The Ruby/Sapphire Starter deck contents have been revealed, and with starter deck tournaments coming up, players are going to want to have a fair understanding of how to pilot these new decks to victory. In this guide, we’re going to go over some of the high points of these decks, as well as share a few ideas on how you can upgrade this deck with additional Into the Inklands cards once the set releases at the end of February.

Ruby/Sapphire Starter Deck – Into the Inklands

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Cogsworth - Talking Clock (x2)
Della Duck - Unstoppable Mom (x3)
Dewey - Showy Nephew (x2)
Duke Weaselton - Small Time Crook (x2)
Flintheart Glomgold - Lone Cheater (x2)
Flounder - Voice of Reason (x3)
Gramma Tala - Keeper of Ancient Stories (x3)
Gyro Gearloose - Gadget Whiz (x1)
Heihei - Accidental Explorer (x3)
Huey - Savvy Nephew (x1)
Kakamora - Menacing Sailor (x3)
Louis - Chill Nephew (x3)
Maid Marian - Delightful Dreamer (x2)
Maui - Soaring Demigod (x3)
Minnie Mouse - Always Classy (x2)
Moana - Born Leader (x1)
Moana - Undettered Voyager (x3)
Scrooge McDuck - Richest Duck in the World (x1)
Scrooge McDuck - Uncle Moneybags (x2)
Simba - Scrappy Cub (x1)
Webby Vanderquack - Enthusiastic Duck (x3)
Dragon Fire (x2)
Voyage (x2)
Maui's Fish Hook (x1)
Sumerian Talisman (x2)
Vault Door (x2)
Agrabah - Marketplace (x3)
Motunui - Island Paradise (x2)

You can see the full Amber/Emerald starter deck list below via this photo from The Laughing Place.

In this guide, we’re going to go over basic strategy to help you know how to play this deck as is, and then later go into some strategies you can use to upgrade this deck to make it even better.

Ruby/Sapphire Starter Deck – Strategy Guide

One thing that this deck has going for it in spades is a strong early game. There are plenty of strong cards you can use here that are capable of helping you gain a lot of lore quickly, while none are stronger and more integral to your strategy than Simba.

While this Into the Inkland spoiler is pretty easy to miss, it’s a pretty massive one. We now have a second cost two character with a lore value of three, and that’s a big deal. The last character we’ve had with starts like these has seen a ton of play in aggro decks. That card was Pinocchio – Star Attraction

Now while this card is undoubtedly strong, you only have one copy of it so you are going to have to rely on some of your other low cost characters to help out in the early game.

Luckily for you, this deck has plenty of them. Take advantage of cards like Flounder and Minnie Mouse to get that cost one character down turn one, and then additional powerful two-cost characters like Scrooge McDuck and Duke Weaselton turn two.

Scrooge is really helpful when it comes to getting out some of your items more easily, while Duke can help you quickly gain lore.

Location cards give Ruby/Sapphire a huge boost

Once you get passed the early game setup, you can start taking advantage of some of this deck’s strongest cards. First of all, we should highlight the importance of locations in this deck. Not only is it cool to get new location cards in this starter deck, you are going to want to use them early and often and take advantage of your Moana card.

This deck has two location cards: Agrabah and Motunui.

I’m fairly surprised to see a powerhouse card like Motunui included in this starter deck, let alone two copies of it. This card is seriously strong, and I could see it being a staple for most Sapphire ramp decks moving forward.

While both of these locations are powerful on their own thanks to the fact that they grant passive lore and, in the case of Motunui, incredible abilities, they’re even more handy when you combine them with the Moana card included in this starter deck, as well has a handy card called Voyage.

Use Moana and Voyage to make the most out of your locations

Using Moana – Born Leader in tandem with Voyage and (preferably) Motunui give this deck a huge boost, enabling you to quest with high lore characters like Simba or the Duke then ready them with Moana before they can be damaged.

If they are banished, thanks to Motunui they just get added to your inkwell, giving you more resources.

If you needed another reason to focus your strategy largely around locations, you also have Vault Door which grants extra resistance to characters at locations. Play this using Scrooge McDuck’s ability to lower the cost of items and you should be in business.

Reduce lore with Heihei and Kakamora

Last but not least in the location aspect of your strategy, Hei Hei has a pretty powerful passive ability that causes your opponent to lose one lore each time it moves to a location. This makes Heihei a prime target to use your Voyage card on more than once if you’d like.

Kakamora doesn’t need to be at a location to use its ability, but it pairs well with Heihei, letting you reduce your opponent’s lore as well.

Ruby/Sapphire Starter Deck’s Draw Engine

Of course, most decks in Lorcana are only as strong as their ability to draw cards, and the Disney Lorcana team was gracious enough to include several card drawing options into this starter deck. Let’s take a look at what those are so you know what to look for when playing this deck yourself.

The first one (and perhaps the most effective) is the Talisman. Because this deck has a few options for helping you play items for cheap, the Talisman should be relatively easy to get into play. Once you have it in play, you won’t need to do anything else to take advantage of its passive ability which enables you to draw a card whenever your character is banished in a challenge on your turn.

If that weren’t exciting enough, this card also works pretty well with several of the cards in your deck, like Maui – Winged Demigod or even Scrooge McDuck. Both cards are focused on challenging other characters, and the Talisman will reward you with an extra card when you achieve this aim.

Huey Duey and Luey

Huey has a very powerful draw ability called Three Nephews. However, as the name of the ability suggests, you need all three of the nephews in play in order to use it. In all actuality, getting that to happen is tricky, although you might manage to pull it off at your Into the Inklands starter deck tournament.

If you do, you could use Huey to quest and let you draw three cards, then ready him with Moana and quest him for another three cards.

Ruby/Sapphire Into the Inklands Starer Deck Upgrade Guide

While the above guide gives you a firm foundation for playing and using the cards included in the Ruby/Sapphire starter deck, part of the fun of getting starter decks is in upgrading them with cards you find in booster packs. Here are a few of the changes you could make to the starter deck to make it more powerful.

Add more Simba

Simba is one of the coolest cards to be included in this deck, and it pairs really well with Moana. Move both Moana and Simba to a location with Voyage, then use Moana’s ability to ready Simba after he quests. This way Simba won’t be vulnerable anymore to attacks.

Add more Moana – Born Leader

Moana is a very powerful card in this deck, and she shouldn’t be very expensive once the set gets fully released. Look to add up to three additional Moana cards in order to take advantage of her abilities.

Add more Location cards

You should probably have four copies of each location already included in this deck. Both locations are strong and work really well with this strategy to help gain you lore quickly.

Add Jim Hawkins

Jim Hawkins is going to be a powerful asset to any deck that uses Locations. If you’re willing to splurge a little on packs or buy him on the singles market, he’s going to be incredibly helpful to your deck thanks to his ability that lets you play a location for free, and thanks to the fact he can move for free.

Add two more Voyage cards

This deck gets a huge boost from location cards, and Voyage is a cheap and easy card to acquire. Definitely look to add another two to super charge your deck.

Drop Cogsworth

Cogsworth provides little added benefit to this deck. Unless you are planning to go the full way and include his Grandfather Clock form, you really should drop him in favor of two of the cards discussed above.

Drop Webby Vanderquack

She’s a pretty useless card and adds virtually no value to this deck.

Pick up two Ruby/Sapphire Into the Inklands starter decks

This deck has such strong synergy and good cards that picking up two of them would be enough for you to build a much stronger, more consistent deck. You could then have double the card count to work with, and use those cards to replace the cards that don’t add to the strategy (like Vanderquack or Cogsworth).

Given the affordability of these starter decks, that might be your best option for creating a strong deck easily.

Into the Inklands Ruby/Sapphire Starter Deck – Final Verdict

Of the two starter decks released in Into the Inklands, Ruby/Sapphire has the more synergy and a stronger theme. Items, locations, and characters are all woven into a consistent strategy that’s all about getting characters to Locations, questing, and drawing cards. It’s a solid deck that shows us just how powerful Location cards when used with the right combo of cards, and gives us a glimpse at how radically different Lorcana is going to be thanks to Location cards.

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