There’s a lot going on in Lorcana’s sixth set, but the unifying theme is the sea. Pirates play a big role in that theme. In fact, the Amber/Ruby Azurite Sea starter deck is all about Pirates, with an emphasis on Pooh Pirates!

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While the starter deck comes with a lot of solid cards out of the box, there are some more cards you can include from Azurite Sea as well as previous sets that work really well with it. Below, let’s look at my custom build for this deck and how it works.

4 Winnie The Pooh - Hunny Pirate
4 Roo - Littlest Pirate
4 Jim Hawkins - Honorable Pirate
4 Hundred Acre Island - Pooh's Home
4 Piglet - Pooh Pirate Captain
4 Painting the Roses Red
4 Julieta Madrigal - Excellent Cook
3 Kakamora - Boarding Party
4 Kakamora - Pirate Pitcher
4 Wendy Darling - Courageous Captain
4 Moana - Self-Taught Sailor
3 Moana - Kakamora Leader
2 Skull Rock - Isolated Fortress
2 Owl - Pirate Lookout
3 Daisy Duck - Donald's Date
4 Brawl
4 Fix-It Felix, Jr. - Delighted Sightseer
2 Jolly Roger - Hook's Ship

Upgraded deck total cost: less than $60

Amber/Ruby Azurite Sea Starter Deck Overview

When you upgrade your deck in this way, it becomes a lot of fun, and surprisingly strong given its price point. I’ve tested this deck against different versions of other meta decks and it’s fared very well. That’s especially true against control decks like Ruby/Sapphire that have trouble with highly aggressive decks that come out the gate firing.

This deck focuses on aggro

This upgraded version of the starter deck leans heavy into this deck’s latent aggro capabilities but bolsters them to new levels. While aggro capabiltiies in the out-of-the-box deck, adding in characters like Piglet – Pooh Pirate Captain and Daisy Duck make this an aggro powerhouse that can move very quickly.

Piglet – Pooh Pirate Captain feels particularly like a good fit as that character is both a pirate and a captain character. This means that you won’t only get additional lore value by having multiple characters on the field, you will also be able to grant added benefits to other charcaters on your field.

Characters like the Pirate Wendy gets additional lore from having a pirate on the field other than her, while one-cost Moana can use her powerful challenging capabilities to take out threats before they do her much harm. However, she can only challenge if you have a captain character on the field.

Evasiveness is a powerful bonus for Amber/Ruby Pirates

Speaking of Wendy, she is a surprisingly strong character in this deck, and a big reason to run Ruby pirate decks in general. She only costs one to play, is evasive, and gets an added strength and lore by just having another pirate character in play.

Because this deck is mostly made of pirate characters, odds are fairly good you will have one in play. Of the two, it’s the added lore that makes Wendy particularly threatening. Early on, most decks simply don’t have an answer to Evasive characters like Wendy, letting you gain a ton of lore that can set you up for a strong end game.

But Wendy isn’t the only game in town as far as evasiveness goes. You also have the two-cost Kakamora character who grants Evasiveness until the start of your next turn. This essentially ensures your characters won’t be challenged until then, raising the odds of a character lasting longer and gaining you more lore.

Last but not least, the RLS Legacy location is capable of granting Evasiveness as long as characters are situated there. Aggro decks that focus on evasiveness have been part of the metagame for a while, and this deck takes an exciting twist on that strategy that really does work.

The Location strategy and how to make it work

One of the biggest issues I had when playing this starter deck at my starter deck tournament was how to manage the interaction of the locations with the aggro characters. However, when you play your cards right, the locations can interract very well with the characters to help you achieve your win conditions.

While I’ve chosen a relatively wide range of Locations to include in this deck, you could easily adjust the exact number and type of Location to suit what you think is best for how you play the deck. Let’s look at each Location and dive a little deeper into what makes it effective in this strategy.

Hundred Acre Island – Pooh’s Home

The first location included in this deck is actually quiet good, and probably the one you would think of most for being in a pirate deck like this one. Hundred Acre Island grants you additional lore whenever one of your characters is banished while at this location. While it’s not the toughest location to take out at five will power, forcing your opponent to have to work around it before they can start banishing your characters can give you a strong competitive edge, while if your opponent does resort to banishing your characters while here, you will quickly gain enough lore to potentially make it worthwhile.

I’m running two in this deck simply because I like other locations that gain lore passively to be included in my strategy, but I could see this being as much as a four-count in your deck if you particularly like this strategy.

Pride Lands – Jungle Oasis

This location might actually be my favorite due to its overall versatility. I like the fact that it grants lore passively as that’s always a handy capability for any location. The fact that it is also Inkable, and can be played for only three Ink topped-off with an eight will power stat make this location very, very attractive.

Lastly, the “Our Humble Home” ability this card has plays well into this deck’s general theme of using your discard as an extension of your resources. We’ll get into that more later, but it can be an interesting way to keep your field filled with characters to help you gain more lore.

Skull Rock

Skull Rock is a card that feels good in theory, but also one that I’ve not gotten to work super well yet. If you’re looking to double down on the other locations, you could probably cut this one. However, I think it’s worth giving a try simply for the fact that it only costs one to move characters here, and also gains you a lore if you have a character located at it.

Lastly, the +1 strength may not sound huge, but it could mean the difference between banishing a challenger and not, giving you a better trade. It can also be used to beef up your otherwise mostly weaker units when attacking. While you won’t want to be challenging a lot when piloting this deck, there are times when you’ll have to, and Skull Rock will let you reach a little higher against many decks.

RLS Legacy

Here’s a location that saw considerable play when it was released but one that is now largely overlooked. That could be a mistake. Of the ship-themed locations, RLS Legacy feels like the best fit for this deck. While its four-cost might feel a little steep at times when piloting this deck, it can pay off massively. Its going to be tough for your opponents to take this particular location out due to its will power.

Meanwhile, it gains you an insane two lore passively each turn, while also granting Evasiveness to any character located here. Granting blanket Evasiveness to characters could be huge for keeping your units alive long enough to gain you your lore. I could see this working especially well in tandem with the Moana Pirate play we’ll be discussing in a moment, where you are able to move all characters here simultaneously and granting them evasive.

The Moana location play

While we’re still on the subject of location cards, we need to talk about this Floodborn Moana character. I got to get her “Gathering Forces” ability off during my release event and was honestly pretty stunned by how strong it can be. If you pair it with the right location, you can unlock added benefits.

For example, not only does she enable you to move all characters to the same location and gain a lore, pair this effect with RLS Legacy and you now have an army of evasives at your disposal.

However, there’s one last location I’ve included in this deck that offers especially interesting benefits when paired with Moana or even other cards that let you move characters to locations like the underrated “Voyage” action included in this deck.

Sugar Rush Speedway

Floodborn Pirate Moana is the ideal card to pair with Sugar Rush Speedway, as her ability enables you to ignore the otherwise hard to reach six movement cost requirement of this broken location. While you won’t get this combo off every game, I include a one-of just in case I manage to get it to work. When combined with Gathering Forces, you will gain lore for every hcaracter moved, three lore from “Bring It Home, Kid!” and also replenish your hand with three cards.

Just make sure to have one of your characters already at another location before you move him/her to Sugar Rush.

Speaking of draw support from locations

While Sugar Rush may grant you draw support inherently, other cards in this deck also work with locations to get you a few extra cards. The first (and also included in the starter deck) is Fix-It Felix Jr. When played, you get to draw a card as long as there is a location in play.

Meanwhile, Vanellope grants you additional lore and draw every turn she’s at a location.

Pirate deck core cards

The pirate classification is one we’ve had for some time. However, Azurite Sea takes it to a whole new level, giving powerful pirate characters to many different Ink types. Below, let’s look at what some of the core cards to this deck strategy are.

In Amber/Ruby Pirates, your discard is an extension of your hand

Although I was at first dubious of some of the cards included in this deck that let you bring back characters from your discard, after playing it myself I realized how powerful this whole strategy actually can be.

By easily bringing back characers from your discard, you can think of your discard pile as a secondary resources or even a supplemental one to your hand. In some ways, this works better in aggro decks like this one than trying to find them off your deck. As your opponent will be forced to deal with your characters in order to keep you from rushing to twenty lore too quickly, many, many of your characters will be banished. But why not play them again?

Thanks to Pooh’s Pirate Ship and a new song card, you can easily bring back characters to your hand and play them once again, good as new.

This is particularly effective later in the game when you start running low on the cards in your hand.

Strength reduction and card removal with Rooh and Sisu

The last main strategy that helps this deck stand centers on the unassuming Rooh pirate character included in the starter deck. Rooh has a deceptively strong ability that reduces an opposing character’s strength by two until the start of your next turn. This is a very versatlite ability that can be used offensively, aggressively, or even strategicaly with cards like Sisu that are great at banishing low strength characters.

Once played, Sisu can be a helpful evasive character gaining lore for you each turn. To get added reach out of this strategy, I’m also running four copies of “Paining the Roses Red.” That doesn’t only reduce strength but lets you draw a card.

Other noteworthy cards

In Pooh Pirate we may have the most useful version of Pooh Bear included in Lorcana to date. Essentially, he works as a Pluto for Pirate characters while benefiting from higher will power, strength, and also having the Support keyword. “We’re Pirates, You See” is a fantastic way to play more powerful Pirates for less cost, meaning you can get them onto the field earlier and take advantage of their powerful abilities.

Noteable exlcusions: Jim Hawkins

Jim Hawkins may be the star of this deck from a packaging standpoint, but unforunately I found his seven Ink cost to be too high for this deck strategy. He would work better in a deck that focuses more on control as he’s often too little too late by the time you play him.

All things said and done, the Amber/Ruby Pirate deck from Azurite Sea is among my favorite Lorcana starter decks to date, and is even close to the Amethyst/Steel deck that was my favorite up until now. With a few upgrades, this strategy becomes quite strong while retaining its affordability, making it highly desirable for many Lorcana players.

How to Upgrade and Play Amber/Ruby Pirate Lorcana Starter Deck

Pirate Deck Card List