The Sapphire/Amethyst Ink combo has had something of a cult following for several sets now. Affectionately referred to as “Blurple” by its core group of players, this pairing has a lot going for it.

And it has only gotten stronger with each set that’s come out lately. While Lorcana’s fifth set brought the likes of Elsa – The Fifth Spirit into its arsenal, Azurite Sea has further bolstered the strategy, releasing powerful new ramping options like “Sail the Azurite Sea” and the intriguing new Rafiki – Ethereal Guide.

The strongest card added in Lorcana’s latest set for this strategy, however, is undoubtedly Yzma – Conniving Chemist.

In this guide, we’re going to be looking at my custom build for Sapphire/Amethyst and go over all of the latest updates.

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3 Yzma - Scary Beyond All Reason
4 Elsa - Spirit of Winter
4 Friends on the Other Side
4 Chernabog's Followers - Creatures of Evil
4 Mickey Mouse - Detective
2 Elsa - The Fifth Spirit
4 Madam Mim - Snake
3 Merlin - Goat
4 Merlin - Rabbit
4 Madam Mim - Fox
2 Ursula - Sea Witch Queen
4 Sail The Azurite Sea
2 Rafiki - Ethereal Guide
4 Yzma - Conniving Chemist
2 Hades - Infernal Schemer
3 Donald Duck - Focused Flatfoot
2 Hide Away
1 Great Stone Dragon
4 Tipo - Growing Son

New cards in Azurite Sea enhance Sapphire/Amethyst

As mentioned, several key new cards in Azurite Sea have been added to my Sapphire/Amethyst deck, making it stronger than ever. Below, let’s look at what they are and what makes them so solid in this deck strategy.

Yzma – Conniving Chemist

One major difference this set is the inclusion of Yzma as one of your primary draw engines as opposed to the handy Blue Fairy I was running last set. While Blue Fairy is strong, Yzma works more reliably. Additionally, she’s an effective counter to the discard decks out there which this deck is otherwise vulnerable to.

Sail the Azurite Sea

Sail the Azurite Sea is a very strong card for any ramp deck. What I particularly like about this card is that you can play it even if you end up not adding extra Ink to your Inkwell. This enhances its versatility and playability, and doesn’t force you to Ink vital cards if you don’t want to.

Rafiki – Ethereal Guide

Rafiki is a pretty crazy card. He’s not only got a great 6/6 stat pairing, he also has four lore value and an ability that adds further draw support to a deck that’s already pretty strong in that area.

Sapphire/Amethyst Strategy Guide

If you are able to hit your ramp cards early enough, this deck has the tools you need to dominate the board. This is especially true once you start hitting your Elsa characters which can be played turn-after-turn when combined with Madam Mim – Snake or Fox.

Turn one

Turn one, you are looking to play just one card– Chernabog’s Followers. Chernabog is a decent card in this deck for two reasons. First, it has relatively strong strength. More importantly, you can quest it to draw a card. That’s helpful to keep your hand from running out of cards while you build up Ink in your Inkwell.

Turn two

Your second turn opens up many additional options for you, including two powerful ramp cards you can play as long as you have them. That’s Tippo and Sail the Azurite Sea. Of the two, Azurite Sea is arguably stronger as you’ll be able to draw a card as well. However, Tipo is good if you need bodies on the board or if you have uninkables in your hand that you won’t be able to add to your Inkwell via Sail the Azurite Sea.

If you don’t get either of these cards, you can also bounce your Chernabog and play the Snake. That can be helpful because Madam Mim is a pretty strong character with good stats for attacking.

Turn three

Turn three is a pretty important turn as it’s the first turn you will use your strongest ramp card in this deck. This means playing Mickey Mouse – Detective and ramping from the top of your deck. Hitting Mickey Mouse detective on turn three can be very effective later on as you’ll quickly be able to bounce him with your other bounce cards and quickly accelerate the Ink in your Inkwell.

If you hit any of your ramp cards the previous turn, you also have additional characters you can play (although Mickey is your strongest). These include Yzma and Merlin Rabbit. Since my last update I’ve upped the number of Rabbits in this deck to four as getting a lot of draw is very vital in this deck strategy.

In a turn or two, you can even send Rabbit back to your own deck via Floodborn Yzma to draw an incredible number of cards.

Roll out your strongest characters

If you’ve done a good job ramping and setting up your Blue Fairies, you’ll be able to start playing your stronger characters really quickly. Let’s look at who these characters are and when they are most helpful.

Yzma – Scary Beyond All Reason

Yzma is a multifaceted card that has seen play in many, many different Amethyst decks. In this deck, she can be used to help you clear the board of undesirable, opposing characters or to draw extra cards. I’ve pulled off combos with this deck where I play her, gain cards from Blue Fairy, sent Merlin – Rabbit back to my deck, gained cards from her ability and Merlin.

She can be a pretty insane combo in this deck, but she’s not as powerful as what else this deck has to offer.

Elsa – Spirit of Winter has the strongest ability

Elsa is such a strong character that she can single handedly win you matches if you manage to get enough Ink to take advantage of her turn after turn. With Blue Fairy in play not only will you slow your opponent down with a Deep Freeze but you’ll also build up the resources in your hand.

The best part about Elsa is she’s really affordable (finally). I just purchased two of her on TCGPlayer for under $20 to complete this deck after testing.

Ursula – Sea Witch Queen steals the show

If there was any question as to howe powerful the new Sea Witch Queen is from Ursula’s Return, that question should be put to rest. She’s good. She’s really good. She has three lore, she can exert characters at a whim to make them easier to challenge, and she prevents your opponent from exerting characters to sing songs which is literally one of the strongest (if not the strongest) mechanics in the game.

She is strong in most situations and absolutely lethal against decks like Amber/Steel that rely heavily on exerting characters to sing for the win.

Hades – Infernal Schemer

An oldie-but-a-goodie, Hades has been sending characters to the Inkwell since The First Chapter. He’s every bit as effective for card removal in this deck, and can be played pretty early given how quickly this deck can ramp.

Additional ramp cards

Ramp is everything in this deck strategy, enabling you to get your strongest plays and card removal out very, very quickly.

Tech cards

This deck also runs a few tech cards to help with certain matchups. Most specifically, you have Hide Away and Elsa – Fifth Spirit. Hide Away gives this deck an easy way to deal with Locations and Items that’s much more versatile than anything we’ve seen yet. Meanwhile, Elsa is a handy counter to powerful Evasives like Diablo.

Sapphire/Amethyst deck matchup guide

Last but not least, let’s briefly cover the matchups you are likely to face with Sapphire/Amethyst and what you can do to deal with them. While we’ve already covered your strongest and most reliable ramp options, there are two more you might want to consider. These are especially strong in the later game when paired with Rafiki’s ability to let you draw additional cards.

Donald Duck – Focused Flatfoot

Donald Duck is a lot like Mickey Mouse (another detective character) only he’s Inkable and costs a little more to play. I only include two of him in my deck as he isn’t as versatile as Mickey, but still a solid ramping option for later in the game.

Great Stone Dragon

Great Stone Dragon simply won’t be necessary in many of your matchups. But against other ramp decks, the Dragon can help you keep up or even exceed the ramp of your opponent in the later game.

Against aggro

Aggro is going to be your most challenging matchup. This deck does great once you have a lead in Ink in your Inkwell, but it’s somewhat limited early on. From my experience, getting ahead in Ink is ironically even more important in the aggro matchup. You aren’t going to want to worry about card advantage so focus on getting Tipo into play rather than Blue Fairy.

Your best bet against aggro is going to be using Madam Mim an Snake to bounce and attack and clear your opponent’s board. Don’t worry about building up a ton of characters…if you can draw the game out long enough, aggro decks won’t be able to keep up.

Against Steelsong

Steelsong is tough but you have some strong plays against it. For one, your characters tend to be on the beefy side in regards to Will Power, making them something of a nightmare for Steel Song which likes to dish out tons of damage. You also have Ursula – Sea Witch Queen to use against them, forcing them to not sing for songs which is one of Steelsong’s greatest strengths.

Focus on building up your Ink while being especially careful of cards like Daisy – Donald’s Date who can quickly gain Lore. If you draw the game out long enough, you should have the upper hand.

Against Ruby/Sapphire

I tend to worry more about the cards in my hand than the Ink in my Inkwell when I play against Ruby/Sapphire. That deck can manhandle you pretty well if you let them get ahead too much in cards. If you can get rid of key items and defeat characters like Flaversham, you’ll be better off. Late game you should have just as many tools as they do to slow them down.

It’s exciting to see powerful new cards enhancing the Sapphire/Amethyst strategy, and I’m sure we’ll see even more success this set for this favorite Ink combo.

Best Lorcana Sapphire/Amethyst Ramp Deck (Set 6)