In this guide, we’re going to be looking at the Jafar Amethyst/Steel control deck, how to build it, how to play it, and what really makes it tick.

Amethyst/Steel emerged as a powerhouse control deck towards the middle of the Rise of the Floodborn season. Now, with into the Inklands in full swing, it’s quite clear that this Ink combo is far from being past its prime.

What I particularly like about this deck list is its versatile use of Floodborn characters combined with the massively underrated Blue Fairy for added draw support. Thanks to this powerful draw engine, as you continue to dominate the board with powerful card removal, you gain lore passively thanks to Jafar Illusionist’s ability.

It’s the ideal depiction of what Jafar’s ability can do passively while still playing into the tried-and-true power of a Amethyst/Steel control deck.

*Updated February 27, 2024 to the Into the Inklands format.

Jafar Amethyst/Steel Control Deck List

2 The Queen's Castle - Mirror Chamber
2 Maleficent - Sorceress
4 Jafar - Striking Illusionist
3 And Then Along Came Zeus
3 Yzma - Scary Beyond All Reason
4 Captain Hook - Forceful Duelist
4 Friends on the Other Side
2 Elsa - Spirit of Winter
4 A Whole New World
2 Tinker Bell - Tiny Tactician
3 Grab Your Sword
3 Robin Hood - Beloved Outlaw
2 Jafar - Keeper of Secrets
3 Blue Fairy - Rewarding Good Deeds
4 Tinker Bell - Giant Fairy
3 Jafar - Dreadnought
4 Robin Hood - Champion of Sherwood
4 Jafar - Royal Vizier
4 Beast - Tragic Hero

Jafar Amethyst/Steel Control – strategy guide

One thing you’ll notice is that this deck has a ton of shifting options to choose from. While some of these characters are certainly stronger/more useful than others, you can get the shifting process rolling as early as turn one with one-cost Robin Hood.

If you manage to get Robin Hood – Beloved Outlaw out as early as turn one, you can shift him into Robin Hood – Champion of Sherwood as early as turn three. Five-cost Robin Hood is very strong, capable of banishing characters and gaining you lore simultaneously while also granting additional draw support when he’s banished.

Of course, this deck also runs the very helpful Captain Hook – Forceful Duelist. Captain Hook is more relavant than ever due to the riser in popularity of location cards. Not only is he excellent for challenging and banishing opposing characters, he can be used to start knocking down location cards, even banishing some in one shot.

Captain Hook – Forceful Duelist

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The Blue Fairy is a cornerstone to your draw support

Blue Fairy – Rewarding Good Deeds

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Of course, drawing cards is vital in any Lorcana deck, but doing so frequently is especially important in this deck thanks to Jafar – Illusionist. Luckily, Blue Fairy makes drawing cards passively pretty easy. All you have to do is play a Floodborn characters and you’ll draw a card each time you do. And with plenty of Floodborn characters included in this deck, we’re really starting to see this powerful ability take effect.

And that makes me happy because actually Blue Fairy was one of my favorite cards from Rise of the Floodborn and she was pretty underrated at the time.

Prepare Jafar to Shift

Jafar – Royal Vizier is a pretty handy card in this deck early on as it can help you take out pesky evasive characters before they can get too carried away and collect to much lore. This especially handy right now because there are a lot of strong evasive characters (yes, I’m talking about you, Minnie Surfer).

Of course, two-cost Jafar is important to this deck for more reasons than just it’s ability to counter Evasive characters – it’s what you are going to use to shift into Jafar another stronger Jafar. That’s right – you can easily shift two-cost Jafar into either of its Floodborn variants: the four cost Jafar – Dreadnought or the even stronger Jafar Illusionist.

Jafar Dreadnought is another one of those underrated and cheap cards, but it’s quite effective. Play it for just two ink (if you have a Jafar in play to shift onto) and start challenging opposing characters. Of course, the real leading man of this deck is not Dreadnought – it’s Jafar – Striking Illusionist. This card is going to come out much later than Dreadnought, but it’s the real backbone of your deck, enabling you to gain lore passively whenever you draw a card.

Speaking of draw support…

Maleficent – Sorceress also makes her way into this deck, as she does into many top tier Amethyst decks. Play her and gain an extra card. She also makes for an excellent character to sing Friends on the Other Side with – a card that lets you draw an additional two cards.

While these two cards are helpful, there are plenty of additional cards to help you get more cards and gain lore passively with Jafar. Beast – Tragic Hero is primarily in this deck to also help with draw support. As long as he isn’t damaged, you get to draw an extra card at the start of your turn. When he is damaged, he gains an impressive amount of strength, making him capable of taking out powerful opposing characters or locations.

Spread damage to control the board

This deck takes advantage of two of Steel’s most powerful damage dealing song cards. And then Came Zeus and Grab Your Sword help you deal with both powerful characters and locations as well as a wide spread of lower will power characters. Having both of these cards available pretty much ensures dominance over the board as very few cards can protect against the dual combination.

These cards pair excellently with the powerful Tinker Bell – Giant Fairy. You can use Tinker Bell to do one damage to each of your opponent’s characters on the board, and then use her Puny Pirate ability to do additional damage or to sing powerful songs like Grab Your Sword.

Shift Tinker Bell into Giant Fairy as early as turn four to gain an advantage

While this combo may be particularly deadly, I also often use Tinker Bell – Giant Fairy to sing A Whole New World. It’s pretty easy to Shift Tinker Bell onto her smaller form, and then use her to sing A Whole New World. Singing A Whole New World is preferable to paying its cost as you will be able to leverage your reserve ink to play more powerful characters once you draw them.

Play late game control characters to ensure victory

The problem with most Steel decks is that they rely so much on dealing damage to control the board without any outright card removal options. Taking out characters with just damage can get challenging to do as the game progresses and characters get stronger. In this Ink combination, however, Amethyst offsets this particular weakness by giving you plenty of ways to continue dominating the board beyond just dealing damage.

Use Yzma, for example, to clear the board of difficult characters. By the time you play her, you should have enough control that giving your opponent an additional two cards won’t help them too much. In a pinch, she can also be used to send one of your own characters back to your deck to draw additional cards. This pairs well, of course, with Jafar – Striking Illusionist as you will gain lore when you draw those cards.

Yzma Lorcana — Yzma – Scary Beyond All Reason

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Elsa – Spirit of Winter is also a fantastic character to play to ensure victory. She deep freezes opposing characters, exerting them and causing them not to ready at the start of the next turn. Not only does this work well to slow your opponent down, it can also be paired with Tinker Bell to take out characters in challenges while continuing to spread damage around via Tinker Bell’s Puny Pirate ability.

Elsa – Spirit of Winter

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The Queen’s Castle is helpful to draw even more cards

Last but not least, this deck list runs two copies of what many consider to be the strongest location card in the game: The Queen’s Castle. This location has so much going for it that it easily works itself into this deck, letting you draw additional cards for just having characters there, and also gaining you two lore passively.

The Queen’s Castle – Mirror Chamber

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Clearly, Jafar Amethyst/Steel is a powerhouse of a deck, and it’s already doing well in competitive tournaments, adding further versatility and effectiveness to a deadly Ink combination.

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