Lorcana TCG - Rise Of The Floodborn: Amethyst / Steel Starter Deck

2x Beast – Forbidding Recluse, 2x Benja – Guardian of the Dragon Gem, 3x Chip the Teacup – Gentle Soul, 2x Cinderella – Knight in Training, 2x Dr. Facilier – Savvy Opportunist, 2x Eli La Bouff – Big Daddy, 3x HeiHei – Persistent Presence, 2x Hercules – Hero in Training, 1x Kronk – Junior Chipmunk, 3x Kuzco – Wanted Llama, 2x Lawrence – Jealous Manservant, 3x Lilo – Galactic Hero, 1x Madam Mim – Fox, 3x Madam Mim – Snake, 2x Merlin – Crab, 3x Merlin – Goat, 1x Merlin – Rabbit, 1x Merlin – Shapeshifter, 2x Merlin – Squirrel, 2x Prince Eric – Dashing and Brave, 3x Prince Naveen – Penniless Royal, 1x The Huntsman – Reluctant Enforcer, 2x The Prince – Never Gives Up, 1x Tiana – Celebrating Princess, 3x Tiana – Diligent Waitress.

Actions:

2x Freeze, 2x I’m Stuck.

Items:

2x Last Cannon, 2x Mouse Armor.

Characters

The Amethyst side of the starter deck focuses on bounce combos. While the deck is not fully optimised to its full bounce potential, it introduces the concept and lets you flirt with possible future builds.

Each of the Merlin forms ( Crab, Goat, Rabbit and Squirrel) have their own ability when they enter or leave play. The Madam Mim forms (Fox and Snake) allow you to maximise Merlins abilities by bouncing them back to your hand.

Having Merlin – Shapeshifter out while bouncing characters back to your hand gains +1 lore for each bounce.

HeiHei – Persistent Presence even joins in on the fun. ‘When this character is banished in a challenge, return this card to your hand’ making him a viable option for challenging opponents.

Steel brings Resist! Kronk – Junior Chipmunk, Tiana Celebrating Princess and The Prince – Never Gives Up all have the Resist keyword making them excellent defensive options. Protect them further with Mouse Armor and they will be real tough cookies to crack. Kronk – Junior Chipmunk will benefit particularly well with the Resist keyword as you will ideally be challenging with him to make use of his ability.

Steel has always been good at pinging damage across the table. Beast – Forbidding Recluse and Kronk – Junior Chipmunk are good examples of this. They make great fighters, as does Lawrence – Jealous Manservant (+4 Strength while no damage on him) and Prince Eric – Dashing and Brave who has Challenger +3.

There are a number of card draw options in Cinderella – Knight In Training, Kuzco – Wanted Llama, Merlin – Rabbit, and The Huntsman – Reluctant Enforcer.

Actions

I’m Stuck can really stall your opponent on their turn as it can stop them from using one of their characters all together. There are ways they can ready the character of course but it would mean they would have to use specific cards to do so.

Freeze can help you get a sneaky challenge in on an opposing character should they have left them readied during their last turn. Pairing Freeze with I’m Stuck is also a neat little combo.

Items

Mouse Armor provides some protection to your characters, giving a chosen character Resist +1 until the start of your next turn. This is useful should you wish to challenge during your turn but also helps defensively against any of your opponents damage dealt during theirs.

Once Last Cannon is down, you can pay 1 ink and banish the item in order to give a chosen character Challenger +3 this turn. A great offensive option.

Combos / Synergy

We have already mentioned the bounce combos with the various Madam Mim and Merlin characters earlier. Here we will take a closer look at them.

Having Merlin – Shapeshifter out while bouncing characters back to your hand will gain him +1 lore this turn. There is only one copy of this character in the deck though so the odds of finding him are slim.

Merlin – Squirrel lets you look at the top card of your deck when he enters or leaves play. This allows you to know what is coming up or to move it to the bottom of your deck. Pair this with Merlin – Rabbit who lets you draw a card when he enters or leaves play, to gain extra value.

Merlin – Goat is probably my favourite out of the Merlin forms. You gain a lore each time he enters or leaves play. He is inkable too unlike Merlin – Rabbit (who is the same ink cost) which gives you more options, however ideally you want him bouncing back and forth. He is a good challenger too who can hit for 4. Merlin – Crab can increase this should you need to take out an opponent’s character with a high Willpower as he gives Challenger +3 when he enters or leaves play.

Utilising Madam Mim – Fox and Madam Mim – Snake, means it is possible to achieve several of Merlin’s abilities numerous times in just one turn by bouncing him back to your hand (i.e leaving play). Should you have enough ink in your inkwell, simply play any characters you have bounced back to your hand again to benefit from their on-play abilities again. Madam Mim – Fox can sneak in an attack with her Rush keyword and with a Strength of 4 she is a good option.

There is also so much value in challenging with your other characters as Madam Mim can bounce them back to your hand should they be near death. Lastly, bouncing characters back to your hand gives you possible ink options should you be struggling.

We had some fun with a bounce Amethyst / Emerald build over on our YouTube gameplay series which you can watch over on our channel.

Inking

There are only 6 non-inkable cards in this starter deck which means you will have greater odds at being able to ink cards each turn.

There is only one card over the cost of 4 ink and just over a half of the deck consisting of cards costing 2 ink or less, so depending on your strategy you may get away with not having to ink too many of your cards.

Strategy for

Have some fun bouncing Merlin forms back and forth with Madam Mim. The deck does lack more bounce options however it certainly gives you a taste of this style of play. You will find yourself not really engaging with your opponent too much as you will be having far too much fun bouncing around and doing your own thing.

Meanwhile, the Resist options in Steel can help protect your side of the board making your characters tough to crack. It also helps balance your game plan and engagement with your opponent.

Strategy against

It is best to Challenge any Merlin forms where possible. Even though they will benefit from being banished (and leaving play), they can make multiple use out of them should you leave them alone. Madam Mim isn’t such a threat when in play as she does all her work on-play.

Taking care of any characters with Resist may cause you some problems. It is best to take them out in one go if possible as you will be wasting damage with multiple challenges.