Into the Inklands Set Review: Amethyst

Disney Lorcana's third set will be releasing to local game stores very soon, so we are taking a look at the full set and reveiwing all the cards. In this post, I will be reviewing all the Amethyst cards from Into the Inklands.

Introduction

Disney Lorcana's third set will be releasing to local game stores very soon, so we are taking a look at the full set and reveiwing all the cards. With so many cards to go through, we will be breaking this series of reviews down by ink color. In this post, I will be reviewing all the Amethyst cards from Into the Inklands.

Amethyst has been a dominant ink color in the Rise of the Floodborn meta, mostly paired with Ruby. Its bounce package made up of the Madam Mims and Merlins was so good that it fit into tons of decks, including aggro and control decks alike. Will they continue to get these versatile and powerful cards? Or will the power level come down a bit in Into the Inklands? Let's find out!

Into The Inklands Set Review

Amber
Amethyst
Emerald

Ruby
Sapphire
Steel

Rating Scale

Each card will be rated from 1 to 5. Here is roughly what each rating means:

1 = Garbage - These cards are unplayable in nearly all circumstances. You would never consider adding these cards to your constructed deck and probably don't want to see them in limited formats either. Also sometimes known as "pack filler". When you get these cards, add them to your binder and leave them there.

2 = Kinda Bad - These cards are generally unplayable under most circumstances. They may be good in very specific or very niche situations but you would almost never seriously consider putting them in a competitive deck. They're just too awkward or clunky to see use realistically. They can sometimes be serviceable options in limited formats though.

3 = Fair. These cards are not powerful enough to be deck-defining cards in playable decks nor are they bad enough that you would never consider them. They're somewhere in the middle of the road, and cards in this range could jump in and out of the meta depending on how it changes, either within the current set or possibly even future sets. These cards are never worth dismissing out of hand because it's always possible that they could be good enough to see play if the meta calls for them.

4 = Very Good. These cards are powerful enough that they become staple cards in competitive or serious decks. Cutting it from a competitive deck and trying to swap in something else would almost never be recommended because the card is too important to the deck's overall strategy.

5 = Insane. These cards are the most powerful cards in the set. The meta can shift by their very presence. They are the superstar cards of the best of the best decks. They may be able to singlehandedly move the power of a deck a couple tiers higher in the meta reports than they would otherwise. When people think of the defining cards of the set, they think of these cards.

Into the Inklands Amethyst Cards

Alice - Tea Alchemist

Alice - Tea Alchemist is a Super Rare card with a unique ability. You can exert her to exert an opposing character and if there are any other characters of the same name they exert as well. But the times you are exerting more than one character are going to be rare. And even then, you don't gain anything by exerting unless you can challenge into the exerted characters. This isn't an Elsa - Spirit of Winter type effect. So, the majority of the time, Alice is going to be a more expensive Elsa - Snow Queen. Meh.

Rating: 2/5

Chernabog's Followers - Creatures of Evil

At first glance, you might think Chernabog's Followers will only really go into a Chernabog - Evildoer. And, it's true, they do synergize very well with their overlord. But they really can go into any deck, as chipping away at your lore total and then eventually getting a draw for them is not bad. If your opponent doesn't have a favorable trade on board, just leave them up; if they do, banish them and get the draw. They remind me a bit of Kuzco - Wanted Llama, which saw a decent amount of play in the Floodborn meta, and I think this card could see play as well.

Rating: 4/5

Diablo - Faithful Pet

Diablo is Maleficent's familiar and so it makes sense he would synergize with Maleficent cards. But his Looking For Aurora ability is not great. A tiny amount of draw improvement is not enough for me to want to play an under-statted one-drop. Especially when that ability is conditional.

Rating: 2/5

Genie - Supportive Friend

This Genie can grant you three wishes in the form of three cards. Drawing 3 is a lot, but you have to sacrifice some tempo to do it by removing this Genie from your board. You also don't get the draw immediately, you have to play him and wait a turn for his ink to dry first. Only then can you quest and get your card draw. While I think he's slow and a bit clunky, I do think he may see some play and that's mostly because of Jafar - Striking Illusionist. He curves so perfectly into Jafar on turn 5, giving you an immediate 3 lore gain, that we might see a couple of Genies make the Jafar lists.

Rating: 3/5

Hydros - Ice Titan

Hydros is effectively an Elsa - Snow Queen that trades 1 Willpower for 1 Lore. That would normally be a decent trade except that 2 Willpower is way worse than 3 Willpower in Lorcana. You would probably rather the extra Willpower, especially if you value the exert ability. Since you can't use that ability and quest at the same time anyway, the extra lore is sort of wasted. Now this card is also a Titan and there is support for a Titan tribal deck this set, but I don't expect that deck to be very good. All in all, I think you'd be better off playing Elsa, if you really wanted this freeze effect.

Rating: 2/5

Iago - Pretty Polly

This is Fidget - Ratigan's Henchman in Amethyst. Fidget did see some play as a way to counter Minnie Mouse - Stylish Surfer, so if Minnie continues to be a problem, we might see Iago showing up occasionally to deal with her. Not a super exciting card, otherwise.

Rating: 3/5

Jafar - Lamp Thief

Jafar - Lamp Thief offers a bit of draw improvement but you are losing 1 Strength and 1 Willpower over a vanilla character. And, as mentioned previously, 2 Willpower is a lot worse than 3. I think as a standalone card, this is underwhelming and would not see any play. But since it is a potential Shift target for the Floodborn Jafar, it will probably make it into decks.

Rating: 3/5

Jafar - Striking Illusionist

Now this is a legendary. Amazing art, good value for the cost and a potentially game-breaking ability. Jafar's Power Beyond Measure nets you a lore every time you draw a card while he is exerted. This, of course, means you can't get a lore when you draw your card at the start of your turn, but drawing cards at any other time during your turn will gain you 1 lore. The obvious combo with Jafar is, as a Shift 5, you can shift him out on turn 5 and immediately sing A Whole New World with him, giving you SEVEN LORE and a full hand. That's powerful stuff.

He also just works with any and all other card draw in the game, like Friends On The Other Side, Let the Storm Rage On, Maleficent - Sorceress, etc. These are all pretty good cards that you want to be playing in your deck anyway, so slotting in Jafar to give them even more value is a no-brainer.

And, to top it all off, he has 5 Willpower and Evasive. So even when he is exerted he is not the easiest to remove. The best removal option for him will be hard removal like Dragon Fire and the new Steel song, And Then Along Came Zeus. But most likely these cards will be used to remove him after he has already given you a lot of value the turn he comes down. So, it may just be too little, too late.

This Jafar has all the makings of the most powerful Legendary in the set and easily deserves the highest rating. A true meta-defining card.

Rating: 5/5

Lena Sabrewing - Rebellious Teenager

Lena Sabrewing is the first 2-cost Rush character in Amethyst. Rush is a great keyword and she is even inkable to boot, but her stat line is just not good enough. You want high Strength, not high Willpower on your Rush characters. Maybe if the meta is overrun with Lilo - Making a Wish and such, she might be a decent option. But I doubt it.

Rating: 2/5

Magic Broom - Dancing Duster

The Broom deck is getting a lot of support in Into the Inklands and this Magic Broom card is one of those support pieces. It comes with the Elsa - Spirit of Winter freeze effect, but you can only target one character and only if you have a Sorcerer in play. That condition isn't too hard to meet, since there are many Sorcerers in Amethyst with, of course, Mickey Mouse - Wayward Sorcerer being an obvious inclusion in that deck anyway. The problem is this card costs 6 and is uninkable. Even with a Mickey in play and getting that 1 ink Broom discount, you are still paying 5 for a weak body and a so-so effect. That is just too rich for my blood.

Rating: 2/5

Magic Broom - Fast Cleaner

Now this Broom is a bit more appealing. You are paying 5 for it but getting a 4/4 Rush character that can quest for 2 lore. If you have a Mickey out, you can play him for only 4, making him a better Zeus - God of Lightning. You do have the drawback of having to shuffle Broom cards back into your deck though. I say it's a drawback because once you get into the mid and late-game you don't want to dilute your draws with a bunch of cheap Broom cards, you want to be drawing more impactful cards. For that reason, it's not a stand-out card but it's probably the best Broom yet.

Rating: 3/5

Magic Broom - The Big Sweeper

Yet another Broom card, this one is inkable and, at only 3 ink, the cheapest of the three Brooms this set. Getting this down to 2-cost with a Mickey on board is pretty good, especially if you can get it to a location. The Sorcerer's Tower - Wondrous Workspace will be key here as you can get it there for free and it quests for an additional lore. A 3/5 that quests for 2 lore and only costs you 2 ink when you have a Mickey in play is a very good deal. The question is how consistently can you have both of those pieces in play and this in hand ready to go? I think it will probably happen less often than you'd hope and when it doesn't you are left with a relatively underwhelming vanilla character.

Rating: 2/5

Magic Carpet - Flying Rug

Locations and their impact on the game is tough to evaluate but I think one thing is fairly certain, you are going to need cheap ways to move characters there. Paying the full movement cost, especially on a lot of the more powerful locations, is just way too big of a tempo loss. Enter Magic Carpet. This flying rug can exert and allows you to move a character to a location for free. And since he has Evasive, he is somewhat more likely to stick around so you can do this multiple times. As far as location movement enablers go, it's probably not as good as Map of Treasure Planet but it's not a bad fallback option.

Rating: 3/5

Magica de Spell - Ambitious Witch

Magica de Spell is a vanilla 2/3/1 for 2. She's a Shift target for the Floodborn Magica and nothing more.

Rating: 2/5

Magica de Spell - The Midas Touch

And here is the Floodborn Magica de Spell. She is a 7 cost uninkable 4/6, which is quite expensive, but she has Shift 5 so you'll often get her out earlier. And she has... zero lore? Not really though, as her ability allows her to quest for an amount of lore equal to the cost of one of your items in play. This is a very unique effect but it's not all that exciting when you break it down.

Right now, we are mostly wanting to play cheap items, so Magica is not going to be working in existing item decks. You don't want a 4/6 that quests for 1 or 2, even at the discounted Shift cost. I'm not even that impressed if you can get her questing for 3. I really need to see 4 or higher to make this worthwhile. Most consistent combo may be Eye of the Fates in play, shift out Magica, use Eye on her and then quest with her for 5 lore. That's pretty good.

The real dream is, of course, getting a Lucky Dime in play and questing for a whopping seven lore. Now that is certainly a combo worth pursuing, I just don't know how consistent it will be. Paying seven ink for the Lucky Dime is a lot. Yes, you can cheat it out with Scrooge McDuck - Richest Duck in the World but that is yet even more setup required for this combo. Oh, and after you do all that setup, how sad are you going to be when your opponent just plays a Benja - Guardian of the Dragon Gem and blows everything up?

Ultimately, while Magica has a very cool and unique effect, I don't see the deck she wants to go in being very consistent, so I think she is a relatively mid card.

Rating: 3/5

Magica de Spell - Thieving Sorceress

Another Magica de Spell, this one works as an on-curve Shift target that also comes with an ability. Unfortunatley, I don't see that ability being all that useful most of the time though. It doesn't really synergize with what the Floodborn Magica's deck wants to be doing. Why would you want to return items to your hand when you need them in play?

You can use it against your opponent's items, of course, but the condition means you can't target every item in the game nor is the item destroyed. She's just a worse Wildcat - Mechanic which is already just a worse Benja - Guardian of the Dragon Gem. If you want item hate, there are better cards for it. So she will really only see play as a Shift target and I'm not super high on the Magica deck working, so, yeah.

Rating: 2/5

Maleficent - Mistress of All Evil

Maleficent - Mistress of All Evil is Amethyst's other Legendary for this set. As a 5 cost 2/3, the body is very underwhelming, so she will need to come with very strong abilities to see play. First up, her Dark Knowledge ability is quite good, letting you draw a card every time you quest. Compared to The Queen - Wicked and Vain, this is an upgrade, since you don't have to choose between drawing and questing.

And then her Divination ability lets you move some damage around, either from your own characters to an opposing character or between opposing characters. Now this ability doesn't seem like it will be too relevant. It is relatively rare for characters to stick around on board with damage counters on them. This is one of the reasons heal effects just haven't been very good in Lorcana. And if there aren't any damage counters to move, this ability does literally nothing.

So she's really living or dying off of her draw and while I do like being able to quest and draw each turn, at only 3 Willpower, she's not going to be sticking around on board for long. In fact, she may not even make it one turn before just being banished by a Smash or And Then Along Came Zeus. This is why you ideally want your big Legendary cards to have an immediate effect.

All in all, a weak body with a bad ability and a good but slow ability makes for a so-so Legendary.

Rating: 3/5

Mama Odie - Voice of Wisdom

Another character with a damage transferring effect, this Mama Odie can move damage whenever she quests. As I've already explained, I don't feel like this effect will be very strong. So having to pay 6 ink for this character that may only be questing for 2 lore and not doing much else feels too pricy.

Rating: 2/5

Pua - Potbellied Pig

Pua makes his first appearance in Disney Lorcana. He's a 2/2 for 2 ink that quests for 2 lore. 2-drops that quest for 2 lore are always worth considering in aggro decks. And he comes with an ability, although it's not a broadly helpful one. In a mill deck, it is great. You can run a 60 card mill deck and look to shuffle a few Puas back into your deck during the game to ensure you never deck out before your opponent. In every other deck though, you don't ever want to use this. Thankfully, it's a "may", so you don't have to. So yeah, he's auto-include in mill decks, but is just okay otherwise.

Rating: 3/5

Rafiki - Mystical Fighter

Rafiki gets a second Amethyst card and this one is a 1-cost 0/2, but he has Challenger +3. He is sort of a Captain Hook - Forceful Duelist, although obviously worse since he sits at 0 Strength when being challenged. But Hook is already a decent card, so maybe a similar 1-drop that can also swing in for 3 is good enough? It deals with all the 1/3s out there pretty well. His Ancient Skills ability is mostly irrelevant right now, but could see some niche uses at some point down the road. I think he's decent.

Rating: 3/5

Stratos - Tornado Titan

Stratos is the finisher for the Titan deck. You can exert him and gain lore equal to the number of Titans you have out. Since he himself is a Titan, he will at least always quest for 1. The real hope though is you have 3 or 4 other Titans out, you quest with him and then use Hades - Hotheaded Ruler to ready him and quest it again. And then maybe you can use Pyros - Lava Titan's ability to ready Hades, and do it all over again?

OK, that is probably a pipe dream. It's hard to setup these perfect board states when, y'know, your opponent is also playing the game. But, as a baseline 4/4 Evasive body that can quest for 1, he's at least not terrible. And if you can get him to quest for 2 or 3 on occasion, you might be happy with that.

Rating: 3/5

The Firebird - Force of Destruction

That stat distribution is quite something. It's not good, but it's something alright! In limited formats, you probably are okay with drafting this as just a big, efficient body that can take out something higher costed. But you never want to play this in constructed.

Rating: 1/5

The Queen - Hateful Rival

Another vanilla card. I don't even think you would play this in an Amber/Amethyst deck as a Shift target for The Queen - Commanding Presence. This feels like it might be a setup to a more powerful Amethyst Floodborn Queen, but since she doesn't exist yet, this card is trash.

Rating: 1/5

Treasure Guardian - Protector of the Cave

I did not have "cave from Aladdin as a character" on my Lorcana bingo card, but here we are. It does at least synergize with locations. A 4-cost 6/6 that quests for 2 is not bad on paper, but since you have to move it to a location for it to do anything, it's more like a 5 or maybe even 6 cost character. And then even once it is there, your opponent doesn't even need to bother dealing with the 6/6 body to neutralize the threat, they can just remove the location. I'll pass on this.

Rating: 1/5

Ursula - Sea Witch

Ursula gets another Amethyst card, this one a 3/3 for 3 cost that comes with the ability You're Too Late. The ability and cost remind me Jasper - Common Crook in that it can lock down an opponent's card for a turn when it quests. Now Jasper only locks a character out from questing, whereas Ursula can lock them down from doing any action: questing, challenging, even singing. That is much better but it comes with the caveat that the character needs to be exerted first. I think that makes this card a bit clunky to use effectively and probably not quite good enough.

Rating: 2/5

Bestow a Gift

Bestow a Gift has the damage transfer ability on an Action card. I don't even rate this ability on characters, so having to spend a whole card to do it is downright awful. A shame too, because the art for this card is gorgeous.

Rating: 1/5

It Calls Me

It Calls Me is a 1-cost action that draws you a card and then lets you shuffle up to 3 cards into your opponent's deck. The shuffle effect is minor and if that is all there was to this card, I'd say it's not worth running. But since the card cycles itself, it could see play in "action matters" decks that want to play a lot of cheap actions in a turn. A 1-cost song that can be sung by any character in the game is perfect for that deck. It could even see play in a deck that just wants to cycle through its deck quickly. Combo decks particularly like these kinds of cards as they are effectively "draw again" cards that let you get closer to your combo pieces. The card is cheap, versatile, and flexible so I think it will see play somewhere.

Rating: 4/5

Last-Ditch Effort

Siri, show me a card that is the opposite of cheap, versatile and flexible? Last-Ditch Effort is a 3-cost uninkable action, that is basically Freeze with a slight benefit. Is that benefit worth paying one extra ink for? Absolutely not.

Rating: 1/5

The Boss is on a Roll

The Boss is on a Roll is, I belive, the first action card that just unconditionally gains you lore. For that reason, I don't want to dismiss it completely out of hand. But the draw improvement effect that comes with it is not all that helpful. It does work well with The Sorcerer's Hat, if you want to build a Hat deck. But otherwise, I don't see it being too impactful.

Rating: 2/5

The Lamp

I love the theme of this card. You rub the lamp and get to choose which genie pops out, good or evil. Or, you could even do both, if you have a Jafar and Genie in play. Most of the time you will be aiming for the draw though. Paying 2 ink to draw 2 cards, even conditionally, is decent. So this could definitely see play in Jafar - Striking Illusionist decks as a way to draw cards and gain lore.

Rating: 3/5

The Sorcerer's Hat

The Sorcerer's Hat

The Sorcerer's Hat is a fun little item card. You get to draw an extra card each turn, for 1 ink, provided you can correctly predict the card you will draw. Of course, there are ways to guarantee you will always guess it correctly. It was also confirmed by the game devs that you don't need to name the card's subtitle. So just saying "Captain Hook" will mean you get the draw no matter if you turn over Jafar - Lamp Thief or Jafar - Striking Illusionist. That definitely makes this card better, but still not sure it is good. Super flavorful though.

Rating: 2/5

Forbidden Mountain - Maleficent's Castle

Forbidden Mountain - Maleficent's Castle

Forbidden Mountain is Amethyst's vanilla location. As a vanilla there isn't much to say about it. You probably only play it if you really want to stack a lot of locations for something like John Silver - Greedy Treasure Seeker. Otherwise, it's probably not good enough.

Rating: 2/5

The Queen's Castle - Mirror Chamber

Now this is an interesting location for sure. Drawing extra cards each turn is good. I mean, Beast - Tragic Hero is the best card from Rise of the Floodborn for a reason. And this location can let you draw more than just one extra card a turn. At a movement cost of 1, it's not that expensive to get characters there. The biggest hurdle is that 4 cost to play it. but if you are playing Amethyst/Ruby Control, you could include Jim Hawkins - Space Pirate in your deck, use him to play it for free and immediately have a character there ready to draw you an extra card next turn. Oh, and all that, plus it gives you two passive lore each turn? It seem spicy.

Rating: 4/5

The Sorcerer's Tower - Wondrous Workspace

The Sorcerer's Tower is a location for the Broom decks. And in a Broom deck, it will be quite good. You can move your Brooms there for free and they get some additional lore as a benefit. It doesn't have any passive lore though, which is a bummer. It also only works in the Broom deck and I just don't think the Broom deck is going to be good. So I can't rate this one too highly.

Rating: 2/5

I don't see that Amethyst in this set has gotten anything as universally as good as the bounce cards from Floodborn. And the tribal decks for Titans and Brooms look a bit lackluster. But that doesn't mean this set was a complete dud for the ink. The Floodborn Jafar is crazy strong, possibly the best card in the set. And I think Mirror Chamber could be a very good location for control decks.

Honestly though, Amethyst could stand to lose a bit of power overall, to allow some other inks to catch up. So a middling expansion for the ink is probably fine. I think the color will still be well-represented in the meta going forward.

Next up, we'll look at Emerald.

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An avid player of card games since he got hooked on the Star Wars CCG back in his teens, Phil "gutshot" Bicking is excited to share his years of expertise to players of Lorcana.

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