1st Place Amber/Amethyst Aggro Deck List and Strategy Guide
In this deck list, we’re going to be looking at a hyper aggro deck that won first place at a high profile tournament recently: the amethyst/amber deck list and strategy guide.
This deck is actually pretty cool and you can tell it runs pretty smooth just from looking at it. It’s focused on one thing, and one thing only – getting to 20 lore.
*Updated January 2, 2024
Amber/Amethyst Aggro deck list
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4 Maleficent - Biding Her Time
4 Lilo - Making a Wish
4 Lefou - Bumbler
4 Simba - Protective Cub
4 Pascal - Rapunzel's Companion
4 Friends On The Other Side
4 Befuddle
4 Be Our Guest
3 Cinderella - Ballroom Sensation
2 Doc - Leader of the Seven Dwarfs
4 Madam Mim - Snake
4 Merlin - Goat
3 Merlin - Rabbit
4 Madam Mim - Fox
4 Arthur - Wizard's Apprentice
4 Pinocchio - Star Attraction
Colors
Inkable
Card Types
How to play the Amber/Amethyst Aggro deck
The Amber/Amethyst Aggro deck can be a bit tricky to pilot at first. But with a little practice, you’ll start to get the hang of just how effective this deck can be at getting lore before your opponent can do much to stop you.
This deck has many turn one options
Being an aggro deck, this Amber/Amethyst aggro puts a strong emphasis on one-cost characters. It really shouldn’t be an issue to play a character down turn one thanks to how many cost one characters this deck has. You really can’t go wrong with any of them being your first character you put into play as they all have different strengths and weaknesses
Cinderella is a great option as she will enable you to sing for extra cards via Be Our Guest the next turn.
Both Lilo and Maleficient allow you to take two whole lore each time they quest.
Pascal is hard to kill thanks to his Evasive ability.
Of these characters, my favorite is to play either Maleficent or Lilo, as they can easily be bounced back into the hand on turn two, or protected with bodyguard.
Lilo – Making a Wish
Maleficent – Biding Her Time
Protect your low cost characters to quest again
After getting your initial one cost characters down, you’re going to need to protect them so they don’t get taken out too early. This deck has two effective ways of doing this. Either:
Defend your low cost characters with Simba
Or bounce your characters back into your hand after they’ve quested with Madam Mim – Snake/Fox
This works especially well in tandem with Pinochio – Star Attraction which can quest for a pretty crazy three lore, given he’s just a cost two character (the only one of his kind right now).
Gain a ton of lore with Arthur and Merlin
Turns three and four are when things get really interesting. You can start playing Arthur then, and either pairing him with Merlin – Goat, Rabit, or using him on someone else before bouncing him back to your hand with Madam Mim.
Merlin – Goat
Once you’ve bounced one of these characters into your hand, it can be helpful to have Doc in play. Doc can reduce the cost of playing characters, while also gaining you incremental lore. With the help of Doc, one-cost characters are free to play while powerful questing cards like Pinocchio – Star Attraction can be played for the cost of one.
Doc – Leader of the Seven Dwarfs
How to use the songs and actions
Last but not least, it’s important to know how to use the various songs and actions included in this Amber/Amethyst deck list. Altogether, there are only twelve non character cards in this deck. This includes four copies each of Befuddle, Friends on the Other Side, and Be Our Guest.
Befuddle – Action
Be Our Guest – Song
Friends on the Other Side
Befuddle is offensive and defensive
In addition to your Madam Mims, Befuddle can also be used on your low cost characters to bounce them back into your hand before playing them again. Also, if your opponent is getting a little ahead of you, Befuddle can be used to bounce cards back into your opponent’s hand and slow them down.
Be Our Guest is excellent card search
To help this deck get off the ground quickly, you need characters. Be Our Guest ensures you always have a character to play so you can get ahead of your opponent.
Be Our Guest is good draw support
Last but not least, Be Our Guest is a pretty straightforward draw support card, which is important to any Lorcana deck.
And that’s it. It’s really that straightforward, and you’re going to want to do your best to hit twenty lore before your opponents can start building up momentum, as once they do that you’re going to be pretty easy pickings for board clearing cards like Grab Your Sword, Be Prepared and the likes.
Amber/Amethyst Aggro Deck – key cards
Pinocchio – Star Attraction
Market price: $8.05
Pinocchio is remarkable in the Lorcana TCG right now because he’s the only cost two character with three lore value, making him a pretty deadly threat.
Arthur – Wizard’s Apprentice
Market price: $18.00
Arthur is strong in any deck that relies on his considerably strong combinations with the various Merlin Characters available. Combine him with your other plethora of strong, low cost questers and you can win the game pretty quickly (assuming your opponent doesn’t put up too much of a fight early on).
Madam Mim – Snake and Fox
The bounce mechanic that’s become a fundamental one for Lorcana as of Rise of the Floodborn is particularly important to this deck. Besides your bodyguard characters, bouncing is your only means of protecting your characters and ensuring that they are readied for next turn to quest some more.
Of the two, Madam Mim – Fox is my favorite. For just one cost more she gives you the incredible rush ability, while also posessing an impressive strength stat.
Amethyst/Amber deck mulligan tips
As with any mulligan, you’re going to want to ensure you have enough low cost characters to start getting to work right away. If you can, an idea opening hand would be Maleficent – Biding Her Time or Lilo and Madam Mim – Snake, alongside either a Pinocchio or an Arthur.
This deck does run a high number of uninkable cards as well, so you will need to be mindful of that when building your opening hand. If you choose all uninkable cards because they are strong, for example, you won’t have enough ink in your ink well to play them!
How to counter Amber/Amethyst Aggro
Amber/Amethyst can really take you by surprise the first few times you play it. It’s able to get its characters out quickly, protect them, and quest for a lot of lore really quickly. That being said, it isn’t invincible, and it can be beaten.
The most glaring weakness that this deck faces is against steel decks. Many of its characters can be taken out with a single Grab Your Sword, for example. If you are running a deck that can deal a lot of damage without attacking, then you really shouldn’t have much to worry about.
If you are reliant on attacking, you could run cards that cause characters to be exerted. A good example is Pinocchio –Talkative Puppet. Slap this character down and you can challenge low cost characters like Maleficent.
Whatever the deck you play, you need to draw the game out at all costs in order to beat this deck. As more ink gets added to your ink well, this deck will have trouble keeping up.
