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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.

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.