Though dual-ink cards were the main event of Disney Lorcana’s Archazia’s Island, the set also introduced a new keyword in vanish. Characters with vanish can hit harder, but are more easily banished – that’s if you’re not an evil, illusion-slinging vizier, that is.
The Amethyst/Steel Starter Deck for Archazia’s Island features Jafar and his hordes of Illusions, as they cause chaos across the island. Amass your illusions, slow down your opponent, and grind out the win with this starter deck.
The Amethyst/Steel Starter Deck Decklist
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Disney Lorcana: Archazia’s Island’s Amethyst/Steel Starter Deck |
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Characters |
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Akela, Wolf Pack Elder (x2) |
Arthur, Wart (x2) |
Fa Zhou, War Hero |
Giant Cobra, Ghostly Serpent (x3) |
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Heihei, Rambling Rooster (x3) |
Helga Sinclair, Tough as Nails (x2) |
Iago, Giant Spectral Parrot |
Jafar, Aspiring Ruler (x3) |
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Jafar, Newly Crowned |
Kashekim, Ancient Ruler (x2) |
King Hubert, Phillip’s Father (x2) |
Madam Mim, Cheating Spellcaster |
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Mufasa, Respected King (x3) |
Pain, Impudent Imp (x2) |
Panic, High-Strung Imp (x2) |
Rajah, Ghostly Tiger (x3) |
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Raya, Guidance Seeker |
Razoul, Menacing Guard (x3) |
Royal Guard, Bovine Protector (x2) |
Tanana, Tribal Elder (x2) |
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Te Ka, Lava Monster (x2) |
The Carpenter, Dinner Companion (x2) |
Treasure Guardian, Foreboding Sentry (x2) |
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Items |
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Amethyst Coil (x2) |
Retrosphere (x2) |
Training Dummy (x2) |
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Actions |
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Double Trouble (x2) |
Magical Maneuvers (x2) |
Restoring the Crown |
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Key Cards
Compared to most other Lorcana starter decks, this one doesn’t lean too hard into any particular theme, instead preferring to be an all-round midrange deck that keeps its options open. That being said, some of the tools in your toolbox are worth keeping an eye out for.
Jafar, Newly Crowned
Jafar sets out exactly what this deck wants to do: play Illusions, challenge, and bounce them back to your hand. He takes the vanish keyword and turns it on its head, turning it from a signficant downside to something that will actually help you win the game.
Vanish is a keyword introduced in Archazia’s Island. Whenever a character with vanishing is chosen as the target of an action, you banish it. Or, if you have Jafar out, you return it to your hand instead.
Though this deck doesn’t run a lot of Illusions, having an easy way to recur them means even a couple can prove difficult for your opponent to deal with as they keep coming back again and again.
Giant Cobra, Deadly Serpent
This is the Illusion you’ll most want to start recurring with Jafar. A 4/4 for three ink is already well ahead of the curve, but it also comes with an enter trigger that could be backbreaking if left unchecked.
Illusions all have two things in common: they have vanish, and their stats are higher than non-vanishing characters of the same cost. This makes them glass cannons that can dish out damage in a challenge, but fold easily to interaction.
Whenever Deadly Serpent enters, you can discard a card from your hand to gain two lore. Lore is good, but putting a card in the bin ready for Retrosphere to pluck back later is even better.
Fa Zhou, War Hero
Fa Zhou fits in to the deck’s challenge-matters subtheme, and helps solve one of the key problems of such a deck. Usually, focusing on challenging means you’ll fall behind in lore, but Fa Zhou evens it out by giving you three lore on your second challenge per turn.
You’re safe to swing out and take out key threats without feeling like you’re falling behind. You’ll still need some cards dedicated to lore generation, but being more open to challenging will really help you control the board better.
Magical Manuevers
This deck loves exerting your opponents’ characters as a form of control, and Magical Maneuvers goes one further by also letting you bounce one of your characters to your hand.
Similarly to Jafar, this gives you a way to repeat enter triggers on cards like Giant Cobra. However, it also sets up challenges, by making your opponents’ key pieces vulnerable to attack. The two sides of this deck can feel somewhat disparate at times, but Magical Maneuvers helps close the gap.
Restoring The Crown
This deck is very grindy, prefering you to control the game and win slowly. However, when you’re close enough to take the win, a well-timed Restoring the Crown can easily get you past the finish line.
Exerting all of your opponents’ characters makes them sitting dicks, ready to be taken down in challenges. Crucially, this also gives you two lore for each of your opponents’ characters you banish, giving you a way to go out swinging and surge ahead in lore.
At six ink, this is one you’ll need to be absolutely sure you can win with before playing, but with your illusions often having high stats, and a large number of challengers in the deck, taking out any opposition should be pretty easy.
Amethyst/Steel Playstyle
As mentioned, this deck isn’t leaning as heavily into a theme as some other starter decks. Instead, it grinds out wins through challenging, and making heavy use of recurring your illusions.
Illusions are your primary threat, as they’re bigger than non-vanishing characters, and can be easily brought back into play with Jafar. However, if you can’t use them to keep your opponent down and they get a foothold in, you’re going to find it very difficult to claw your way back.
Exerting your opponents’ characters is key, as that lets you take out key engine pieces through challenging. Make frequent use of cards like Restoring the Crown and Magical Manuevers to exert major lore generators, or anything that synergises with your opponents’ other cards, before using an Illusion to take them out.
If you have Fa Zhou out, try and get at least two challenges per turn to keep up with any incidental lore your opponent is gaining.
Keeping your challengers in top condition is vital, so use challengers like Te Ka and Helga Sinclair, or use Amethyst Coil to move the damage your characters take back on to your opponents’. If you need to quickly blast a character out, Double Trouble is a direct-damage action that can ping two at the same time.
Your Opening Hand And When To Mulligan
There are only two one-drop characters in the entire deck, and both Pain and Heihei are vanilla. So instead of aiming for a turn one play, it’s better to ensure you have a few Illusions in your hand to get the train started by the time you drop Jafar. For this, the cheapest you can play is Rajah, Ghostly Tiger, but having a Giant Cobra in your hand is also definitely one to keep.
Outside of Illusions, you’re going to want interraction. Remember that this deck is all about grinding out the win and slowing your opponent down with exerting, so cards like Double Trouble and The Carpenter can buy you enough time to set up your primary win conditions.
Helga Sinclair may not be an inkable card, but a 0/4 that becomes an evasive 3/4 when it challenges is incredible at two ink. She pairs nicely with Training Dummy, as she’s a big wall of willpower that, if turned into a Bodyguard, early characters won’t be able to get around.
Weaknesses
There’s no two ways about it: this deck is slow. It wants to drag the game to a crawl through exerting and replaying characters, and doesn’t have a lot of lore generation. You’re playing the long game, and any deck that focuses on aggro will often be able to storm ahead before you can put up a solid answer.
The lack of Illusions is also a problem. There are only seven Illusion cards in the deck, and a lot of the remainder, like Treasure Guardian, build on them. It’s likely you won’t draw enough Illusions for Jafar to be effective, meaning your first priority with any upgrades will be adding more Illusions to replace the numerous filler vanilla characters, like Akela and Royal Guard.
Jafar also only triggers if the Illusion is banished using its vanish ability. If it’s taken out in a challenge, and you can’t get it back with a Retrosphere, your already slim number of Illusions will only get even smaller.
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