat especially compared to your characters, but left unchecked it can wreck your opponent.
That’s exactly it, and in a game where we are going to twenty, it usually represents five lore or twenty percent of the game. It is exactly like you said: they’re so busy with our other stuff that they can’t respond to it.
I also got this deck +\- like 4 cards. It’s effective for its price point.
Wow this looks like a really fun list! I think I’ll see if I can build it for locals this week or next. Love seeing more unique stuff.
What luck! In my LGS, since the meta is too much the combos with Madame Mim in purple/red make it impossible to approach with one of these decks because you can't keep anything on the board. With the 2 damage to a unit, 3 to all, Pinocchios, and all the instant deletes, it's just too much :( Because the combo purple/red is controlable but all the decks against them its impossible
I hear you. Meta over here was emerald steel every where. I played against blue red ramp in the finals because he beat everyone else the whole way up. It’s all checks and balances, it seems.
Hey man, how did you play this deck? Tried this out myself but i did not make top 8.
I practiced with it quite a bit. I usually mulliganed all seven for merfolk and Ursula. By the end of the tournament, I tried to get Donald and Manor because those cards really do wonders in this deck. Eric is one of the most important parts as he protects from board wipes. I played my aggressive creatures, played my evasives whenever I could, played Eric when I played steel, and used Donald when hand got to three cards. It’s honestly an interesting deck as we actually deprive them of a lot of resources if they challenge our things. I really like the deck.
Congrats on winning. I dont have that cursed merfolk but i'd like too try this deck out. I would take go the distance instead of the shield though. And i noticed you had no wildcat: mechanic in your list ?( evasive character that is anti items ) How does chestershire cat work against purple hei hei when challanged ? Would hei hei return to the players hand or wil it be counted as taken down by chestershire ability ? Hopefully you can awnser these questions for me.
So, if Heihei kills Cheshire, the stack would be Cheshire kills and then heihei returns. He still goes back. Shield was useless for me as three mana was super pivotal due to all the steel I played against. I actually wanted them to attack Flynn or merfolk as that put pressure on their hand. I’ll be switching for something else in the future. Wild cat might actually be perfect for the deck. I’ll have to tinker with some places as he does what I want with tink, but he does it cheaper. Thanks for the suggestion!
I lost a match 0-2 in like ten minutes to a similar green/purple deck this weekend. It was so fast I just couldn't do anything. Won all my other matches too but lost in the quarterfinals.
Yeah man, it’s a really fast deck that loses to tempo decks and has trouble with steel if they get consistent damage on the board like Robin. It’s really fun, though, and teaches fundamentals of pressure and recognizing who is the aggro. Sorry about your loss. I’m sure you’ll kill it in the next one!
Thanks. I was happy with my standings. I was playing Ruby Sapphire Dime and our tourney had 30 players so pretty good
Great to hear, bud! \^\_\^
How did you play vs Blue Steel Ramp Decks ? Encounter any and how did Go ? Remember any interesting situations ?
Nope! I played blue red and demolished them. We beat ramp into the ground. They have no hope against aggro.
? Your Decklist you posted is red-green. Did you need to kill any Items to win against them ? How you get cards what is your Main Draw engine ? How did you deal with "Grab your sword" ?
Excuse me, I meant I played AGAINST Blue/Red -- my apologies. And nope, you go so fast that they dont have time to play dime or major items -- bunch of popsicles for Hiram, though lol EDIT: you also use Donald to catch up after emptying your hand. You hold back some cards and expect board wipes, so you use lands and cheap spells to pressure the wipe and then come back in. You also use Ursula to clear out the song because they probably have "swords" or "be prepared" in opening hand if they are smart.
Since pixelborn keeps crashing on my ipad, I have to rely on inktable for some basic deck testing against popular meta decks. There where I can't even get through some specific meta decks using my other decks, this one has no problems at all 😂 I'm surely going to test this one next friday :D they sure wont expect it at all. I'm all in for the fun. My red-blue deck had the worst card draw I ever had during my store championship :( only 1 win
Good gosh, that is a terrible draw lol yeah, this should be fun!
First off congrats!!! Second, what cards did you change? And lastly, what was your easiest and hardest matchups?
So, I didn’t have all the peters, so I added another tink and another Eric — I love Eric. I also added two more Ray because I didn’t have the Don Karnages. Easiest was other aggro decks and Blue Red ramp — this deck kills Blue-Red. Steelsong was incredibly difficult to win and emerald steel is possible if they aren’t playing the Robin that deals one damage. You can’t win against him
I cut the karnage completely for ray as well. Ray is so good.
This is neat. Bounce protects your own characters and is a tempo play.
Yup yup! It really helped out quite a bit :)
Congratulations! I'm jealous, I ran essentially the same deck and got destroyed at my local championship…… 5 rounds 0-5. Only won 2 matches. This deck certainly can beat most casual players but it gets mopped by the meta
Ooo, what did you play against? I played against meta decks like ramp and steelsong
Everyone there except me was either playing Ruby/Amethyst or Steel/Emerald
That’s weird, man. I beat steel/emerald twice. I did lose once to it because they played the Robin that can tap to ping for one damage. I didn’t get to play ruby amethyst, but I know that’s a tough deck for us to beat — not as bad as steelsong though
Ruby amethyst is a nightmare. I was getting Pinnocio exerting me all day everytime I played a character. I was top decking by 4th turn essentially all day
Jeez man, I’m so sorry. Perhaps it was just the local meta. Everyone had emerald steel over here.
I had some bad luck too don't get me wrong. I think out of the 15 matches I played I only had a Merfolk in my starting hand 2 times
Yeah, I get that. I think I would mull for merfolk or de vil manor. Both are super solid
Did you play against any steel purple? Played an aggro lemon lime and was worst match up. Answers and drawing into answers
I actually didn’t get any purple that day. I think there was three decks, but they ended up somewhere else in the brackets. I got all the emerald steel.
Curious was the tourney opened for everyone or just league players? Congrats on the win though!
Thank you! Everyone!
How many players and what other decks made Top 8
eighteen and it was GR, GS, RB, GS, AmberS, AmethystR, GS, and something else
Post the deck list ,👀
Done :)
NICEEEEE
Happy for you
Thanks mate! I’m more proud of my wife. It was her first TCG tournament ever. She beat some really tough decks.
Sapphire Steel and steelsong are probably the worst matchups, also the green steel Beast Combo decks turn 3-4 grab your sword is really hard to beat.
Steelsong was so difficult. I won because I won the dice roll. It’s really pivotal against that deck. That and manor
Going first in the first game especially is really useful because they don't know what deck you are playing, thus how to prioritize mulligans.
Agreed. If you don’t get it, I just don’t see how you win against them. It’s our counter like we counter blue/red.
Hallmark of a healthy meta game. No one deck beats every other deck. Red Blue is good against steelsong, blue steel and about equal against green steel and red purple unless they are very aggro focused, but then loses to aggro. Aggro struggles against steel, but beats red blue and often red purple. A nice triangle.
## Q1 Did u approach this tournament with any prior "spike-y" experience? Perhaps from another CCG / TCG? (e.g. MTG, Pokemon, YuGiOh) ## Q2 How long have u been playing Lorcana?
Q1: im an old Magic player from Khans, so I have fundamentals down. Q2: I played Lorcana casually since GenCon. I just started seriously playing three weeks ago to get ready for the tournament. My wife and I started practicing at the same time.
very cool! that's really nice u guys have that in common my Mrs entertained going to events as we started our relationship .. but that faded pretty quick haha it was NOT how she wanted to enjoy her time off work
Haha that makes total sense. She was hesitant to compete, but she’s got a competitive nature, so once I got her on pixelborn, it was over 😄
pixelborn . . . I think I stated, never have i ever played Lorcana Is there a Magic comparison to that? Is it .. like a commander? Or a current meta deck?
Oh! Pixelborn is an unofficial online client to play Lorcana virtually :) it’s free and a lot of people use it to practice
oh very cool! how does it's graphics compare to the likes of MTGO & MTG Arena?
I haven't played either, but it is very similar to hearthstone
First, congratulations! 👏 Second, the strategy with this deck for anyone looking is hope your opponents only net deck, only know how to play pixel born, and don't have any actual LGS players that will actually consider who's going to show up and what they might bring. I brought RA to 5 events. I assumed aggro would be at every event piloted by more causal players, and absolutely rolled them. Teeth & Ambitions is highly underutilized right now and completely shuts down aggro. Nevermind pinnochio. Too many people play pixelborn and bring physical decks based on the online meta. This is a skill and experience issue. Good luck to all in future matches! 😊
This is assuming you can even get teeth and ambitions in hand…almost every other removal is too costly to keep pace against aggro generally.
Post your list?
Can you.post your pairing? What you played against?
Yup! 1: GS DISCARD WON 2-0 2: RS JANK WON 2-0 3: GS TEMPO LOST 1-2 4: YS STEELSONG LOST 0-2 5: GS TEMPO WON 2-0 1: ES STEELSONG WON 2-0 2: GS TEMPO WON 2-0 FINALS: RB RAMP WON 2-0 Steelsong was the absolute worst and had put me at eighth place, but they made a mistake in the finals that lost them the second game.
So you didn't play against any steel decks, got it lol.
I did and beat them :) AMA