Summary
I still remember how I felt last November, at the end of Disney Lorcana’s woefully unbalanced first season. I was beyond fed up with Ruby/Amethyst decks dominating at every local game night, cash event, and online tournament, and I had hoped that Rise of the Floodborn was going to give the meta the shake-up it so desperately needed. Lorcana’s first expansion introduced 204 new cards, doubling the available card pool. Surely that one deck won’t be able to stay at the top for another full season right? Right?
I was very wrong.
Just a few weeks into the Rise of the Floodborn season, plenty of people made the call that Ruby/Amethyst was turning out to be aneven more oppressive force in the meta, and that we were all going to be in for a hard time until the next expansion. Some said not to be so hasty, that the meta was still settling and that things would continue to change. I thinkthis graph(courtesy ofThe Forbidden Mountain), which shows Ruby/Amethyst with more top-eight finishes at the end of the season than every other deck archetype combined, speaks for itself.
Now, I’m ready to make another early call. Just over two weeks into the new season, the meta has been fixed. Things are going to change over the next ten weeks, and decks will rise and fall in power and popularity, but it’s clear that we’re no longer looking at a meta where one deck is singularly dominant and a few others fight for distant second. This is the most diverse and healthy the Lorcana has ever been.
Despite getting a significant boost from new locations like The Queen’s Castle, new early-game threats like Rafiki, Mystical Fighter; and a powerful new removal tool in Madame Medusa, The Boss; Ruby/Amethyst is no longer the undisputed MVP of Lorcana. In fact, the top spot of the format is, and I suspect will continue to be, contentious.
Weekend tournaments results at big events likeSCG Philly still had an overrepresentation of Ruby/Amethyst decks. It’s still a top-tier deck, and it helps that it’s much cheaper to build than many other meta decks.
A few things happened at once in Into the Inklands that brought Ruby/Amethyst in check while elevating other decks. As predicted, one major wrench in its game plan is Locations. These pesky lore generators don’t fall to Ruby/Amethyst’s usual control techniques or Be Prepared, forcing the deck to overextend and spread itself too thinly to deal with Locations The massive nine-willpower McDuck Manor, which is gaining popularity in Sapphire/Steel decks, is especially difficult for Ruby/Amethyst to deal with. Only Maui with a boost from Maui’s Fish hook or Merlin, Rabbit can effectively answer it.
The other thorn in Ruby/Amethyst’s side are the new discard tools. The Bare Necessities and Ursula, Deceiver can rip a Be Prepared right out of a Ruby/Amethyst player’s hand, and without that, the deck struggles against wide board states. At long last, Emerald/Steel now has a decent matchup against Ruby, while Amber/Steel ‘Steelsong’ is better than ever.
The Anti-Be Prepared Starter Pack
I’m willing to call the meta fixed, but that doesn’t mean it’s perfect.Ruby/Amethyst is still powerful, and arguably the best deck, but it’s not the only best deck, and that’s a big deal. I’m thrilled that there’s so much diversity in color combinations, but there’s a less-than-ideal variety in viable deck archetypes. Ruby/Amethyst, Sapphire/Steel, and Ruby/Sapphire are all top-tier control decks, while the rest of the competitive decks are all varying degrees of midrange decks that rely heavily on Steel.
All five Steel pairings are competitively viable right now and heavily played, which makes aggro-oriented decks - the ones most vulnerable to the tools at Steel’s core - virtually unplayable. Aggro is the best answer to the strongest control decks, but in such a Steel-dominated meta, there’s just no room for aggro to succeed.
This leaves Amber, the most aggro-oriented color, without any viable decks in the meta, other than Steelsong. Amber/Ruby players are still experimenting with Mufasa, Perdita, and Chernabog, but it seems likely this archetype is going to stay a tier below the rest this season.
This is how the meta has taken shape early on, and it’s where we’ll most likely see some changes as things settle over the next few weeks. But even if aggro decks can’t climb out from under Steel this season, it’s still worth celebrating how much balance this expansion has brought to the game. With the Disney Lorcana Challenge and Set Championship starting up this season, I’m relieved to see so many decks being played.
