The SCG CON Philadelphia 5K tournament took place last weekend. For players looking to get a read on the current metagame for Disney Lorcana, it shows that Ruby Amethyst decks are still very strong. In fact, they may be a little too strong, with five of the top eight decks featuring the combination.
That's not going to be a huge shock for many people, but it's always worth looking at tournament-winning decklists.
The deck itself was piloted to victory by George Gebhardt, and features a lot of cards we've all seen before. That said, there are some new additions from Into the Inklands that can help suggest where the metagame is moving going forward. The full deck list is:
- Minnie Mouse, Always Classy - 4
- Rafiki, Mystical Fighter - 4
- Kuzco, Wanted Llama - 2
- Madam Mim, Snake - 4
- Pinocchio, Talkative Puppet - 2
- Teeth and Ambitions - 3
- Friends on the Other Side - 4
- Madam Mim, Fox - 4
- Maleficent, Sorceress - 2
- Maui's Fish Hook - 2
- Merlin, Crab - 2
- Minnie Mouse, Stylish Surfer - 2
- The Sorcerer's Spellbook - 1
- Merlin, Goat - 4
- Merlin, Rabbit - 4
- Dragon Fire - 1
- Maui, Hero to All - 4
- Madame Medusa, The Boss - 3
- Yzma, Scary Beyond All Reason - 2
- Be Prepared - 4
- Maleficent, Monstrous Dragon - 2
The only new cards here are Rafiki, Mystical Fighter, Maui's Fish Hook, and Madame Medusa, The Boss. Rafiki offers an excellent boost to the early-game options and, while he's a dud blocker sometimes, he can also be a fairly impressive fighter thanks to Challenger +3 and the ability to take out Hyenas without taking damage.
To our knowledge, Hyenas are not currently a metagame contender, so this is more of an early game card to contend opposing threats.
Maui's Fish Hook is a little more niche, but still offers the ability to buff a character's power, or make them harder to block. Useful, but there's a reason there are only two copies of it in the deck. Finally, we've got Madame Medusa, who can banish an opposing character with three power or less as she enters, and it's here we see the main theme of the deck.
You'll notice that a lot of the cards here have effects when they're played. Madam Mim, Snake, Madam Mim, Fox, and Yzma, Scary Beyond All Reason all allow you to manipulate your own cards in play, not only bouncing them as they enter, but also gaining benefits for doing so. This creates an exhausting amount of value, resetting your characters repetitively.
That means you get to live out that rebuy life, getting an obscene amount of value out of every character in your deck. Being able to buff characters, draw cards, and even banish your opponent's cards almost at will, all while keeping your cards in play allows you to pull ahead at your leisure.
This is a strong control deck, but with the Ruby Amethyst strategy being a metagame mainstay already, it's not a surprise to see so few changes. Madame Medusa is definitely the strongest addition to this strategy from the latest set, and we'll be keen to see how the metagame evolves to combat this version of a fairly classic control deck.