Disney Lorcana Challenge: Vegas Meta Report
Vegas was the first massive tournament of the Shimmering Skies season. For the most part, the meta trended along the lines of what we’ve been seeing to date (with one notable exception). Below, let’s breakdown the meta share from the event and then dive into a few more specific insights from decks that performed well at the event.
Below, let’s take a look at the current meta share of each deck by Ink combo as well as take a look at specific deck types that are standing out in the field. All of this data is based on the tournament results collected by my friends at Inkdecks which is a phenomenal site for seeing what decks are popular in the current Lorcana meta.
Lorcana Ink Combos by Play Share %
Lorcana metagame analysis breakdown
Among the top decks, Ruby/Sapphire seems to be the strong favorite. And that follows a more recent trend in its favor despite the early season excitement over Amber/Steel. Past Ruby/Sapphire, we have an even split for what deck is second tier. In this case, it’s Ruby/Amethyst, Amber/Steel, and Emerald/Steel.
The meta certainly feels to have bounced back to where it was at before the lopsided days of Ursula’s Return, and that’s a great thing (assuming you aren’t too frustrated with Emerald/Steel).
Emerald/Steel wins the event
Realistically, the general Lorcana playing public was too pesimistic about Emerald/Steel after Bucky was eliminated from the game. Collectively we seem to have forgotten the fact that Emerald Steel still has plenty of powerful tools at its disposal in the realms of discarding without Bucky.
Indeed, I would say Emerald/Steel was the only big breakout deck in this meta. It’s play share was far greater among the top 64 than what would’ve been expected given the fact that previously it had basically clung to the bottom of the meta.
Regardless, here’s the tournament winning deck by Zan Syed.
This deck is very strong and has what we can safely consider the staples of the Emerald/Steel discard strategy: everything from Diablo to Ursula, to Sad Beast and a host of songs that discard and damage. While there seems to have been some debate up until now what the best way to play Emerald/Steel was going to be moving forward, I think we can safely put that debate to rest at this juncture.
Sapphire/Amethyst makes top 64
It’s been interesting watching the play share trend for Sapphire/Amethyst throughout the Shimmering Skies season. I personally felt like this deck would be very strong this season and it’s worked great for me. While it’s still not a meta mainstay the way those other top four decks are, the fact that it is strong enough to top a huge event like this one to me shows it’s still something of a dark horse/anti meta pick that’s relevant in the current format.
Here’s the deck that managed to make day two, piloted by Jonathan Rosario.
For the most part the way this deck works is largely similar to my version of Sapphire/Amethyst, so if you’re interested in learning more how this Ink combo works generally, checkout that guide.
Ruby/Steel rogue deck nobody saw coming
Lastly, while Emerald/Steel might have performed beyond everyone’s expectations, Ruby/Steel is the real rogue deck that nobody saw coming. It’s got to be the spiciest deck among the top finishing decks at the event, and I wouldn’t be surprised if this Ink combo showed up more frequently at leagues and tournaments. It looks like a fun deck to play with some powerful combos that work well in the current meta, like the vastly underrated Seven Dwarf’s Mine location.
Takeaways from the Vegas Challenge meta
I think it’s quite clear that this meta’s top four decks have been solidified, and they are Ruby/Sapphire, Amber/Steel, Emerald/Amethyst, and Emerald/Steel in oder of play share. While I don’t see these top four decks budging much, there also seems to be plenty of room for other decks to break into the scene, meaning we have a fun and varied meta brewing for the Shimmering Skies set championships in October!
