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With a bit of a delay, due to Set Championship's last week, here comes a new 100+ players tournament report. The French Lorcana community is going wild right now and keeps running many of the biggest European events. Today, I will be covering the Top 8 Decks of the Lore Quest tournament, organized by Relic TCG. As you may already know, Relic TCG is a well-known French tournament organizer, focusing mostly on MTG events. The tournament took place one week before the start of Set Championship and likely impacted the metagame (at least locally in France).
Top 8 Decks of The Lore Quest by Relic Tour
We are close to the end of Set 3. Indeed, Set 4 Ursula's Return card reveals are on the way. But the meta seems to be still opened, with 5 different ink combinations making top 8. Going from the expected Ruby Amethyst to the original Purple Steel Tempo build.
Lore Quest Tournament Top 8
Gilles Molina - "Jim real estate agency post Aulnay"
Gilles's Ruby Amethyst is a classic one, nothing too fancy except may be the swap of some Olaf - Friendly Snowman for Chernabog's Followers - Creatures of Evil. The 2 Strength really matters in the early turns, to face Cinderella - Ballroom Sensation or a Robin Hood - Beloved Outlaw threatening for his Floodborn version. Another interesting choice is the 3rd copy of Jim Hawkins - Space Traveler and his RLS Legacy - Solar Galleon going a bit further on the location plan than usual.
Mattéo "Axyose" - Ruby Amethyst
As mentioned, the location plan in Ruby Amethyst is losing popularity. Indeed, the huge tempo boost offered by Jim Hawkins - Space Traveler seems a bit far from the gameplan of the deck, which is to control aggro decks and out-value midrange decks. So, what came to me first is the absence of Madame Medusa - The Boss making room in the uninkable slots for Pinocchio - Talkative Puppet. Moreover, to fill the gap of controlling tools Yzma - Scary Beyond All Reason makes a return, offering a 6-cost body that can either remove an opponent's threat or give you some card advantage by shuffling and drawing 2 more fresh cards.
Robin Halay "Blackcobra" - Emerald Amethyst Tempo
BlackCobra managed to land a copy of Emerald Amethyst into the top. Despite being less and less popular, the tempo build of Emerald Amethyst still has its lovers. The deck has high potential but its decisions are so difficult and bad choices are heavily punished. That's why only early fans of the deck keep playing and pushing it. Some new builds emerged including the discard package of Prince John - Greediest of All and Sudden Chill along side both versions of Ursula already included in the tempo build.
Smoxie - Purple Hood
Spiciness appears with Smoxie's take on Amethyst Steel. Mixing the 2 best ink colors of set 3 allows him to take advantage of the well-known Amethyst card draw engine based on Merlin - Rabbit and the highly-effective interaction spells of Steel such as Let the Storm Rage On or And Then Along Came Zeus. Then, to make the bridge from early to midgame more consistent, what could be better than Robin Hood - Champion of Sherwood? The card just gives you great value while preventing your opponent from getting to quest freely.
Top 4
Marius Pallard "Your13l" - Ruby Amethyst
Marius Pallard brings to us a quite classy way to dodge Ursula - Deceiver's ability by removing Be Prepared for a more tempo-oriented answer in Elsa - Spirit of Winter. Elsa helps close the game fast while locking out your opponent's characters. And, if the game goes long enough, you can even bounce her back to your hand (after questing for 3 lore, of course) to deep freeze your opponent for multiple turns!
Arthur Chambrin "Pata" - Steelsong Simba
Sorry guys, but I have no clue what happened here. Steelsong in the top 4? Fine. But why is it a Simba version? I have no answer as to why Simba - Rightful King and Simba - Fighting Prince are here. Only being a fan of the Lion King franchise makes sense to me to not prioritize Tinker Bell - Giant Fairy over Simba - Fighting Prince!
Top 2
Clement "Raclem" Fusade - Actually Not RP
Raclem making top cut once again! After winning the Illuminu’Eure Tournament in early March, featuring 245 players, Clément Fusade is showing the Lorcana community that he is one of the best French players. Playing the same Ruby Amethyst ink pair, but with some new tech due to the meta evolution. This up-to-date version of Ruby Amethyst is more tempo oriented; in fact, the Lucky Dime included in Sapphire decks cancels the control plan of Ruby Amethyst. That's why we are seeing Minnie Mouse - Stylish Surfer coming back in to the list over control tools like Maui's Fish Hook or Maleficent - Monstrous Dragon.
Top 1
Theo - Emerald Steel
Finally, we have the winning deck, Emerald Steel from Theo. Quite unusually, this version is mixing both Emerald Steel's known deck archetypes. On one side the song package coming with Ursula - Deceiver of All and on the other side the Bucky - Squirrel Squeak Tutor and his Floodborn friends. Both of these two archetypes overlap pretty nicely with Sudden Chill to make it consistent.
But like me you may be surprised to not see Prince John - Greediest of All as the main card draw engine, alongside all the discard tools in the deck. Theo chooses instead to go with A Whole New World! I assume the idea behind that is to get more value from playing it than your opponent. Indeed, if you are able to discard their fresh new seven cards quickly with your discard tools, you will be ahead in card advantage.
Conclusion
The Top 8 Decks of the Lore Quest by Relic TCG brought some freshness to a quite established metagame. Indeed, French players managed to push their own deck lists to the top cut despite being original. I'm glad to see the deck builders' creativity being rewarded. For sure, the surprise or mind game effect, as mentioned in my previous article, added a few points of win rate percentage!
As always feel free to share any comment or feedback below or on Twitter @BaoxsbPro
