Hello and welcome back to Illumination, the Disney
Lurkana. podcast. My name is Max. And I'm Sam.
We are back at you this week. We had discussed
in our previous episode kind of our emergency
episode, if you will, due to the banning of Hiram
Flavers from Toymaker and Fortisphere. We had
our good friend HyperHippo over. Big shout out
to him. Thanks for coming on and talking with
us. We also did an extended episode if you want
to hear our kind of raw thoughts and much longer
thoughts. That's available for you to check out.
I appreciate everybody who has listened. This
week, to start kind of where the metagame is,
but first and foremost, a tournament report from
me and Sam. We discussed briefly that we had
a tournament to go to the weekend after the bans
were announced. We talked about that during our
banisode. Sam and I did in fact go to that tournament.
We didn't just give up because cards got banned
and we didn't know what to do anymore. We endured.
We tested some stuff and we took decks over there
to the Encounter Comics and Games in Allentown.
Big shout out to them. They put on a heck of
tournament was streaming on Twitch. So you can
check out the VODs there. Just look for the Forbidden
Mountain. You'll find it easy enough. And you
can check that out. Lots of good folks announcing
that event and a shout out to Forbidden Mountain
for putting that event on stream. Really appreciate
that a good deal. Sam, you and I got to be on
stream a few times each as a matter of fact.
So do you want to tell everybody how our results
went over at Encounter Comics and Games? I got
second place and Max got third place. I received
the prize of an enchanted bell, strange but special.
Sam, what did you get for a prize? I got two
booster boxes of Rise of the Floodborn and then
three Japanese booster boxes of Rise of the Floodborn.
That was a lot of Floodborn. It was. The Floodborn
hath risen over there. So yeah, we walked away
with a good amount of prize support. Really appreciate
that. It was really fun. I ended up playing good
old Ruby Amethyst. Sam, what did you play? I
played Amethyst Steel. And we both did pretty
well. Sam and I had to duke it out on coverage,
as a matter of fact, in the semifinals. It was
a pretty close match, and I think the better
player ended up prevailing out of that one, just
because I think you played a little bit tighter
than I did in the match. You went on to face
your only loss in the Swiss rounds? Yes. Which
was David Nunez in the finals, and another major
squeaker. If your top two cards were reversed,
you would have taken away the W. Yeah, it was
rough, but I was super happy with how... Both
of us did that day. Yeah, it's really rare that
you and I both get to do well in a tournament.
Yeah, it's usually one or the other or neither.
True. So I was leading into this event. The thought
on everybody's mind is, oh God, Diablo. And we
tested a lot of Diablo decks. I tested a lot
of Diablo decks and forced you to endure hours
of testing against Diablo decks. For this tournament,
I was going to play Emerald Steel. Initially,
that was pretty much my odds on favorite deck
going into the weekend. I was also less often,
but somewhat consistently through testing different
things in Ruby Amethyst to see if there was some
play there. Because my thought pattern was kind
of what we talked about on the longer ban episode
or the bonus episode about the bannings is that
if... these mid -range decks are going to take
over and prey on the aggro decks. I definitely
don't want to be on a purely aggro deck. On the
other side of the coin, I think I'd like to try
to next level some of these mid -range decks
by playing with the Ruby Amethyst deck and just
being able to b -prep out a bunch of people because
I know that generally that matchup is favorable
for Ruby Amethyst when it comes especially to
Emerald Steel in the discard variant. And I am
so, so, so seasoned at playing. that matchup
from both sides of it. And I am very confident
no matter which one of those two decks I bring
to an event, if I have to play the other one,
I'm confident I at least know what I'm doing.
And I know my role very well in the matchup and
the cards that are the important ones that can
turn a game. So I was thinking that I could maybe
go over the top of a lot of these decks with
the power level of Ruby Amethyst. So that is
what I ended up doing. And I think the results
speak for themselves. I wish I had more time
in testing and a little bit more thought. behind
some plays and things that the deck could do.
Because I do think that coming away from the
weekend, this is going to be a deck we're going
to see pretty regularly moving forward through
the rest of the season and sword champs. Yeah.
And then my tech card for the abundance of discard
that we expected to see was Helga Sinclair. Helga
Sinclair, the new Helga Sinclair. The two cost
uninkable zero four challenger three with evasive
on your turn. Yeah, that card is a menace. So
one of the things that pushed me over the Edge
was in our team testing playing against Helga
Sinclair with the Emerald Steel package. She
was nigh impossible to remove outside of something
like a We Don't Talk About Bruno. She's very
frustrating to deal with. It was hard to create
a board that was able to weather the storm of
what the Amethyst Steel decks were doing while
still presenting potent threats for key cards
like Helga Sinclair. I even ended up swapping
for a little while and testing with Amber Emerald.
together, the Under the Sea discard variant,
which gave me a much easier time into a 0 -4,
but obviously has its bad matchups. So it was
a tough call for me. I love the Amber Emerald
deck. It's one of my favorites, but I ended up
opting to play the Ruby Amethyst deck, and I'm
glad I did because coming out of this, coming
out of the large tournament over in Germany the
same weekend, we saw between those two events
combined total just under 200 participants. and
we got to see this play pattern emerge in Amethyst
that is starting to redefine the meta now. That
was included in my deck, just not as numerous
or as strongly as it was in other decks. And
what's interesting is this all kind of spawned
out of a fear of what we were going to do against
the dreaded Diablo, because I needed to have
a plan against it. Ruby does have the benefit
of having Brawl, which is a nice, clean answer
to Diablo. It's harder to answer Diablo when
they move it to a cove, or if... If they have
a second Diablo, things like that can snatch.
If it's the under the sea variant, they can use
bare necessities to take your brawl away from
you. So there are some things that Diablo decks
can do to add that resiliency back into their
play patterns. And one of the things that is,
I think, a really nice underutilized up to this
point tool was Peter Pan's Shadowfinder. So I
decided to follow the insights of the great Artabax
who said that this was Peter Pan's time to shine.
So I was like, let me... test it out and see
how it goes so i played pegasus the 3 -1 evasive
in ruby i played peter pan shadow finder i played
genie and i played elsa fifth spirit all in my
deck and i could create this really cool play
pattern that we're seeing expanded even more
and i personally had to play against it a couple
times which was peter pan shadow finder then
either genie or iago the giant parrot the four
six with vanish and evasive then either elsa
fifth spirit or that iago coming down these giant
gigantic, evasive characters that now conveniently
get Rush from Peter Pan. There are a lot of very,
very oppressive things that play pattern can
present. And when paired up with Ruby, it gets
even nastier because you get the aforementioned
Pegasus at the front end of that, or in the middle
of that if you need to. I know I surprised you
once on our coverage game by playing out a Pegasus
with the Peter Pan and having, oops, here's five
more damage for your library. And we also get
the oh -so -dreaded Maui Shark. in there as well
as a card that we both called out during our
set review, not to pat us on the back too hard,
but we did point out the new 4 -drop inkable
Moana that is a 4 -3 evasive whenever she challenges
a character. She gives another character of yours
plus 3 strength until end of turn. So play pattern
by using Peter Pan on 3, then playing Moana with
Rush, challenge, give a boost to Peter Pan, can
take out a hugely statted character. So there
are a lot of really awesome play patterns. that
you can do with this. And we are starting to
kind of see the emergence of this play pattern
being a real go -to for the Amethyst color, especially
decks that lean towards the mid -range or control
side of their play style. Lots and lots of that
going on. Sam, how much of that did you see over
the weekend when you were playing? Did you see
a lot of that play pattern or was it just here
and there? For me, it was just here and there.
I played a variety of different decks. I know
you played against Emerald Amethyst that I believe
was rocking that. Yeah, I didn't see Iago, but
I did see the Peter Pan Shadowfinder. But yeah,
luckily, I didn't have to see it too much. To
me, it's really interesting that this could have
been a play pattern all along. We've had Peter
Pan Shadowfinder since, was it the fourth set?
I believe it was set four. And it's really cool
that because of the way the meta has changed
that we're seeing these new decks emerge. And
that was the hope, right, with the bannings.
The shakeup was we want to add decks back into
the metagame, lines of play that have been available,
but were just a little bit too... nebulous. Like
if we name this play pattern off, right, you
list these play patterns, they're still not that
good against Hiram. Like it requires multiple
cards for it to be pretty good against Hiram.
It doesn't offer a variety of things to do. So
it's not exactly the most potent, but now in
a world where we don't have Sapphire with an
insane draw engine, Sapphire has kind of backed
off a little bit. Still very controlling, still
very in the DKP style of like Sharkburn. It's
definitely still able to win. Yes, very capable.
deck i think on the control side of things and
we'll touch more on the metagame we're gonna
see a lot more ruby amethyst and a lot more of
the ruby sapphire decks they just aren't all
in the best control deck by a decent clip is
now and always has been ruby sapphire now we're
seeing that eb away where it's like that's one
style and now we're starting to see this amethyst
version start to push through that's offering
the similar play patterns with something like
maui shark so you still can maui shark for a
pirate's life we're seeing a lot of inclusion
of dragon fire We're even seeing a copy here
and there of Finders Keepers as we shave more
rabbits for more genies to up our evasives for
that Peter Pan line. There are a lot of cool
things that the Amethyst deck can partake in
from a Maui Shark perspective now, which makes
Amethyst kind of this color that is starting
to define early game by way of characters that
can turn into cards later and then control the
mid game and even be able to hog out some control
elements combined with the right color when you
pair with things like Maui Shark. Maui Shark
kind of becoming the card that's defining control
right now. I think if you're playing a very controlling
deck, often you're going to see Ruby and you're
often going to see that Maui Shark. That's pretty
much a hallmark of, okay, I'm playing a deck
that's comfortable playing a long game and is
going to have generally very strong card elements,
right? They're going to be very potent threats.
They're going to often be multiple cards for
one exchanges is what they're looking for to
stay in the game, right? We see that in the Ruby
Sapphire style decks with Maui, the hero to all
Maui. We see that more in the Ruby Amethyst decks
that are coming up with things like Iago, where
it's like, oh, I can trade multiple for one with
these cards, and I'm comfortable playing a very
long game because I know the inevitability is
going to go to the person who has the... higher
quality of card. Very much Control Not Dead.
Control took a big hit and needed some time,
and I think will continue to settle itself out
till we see exactly what it is. I think that
our prediction of mid -range becomes top of the
heap is kind of true. We see the most playable
decks that fall under the mid -range category,
but I do think on the whole, and if you disagree,
jump in, but I do think on the whole that Luricana
is kind of a game that wants two mid -range decks
duking it out, right? You want to play a card,
and then it's like, okay, well, I'm going to
counter. that with a better card. Well, I'm going
to counter that by playing this and then playing
a card that does well in this situation. Okay,
well, I'm going to play this card that does even
better than that. And it's kind of this game
of back and forth and leveraging small micro
advantages. I think if you look at Amethyst as
an ink identity, it's very much doing what the
design team wants Lurkana to be doing, right?
It's a lot of challenging. It's a lot of questing.
It's a small benefit, like quest for additional.
It's rush. It's challenger that gets these incremental
advantages, but it's not static all. the time.
We get to see a lot of that in this play pattern.
I didn't realize it probably till round two or
three when I had assembled a board of all evasives,
and I was like, oh. I can just quest and they
really can't do anything to stop me because I
accidentally made like half my deck evasive.
Yeah, and I didn't even really realize, like
I didn't run into that until I played you in
the semifinals. Yeah, it becomes kind of an annoyance
and an accidental side effect of dealing with
Diablo was the, oh yeah, now I can just win by
questing because it's real hard to challenge
into this. Except obviously for the mirror matches
where you're going to see a lot of those little
things come up. So it's pretty interesting what
we're seeing here and this is beginning to evolve.
things a lot right we're starting to see an uptick
in amber steel a deck that i think that was on
a lot of people's minds coming out of the band
i think that deck really gets to be a big winner
because it's a lot harder for these amethyst
decks because they're shaving on brawls like
dkp's current list doesn't play any so the more
we're shaving on brawls the more we're seeing
steel based removal things like that the steel
song decks get to really pray because now their
aerials get to actually exert and sing songs
and their large will -powered characters get
to survive these hits from things like genie
things like peter pan shadow finder it's just
like okay cool it's a daisy duck though so gonna
keep questing with it your pegasus is cute but
uh daisy literally beats it in a challenge like
you challenge all you want this is a one for
your pegasus it's a three one it's a real bad
day for your pegasus yeah and i we've seen a
lot of the ruby amethyst decks taking out the
bounce package yes and i did play an amber steel
deck in the tournament and if i didn't have my
foxes there was no way i was winning we're seeing
the elements that matter against the amber steel
deck specifically get really taken down a peg
because we're so focused on this evasive play
package. So I personally, I was still playing
rabbits. I was playing the full bounce package
in my deck. I wasn't playing all the snakes I
could have played, but I was playing four foxes.
I was playing three snakes. Yeah. Sam was holding
up three fingers there. Yeah. I was playing three
snakes and I was playing my rabbits and I was
playing my genies. I was playing more of a secondary
evasive kind of idea with, I have some genies
in there, but I'm leaning on the rabbit draw
engine to get me out of a lot of problems versus
what we're seeing now which is much heavier on
genies and little to no rabbits because we're
shaving the full on bounce package sometimes
even including merlin goat and do you think you
would change what you played i would make changes
to what i play but i think that ruby amethyst
is in a really good spot right now in the meta
steel songs becoming a big winner i think we're
going to see a lot of that i think the aggressive
decks need to really make sure that they can
do what they need to do thoroughly and efficiently
and with So I think a good answer is something
like Chernodogs because they have the ability
to survive easily against the steel decks and
they have Chernobog to turn all of their characters
that get banished over the course of the first
few turns into gas for Chernobog. Chernobog is
very hard to answer. Draw your one of Dragonfire.
Hope that you have your we don't talk about Bruno,
which is probably the cleanest answer that's
commonly seen in the meta for it. So it's like
it's just asking a lot and Chernodogs gets to
play Ursula. So it's like they can snipe songs.
So it's definitely a concern if that deck can
get going and doing its thing efficiently. So
it's a nice aggressive deck. We're starting to
see an uptick in Diggy Diggy Hole. We're starting
to see these decks start to come to the forefront
that are aggressive and also ebbing way into
the aggressively slanted midrange deck, something
akin to what you played with the Amethyst Steel
and also seeing Emerald Amethyst Oops All Diablo
style deck. Those both fall in that category
of they can definitely be a mid -range deck that
can play a little bit of a longer game but they
can also just aggressively explode out of the
gate get ahead and stay ahead very easily either
through card advantage or through significant
lure gain on well -statted characters so there's
a lot of advancement in the meta on the whole
you think amethyst steel still pretty well positioned
in the meta overall yeah i think i think it's
pretty well -statted i don't know if it needs
some more answers to evasives other than just
the Helga Sinclair. Against you, I was using
her in combination with Crabbe in order to take
out Genies and other evasive characters, but
I don't know if it needs something more. I think
we need a little bit more testing before Sword
Champs to see if a couple more elements need
to be added. Right, do we need to move towards
Genies to add extra evasives to the list? Does
it matter if they sing? Should we up our four
count? Should it go into, and then along came
Zeus as a consideration. A lot of things to think
about as the meta starts to really find its feet
post - innings for sure. So to close out the
episode, I wanted to just talk over the list
I shot out to everybody of various decks that
you could try. And at least this is kind of where
we see it, at least right now. One of the big
elements to the controlling deck, obviously being
Maui Shark. So the control decks right now seem
to be the Ruby Amethyst Shark decks or the Ruby
Sapphire Shark decks. They either have the Rampy
Shark deck or you have the Shark that's getting
rush and gains a lot of card advantage versus
a lot of ink advantage. Your aggressive decks,
the Diablo -style deck, the Churn -a -Dog deck,
and the Diggy -Diggy Hole, and your midrange
deck, Steel Song, the Emerald Steel discard deck.
Blurt Bowl is seeing a pretty large uptick, being
able to use Amethyst characters in the best way
possible. And then, of course, you have the Amethyst
Steel deck that Sam was talking about, either
aggressively slanted or more mid -range in styling,
so that, as well as the Diablo deck, can really
work either side of the room. You can be much
more aggressive, you can be much more mid -range,
and even with the build going one way or the
other, you still have the ability to dance between,
depending on what the role is, which is why these
decks, I think, see a lot of success, is because
of their flexibility in into various different
decks. That's kind of where the meta is, at least
from where we are. These are the things that
are evolving as a result of the bans. At least
we're finding our footing. And one nice thing
about getting thrown into the fire a little bit
was it tested our merit as two podcasters who
were forced to constantly look at the metagame
and understand how the metagame works so we can
try to help all of you get better at this game.
And I think we kind of landed on our feet and
we proved ourselves as at least able to, in a
room of unknowns, given a certain amount of information,
we'll be able to make the best possible choice
that we can. And I think we both did a pretty
good job of exactly that. So until next time,
keep questing.