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Tempo and disruption are the two mechanics I like to build a game plan around in most card games I play. Through tempo, we create a situation where the opponent is forced to react to our development, which often feels like a much more flexible situation to be in. If we manage to bring some disruption on top of that, we have a perfect recipe for a difficult situation to navigate for our opponent, often only solved by drawing the perfect card to get out of this predicament.
This is exactly what Emerald Amethyst Discard is about: seizing initiative on the board, followed up by discarding our opponent's hand so they have no shot at turning the situation around. Once in the lead both on the table, and in the available resources in hand, we can focus on gaining lore, while our opponent can just watch.
Sounds too good to be true? Let me guide you through the deck's intricacies in this Emerald Amethyst Discard guide.
Decklist & Card Breakdown
Key Synergies
Bounce Targets:
- 002-051 and 002-052 for value
- 002-050 and 002-058 for tempo
- 003-090 if you see multiple songs in your opponent's hand
Maximizing 002-089 to draw cards:
- Set 003-091 on turn three into 001-098 on turn four after you played 002-089
- Play 003-070 on turn one, 001-074 on turn two, and only quest with both on turn three, once 002-089 is in play.
- With its ward ability, the card is great to attach to 003-067 for extra draw at the start of the turn
What to attach to 003-067:
- Mostly cards with one lore only, as we won't feel as bad not questing with those to protect them from a challenge. 003-090, 002-089 are great in that regard.
- Avoid cards you know you will bounce in the near future.
- 003-070 and 001-074 typically aren't worth attaching, as we will quest with those. However, you could attach them to force your opponent into removing them, if you really want them to discard.
What to Ink?
We have a little of every synergy to throw in our inkwell, so the choice really comes down to what you value the most. Here are a few cards you can safely ink in certain situations :
- 003-090 against Non Ruby or Steel decks, as the card is mostly here to remove 001-128 or 001-195 from those decks. There is value against Amethyst, Emerald or Amber decks, but it won't be as game breaking. I like to play one in order to know my opponent's entire hand, but the other copies can be inked once you have the information.
- 002-050 and 003-054 aren't very useful against control oriented decks, which we will mostly look to disrupt with our discard synergy.
- 003-067 is a late game engine, so we can ink it early on if we don't have anything else. The same can be said about 002-051
- 001-098 and 001-064 are support cards which you can ink if you don't need them as you have enough draw or discard available.
Alternate builds
Featured in our tier list as the default build for Emerald Amethyst, this take on the deck packs much more draw, but less discard potential. Then, while the featured list relies on 002-089 to help in that regard, this one won't rely on specific synergies as much, and play more standalone cards. 003-077 and 001-049 are two cards I would consider running if you feel like 002-050 isn't finding enough utility.
Alternate Cards to Consider
You can already see plenty of ideas in the alternate build above if you would like to mess around with the build. Otherwise, here a few suggestions:
Donald Duck - Perfect Gentleman
Another draw option you can consider in the deck, as you often should be able to discard the card your opponent draws before they can use it. It also is a card you will rarely quest with to protect it from challenges, making it a good target to attach to your location.
Daisy Duck - Secret Agent
Another discard ability we can consider in the deck while it also contribute to gaining lore. I consider this card a little slow in this deck, and would play it only if I also had 002-077 included, as Daisy can discard the card Donald just gave to our opponent. Otherwise, you either want to focus on discarding their hand, or gaining lore to close out the game, not really a slow middle ground. But it's inkable, so maybe.
Robin Hood - Daydreamer
If you feel like you aren't getting enough value from the location, you can experiment with high lore potential cards such as this one. It comes down a little too late for my taste, often just ending in my inkwell, but could be a fine addition in a Steel dominated metagame, or if you struggle to keep 003-067 on the field.
Friar Tuck - Priest of Nottingham
A card I don't like so much as it only benefits us when our opponent has more cards than we do, which isn't supposed to happen if we could disrupt them early on. However, with two lore when it quests, you could consider this card in a more tempo oriented build, one you aren't trying to empty your opponent's hand early in the match.
How to Play
The deck is centered around mixing the Amethyst bounce synergy, in order to bring tempo early on and seize the initiative on board, alongside the Emerald discard package, acting as the disruptive side of the deck.
There are many ways to use the bounce mechanic in this deck, represented by 002-049 and 002-046, but also 001-095 as we can target our own cards with the song. First we have the obvious synergy with 002-051, 002-050 and 002-052, the foundation of the Amethyst Bounce package, recently joined by 002-058 for removal potential. A few cards in Emerald are also nice targets, such as 003-090 to keep discarding opposing songs if we saw several in our opponent's hand.
Once we managed to gain the upper hand, and limit our opponent's ability to develop due to a lack of cards, we can deploy our lore and draw engine, 003-067. In this deck, the location acts as a win condition, helping us reach twenty lore faster, but also a draw engine alongside 002-089, as a tempo deck cannot afford to lack cards to use during its turn. Once we ran our opponent out of cards, dealing the seven damages to clear the location can be very difficult for them, allowing us to cruise to the finish line.
Key Turns
Turn three and four tend to be the most important turns with this deck. Oftentimes, we will look to play either 003-091 or 002-089 so we can go off with songs, or start emptying our opponents hand while filling our own.
In order to be able to play either card safely, our first two turns can take two directions, which are entirely based on our opponent:
- Against a tempo based opponent, we need to limit their development first and foremost. Indeed, they will play cards proactively, limiting how many we can discard, and the value we can get out of 002-089 in the process. Then, we're better off building around our Amethyst cards, and use 003-091 to sing 001-064 for a refill if we need to. Only then we'll transfer to the value oriented part of our deck to start gaining lore.
- If the opponent is slow off the gate, then 002-089 has a shot at being an amazing draw engine, worth building around it. Then, we would rather develop our Emerald cards early on to set up some discards. In this pattern, we can either play 002-089 on turn threeand sing 001-098 with 001-074 or delay it by a turn to develop 003-091 on three, and get some fireworks on turn four.
In the first scenario, we'll often keep focusing on staying ahead at all times, and take lore where we can, without focusing on it until we build a big enough lead to start a race to the finish line. In the second scenario, our goal is to get 003-067 in play once we cleared our opponent's hand, so they can't deal with it unless they draw perfectly.
In both cases, turn three and four are key, as this is when we'll have enough ink to discard multiple cards in a turn, or about the time we need to have the board under control so we can develop cards which won't help in that regard.
Mulligan
We've said it many times already, but the deck wants either its Amethyst side against a tempo oriented opponent, while Emerald tools will be more valuable against control builds.
003-090 is a card I value in both match-ups, as checking the opponent's hand is very strong, while most decks have a song of some sort. Even if you see they don't, you can always ink the next copies of the card.
003-091 is another card I could see myself keep all the time. We have songs for all kind of opponents, and we can ink the card if we don't draw any and feel it will be too slow in that precise situation.
The rest of the cards will be more match-up based, although it is always safer to keep an inkable rather than a card we have to play. 002-052 is a card I would never keep for example, same for 001-095 unless I have 003-091 already. 002-051 is useless until the late game, but could be kept to ink if you have a great hand and want to make sure you can feed your inkwell early.
Weaknesses to Be Aware Of
There are two key success factors to be mindful of with this deck: Know when to attack your opponent's hand or board, typically favoring one or your other color. Also, don't look for a long match, at least when it comes to getting set. We have a lot of draw potential, so it might feel like we aren't running out of cards anytime soon. Yet, we don't have so much removal potential, especially regarding large threats, so we need to turn the match into a race to twenty lore sooner rather than later.
Basically, this deck uses the Bounce and Discard mechanics in order to build the lead both on the board or card wise. However, this lead only means something if we can close the game before our opponent can recover.
In the current metagame, many decks have powerful draw engines, which they will find eventually, or expensive characters we can only send back in their hand at best. As such, see Emerald Amethyst as a great deck to force the opponent into finding those specific cards to stand a chance in the match, but don't be cocky thinking you will win for sure when they do find them. Instead, build a lead so big you can safely focus on gaining lore through 003-091 and 002-051, and end the match before your opponent's most impactful cards can turn it around.
Closing Words
If you enjoy an agressive, tempo oriented, yet disruptive deck, I can only recommend you try Emerald Amethyst currently. The Emeral Steel archetype is riding a bigger wave of momentum currently, but one could argue the Amethyst package has more upsides with locations being less of a factor in the metagame lately, while agressive decks are progressing.
I personnally had a blast learning the intricacies of this deck, and could definately consider it for a set championship if I was to enter one of those. If you do, make sure you focus on building the lead first and foremost, and get those incremental lore gains in during that phase. Once you see the board is largely in your favor, or your opponent has to draw perfectly to compete due a very limited hand,, turn the match into a race to the finish line. It is a simple, basic formula, but the current metagame seems to reward it lately.
I hope this guide was helpful in mastering Emerald Amethyst Discard. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out through my Twitter page.
Good Game Everyone!
