Edmond Chiu made history this weekend by becoming the first-ever Disney Lorcana North America Continental Champion. Out of 128 of some of the best players in the world, Chiu piloted a Ruby/Amethyst deck to the finish line. The most prolific deck in Disney Lorcana history still has plenty of gas left in the tank, apparently.
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Ryan Miller and Steve Warner sat down with TheGamer at the North American championship to talk about the past, present, and future of Disney Lorcana.
But before you go copying Chiu’s build for your upcoming Set Championship, let’s take a closer look at the list, see how it works, and find out why it might not be the best choice for your next tournament.
Chiu qualified for both NACC and the World Championship last July when he came in first at the Fort Worth Disney Lorcana Challenge. He played Ruby/Amethyst.
At first glance, Chiu’s winning list looks like the Ruby/Amethyst deck we all know and love to loathe. But this list is missing several cards considered to be staples; there’s no Elsa, The Fifth Spirit; no Madame Medusa, The Boss; no Maui, Hero to All; and most surprisingly, no Genie, Wish Fulfilled. Genie has defined the meta more than any other card in Azurite Sea, so to see any Ruby/Amethyst not using it is a surprise, let alone the winning deck.
Ed Chiu’s Unique Ruby/Amethyst Deck
Chiu tells me that he built this version of Ruby/Amethyst to counter the deck he expected to see the most at the NACC: Ruby/Sapphire. After scoping out what was being played at the Last Chance Qualifier on Friday, Chiu determined that the classic Sisu on Ice was going to be extremely prevalent throughout the week. “I think my predictions were like over 30 percent of the field,” Chiu says. “So I took out a lot of the cards that I thought were not good in that matchup, for example, Genie, Maui, and Elsa.”
Chiu says a lot of people were surprised by that choice, but says at the end of the day, how your cards line up with your opponent’s is what matters the most. In his finals match against Ruby/Sapphire player Scott Markeson, Chiu proved his theory correct by winning with a fairly decisive 3-1 record.
Chiu’s strategy for the matchup may not be what you’d expect. Ruby/Sapphire has traditionally been the control deck in any given meta, and conventional wisdom tells us the way to beat it is to get under it and quest to 20 before it can stop you.
Chiu says he constructed his deck to try to go over Ruby/Sapphire and become the control deck in the matchup instead. By bouncing his Merlin, Rabbits to build a huge hand of cards, he was able to efficiently use his removal tools like Lady Tremaine, Brawl, and Be Prepared to control the board and drain the Ruby/Sapphire player of their resources.
Despite 40 Ruby/Sapphire decks registered in the tournament, Chiu only faced one throughout the Swiss rounds on Day 1.
Is This The New Best Ruby/Amethyst?
This is a deck specifically brewed to beat Ruby/Sapphire, and it did its job well. Chiu has proven once again that he’s one of the best Lorcana players in the world, both from his skill as a pilot and his ability to analyze and predict the meta. While Ruby/Amethyst is a deck he’s very comfortable with, Chiu says he wouldn’t necessarily take this version of the deck to just any tournament. At the highest level of competition, you have to make deck choices based on what you know about your opponents.
If you’re expecting the same kind of Ruby/Sapphire representation at your upcoming Set Championship, this may very well be the best deck option to counter it. Ruby/Sapphire is still a very popular and very powerful deck (given Chiu built his whole deck around beating it) so don’t expect it to disappear any time soon. But Set Championship is a wholly different environment from a continental championship, and unless you’re prepared to make an informed meta call, you’re probably going to be better off playing a less-narrowly constructed deck.
Make no mistake, Genie is still a meta-definer, and its synergy with cards like Elsa and Belle, Accomplished Mystic is still remarkable – even if Chiu’s winning deck doesn’t use any of those cards. It’s not time to throw out staples like Maui and Madame Medusa unless you have a good reason based on the knowledge you have about the competition you’re facing.
The lesson to take from Chiu’s win is not that it’s time to change to Ruby/Amethyst. It’s that being the best isn’t just about how you play your cards, but rather why you choose to play them in the first place.
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.