Lorcana North American Championship Meta Showcases the Power of Locations
The highly anticipated Lorcana North American Championships have ended and they were every bit as exciting as expected. I attended the event and got to see the excitement first hand as players from all around the world converged on the iconic Disneyland Hotel destination to play their favorite Disney card game.
While the weekend was busy with a plethora of side events, tournaments and opportunity to win exciting prizes, all eyes were on the main competition where the best of the best duked it out for amazing prizes and a chance to play at the Disney Lorcana World Championships.
The top decks from this event show an interesting meta taking shape in the Disney Lorcana competitive sphere – one that took advantage of playing location cards in a meta where that particular card type has been largely under-leveraged. Below, let’s take a look at some of the most innovative and interesting card choices that brought the spice to this epic event.
Sapphire Amethyst “Blurple” gets its time to shine
The most unexpected deck to break into the very top echelons of the tournament was none other than the Blurple deck featuring the Madam Mim/Merlin Bounce Package combined with Sapphire’s now insane ramping capabilities. It was good to see this deck highly represented in the tournament as a whole as well as making it into the second day of competition not just once but with two different decks.
It feels like Blurple has finally reached a point where it can be considered a top tier deck thanks to just how broken these two Ink types are when combined.
This deck that finished 12th in the tournament by Joseph Quigley emphasizes Amethyst’s incredible draw potential to help you stay ahead of your opponent’s, combined by plenty of card removal and shenanigans. McDuck Manor is a particularly solid choice, helping you quickly gain lore and finish off games in a meta where few are consciously countering locations.
Dwarf’s Mines are everywhere
Amber/Steel has gone through many iterations since the game started, but two of the top decks with this Ink combination astutely leveraged Dwarf’s Mine. Not only dos this grant a pretty insane two lore passively each turn at only a two cost to play, it also works well with your knight characters to spread some damage around the board. This deck that got top 16 by Kurt Spiess also runs Rapunzel’s tower to bolster the will power of key characters.
It’s really exciting to see locations like these playing such a big role in top tier decks, and you can undoubtedly expect to see plenty of locations at your set championship for Azurite Sea.
Ed’s winning Ruby/Amethyst deck and the three location play
While showcasing the power of locations when left unchecked was a common theme in the top tier decks from this event, it was most perfectly on display when Ed used the vastly underrated Library card as a way to quickly gain lore against a late game powerhouse deck like Ruby/Sapphire. Indeed at one key moment Ed stunned the audience by fielding three Library location at once – a huge power play to counter the Ruby/Sapphire deck he was up against piloted by Scott Markeson in the final round.
This deck was built to counter the current Ruby/Sapphire heavy format (an Ink combination that represented more than 30% of the decks in the North American Championship). For this reason, notable cards available to this archetype are missing from this deck, including the four-cost Genie that has gained widespread acclaim lately, as well as other staples like Medusa (a card that is significantly less effective against Ruby/Sapphire’s big bodies).
While this was a very, very intelligent meta pick and build for Ed worthy of his victory, it’s unclear that this will become the new staple way to build Ruby/Amethyst in the future, especially in tournaments with a more diverse meta.
Is Ruby/Sapphire still the best Lorcana deck?
After this mega-win by Ruby/Amethyst, many are probably wondering: what is the best deck in the format? In reality, it’s still Ruby/Sapphire. Indeed, when we look at the winning deck from this tournament, it was purposefully built to counter Ruby/Sapphire. That is in fact the definition of any BDIF: it so wholly takes over the playshare of competitive events that it forces all others to either play it or play against it.
So while Ruby/Amethyst remains a top tier deck and indeed a remarkably powerful and versatile option, the 30% playshare represented by Ruby/Sapphire at the event shows how largely that deck looms in the minds of Lorcana players.
Will that playshare decrease after this big win?
For a time it’s possible. However, eventually it could just as easily creep back up to take the top spot once again if players stop teching against it.
You couldn’t have asked for a more epic tournament at this level of competition and it perfectly sets the stage for the ultimate showdown to come at Lorcana’s world championship!
