Lorcana: Shimmering Skies Decks to Watch
As is the case with any new Lorcana set, new cards and strategies released will have a significant impact in Shimmering Skies. The good news is, from what we’ve seen of the Shimmering Skies spoilers so far, this set is likely to usher in a new era of fun and variety that we’ve been missing since Into the Inklands came out.
In this overview, we’ll be looking through several of the decks I’m most excited for based on how they will be impacted and improved after Lorcana’s fifth set hits the shelves in August.
Emerald/Steel Discard
Starting out the list, despite the fuss around Bucky getting nerfed, I don’t see Emerald/Steel going anywhere. Before Ursula’s Return and the deadly Diablo/Bucky came out, Emerald Steel was still a strong, tournament winning deck, and it’s likely to be the same following set five.
However, players will no longer be relying on chaining Bucky with an endless range of Floodborn characters, but will instead be looking to leverage many of the other discard strategies available to the Ink combo.
Prince John will likely take center stage as the new go-to discard/card advantage character running things in Bucky’s absence. You can use Prince John with a plethora of discard cards like We Don’t Talk About Bruno, Sudden Chill, and others.
Prince John – Greediest of All
Prince John’s Mirror – Item
In addition to these tried and true mechanics, a new card is coming out that could be quite handy with Prince John. It’s called Prince John’s Mirror, and it forces your opponent to discard cards at the end of their turn if they have more than three. This means retaining a powerful control over the cards in your opponent’s hand while ensuring you are drawing cards thanks to Prince John’s “I Sentence You” ability.
Otherwise, this deck will likely work the same as Emerald/Steel Discard decks of the past, leveraging Emerald’s powerful discard capabilities with Steel’s damage output and domination.
Sapphire/Amethyst
It seems clear that, following Shimmering Skies, Sapphire/Amethyst will once again be a competitively viable deck. There are multiple reasons for this, but primarily three strong new cards that will make this deck powerful once again.
Merlin – Intellectual Visionary
For starters, any deck that runs Merlin – Intellectual Visionary is going to have a big advantage as its the only card we know of at the moment capable of searching out any single card in your deck and added to your hand. As I’ve written elsewhere, this is a powerful mechanic in any trading card game, and will bolster the effectiveness of any deck that runs Sapphire.
This card also works seamlessly into Sapphire/Amethyst decks, and would easily replace Gaston as a six-cost un-Inkable character. The only potential issue with Merlin is that to use his ability you need to shift him. Sapphire/Amethyst decks typically don’t like to bother with shifting, but they certainly will make the exception for Merlin’s Overdeveloped Brain ability.
Magica De Spell – Cruel Sorceress
Next, one of Sapphire/Amethyst’s more glaring weaknesses is how vulnerable it is to hand disruption. There are plenty of draw options you can leverage with the Madam Mim/Merlin bounce package, however that only works if you can build up an existing hand. Luckily, Shimmering Skies is giving us a card that will block hand disruption and discarding, and will likely be played in most Amethyst decks. That card is Magica De Spell – Cruel Sorceress and it’s going to be a huge tool to make Sapphire/Amethyst more viable competitively.
Last but not least, Elsa the Fifth Spirit is going to be a hugely impactful card in Sapphire/Amethyst following the next set, giving Sapphire/Amethyst a quicker and more effective means to deal with Evasive threats than currently exists.
Elsa – The Fifth Spirit
Amber/Amethyst Aggro
Interestingly enough, an Amber/Amethyst aggro deck made it into the top 64 at a major tournament in Dallas recently, showing that even in a very unfriendly meta to aggro, this deck can still be strong. However, there are several cards coming out in set five that will make this strategy even better.
While Amber/Amethyst is really good at racing to 20 lore quickly, it folds quickly to anything that runs Steel.
However, one powerful new one-cost character is changing that outlook. Daisy Duck – Donald’s Date is the first card of its kind to have an impressive will power stat combined with a one cost, making it the best possible character for Aggro decks to lead off with.
Daisy Duck – Donald’s Date
As if this weren’t enough, a new location card could fit very well in aggro. It’s Inkable, low cost, and has an insane willpower. Bumping your otherwise low strength characters to this location will help make them withstand the onslaught of Steel’s damage output and get to twenty Lore perhaps faster than ever!
Rapunzel’s Tower – Secluded Prison
Damage Ping Deck
Last but not least, the damage ping deck strategy that has been getting plenty of support from the game designers since Rise of the Floodborn is getting some significant new help in Shimmering Skies. This deck focuses on dishing out incremental damage to unlock handy effects, wearing your opponent’s characters down while bolstering your own resources.
While there are many ways to build and play this deck, damage-focused Emerald Steel decks have done well in the past but were usually paired with discard strategies. Given developments in the game, however, you could easily wield this deck without any discard cards, focusing on pure damage output.
The best example of how this strategy works remains Beast – Relentless. This powerful character has incredible potential and is one of the most powerful threats in the game when leveraged correctly.
Beast – Relentless
In addition to Beast, a new Robin Hood card has a reduced Ink cost for each damaged opposing character in play, while a Floodborn Robin Hood gains lore value for each damaged characters. These characters add plenty of strategy options to Emerald/Steel damage ping decks that will likely be more popular given the discard strategy will be less advantageous.
Robin Hood – Timely Contestant
Robin Hood - Sneaky Sleuth
Finally, Damage Ping decks gain a new location card to help them. While its low will power is less than ideal, it plays well into the damage pin strategy, forcing your opponent’s characters to attack instead of questing if they have damage on them.
Tropical Rainforest
Whatever deck you choose to build and play in the upcoming Shimmering Skies Lorcana format, it seems quite likely that given the plethora of new and powerful cards coming out in this set that plenty of decks will be competitive viable in a meta that is likely to be fun, competitive and varied.
