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The biggest party in the Inklands is happening right now, asDisney Lorcana’s fifth setShimmering Skiesbrings a much-needed celebration to the game, following our battle against the sea witch in Ursula’s Return. The new set introduces two new single-player starter decks to help kickstart your collection and try out some of the new characters and mechanics Shimmering Skies has to offer. We’re breaking down the Amethyst/Ruby deck, Ready To Let Loose, and offering a number of improvements to make this deck more consistent and powerful.
Amethyst/Ruby is one of the most long-lasting and well-respected decks in the Disney Lorcana meta, but without the most common tools this archetype is known for, like the Merlin and Madam Mim bounce package, the Shimmering Skies starter deck version of Amethyst/Ruby is a different kind of deck than what we’re used to seeing from these colors
Which Deck Is Best For You?
This guide features three upgrade paths for this starter deck.
The goal of this guide is to improve the consistency and performance of the deck without losing the core themes.
There are better Amethyst/Ruby lists out there, but these decks are designed to focus on and elevate the things that already work in the original starter deck.
Brawl (x4)
Friends on the Other Side (x4)
Vanellope Von Schweetz, Random Roster Racer (x2)
Wreck-It Ralph, Demolition Dude (x1)
The stock version of the Ready To Let Loose deck tries to pack many strategies in, making it feel want for a specific identity.Its focus is split between Location synergy, Evasives, Challenging-matters, and controlling the board through exerting, while also thematically operating as a mix between Frozen and Wreck-It Ralph characters.
For our budget upgrade, we’re trying tokeep as many of these things intact as possible while increasing the consistency and adding some Ruby/Amethyst staples. As we move into the Better and Best versions of this deck, we’ll lose some of these strategies to make the deck even more consistent and competitive.
Both Taffyta Muttonfudge, Crowd Favorite and Taffyta Mutton Fudge, Sour Speedster have great synergy with Locations, so we’ve increased the number of both cards while adding more copies of The Library, A Gift For Belle andAgrabah - Marketplace.
You won’t always be in a position to take advantage of Taffytas' abilities, so it’s important that the Locations you play have strong value on their own, and both The Library and Agrabah are imposing threats on the board that force the opponent to answer them.
Two copies ofTuk Tuk - Lively Partnercan help Taffyta Muttonfudge, Sour Speedster activate her ability, while also shepherding characters to The Libraryto help you draw more cards.
Baiting your opponent to exert their characters to challenge your Locations is a great way to get value out of King of Hearts, Monarchof Wonderland’s abilities. This deck also uses the abilities of Anna, Eager Acolyte, Elsa, The Fifth Spirit, and Anna, Mystical Majesty to exert characters for King of Hearts to hold down.
Keeping opposing characters exerted stops them from questing and opens them up to be challengedimmediately or on the following turn, and characters like Archimedes, Electrified Owl, Elsa, The Fifth Spirit, and Vanellope Von Schweetz, Random Roster Racer are all great for dealing with opposing exerted characters.
In order to get value out of Wreck-It-Ralph, Demolition Dude you need to get damage onto him without letting him get banished, so using Anna and Elsa to exert low-Strength characters Ralph can run into is the ideal strategy. It won’t always work, but when it does it can help you quickly get ahead of your opponent on lore.
We’ve added two Amethyst/Ruby staples in Friends on the Other Side and Brawl, which areinexpensive but invaluable tools that practically every deck in this archetype should use.Friends On The Other Sidewill help you keep cards in your hand and dig for your cards with synergies, and can be sung by almost every character in the deck. Brawl is an immediate answer to opposing characters that need to be removed as soon as possible.
These cards are useful in almost every matchup, so even though they aren’t on-theme for this deck, they’re too good not to include.
The strategy of this deck remains the same as the stock version, albeit with a little more focus and utility. When on the playyour goal is to make an aggressive start with low-cost questerslike Taffyta Muttonfudge, Ruthless Rival and Evasive characters like Archimedes, Exasperated Owl and Bruni, Fire Salamander.
Look for opportunities to add Locations to the board when you think they’ll be safe, then protect them by forcing your opponent to exert their characters with Anna and Elsa, then either remove them with efficient challenging or keep them exerted with King of Hearts.
When on the play, you’ll need to be more reactive until you can stabilize the board. Cards likeBrawl; Turbo, Royal Hack; and Vanellope Von Schweetz, Random Roster Racer will help you take control of the board early, allowing you to sneak in the low-cost Locations and flip the script on your opponent, forcing them to have answers to your board.
A well-timed Anna, Mystical Majesty can also turn things around if you start to lose board controlin the mid-game, provided you’ve set up the right characters on your side of the board to take advantage of her powerful exerting ability.
This deck can sustain for quite a while thanks to The Library and Friends on the Other Side, but the faster you can close out a game, the better. The challenge of this deck is making sure you play your questers and challengers at the right time so you can set up your strong synergies in advance.
Ursula, Mad Sea Witch (x2)
By adding some some of the pricier Rares and a couple of Super Rare cards, we can make this deck even more potent and focused. We’ve removed a lot of the Evasives from the stock and Budget version of this deck in order to lean more into the Location and forced-exert strategies that make this deck strong while maintaining most of the Frozen and Wreck-it Ralph flavor.
Any Amethyst deck that focuses on Locations is incomplete withoutThe Queen’s Castle - Mirror Chamber.This isn’t just the best Location in the game, it’sarguably the bestcardin the game, so naturally, this version of the deck uses four of them. We’ve also swapped out AgrabahElsa’s Ice Palace, whichwill support King of Hearts by helping keep opposing exerted characters locked down.
This version of the deck addsa pair of Madrigal characters that have great synergy with our Frozen exerts.Dolores Madrigal - Easy Listeneris a good quester that replaces herself when an opposing character is exerted, which is an easy thing for this deck to do, whilePepa Madrigal - Weather Makercan exert an opposing character and keep them exerted so you can follow up with an answer to it on the following turn.
A big weakness of both the stock and budget version of this deck is their lack of challenging power. It’s not enough to force your opponent’s characters to exert if you don’t have a good way to remove them, and while both deck have a few good Rush characters, there aren’t any with enough Strength to take down big threats.
This version of the decksolves that problem withMaui - Hero to All, a character with Rush and Reckless that can take down practically any threat your opponent might play. Along with Vanellope Von Schweetz; Rafiki, Shaman Duelist; andUrsula - Mad Sea Witch, this deck has enough challenging power to make the most of all the exert abilities.
Witheight Locationsthe game plan for this deck comes down toplaying them at the right time and protecting them with a combination of characters that exert and characters that challenge.
While your opponent may play some Location removal actions likeRise of the Titansor Hide Away, they won’t have enough to remove all the Locations in this deck and will often rely on their characters to remove them.
Using your King of Hearts and Elsa’s Ice Palace to lock down exerted characters will stop them from questing and from challenging your Locations, allowing you to earn passive lore every turn without needing your characters to quest.
Ursua, Mad Sea Witch (x4)
Ursula, Sea Witch Queen (x3)
The full-power version of this Amethyst/Ruby deck adds a variety of Legendary characters that all enhance our two main strategies:playing Locations and exerting your opponent’s characters. This version also alters our one and two-drop options to add utility to the deck that will help keep the opponent guessing our next move every turn.
While the stock, budget, and mid-cost version of this deck all relied on King of Hearts to lock down exerted characters, the sad truth is that King of Hearts is a weak, over-priced, and under-statted character. This deck improves on the strategy withGenie, Main Attraction, who can keepallopposing exerted characters exerted, not just one- and he can quest or challenge each turn, unlike King of Hearts, who has to exert to use his ability.
Getting a Genie into play at the right time to fully lock down your opponent’s board, and following up with more characters that force the opponent’s characters to exert can stop them from ever interacting with your side of the board again.
Genie’s ability doesn’t activate unless Genie is exerted, which means you’ll be telegraphing your intentions a full turn before you can act on it, giving your opponent time to respond. One way to ensure Genie gets value right away is to play Cogsworth, Illuminary Watchman to give Genie Rush, then run him into an opposing character to activate his powerful ability immediately.
This version includes two previously unused Elsas:Elsa - Snow QueenandElsa - Spirit of Winter. Not only are they on theme for this deck, butthey also give this deck more ways to exert opposing characters.
While Elsa,Snow Queen can set up Maui, Hero to All for some nice instant responses to your opponent’s freshly played characters, her main value is in offering an additional shit target for Elsa, Spirit of Winter. This character can be game-ending in many situations, especially if you’re able to use Genie or Elsa’s Ice Palace to keep characters exerted while you earn lore from your Locations and and questers.
Ursula - Sea Witch Queenis another high-stat character that will force your opponent’s characters to exert, and she can hit the board as early as turn five if there’s aUrsula - Mad Sea Witchto shift onto. Her second ability stops opposing characters from singing, which can disrupt the gameplan of a few decks, including Amber/Steel Steelsong.
Finally,a Location-focused deck can get a lot of value from a well-timedJim Hawkins - Space Traveler. When you play Jim you also get to play a 4-cost-or-less Location for freeandmove Jim to it, so while The Queen’s Castle is your best target, The Library is also a great option.
Jim is another character that synergizes well with Cogsworthif you need to take down a threat right away. If Jim gets banished in the challenge you still get to play a Location for free, and if that Location was The Library, you’ll also get to draw a card.
This is ahigh-curve deck that plays a lot of seven and eight-cost characters, so you’ll need to make efficient use of your early challengers like Ursula, Mad Sea Witch and Maui, Hero to All to help make sure you don’t lose the board to early.
Sometimes it can be good to sacrifice a cheap location just to stop your opponent from earning lore on their turn, especially if you’re going to be able to follow up with Genie or Elsa’s Ice Palace to keep that exerted character exerted.Once you’re controlling the board with exert, you’ll be able to earn a lot of lore quickly with your locations.
