Lorcana - Deck Guide: Ruby-Steel Challenges!

Hello, everyone!

In Lorcana, you usually have a few different choices about what action to do with each character. A famous pearl of wisdom is: when in doubt, Quest it out! After all, obtaining Lore points is the main way to victory, while other actions, although beneficial, do not always advance your win condition.

As a result, Challenges between characters often aren't much valued, and some matches end up becoming just a Lore race.

But the deck we are going to highlight today is having none of that! The Ruby-Steel combination has several cards that advance your Lore when you Challenge, so we are going to use these ink colors and showcase a deck focused on Challenges! Let's go!

This is a Challenge-focused deck, with the goal to control the opponent's board while advancing its own Lore - thus mitigating the tempo disadvantage of the strategy.

The ink curve is somewhat low, with almost half of the deck costing 1 or 2 ink! The Ruby-Steel combination has many good options at almost every point of the curve, so some choices will depend on player preference.

The game plan is relatively simple - control the board with your fighter characters in the first turns, don't let your opponent have any initiative or a headstart in the Lore race. As you reach your 4 and 5 cost characters, your Challenges will give more and more advantage, and with that you dictate the pace of the game - your opponent will not be able to Quest without being punished for it!

Let's analyze the cards in this list in more detail, and then talk about some possible variations.

1-Drops - Weaklings? Actually... no!

At 1 ink, we have 3 characters that will setup good challenges from the beginning!

Captain Hook is one of the biggest threats in the first turn, since its ability makes him into a 3/2 when attacking. It is capable of eliminating several cost-1 cards from the game and live to tell the tale, and also do positive trades with 3 and even 4-cost characters!

Mickey has a similar role, but with much lower stats. What makes up for it is the Resist ability, which makes him very difficult to eliminate, and this opens up the potential for many positive trades - when your character that cost little ink eliminates a character that the opponent invested much more ink.

Mulan is a great offense tool, although she probably won't survive more than one Challenge. Also, her ability will let you filter your cards on hand, and exchange any uninkable cards for more useful ones.

2-Drops - The fight is warming up!

At 2 ink, the idea is to continue developing and increase the threats on the board.

Calhoun is a staple of the Steel, since it combines excellent stats, Resist, and also gives Lore advantage when eliminating opponent's characters! Its only downside is that it is uninkable, which requires a bit of care in the number of copies in the deck.

Queen of Hearts is an option to make early trades and, thanks to its stats bonus, snipe a larger character as the game goes on. It is also a way to Shift with the 5-Drop Queen, which we'll talk about later.

Mickey Mouse is an excellent 2-Drop that will almost always allow a positive trade for you, also leaving a 1/3 character on the board.

Doc is technically a 2-Drop, but you will almost never play it on the second turn. Save him for when you've emptied your hand, since the ability tells you to first discard, and then draw two cards - so if it's the last card played from hand, you're essentially drawing 2 cards.

3-Drops - More power!

The 3-Drops will steer the strategy towards a mix of Challenge advantage and a slight touch of disruption.

Lawrence is a great combination of robust stats - a 4/4 for 3 ink - and 2-Lore Quest, keeping pressure on the board even after taking damage.

Pete, similar to Doc, doesn't need to be thought of as just a turn 3 play, since its job is to stall the opponent for a turn - especially if they're using cards like Be Prepared.

Shere Khan is the first character that effectively gains advantage through Challenges. 4 copies in the deck ensure that you can play a first one on turn 3, and if your opponent eliminates it quickly, you still have time to find a second copy.

4-Drops - Enter the Heroes!

The deck's 4-Drops consolidate the advantages around Challenges, albeit in slightly different ways.

Philoctetes makes your Hero characters stronger in Challenges, and also gains 1 Lore every time you play a Hero - we have, in total, nineteen characters for Phil to help out. He can both increase your available power and allow good Challenges for you, as well as give a lot of Lore through low-cost Hero characters, such as Mulan or Mickey. Oh, and on top of that, Phil Quests for 2 Lore!

Meanwhile, Super Goof - who is also a Hero, so there's already a synergy with Phil - can Challenge in the same turn he is played, thanks to the Rush ability. And every time you use him to Challenge, regardless of the outcome, you'll get 2 Lore! It's a great way to deter your opponent from making aggressive Quest plays, since Super Goof threatens to easily overwhelm your opponent's Lore generation.

5-Drops - Dishonor your cow!

Our 5-Drops are game-changing characters, and ideally you should curve out to them to assert control of the game.

Mushu replicates Calhoun's effect, but for all your characters, making your Lore constantly grow. And, thanks to the ability to grant Resist, your characters tend to stay on the board and continue building your victory.

Queen of Hearts has another role: make you draw cards every time you Challenge - including with the Queen herself! Ideally, you want to play her on a turn in which you will make 2 or more Challenges, and refill your hand. Also, don't forget that you can play her from turn 3 with Shift, and the best part: if you play her this way, she can immediately Challenge and draw you a card!

Remeber that these effects stack! With 2 copies of Mushu on the board, for example, your characters gain Resist +4 in Challenges and 4 Lore when they banish an opposing character!

Actions - Support role

Ruby and Steel are inks with powerful board control actions, but most of our characters already fulfill this job. Thus, the selected Actions have a more support role, for some specific or difficult-to-deal-with threats.

Fire the Cannons! is great against small, evasive characters - the biggest threat, of course, is Diablo - Devoted Herald. It can also be used to help take down a tougher character, or in a pinch, increase the power of your Queen of Hearts - Losing Her Temper!

Be King Undisputed is a way to take advantage of an empty board from the opponent, since you'll remove any character that is played. In games with many small characters, you can just discard it for Mulan - Disguised Soldier. Don't forget that it's also a Song - it can be a great ink saver and a good use for a Super Goof who has no one to Challenge!

Variations

As mentioned at the beginning of the article, the list we showed was one of many ways to build this archetype. Depending on player's preference, it is possible to reshape the list in a lot of ways, so we will talk about some variations.

Pirates

Our list had more of a Hero subtheme, but it is perfectly possible to focus on the Pirate subtheme as well! The advantage here is that you'll have different synergies and access to characters that have better Lore generation - making the deck more flexible, since it is less dependent only on Challenges to be ahead.

Locations

By using a few high-defense and low-cost Locations, such as Nottingham - Prince John’s Castle or Thebes - The Big Olive, among others, your opponent ends up forced to use characters more offensively, and this opens a window for your Challenge synergies. This variant sometimes can be inconsistent, since it may need many different cards to get the ball rolling.

On the other hand, winning out of nowhere thanks to Moana - Kakamora Leader's ability is extremely satisfying!!

The Ruby Steel combination has a lot of potential, and it's hard to say which is the most efficient or best among the possible options. In the end, the best part is that everyone can guide the deck the way they like best - and that, in deck-building games, is what makes it most fun!

What did you think of our list today? How would you build your version? Share it with us!

Hugs and see you next time!