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The third week of Set Championships sees a little shakeup in previously popular decks dropping to Tier 3 and a few combo decks inching up to Tier 2. The top five decks pretty much haven't budged from their perch, and it's likely that this remains the same til the next major tournament, the Lorcana Challenge in Atlanta, GA on May 25-26.
Check out the latest snapshot of the Lorcana Constructed metagame along with featured decks from the past week's events below.
Tier List
| Tier | Deck | Meta Share | Wins |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tier 1 |   Amber Steel Steelsong | 16% | 13 |
 Amethyst Steel Bounce | 13% | 15 | |
 Amethyst Ruby Evasive | 12% | 10 | |
 Ruby Sapphire Pawpsicle | 11% | 10 | |
| Tier 2 | Amethyst Sapphire Bounce | 6% | 2 |
 Emerald Steel Discard | 5% | 4 | |
| Amber Emerald Chernadog | 5% | 2 | |
| Amethyst Steel Jafar | 5% | 2 | |
| Tier 3 | Sapphire Steel Aggro | 4% | 2 |
| Amethyst Ruby Bounce | 4% | 2 | |
| Amethyst Emerald Discard | 3% | 2 | |
| Amethyst Emerald Bounce | 3% | 2 | |
| Amber Emerald Songs | 3% | 2 |
Meta Overview
Steelsong edges out the rest of the most popular deck in Lorcana right now, though the margins between them in terms of meta share numbers and finishes are smaller than ever. Without a truly dominant archetype like in previous metas, Lorcana TCG is in a pretty diverse and competitive state right now.
The evasive version of Amethyst Ruby has thoroughly supplanted traditional Bounce Control, which is now firmly a Tier 3 deck popularity-wise. With so much evasiveness around, Diablo and Emerald as a whole has seen a steady decline.
Discard strategies hasn't been doing as great in this meta where decks can either get on the board quickly or have ways to spring back from hand disruption.
Climbing up from almost off-meta status, combo decks Chernadog and Jafar Wheels have become a lot more popular recently. With less discard overall, they're able to pull off their gameplans more reliably and manage to survive long enough to do so.
Tier 1
Amber Steel Steelsong
Steelsong remains the most popular deck of the Set Champs now three weeks in. It's the best way to play Amber Steel, though some still prefer the aggro and Dwarf's Mine versions. Plus, there's a clear optimal list too, as winning decklists seem to have less than 10 cards different between them.
003-190-robin-hood-champion-of-sherwood and 002-177-cinderella-stouthearted typically top the deck's curve as strong challengers that benefit the most from Rapunzel's heal. They can come down earlier with shift and establish even better board control, too.
With so many singers, including 004-025-ursula-vanessa and 005-003-prince-naveen-ukulele-player which are now the most common inclusions after the core ones, the deck can unload free songs quickly and get set up for a full reload with 001-195-a-whole-new-world.
This deck went 7-1-1 using 004-175-ariel-sonic-warrior for even more board control:
Amethyst Steel Bounce
Tempo-oriented Amethyst Steel is right up there with Steelsong in terms of performance this week. Instead of singers, it has more impactful characters that generate value just by entering and leaving play.
There's a lot more flexibility in how you can build this deck compared to others. You can tweak the numbers per card and make inclusions/omissions depending on your preferred strategy. Fore example, 005-193-doc-bold-knight is very efficient card draw, but requires a certain playstyle to maximize.
007-057-giant-cobra-ghostly-serpent was also a prominent 4-of in previous weeks, but has seen less and less play lately with all the cheap interaction around. Players also use either 4, 2 or no 006-053-genie-wish-fulfilled at all.
Here's a winning list sporting those cards along with an interesting choice picking 001-200-smash over the usual songs:
Amethyst Ruby Evasive
Arguably the freshest top deck in recent weeks, the Evasive deck presents a different way to control the board compared to the standard Amethyst Ruby Bounce Control. Rush and evasive feels busted at times, letting you trade advantageously and punishing aggressive questers.
004-054-peter-pan-shadow-finder leads the charge, letting you catch opponents off guard with quick rushers that are often safe from retaliation. With all of these sneaky guys, hiding them in 003-067-the-queens-castle-mirror-chamber seems like a great idea. 004-113-lumiere-fiery-friend gives your challenges extra oomph.
This list goes even harder on the challenges, utilizing 004-131-imperial-proclamation and 007-134-moana-island-explorer:
Ruby Sapphire Pawpsicle
Ruby Sapphire Maui continues to be the premier control deck of the format. 001-114-maui-hero-to-all challenges with reckless abandon, while 006-124-maui-half-shark recurs actions, letting you dig for answers or simply race for the win through 004-128-a-pirates-life.
007-162-tamatoa-happy-as-a-clam remains the best reason to keep the deck's namesake. Some lists have recently started to include more items, going as many as 20 in total similar to the pre-ban meta with 001-159-tamatoa-so-shiny as the main win con, and less Maui overall.
Aside from 004-125-sisu-empowered-sibling, some card choices need to be made at the top end, with 001-147-hades-infernal-schemer and 001-113-maleficent-monstrous-dragon fighting for slots.
Here's a spicy take with 007-157-monsieur-darque-despicable-proprietor as Hiram-lite:
Tier 2
Amethyst Sapphire Bounce
Blurple merges the Amethyst bounce package with Sapphire item and ramp stuff for a midrange value engine that can go the distance. Some recent versions are going lighter on the bounce for faster and more impactful board presence.
At the top end is 001-147-hades-infernal-schemer, an amazing answer to the most problematic character on the board. 007-049-iago-giant-spectral-parrot makes a splash here as a large 4-cost alongside other evasive threats.
The winning deck below has some less played card choices from 005-037-cogsworth-illuminary-watchman to 001-042-elsa-spirit-of-winter.
Emerald Steel Discard
Emerald Steel is shaping to be the best choice for discard players, as it can deal with characters that make it to the board more efficiently with Steel songs.
With 003-091-ursula-deceiver-of-all doubling songs and 002-089-prince-john-greediest-of-all really putting the hurt with every discard, Emerald Steel promises a lot of card advantage, especially with an unanswered 004-070-diablo-devoted-herald.
003-081-morph-space-goo enables faster 002-173-beast-tragic-hero or 007-114-pete-space-pirate. 004-101-hidden-cove-tranquil-haven gives the fragile characters in the deck just a tad more survivability, which is nice with all the rushers out there.
Amber Emerald Chernadog
Essentially a combo deck, Chernadog wants to discount both 007-010-tramp-street-smart-dog and 003-003-chernabog-evildoer to play them as early as possible. Going wide with cheap characters does both, since the street-smart dog can fill up your discard to make the evildoer cost very little, even free.
The deck is very fun when it works and you draw all the key pieces in time. There's a lot of card draw to get you there but you're less able to fight back if your deck isn't cooperating. The payoff is worth it as it can cost the opponent a lot to deal with an early Chernabog, and you can chain them.
Amethyst Steel Jafar
This older combo deck is making a comeback with the addition of 007-190-jafar-aspiring-ruler from Archazia's Island to bump the number of shift targets. The gameplan is getting 003-042-jafar-striking-illusionist down and chaining 001-195-a-whole-new-world to rocket lore gain, with the burst potential proving very reliable against slower decks.
Before you get to wheeling like that, you have a somewhat typical Amethyst Steel deck to keep the board manageable and gain as much lore as you can so you need fewer wheels later. The deck is favoring an evasive build recently in order to deal with their brethren more easily.
