RAREHUNTERS

Author: Jacob Frank

  • Emerald Sapphire Meta Deck Guide

    Emerald Sapphire Meta Deck Guide

    Emerald Sapphire Meta Deck Guide photo

    Emerald Sapphire Meta Deck Guide Introduction

    I am Jacob Frank and I love to play control decks and Sapphire Decks in general. Some of you might know me for playing Blurple, but in this guide I will show you another really cool blue Deck. It’s the Emerald Sapphire Ramp Deck also known as Baja Blast. Recent performances at DLC  Richmond have proven that the deck is one of the best out there. In this Emerald Sapphire Meta Deck Guide I will introduce you to the deck’s core mechanics.

    Table of contents

    Emerald Sapphire Meta Deck Guide Identity

    The core of this deck is mostly Emerald cards. Sapphire is mainly here to put additional cards into our inkwell. It is a very interactive deck that is built to punish the other slow decks. The centerpiece is the big cow Clarabelle – Light on Her Hooves. We want to get her out as quickly as possible. Ideally you pair her with You’re Welcome and draw a lot of cards. This has been a common strategy for the Blue Green Deck in the past as well, but in Set 10 we got some great new tools. Malicious, Mean, and Scary can combine with Prince Phillip – Vanquisher of Foes to clear entire boards on our opponent’s side. Cinderella – Dream Come True is also a great addition to this deck, since she lets us get to our late game cards even faster. Let’s talk about the decklist in detail.

    Emerald Sapphire Meta Deck List

    Emerald Sapphire Meta Deck Card Choices

    Develop Your Brain

    Solid card for turn 1. We can use it to find one of our Ramp cards, since they are crucial to have. Otherwise it can be used to find our good cards in the late game.

    Improvise

    This card is certainly a tech choice. It is a very strong card to banish opposing Illusion characters.

    Clarabelle – Clumsy Guest

    The shift target for Clarabelle – Light on Her Hooves. You could call her a necessary evil, since the card is in general really weak. But the item removal ability can be useful if you’re facing cards like Enigmatic Inkcaster or Emerald Chromicon.

    Sail the Azurite Sea

    Still the best ramp card in the game. Ideally played on the second turn of the game and another 1 cost card afterwards.

    Tipo – Growing Son

    The other card that accelerates us when played on turn 2. We want to have either Tipo or Sail at least once every game.

    Vision of the Future

    This is a really good card in the Emerald Sapphire Meta Deck especially. It is a notoriously strong card in decks that look for very specific pieces. As it turns out, picking the best card out of 5 usually gives us pretty good options. In this deck we want to combine Clarabelle – Light on Her Hooves with You’re Welcome or Mother Knows Best – or Prince Phillip – Vanquisher of Foes and Malicious, Mean, and Scary. Vision of the Future is our best friend if we are looking for a specific card to go along with cards we already have. It can also be played if we have access to more ink than we need on our current turn and set up good plays for future turns.

    Prince Phillip – Royal Explorer

    This is our Shift target for the big Prince Phillip – Vanquisher of Foes. It is especially useful when we want to answer our opponent’s board as quickly as possible. If we ramp on turn 2 and play a copy of Sail the Azurite Sea on turn 3, we can still play this card and shift as early as turn 4. This is obviously a very specific sequence of plays, but keep in mind that you can play out your cards significantly earlier than you’re supposed to in this deck.

    Malicious, Mean, and Scary

    Can be sung by most of our characters. The card can also damage characters with Resist, because the damage counters are put directly onto the enemies. Usually used to clear the board together with Prince Phillip – Vanquisher of Foes. It can be a very solid card on its own against Aggro decks.

    You’re Welcome

    One of the key cards in this deck. Usually used to remove our opponent’s threats and to draw cards with Clarabelle – Light on Her Hooves at the same time. Could be used on our own characters as well, if we don’t want to give cards to our opponent.

    Mother Knows Best

    It fulfills a very similar role as You’re Welcome. Instead of 2 random cards from the deck, you always get the character which is chosen. Sometimes bouncing your own characters with this card can be very good, if you need to repeat a specific effect.

    Donald Duck – Perfect Gentleman

    The Deck’s secondary card draw engine. He also gives cards to our opponent, which is sometimes even an advantage. In general Donald makes it very hard for our opponent to empty their hand completely, so we can get value with Clarabelle – Light on Her Hooveslater on. Really good if we are going first. He is a true Emerald Sapphire Meta Deck exclusive.

    Cinderella – Dream Come True

    The only Princess in this Deck, but that is no problem since she is good enough on her own. We almost always want to play her on turn 3 to ramp once more and get to our big late game cards even faster. Multiple Cinderellas are usually extremely strong, since they all get the trigger again. For example with a ramp on turn 2 and two Cindies you can get to even up to 9 ink already on turn 5.

    John Silver – Alien Pirate

    Can be played as early as turn 4. Really solid card against aggressive decks. Usually we fall behind on the board in the early game and need cards like these to stabilize later on.

    Clarabelle – Light on Her Hooves

    This is the deck’s primary card draw engine. We want to play her as early as possible to give our opponent the least possible time to empty their hand. If we have the 1 cost Clarabelle to shift onto, we can play her as early as turn 4 and sing You’re Welcome or Mother Knows Best to draw lots of cards. Especially when going first this can lead to extremely oppressive sequences of plays and can feel almost unbeatable. Keep in mind that you will not always have these powerful lines available and it can be difficult to force card draw. Always try to protect this card and also try to keep an extra copy of her in hand when you can.

    Basil – Undercover Detective

    Another powerful 7 cost card, that can generate some nice Tempo by returning an opposing character back to their hand. Synergizes nicely with Clarabelle – Light on Her Hooves as well. Keep in mind that you can also bounce back your own characters.
    The discard ability on quest can be very good if our opponent is low on cards. It can also be paired very effectively with Donald Duck – Perfect Gentleman.

    Bend to My Will

    The ultimate feel bad card for our opponent. It is a very slow card and drawing it early on can be very annoying, but it can singly handedly win you games. Especially powerful against the other Sapphire decks.

    Under the Sea

    The best card you have access to for dealing with the aggressive decks. As shown effectively by Fungus and Sky at DLC Richmond, you don’t need to run this card. I still like to run a few copies to deal with the annoying Amber Emerald dogs deck.

    Prince Phillip – Vanquisher of Foes

    A big evasive quester that banishes all the damaged characters of our opponent. This is our big finisher. Ideally paired with Malicious, Mean and Scary. Also sending your smaller characters on challenges and playing the Phillip afterwards can be good enough. Focus on getting him out as early as possible against decks like Purple Steel and Red Purple and in general when you are going second.

    Emerald Sapphire Meta Deck Guide Conclusion

    Emerald Sapphire is not the fastest deck and can struggle a lot with aggressive decks like Amber Emerald. It is very effective against slower decks, since it has access to such good removal and card draw tools. The power level of this deck is extremely high, but it struggles a little bit with its consistency. You need to have very specific tools for the right situation. Figuring out what tools you need and how to set up properly is the challenge here and it can be very difficult. In my opinion mastering a deck like this does feel very rewarding and it’s one of the best experiences you can have in a TCG.
    Big congratulations to Fungus for winning DLC Richmond with this amazing deck and good luck to all you guys trying it out!
    Check out the other amazing articles and guides on our page https://rarehunters.team/ and happy reading.

  • Blurple META Deck Guide

    Blurple META Deck Guide

    Welcome everyone, I’m Jacob Frank, DLC Singapore Champion and a member of team Rarehunters. In this Blurple META Deck Guide I will introduce you to the strengths and weaknesses of my deck. I hope you will enjoy the read and let’s jump right into the decklist.

    Blurple META Deck Guide Jacob Frank

    Table of contents

    The Decklist

    I have had a lot of success with Blurple in my Lorcana journey so far. This is the Decklist I will use in this Blurple META Deck Guide, it is the same list I used to win DLC Singapore.

    Ink Identity

    Amethyst is known for having access to more tools that let us draw cards than any other color. Also Amethyst has access to really good evasive characters and overall really solid characters for a tempo game plan. We as Blurple players take full advantage of all these attributes of the purple Ink.

    Sapphire is only used as a support Ink. We don’t utilize all the different tools Sapphire has to offer. For example we don’t use any Item synergy cards in current Blurple builds because we can’t take so much advantage of that. The blue ink is almost exclusively here to put extra cards into the inkwell.

    Set 10 Blurple META Deck

    The role of the Blurple deck in the Meta is traditionally to target the other Amethyst decks. At the core our deck is very similar to the other purple Decks in the game. But we can get an edge over them in the Mid game. On turn 2 we want to use our ramp cards. And from there on we can play the good Amethyst cards one turn earlier than our opponent. This has proven to be a very effective game plan.

    Also Blurple does not struggle to beat the other Control decks in the format. Great card draw options and solid threats help against these decks. Blurple is really strong against the other Midrange and Control Decks.

    We can still fulfill this role very well in the set 10 meta game and I will show you how in this Blurple META Deck Guide.

    Key Cards and Game Plan

    Blurple META Deck Early Game

    You really want to have a Ramp card for turn 2. When you are the starting player your best play is usually Sail the Azurite Sea. When you are going second your best card for the second turn is in most cases Tipo – Growing Son. One Jump Ahead is just another way to go from 2 Ink directly to 4, so we have even more options to do so.

    We want to keep cards like Rafiki – Mystical Fighter and Basil – Practiced Detective in our opening hand to cover our weaknesses against aggressive decks. If you know you’re playing against a faster deck, try to prioritize them in your Alter Phase.

    Blurple META Deck Mid Game

    We want to have a 4 cost card after our turn 2 Ramp. The best card to play usually is Genie – Wish Fulfilled. There are better options against certain decks, but he is just a really solid card. An evasive 2-quester is a really good threat to put your opponent on a clock and the additional card we get to draw when he enters makes your following turns much better on average.

    Finally we also want to keep a 5 cost card, if we have at least a Ramp and a 4 cost already. The best one here would be Elsa – The Fifth Spirit. She is a really good follow up play to your Genie. Putting out more evasive characters and manipulating your opponent’s board is very helpful. She is a very versatile card and we always want to have at least one copy of her.

    In the Blurple Deck especially we can use cards like Belle – Accomplished Mystic and Cheshire Cat – Inexplicable really effectively. Our evasive characters can often stay on the board with damage counters on them. We can use these remaining counters to get efficient removal effects.

    Blurple META Deck Late Game

    The Blurple Deck really capitalizes on leaving behind evasive characters on the board. Dumbo – Ninth Wonder of the Universe could let us draw an extra card for each evasive we manage to stick. We want to draw many cards and keep inking every turn if possible. The late stages of a Lorcana game are when this deck really shines.

    Basically our whole game plan is to buy enough time, to make it to the later turns. On the 7 Ink turn which is usually our turn 6 we want to play Hades – Infernal Schemer. He is one of the best removal cards we have in the current Core Constructed Format. Hades is always a massive Tempo play and is good against almost all the other decks. He removes any character of your choice and provides a big body that quests for 2. Very often he delivers the finishing blow you need to win a game.

    Potential Inclusions

    Ursula – Whisper of Vanessa – She is another very powerful evasive card that could help us against the other Midrange and Control decks.

    Second Star to the Right – A really powerful card, but it requires a lot of setup. It’s very powerful in a Blurple mirror match.

    Hypnotic Strength – It could be used instead of Magical Maneuvers or alongside it. The card provides you with another way of getting more favorable trades or having an answer to opposing Illusion characters.

    Spooky Sight – This card can single handedly win you a game against an Aggro deck. But it is a bad card in many situations.

    Conclusion

    Blurple is not the fastest deck in the game and can struggle against aggressive decks. But it is a very powerful deck against the other Midrange and Control Decks in this format. It can be used very effectively if you expect to face a lot of these and that’s how you can get an edge in this Meta game.

    I have loved playing Amethyst decks ever since I started playing Lorcana. Drawing lots of cards and managing your resources effectively is a ton of fun. I hope you enjoyed this guide.

    Shortly after the release of this article I will also publish a more detailed Blurple META Deck Guide on my Metafy page including a slightly reworked decklist adjusted for the Bo3 format.

    Check out the other great Guides and Articles on our new website rarehunters.team and make sure to follow me on my Socials!
    Thanks for reading and keep on hunting guys!