The 5 Coolest Decks At Disney Lorcana DLC Seattle

Last weekend’s Disney Lorcana Challenge in Seattle was the final official competitive event for Shimmering Skies, and the last DLC of the inaugural competitive season. Last month’s tournaments in Las Vegas and Birmingham demonstrated just how diverse the current meta is, and, as expected, a number of clever deck builders showed up with some brand-new innovations.

While Luke Goodwin’s winning decklist was nearly identical to the Emerald/Steel Discard deck Zan Syed won DLC Las Vegas with, there was still a nice variety of experimentation in the Top 64. Here are the five coolest decks from Disney Lorcana DLC Seattle.

Sean Keeton’s Emerald/Amethyst Mystical Rose

Emerald/Amethyst made a much smaller splash in Seattle compared to last month’s events in Las Vegas and Birmingham. According to the official metagame breakdown, this ink color combo wasn’t even in the top eight most represented archetypes, instead falling into the five percent ‘other’ category.

Sean Keeton was just one of two Emerald/Amethyst players to make it into the Top 64. On top of playing an uncommon deck, Keeton’s are partially built around an unheard-of win condition: Beast Relentless and the Mystical Rose.

These two cards have rarely, if ever, seen play at a competitive event, but they create the potential for incredibly explosive turns. Giving Beast, Relentless two extra lore (or more with multiple Mystical Roses) can create situations where you’re questing for obscene amounts of lore. Though we didn’t get to see this particular combo come together in Keeton’s Top 8 match, it was clearly an effective strategy to have gotten him that far.

Jonathan Ball’s Ruby/Amethyst Burn

Ruby/Amethyst is such a well-established archetype at this point that you have to stop and take notice when someone does something unique with it. The typical Ruby/Amethyst shell is around 55 cards, so there’s not a lot of flexibility there. Rather than sticking with what’s known to work, Jonathan Ball climbed all the way to the Top 8 with a totally new archetype for Lorcana.

Ball’s list is what you might call a “burn” style in other TCGs. Its goal is to race the opponent to 20 by earning lore with actions and abilities, rather than questing. This has been a component of Ruby/Amethyst decks going back to Rise of the Floodborn thanks to Merlin, Goat, but Ball’s list leans into the burn strategy even harder with cards like Flynn Rider, Frenemy; Goofy, Super Goof; Gathering Knowledge and Wisdom, and A Pirate’s Life.

Though it shares many cards with the typical control-oriented Ruby/Amethyst list, Ball’s burn deck has a totally different playstyle. Rather than control the board with Tremaines and Medusas, this deck is trying to squeeze in as much lore as possible each turn and force the opponent to race them. I never thought I’d see a Ruby/Amethyst deck without Madam Mims, but Ball’s success proves anything is possible.

Alvaro Jirau’s Amber/Steel Location Aggro

Alvaro Jirau’s Location Aggro deck was the most head-turning deck of the weekend by far. It features 24 locations, many of which have never been seen at a competitive event, and Jirau had a lot of success with it, climbing all the way to the Top 32.

This is an aggro deck that a lot of the strongest decks in the meta right now aren’t equipped to deal with. Location removal is uncommon, and even the decks that do have it, like Ruby/Sapphire, can only afford to run one or two copies. This is the kind of deck that can be successful when no one else is playing it, because no one else is strategizing to play against it. This is easily the most creative deck in the Top 64 and it was a lot of fun to watch Jirau pilot it.

Alvin Hernandez Amber/Steel Steelfasa

Jirau’s Amber/Steel Location Aggro deck was knocked out in the Top 32 by Alvin Henandez’ Amber/Steel Steelfasa deck, and it was pretty exciting to see two off-meta Amber/Steel decks go head to head.

While Steelfasa has been around for a while, this is the first time it’s had much competitive success. Hernandez’ list is a tempo deck that plays a lot of high-value characters, meaning it’s often equipped to out-quest the opponent and set the pace of the game early. Mufasa decks have fallen out of style after Into the Inklands, so it’s nice to see one find so much success now.

Jan Moy’s Sapphire/Steel No AWNW

Sapphire/Steel had the steepest fall off of any deck in the transition from Ursula’s Return to Shimmering Skies, but experts like Jan Moy have kept the dream alive. Moy’s latest version of the deck is fascinating. It’s quite low to the ground, with 34 cards costing three or less, and doesn’t run A Whole New World, which has long been a staple of this archetype.

Card draw simply isn’t a problem for this deck thanks to Hiram Flaversham and its newest card draw powerhouse, Chicha, Dedicated Mother. Synergizing with both Fishbone Quill and Mickey Mouse, Detective; Chicha allows this deck to generate extra card draw every turn, helping to supplement the Hirams.

There’s nothing especially eye-catching about this list, but Moy’s success with it goes to show that there’s still plenty of juice left in the Sapphire/Steel can, and that if you dedicate yourself to a deck you can find success with it, even if no one else believes in it.