Hello and welcome back to Illumination, the Disney Lorcanah podcast. I am Max. And I'm Sam. And we are back at you with an update to our previous episode, which was about the red, purple, ruby, amethyst, whatever you prefer deck that we were tagging as one of the best choices to play if you're on a budget at your set champs. Good news Sam is we were right, a lot more people are playing this ruby amethyst style location control deck at set championships.
But we wanted to update it because there were some changes that were made to most of the deck lists and there were some things we learned about playing and we wanted to update all of you to make sure that you are as up to speed as you can be with this new deck and the slight changes we're seeing to the meta. Cause this is some of the most game play we're getting data from since pixel born went away.
Set champs are happening across the country, across Europe, every single weekend, multiple days, multiple tournaments, putting out huge swaths of deck lists, top eight information, all kinds of goodies for people to ingest and make decisions about. So very excited to hear about that, but we want to make sure that we are giving you information that is accurate and up to date.
We won't always do this, but we really felt like given the nature of when these episodes were landing, at least at time of release and the nature of how much things have changed slash we have learned, we wanted to make sure that we impart that wisdom on to you. Cause we think it's a valid thing to talk about and it's cool to see a deck evolve, not necessarily through a lot of changes with the physical deck, but through learning and evolving how to play it.
And we learned more, I can tell you that at the time of recording the last episode, Sam was not super confident in her green steel matchup, right? Correct. I was easily kicking her butt. Yes, every time. And then good friend of the podcast helped us out, taught us some lessons and also kick Sam's butt. But Sam did something that we push a lot in the podcast and that is to take value away from a game, even if you lose it.
And she got to talk to this person, pick their brain and watch them implement the strategies they were describing over the course of two different set championships, right? That's really cool because we went on the first Saturday you could go to set champs and you were playing and having a tough time struggling. It was a doable match for you, but it would definitely felt like it was maybe like a 60 40 in favor of green steel.
But after playing this particular opponent, then you learned how the deck operates a little bit differently. Some strategies and lines that weren't really obvious is the watching that person play was I said to them, I feel like I'm playing this deck wrong. Watching you play it against me. I think it's a good time to give a shout out to friend of the podcast.
Toby really appreciate all the insight and help continuing to be a source of knowledge for this red, purple strategy, which I know he's been playing for quite some time. Very, very experienced red, purple pilot helping us and now helping you podcast listeners level up your Ruby Amethyst game, which is really, really cool to see after you made those changes. I beat you maybe one out of 10 times with green steel. It's a very difficult matchup.
It took me probably seven or eight games to figure out a strategy I could use in green steel to beat you. Yeah. You went from beating me every time to thinking that it was almost unwinnable. Yes. I can tell you a little bit when we get to that part of the podcast on tips and tricks against the deck to, or at least my advice with one of these strategies, because I haven't played a ton with every strategy.
So I don't want to lead you astray and talk out of my rear end when it comes to actual advice. We want to be as informed and as educational a resource as possible. So jumping right into it, what has changed in the deck? Not a ton, believe it or not, in terms of just raw card sandwich changed. I changed three different slots. I took out the brooms, which I was playing three of, and I opted to go to four Maleficent instead of the three. And then you kind of just have two flex spots.
I chose to put in Belle, the five drop inkable card. Accomplish Mystic. Thank you. And another copy of Madame Medusa. And I opted for Belle because of just having the inkable card. I felt like that was important. I only wanted to go up one more uninkable than what I was playing rather than two. I felt like she was a pretty good option. Toby was playing, I believe, two copies of her. So I opted to play one copy of her and I did really like it.
I think it really leverages the increase in Maleficent because it's such a small body that is most of the time kind of anemic in terms of it comes in and draws a card. It can be picked up by a fox and then played back down to redraw a card. Maybe it quests for one or sings friends on the other side.
Its use cases are kind of narrow, but this opens up another line with Maleficent, which is really neat, is that you can smack into a unit, play Belle, and then move the two damage counters off of your, or one damage counter off your Maleficent or the two damage counters you place on their enemy unit onto a Diablo, which is really neat because they'll just quest with things like Robin Hood shift, for example, with their Diablo. And then you can go, okay, cool. Smacking a Robin Hood on my turn.
They don't get anything from that. Two damage counters is what they get. And then play Belle, move it to Diablo, knock Diablo out of the sky. Right. And at her worst, if you can't use her for her ability, you can anchor. She's a 4-4-2. Yeah. Questing for two in that deck is really nice because there's not many characters. Sisu and Tremaine, my one copy of Tremaine. There are not many characters that do that. So a total of about six actual cards, correct? I believe that is correct with Belle.
So that's pretty awesome to have that additional bit of resiliency and a cool little flex option as almost like another version of a lady in a chair, just a slightly more situational version. I've been leaning towards, and we'll talk a little bit more about it as we go, because I also played this at set champs.
I think that I would possibly consider, and I'll get to it a little later, different tech in here just for one particular matchup that I think can be pretty close, but I think I'd like to have another tool in my arsenal to knock it more into my favor. But I think Belle being a 4-4-2 as well, helping to quest harder is really, really nice. So you can see we're talking about three slots changed. So 5% of your deck has changed.
That is a very small number, but when a deck can draw as many cards as this strategy can, it actually opens up a lot of avenues. Even one card, even the quote unquote silver bullet that you might want to put in is totally reasonable. I saw Belle on multiple occasions during my run through set champs. We want to talk now about the game plan.
More important than the cards having changed, we've realized some things or we're taught some things more accurately, again, shout out Toby, about the deck's strategy and how to play it. And the game plan is a fairly straightforward one. And if you're a player of Magic the Gathering, you will know the strategy because it's a classic control strategy and it's kind of goes hand in hand with make your land drops. And this is gather resources, draw cards.
That's all you want to be doing most of the time. Look at the cards that are being played in this deck right now. They basically all in the early game are designed around drawing cards, Chernobog's followers, then into the three drops with Maleficent, then into the four drops with Rabbit, friends on the other side. This deck just draws and draws and draws. And that's what you want to do because you're gathering options, you're gathering flexibility.
And then the next step is to start to turn that card advantage into board control, right? We can't control hands in this color strategy. They don't attack the hand. They do attack the board. And especially character strategies are very susceptible to being beaten by Ruby Amethyst. This is why I like the match now against Green Steel because it is basically a character matchup and a lot of Green Steel's characters are pretty poorly static, honestly, against this deck.
After you've gathered your resources, you want to start to control that board. Then you want to start to, now that you've gotten the board under control, play cards that win the game. And a lot of the pieces of the puzzle just sit and do nothing but gain lore. Queen's Castle, obviously, you've seen that since Into the Inklands being a big player. And now we get to add Flynn Ryder, frenemy, to the list of things that just sit there and win you the game because Flynn will often do that.
And when you're playing control pieces like Maui and Madame Medusa, these are pretty large static characters and they often are the biggest static characters on the board. Adam M. Fox, a great example of one that lets you spiral out of control, Nusisu, and Bolden Warrior, the three drop inkable, is extremely good at coming down after you played Flynn Ryder and going, ah, so this is like, you have what, five cards in hand? This is a six strength character the size of a Maui on turn three.
I'm going to gain my three lore now. It's pretty good and pretty potent of a strategy. And then finally, your last step is protect those winning pieces. Keep them on the board. If they play a bunch of characters to try to wipe out your Queen's Castle, play be prepared. If they try to blow up your Flynn Riders, play your Queen's Castles. If they try to focus on destroying your Queen's Castle, you get to wipe the board and then drop your Flynn Riders.
It's pretty gross, the flexibility that this deck has. And your goal is just to protect your winning pieces. And then of course, you know, go. So there's that. Sam, anything you'd like to add to the game plan? No, I think you covered it pretty well. I'll have some more to say when we get to specific deck matchups. Okay, then we'll do that. First one we want to talk about is one we've talked about the most because I think it's the deck that we're going to see the most at any given set champs.
And that is the enemy right now. Old Bucky in his, I guess, final form. And then he's going to reverse Dragon Ball Z and get weaker here soon. But in his current strongest form, certainly this is the deck to beat. It is everywhere. It is winning a lot as expected. A lot of numbers are being played. Therefore, a lot of numbers are winning. It is a very good deck. Playing this matchup requires infinite patience. Yes. Because it is very scary to just do nothing against this deck.
That is one of the things we talked about this a lot when you were honing in the new strategy as we were testing. I just kept telling you, do less. You're doing too much. Don't play that thing. Don't worry about it. It just seems so counterintuitive to how Lurkana is played. But I'm telling you, and I've done this now successfully many times, do less. This deck went from feeling literally impossible.
I was winning, I don't know, one out of every dozen games maybe to now I feel like I'm at least 50-50, if not maybe slightly better than that. I am over 50-50 in my experience at set champs against Greensteel. It's really good. And it again feels horrible. If the first thing you can play is Maleficent in this match, that's fine. You don't want to play a card unless it says draw a card. Yes. I want to play any card that does not keep cards in your hand or add cards to your hand.
I cannot stress that enough. If you don't know what you're playing and you're on the play, game one, and you play out Chernobog's followers, that is okay. That's why it's the one drop of the deck. I'll play out a Chernobog's followers even if I know, but it's because it's going to draw me a card next turn. Correct. And especially find you the Brawls. And we'll talk about that in a second.
But you don't have very many turns to find the Brawls, likely before you're facing the thing in Greensteel that is a problem. There's only, and I'm going to say this and it's going to be a bit hyperbolic because obviously I can't tell you what any given board state is going to look like, but the public enemy number one, the card that you need to answer, and it is not close to any other card in the deck, is Diablo. Yes. Diablo must be answered. Their first Diablo has to be Brawled.
It has to be Brawled. If you can match their Diablos with Brawls, if they play two, you play two, you will win that game most of the time. If you cannot Brawl the first Diablo, the game is so much harder because your options are drawing cards to find an answer. We talked about the early game being draw cards. This deck is designed to do that and you are going to fill your Greensteel opponents hand up with cards because you're struggling to find an answer to Diablo.
The good news is pound for pound, your card on a one-to-one card basis is so much better than like 30% of their deck. I mean, they're playing poop soup. One twos, they're playing two twos for one, one ones for two. I understand Bucky's a powerful card and I'm oversimplifying, but I'm just saying at the end of the day, don't be afraid if they play Bucky. You can easily out draw Bucky. I've even won against two Bucky's.
I've won against two Bucky's and my opponent had two Bucky's and they remarked, this game still does not feel remotely close. And I was like, no, I can just, I can overdraw on Bucky because they have to have a flood born to make Bucky's trigger. They're not drawing nearly as many cards as you are. It's trivial to find a B King undisputed or just get to seven and be prepped the board. And then you just full refill. And Bucky's just sitting there. They're not gaining them lore.
It's a slow deck if they can't get their busted start. Right. It is very slow. And I promise you, you will be able to overwhelm them and take control of the game getting to step two before they can put you in a position where you have to answer every threat. They quest so slow. The only thing that they will quest with that they don't care about is Robin Hood. That's the one card they'll throw. So if you're going to mally it, go ahead. Or I need to use it before you Medusa it beast.
They're more careful with because they want beast to stick around. That'll get them back in the game. Right. They want to make it so your options to deal with it are thinned. They'll put down a small character, one drop Flynn rider, protect beast from lady Tremaine because they don't want to lose the beast. I totally understand. But by the time they're sitting there trying to turtle and protect beast, you can give them the card or two because you're just going to blow past them in another turn.
It almost doesn't matter. And it seems weird, but I'm telling you early parts of that game do less. Yeah. And friends on the other side, are you keeping it in your opening hand is something we talked about a lot. Yes. We ended up with something that I thought was incorrect because I even said it in the podcast last episode that if they snatch your friends on the other side with Ursula, it's kind of a disaster for you. But Toby disagrees and proven to be correct.
And I went with him when I'm first. If I'm going first, I've kept the friends in my hand and I fully agree. If they're playing Ursula on two, they're not playing Bucky on two. And so they get the card. If they play Bucky on two, then you're drawing two cards on your third turn. Yep. And they can't overwhelm you with one flood born. Right. The worst they can do is answer both cards by shifting and then playing like a Diablo. But then all they've done is undone one friends on the other side.
It's a pretty cool and counterintuitive, at least to me, kind of strategy. So really neat drawing cards, clearly the aim of the game. And that is probably as important, if not more important, in the mirror match, which is something Sam and I are still navigating through because, like I said, I've been playing magic for a very long time and I'm used to these control style mirrors. Sam is still getting her footing in between step two and three.
Yes. The mirror match, I would say, is what I'm struggling with the most now. Yes. You're having a tough time controlling the board in order to implement your win condition. Like you're either waiting too long or you're too hasty with dropping it in a lot of occasions. Usually the mirror match is a battle of who can draw more cards. So this is the episode of Pokemon where Ash hardens his metapod at his enemy trainer.
You're literally just both doing nothing at each other of any relevance whatsoever, but just keeping options open in your hand. And the first person who can't continue to draw cards has to be the person who goes into step two and starts to control the board so that they can implement a win condition or at least posture by playing something like a Queen's Castle.
Or usually it's like Mim trading back and forth if you kind of don't know what you're doing because you're like picking up rabbits for value and playing a snake and it's like, whatever, I'll get a lore here. And then they might play a snake of their own or a Fox or trade into it with a Sisu, something like that to try to get there. I think you do not want to try to rush Flynn Rider. I don't think you want to do the Flynn Rider Sisu and the castle line.
I think you're going to lose a lot of those games. Your hand may just kind of be weird after the mulligan and you may have to just be like, I'm going to go Flynn Sisu Castle Castle and hope it's good enough. And sometimes it will be. Sometimes it. Yeah. Because the ideal hand is slow. If I could pick my seven cards, I don't know if I'd be able to handle a frenemy Sisu Castle Castle rush. Right.
And my biggest advice would be just to make sure you're inking every single turn up until I'd say like what 13, 12, 13 ink. I think it's fair to say double digits. Yeah. Like you can give it a little bit more thought around 10, but you need to ink. You have to be able to get yourself in a position where you can be prep and then definitely. So when I've been playing the mirror match, I've just been inking every turn.
I've been putting cards in the one section of my hand that's Queen's Castle, be prepared, Maui's, just so I can implement that later game strategy of playing my castles and being able to protect them. Yes. And also in the mirror, you want to be sure you can get to their castles. Yes. A Maui and a Fox are invaluable and you only need those two because you get two Maui's that way. Right.
I've been playing a lot of these games this past weekend where I played a Maui, picked up the Maui and played a Maui again because I had two castles out and my opponent just looked at me and they were just like, what did you just do? You managed to win a game where they played three castles against you. Yes. So it absolutely can be done, but it's because step one was covered. Draw cards, draw cards and draw cards.
And briefly we'll wrap it up with a kind of lumped together version of two decks, Amber Steel Song and Blue Steel. We're calling them the whole new world style decks because your strategy does change a little bit in this matchup. You cannot do step one because if you overdraw, you end up getting owned by whole new world and you have no way again to interact with their hand directly to strip out whole new world. You have no bare necessities. You have no Ursulas.
So you're stuck just playing cards. You still want to play cards that draw a card. Like I'm happy to play a rabbit in that matchup. No issues there. But you're not trying to bounce it every time you get a chance. Right. I'll often ink Maleficent in the matchup. I think Maleficent, but I think the good line against the whole new world deck is to do turn one turn about followers turn to Flynn Rider turn three. See, so right.
I think in this match more than any other, you want the, what they call the two, three, four with this deck, which is Flynn into see Sue and the castle. I'll definitely play the castle because I don't want it gone. Right. Castle's great because Blue Steel has very few answers. So they are playing Argus now specifically to battle red purple. Argus is the four one for two, inkable Titan and steel. So Blue Steel plays that.
The song does not typically some play like two to three copies of rise of the Titans, but they have to have it. And early in the game, most people aren't keeping it. Or if they're taking a turn off to answer your castle, they haven't answered your Flynn Rider or your see Sue yet. And so you're questing, questing, you're mixing it up and then you start to play the card draw, right?
You do fifth turns, probably a rabbit or maybe Maleficent plus a snake, something like that so that you can keep your cards up. Cause you don't ever want to get to the position where you're just flat out empty because then they just won't whole new world against you until you've spent the turn taking the turn off air quotes to draw cards with like friends on the other side into something else. And they go, oh, okay. Now you have four cards. I have none whole new world.
So they can really take advantage of you because you lack efficiency because you're not inking or you're not playing as low of a curve as Amber steel song is. So they can really take advantage of you. And the other thing that is very, very difficult for this deck to overcome and you want to try to navigate into a position to be able to beat is items. You cannot beat lucky dimes. You can't interact with it. You cannot beat flutes because you can't interact with it.
So your best bet there is to race or control the board in such a way that you can hopefully outpace them. But if they start to play these cards, especially more items to go with the dime, cause that's when Tamatoa starts to get scary or aerial, or they just play more flutes in mass. It starts to get to the point you can't keep up. We discussed, there's very few double questers in this deck. Right.
I had a game where I was at, I think 16 and then my opponent was at five and they won in one turn based off of Tamatoa dime. Right. Blue steel has that capability because they just play eight popsicles plus fishbone quills plus lucky dimes. Like it's just, they play so many darn items that their Tamatoas can just go crazy with lucky dime activations. So very important to know how to navigate each of those very common to see matchups.
So we wanted to add a little bit of wisdom, do a little bit of reflecting on the last episode and make sure we kept you up to speed. We still think this is a phenomenal option. Tam and I both did really well at a recent one. So give red purple a shot, at least make sure you're aware of it and how to beat it until next time. Keep questing.