If you thought the Azurite Sea meta was solved after the European Championship, think again. At the Disney Lorcana CCS 10K last weekend, Brennan DeCandio ran away with the top prize using his Amber/Steel aggro deck, affectionately titled Diggy Diggy Hole. This is the second major CCS event DeCandio has won with this deck archetype, so if it isn’t on your radar yet, it should be.
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Amethyst Has Dominated The Early Season Of Azurite Sea
In the first five weeks of Azurite Sea, one card has largely dominated the meta. Genie, Wish Fulfilled is an Evasive 2/4 with two lore that draws you a card on play, and its presence in the early Azurite Sea meta game immediately shot Amethyst decks to the top of the heap.
Between Amethyst/Emerald, which also got the powerful Go Go Tomago; Amethyst/Ruby, which can both play Genie and has all the best answers to it; and a wide range of Amethyst/Steel decks all trying to find the best shell for Genie, Amethyst has become the ink color to beat. We saw this bear out at the European Championship, where Amethyst accounted for six of the top eight decks, and all of the top four.
Meanwhile, the ever-popular Amber/Steel Steelsong seemed to take a backseat this set. Only one Steelsong player made it to day two, but no further. It seems as though the classic archetype isn’t able to effectively deal with the pressure that Genie creates. Despite representing 13 percent of the field at the EU Championship, Steelsong had the worst conversion rate to top cut.
Enter Diggy Diggy Hole
But the EU Championship isn’t the whole story. This weekend’s 10K CCS tournament proved that Amber/Steel is still a powerful combo, with both the first and third-place finishers running a variation of the archetype. DeCandio’s deck, Diggy Diggy Hole, is especially intriguing because of the way it combines a hyper-aggro rollout with the ability to control the board through Steel’s usual tricks.
When you examine the deck, it’s easy to see why it’s so good. Between the recursive Lilo, Escape Artist; the versatile Calhoun, Marine Sergeant; and the incredibly sticky Pluto, Guard Dog; this deck list utilizes three out of the four best cards in Azurite Sea. Combined with the power of Daisy Duck, Donald’s Date; and Doc, Bold Knight, which became an aggro mainstay in Shimmering Skies, This deck has explosive potential.
DeCandio is an accomplished Amber/Steel expert, and he proved once again how strong the color combo can be in the right hands. Unlike the usual midrange version of the deck, however, DeCandio has constructed a version with an incredibly aggressive curve.
It feels like a deck that’s almost impossible to beat on the draw. If your opponent opens with Daisy Duck, gets Piglet and three one-drops out in the next two turns, and then a Pluto on turn four, there’s pretty much no coming back. On top of that it makes use of Pete, Games Referee to stall Be Prepared and other removal actions, and Kida, Protector of Atlantis to protect wide boards from being challenged. It can sustain thanks to Doc and Rapuzel, Gifted with Healing, and it can fight back with Calhoun, songs, and the tricky Seven Dwarfs’ Mine location.
Your only hope against this deck is to stall it out as fast as possible and hope it can’t chain together Docs to bounce back. Cards like Madam Mim, Fox; Sisu, Empowered Sibling; and Brawl can be essential to slowing things down enough to regain control. But when it comes to a polarizing deck like this, sometimes there’s nothing you can do to stop it.
Over the last six Lorcana sets, we’ve seen the meta start to shift faster and faster from the start of a season to the end. Things tend to start off slower which is where control decks like Ruby/Sapphire dominate, but by the end of Shimmering Skies, aggro decks were all the rage.
In Azurite Sea, Amethyst/Emerald tempo took an early lead thanks to the combination of Genie and Go Go Tomago, and at the European Championship, we saw Amethyst/Ruby midrange rise to the top. Both of those decks are vulnerable to the early game pressure of DeCandio’s Amber/Steel deck, which means there’s an opening for aggro to creep back in.
Most importantly, people love playing aggro decks. Whether it’s the upcoming set championship or NA Championship Last Chance Qualifier, aggro is going to be a popular choice for people who want to conserve stamina by playing short rounds, or even new players at your local scene who aren’t confident to run a midrange or control deck just yet. This is without a doubt the strongest aggro deck in the field right now, so if you’re not playing it, you better be prepared to face it.
Disney Lorcana
Lorcana is a trading card game developed by Disney and published by Ravensburger, featuring iconic characters, settings, and more from the studio’s long history. As an Illumineer, you must build your deck and help protect Lorcana.