Lorcana Ruby/Sapphire Deck –Control On Ice

The new Ruby/Sapphire control deck in Lorcana leverages a powerful combo from Ursula’s Return to dominate the game.

Want to know what the latest and greatest Lorcana Ruby/Sapphire deck list is?

Well, thanks to some of the new cards introduced in Ursula’s Return, Ruby/Sapphire is looking better than ever. In fact, it’s a little terrifying at the potential this deck now has, and the online Lorcana community is going wild over it.

In this deck list and guide, we’ll be looking at the latest way to play Ruby/Sapphire, sharing a deck list, and going over some of the key cards and strategies you need to know in order to play this deck, and to play against it.

*Updated May 15, 2024

Lorcana Ruby/Sapphire Deck List

2 Lucky Dime
4 Tamatoa - So Shiny!
4 Maui - Hero to All
3 How Far I'll Go
4 One Jump Ahead
3 Belle - Strange but Special
4 Develop Your Brain
4 Fishbone Quill
4 Maleficent - Monstrous Dragon
4 Madame Medusa - The Boss
4 Pawpsicle
3 Brawl
4 Hiram Flaversham - Toymaker
4 Scuttle - Expert on Humans
3 Sisu - Empowered Sibling
2 Sisu - Daring Visitor
4 Ice Block

Sapphire/Ruby – Basic Strategy

Sapphire/Ruby is a pretty hard control deck. That can be a really good strength and also a really big weakness. Take, for example, the fact that Ruby/Sapphire doesn’t run any one-cost characters. That’s not going to be an issue against decks like Amber/Steel that are pretty good at decimating one-cost characters anyways. But against hyper aggro decks, this could be a problem, making it a little tricker it keep them from getting too far ahead before you start clearing their board.

What this deck does have turn one, however, are a couple of strong draw cards: Develop Your Brain and Pawpsicle. This will help keep your hand nice and healthy so you can gain significant card advantage over your opponent later on.

A quick note on how Pawpsicle works

Pawpsicle can be a little bit tricky to use, especially when playing it with Flaversham. First of all, Pawpsicle’s card draw effect only happens when it is played. Second, in order to use “That’s Recdwood”, you have to activate that ability and then banish the item. You don’t need another card to banish Pawpsicle in order to use this effect, and the healing capability won’t work if you happen to banish Pawpsicle via another effect like Flaversham’s Artificer ability.

Flaversham makes up the bulk of your draw engine

Flaversham is a strong character simply because of his pretty broken draw ability. It also doesn’t hurt that he’s got a pretty high will power stat, making him rather annoying to banish via a challenge or with damage alone. Use his ability whenever possible to keep your hand full and search out those key cards you are going to need in order to win the game.

Turn two – Scuttle

This new version or Ruby/Sapphire focuses largely on the power of items within Sapphire’s wheelhouse (and upgraded via Ursula’s Return) to utterly overwhelm your opponent. However, an item in the hand is better than an item in the deck, so Scuttle is going to be a huge help here to you to ensure that you get the items you need when you need them.

Scuttle acts as a powerful card search engine for this item-centric deck. With 14 items in your deck, odds are pretty good you will find one with his Let Me See ability.

Apart from Scuttle, using Ink to play One Jump Ahead is also a solid option. It may not help you search out the items you need, but it will get you closer to your goal of high Ink in the Inkwell.

Fishbone Quill is your most vital item

Notice this deck doesn’t give you many three-cost characters, and that’s because ideally you are going to be playing the Fishbone Quill on your third turn so you can start seriously accelerating Ink into your Inkwell. Your shot at victory will largely depend on your ability to ramp, so this can be critical.

That being said, Fishbone Quill isn’t your only three-cost card to use. You can also play the new and useful Sisu – Daring Visitor to help get rid of characters your opponent has in play, or the handy Brawl card.

Both of these cards can be used to instantly banished low strength characters. However, their abilities get much, much stronger when they are combined with the powerful Ice Block card.

Ice Block majorly buffs already powerful cards

Ice Block at first seems like a pretty unassuming item. However, it’s quite deadly when you combine it with cards in Ruby. In fact, many of the weaknesses Ruby/Sapphire once had seem to be largely erased by this new buff, and its strengths have only gotten stronger.

Essentially the strategy with Ice Block is to strategically lower the Strength stat of opposing characters to make them more susceptible to effects from cards like Madam Medusa. Because Ice Block stacks, really no character is safe anymore from these deadly cards. To make matters worse, Ruby runs multiple cards that pair well with Ice Block – many of which were released in Ursula’s Return.

Sisu – Empowering Sibling, for example, has the potential to totally decimate your opponent’s board if you are able to lower all of their character’s strength. It’s a pretty crazy combo that is likely to push Ruby/Sapphire to the top of the tier list.

Maleficent and Maui remain core to this decks strategy

Before moving on from card removal characters, you still can’t have a Ruby/Sapphire deck without Maui and Maleficent – Monstrous Dragon. Maui remains one of the most powerful cards in the whole game with a collection of stats and abilities that is unparalleled anywhere. Meanwhile, Maleficent is a one-and-done card banishing machine, and if you are able to get her off she can seriously hamper your opponent’s chances of every building up enough resources to fight back.

Lucky Dime raises your chances of winning

Apart from these clearly deadly cards and card removing combos, this deck also boasts a powerful lore gaining mechanic in the form of Belle – Strange But Special, Tomatoa and Lucky Dime. You can use either of these character cards depending on your circumstances to quickly race to 20 lore, sometimes crossing the majority of the distance in a single turn.

Belle gains extra lore value when you have 10 or more cards in your Inkwell, while Tomatoe has even higher potential lore as he gains additional lore for each item you have in play.

Both of these characters are excellent targets for Lucky Dime and have been used to win many games in a pinch.

There’s a reason Ruby/Sapphire will likely be the best deck after Ursula’s Return

Few decks have benefited in Lorcana’s fourth set like Ruby/Sapphire. This deck now has the tools it needs to utterly decimate the playing field, and most decks will be forced to find a way to deal with it.

By no longer relying on Be Prepared, Ruby/Sapphire also has newer and better ways to deal with aggro decks, making it less likely that it will get beaten to the punch before it can get its powerful monstrous engine roaring to life.

It is more well-rounded than ever and poised to have an enormous impact on the Lorcana meta.

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