Rise of the Floodborn Set Review: Amethyst

With Disney Lorcana's second set only days away from release, it's time to take a look at the full set and evaluate all the cards. In this post, I will be reviewing all the Amethyst cards coming in Rise of the Floodborn.

Introduction

With Disney Lorcana's second set only days away from release and all the cards now revealed, it's time to take a look at the full set and evaluate all the cards. Since there are over 200 cards, we will be breaking this series of reviews down by ink color. In this post, I will be reviewing all the Amethyst cards coming in Rise of the Floodborn. Amethyst was a very flexible ink color that paired well with a number of other inks. Will this flexibility continue in set two? Or will one particular archetype rise above the rest? Read on to hear our thoughts!

Rise of the Floodborn 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.

Arthur - Wizard's Apprentice

You will notice a definite theme with Amethyst this set and that is a lot of cards that go into a "bounce" deck. It remains to be seen how good this bounce deck will be. It feels like it's going to either be really good and dominate the meta or completely fizzle out and be unplayable, without much room in-between. I'm leaning towards it being really good, so am going to rate these cards accordingly. - Wizard's Apprentice is obviously great in a bounce deck, letting you trigger your bounce effects and netting you additional lore on top of that.

Rating: 4/5

Blue Fairy - Rewarding Good Deeds

Amethyst's "whenever you play a Floodborn character, do X" card is arguably the best one in the set. Drawing cards is good and if you have an abundance of Floodborn characters in your deck, Blue Fairy can draw you a bunch of cards. Her stat line isn't anything to write home about, but at least she has Evasive.

Rating: 3/5

Chip the Teacup - Gentle Soul

Chip the Teacup is another 1-cost 2/2 for Amethyst. 1-cost 2/2s are surprisingly playable, so that keeps it out of dumpster tier, but this one has no associated Floodborn card or any other synergies to exploit so it is a vanilla in every sense of the word.

Rating: 2/5

Dr. Facilier - Savvy Opportunist

Amethyst gets another Dr. Facilier card in Rise of the Floodborn. This one can function as a shift target for the Floodborn Facilier from set one, but the 3-drop Doctor is still probably better for that, due to its higher Willpower. Yes, this one has Evasive but it dies to almost any sort of direct damage, which is what people will be using to deny you a shift anyway.

Rating: 1/5

Elsa - Gloves Off

Only one new Elsa this set and she's a common card. This one might see play as a better shift target for Elsa - Spirit of Winter than the other Elsas but that's about it. You aren't running her by herself. She's decent in limited formats though.

Rating: 2/5

Fairy Godmother - Here to Help

The stat line on this card seems better suited for Amber or Sapphire. Amethyst can't really take advantage of its high Willpower. This Fairy Godmother is also competing directly with the legendary Fairy Godmother in the same 5-cost slot. So I don't see any reason why you would run this card.

Rating: 1/5

Fairy Godmother - Mystic Armorer

Now this Fairy Godmother packs a punch. I love the flavor and design of this card, a Fairy Godmother that helps you by giving you swords! Her ability is value and tempo wrapped up into one. And it's all on an inkable 5-drop with a Shift cost of only 2. Honestly, I'm fine paying the full cost for her most of the time. 5 ink for all that she brings to the table is already a decent deal. It's also worthwhile to note that her ability buffs herself. So if you can ready her after she quests, you could challenge with her and, if she is banished, she returns to your hand!

The card feels busted. My only hesitation with her is that we had a card with a similar ability in set one in the Floodborn Dr. Facilier. And he turned out to not be as good as I thought he would be. But he was more expensive, uninkable, didn't give the Challenger buff and didn't buff himself. So yeah, I guess I just talked myself into giving her a 5.

Rating: 5/5

Fairy Godmother - Pure Heart

And here is the Shift target for the Floodborn Fairy Godmother. You will likely never get value off of Just Leave It To Me, but that's fine. You are only playing this to have a Shift target for the legendary. And that's enough to make this card playable.

Rating: 3/5

HeiHei - Persistent Presence

I unironically love this card. The art, the flavor text, the design, everything about it is amazing. It might be lowkey my favorite card in the set. And I think its ability is actually very good. You basically force your opponent to use removal on it or it just keeps coming back. Combos really well with Support or any type of Strength buff, letting you remove stuff forever without losing card advantage. Power. Beauty. HeiHei.

Rating: 4/5

Jiminy Cricket - Pinocchio's Conscience

We are getting a few Pinocchios in this set and Jiminy Cricket here combos well with them, cycling himself whenever you play him with a Pinocchio on board. With all the bounce shenanigans coming in Amethyst as well, you could even bounce him for additional card draws. A 2-cost 1/2 with Evasive is also a decent stat line. If he had 2 lore instead of 1, he would be great, but as it is, I think he's solid.

Rating: 3/5

Kuzco - Wanted Llama

Even more cycle for Amethyst, this little llama wants to get banished so he can draw a card. He is great in aggro decks but also is decent in control decks, giving you some early board presence without sacrificing card advantage. And he works exceptionally well with the Floodborn Fairy Godmother. Good card that can fit in a lot of different decks.

Rating: 4/5

Madam Mim - Fox

Madam Mim - Fox is part of a series of cards from the Madam Mim and Merlin "Wizard Duel" in The Sword in the Stone. And it may be one of the best. A 4/3 Rush for 3 that is inkable is fantastic. You will need something to bounce to play her, but if you are playing a bounce deck, you should have some targets.

Rating: 4/5

Madam Mim - Purple Dragon

Amethyst's second legendary in Rise of the Floodborn is this dragon Madam Mim. She obviously wants to be the top-end in a bounce deck. The only thing is the bounce deck likely wants to be aggressive and win early with a lot of lore gain from bouncing things. I don't know if this Mim fits into that game plan? Not to mention, she does nothing when she comes down and often just gets removed by Dragon Fire or Let it Go or World's Greatest Criminal or Maleficent Dragon or... you get the picture. You probably run a couple of her in a bounce deck, but she'll likely just end up being inked most of the time.

Rating: 3/5

Madam Mim - Rival of Merlin

Now this is a Madam Mim I want to run in my bounce deck. She comes down on top of one of your other Mims and then you can exert her immediately to get your free Rush character. Most likely you'll want to Rush out one of your Merlins, either Goat or Rabbit, and get the value from their on-play and on-leaving-play effects.

There is also a very cool infinite loop you can do with Madam Mim, the Floodborn Dr. Facilier and Lefou - Instigator. You have Dr. Facilier on board with Madam Mim, you exert her to Rush out Lefou, when he enters play you ready Madam Mim and then challenge something with Lefou that banishes him. You then get Lefou back to your hand and can exert Madam Mim to play Lefou again, ready her again, challenge again, etc. etc. This combo can let you take out a whole board full of exerted 2 Strength characters. Or maybe you pair it with Shere Khan - Menacing Predator and gain 1 lore each time Lefou challenges?

I don't know how good the infinite loop combo will be but it is cool and just illustrates the potential of this Madam Mim card.

Rating: 4/5

Madam Mim - Snake

Probably the weakest Madam Mim card. It's just +1 Strength over a vanilla 2-drop at the cost of having to bounce something to play her. If you miss on your mulligan and don't have a 1-drop, you literally can't play her. I guess she's mainly just a shift target for the Floodborn Mim and for that reason she is probably barely playable, but I'm not thrilled about it.

Rating: 2/5

Merlin - Crab

We've seen the cards that do the bouncing, now we look at the cards that want to be bounced. Merlin - Crab is probably the weakest of the set. Challenger +3 is fine but nothing too exciting as a bounce ability. He would work great with Madam Mim - Fox, but they both cost 3, so it's a bit awkward to curve them out.

Rating: 2/5

Merlin - Goat

Now this is a card I want to bounce. Gaining lore every time you play him and bounce him back to hand is very powerful and opens up some real lore "burst" options. You can have him sing Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo, return him to hand, play him again for free, bounce him with another card, play him again - all in the same turn. That's 4 lore gain out of nowhere. And he works well with Floodborn Madam Mim and Gruesome and Grim allowing you to play him for free and give him Rush. Just a very good card for the bounce deck.

Rating: 4/5

Merlin - Rabbit

And maybe the best bounce card is Merlin - Rabbit. I've said it a bunch already but drawing cards is good. And with all the bounce shenanigans, you can get a lot of draws off of this card. All the things I said about Merlin - Goat apply to his rabbit form. The only downside is he is uninkable, but you pretty much always want to play him and not ink him, so it's probably fine.

Rating: 4/5

Merlin - Shapeshifter

And here is the payoff card for all your bounce shenanigans. Merlin - Shapeshifter can quest for a lot of lore if you can get a bunch of bounces off in one turn. Because he requires some setup to really get a ton of value, he is more of a late game card. He also doesn't work with Floodborn Fairy Godmother or Dr. Facilier's "bounce", which is actually a "return to hand from discard" effect and not a "return to hand from play" effect. For those reasons, I think he's just a bit too clunky to be playable.

Rating: 2/5

Merlin - Squirrel

This cute little guy is the perfect bounce target for Madam Mim - Fox. His Look Before Your Leap ability is only so-so, but any sort of small value is fine when you are just looking to curve out with your bounce stuff.

Rating: 3/5

Peter Pan's Shadow - Not Sewn On

This card is super intriguing. Rush is a powerful keyword, as we know, and Evasive characters can be quite sticky. Giving all your Rush characters Evasive means they can come down, remove something and then stick around to quest for you or just keep making favorable trades. Imagine Maui - Hero to All with Evasive. I'm curious if a deck full of Rush and Evasive characters could be a thing. One potential issue with that: a lot of those characters are uninkable, just like Pan's Shadow here. I think this card is currently solid, but may end up becoming a build-around card, in a deck with a bunch of other Rush cards.

Rating: 3/5

Pinocchio - Star Attraction

Woah, that is a lot of lore on a little body. If you want to go all-in with aggression, this is the card for you. Aggro decks did not fair particularly well in the set one meta, thanks to the prevalence of Tinker Bells and Grab Your Swords. But maybe if those cards fall out of the meta due to Resist being a thing, all-in aggro decks will have a chance to shine? If so, this card will be a star.

Rating: 4/5

Pinocchio - On the Run

This is a fun little Floodborn card. Shifting him out on turn 3 is great, you get a 3/3 body that quests for 2 and a fantastic enter the board effect. You will usually want to bounce one of your opponent's characters for the tempo gain, but you could also play him in a bounce deck and bounce one of your own things. You could even bounce Jiminy Cricket, so you can play him again for the draw. Which is kind of funny since the ability is called Listen to your Conscience. Overall, it looks like a very good card that can fit in both tempo decks and bounce decks, so I think it definitely sees play.

Rating: 4/5

Pinocchio - Talkative Puppet

This is Freeze on a stick, literally and figuratively. And when looked at it that way, it looks like a good deal - you are getting a free 1/1 body with the effect. But mostly he's an on-curve Shift target for the Floodborn Pinocchio and that is good enough.

Rating: 3/5

Winnie the Pooh - Hunny Wizard

This Winnie the Pooh is a contender for best art in the set. No surprise Ravensburger is selling it as a playmat. Unfortunately the card itself is a pretty boring vanilla. Oh, bother.

Rating: 1/5

Yzma - Scary Beyond All Reason

Our first Floodborn Yzma is yet more gas for the bounce deck. Now she isn't bouncing back to hand like the others, so you are losing the card you bounce, but drawing 2 cards helps make up for it. I suppose her draw is more a cycle than a true draw, but in a bounce deck you just want all the bounce you can get and she fits the bill. She can also be used to remove an opponent's card, in a pinch. Solid card.

Rating: 4/5

Yzma - Without Beauty Sleep

This is a Shift target for the Floodborn Yzma. You can also use the 2-drop Yzma from the first set, but this one curves out better. We like curving out.

Rating: 3/5

Gruesome and Grim

Gruesome and Grim is the action that comes bundled with Madam Mim - Rival of Merlin. As a standalone card, it's not as good though. It's at least a song, so I don't want to call it trash, but it's uninkable and might just get stuck in your hand more often than not.

Rating: 2/5

I'm Stuck!

Speaking of being stuck! This action card is a better Freeze. It's 1 cheaper to play, it's inkable and it locks your opponent's character down for a full turn. (Man, Freeze was a really bad card.) That being said, I still don't think this sees any play. It just does too little for the opportunity cost of running it in your deck.

Rating: 1/5

Legend of the Sword in the Stone

I like that there is consistency in Amethyst this set where when you acquire a sword, you gain Challenger +3. I would have loved this card to have had "draw a card" on it, so it replaced itself. But yeah, without that, this card is not good enough.

Rating: 1/5

Binding Contract

Why does this cost four? Why is it uninkable? Exerting one of your characters to exert one of theirs is just not good enough in really any scenario.

Rating: 1/5

Croquet Mallet

It's White Rabbit's Pocket Watch except single use only, so worse. I like that they are sticking with the Alice in Wonderland theme for giving your characters Rush, though.

Rating: 1/5

Perplexing Signposts

Here's an item for the bounce deck. I really don't like these items that are single use though. If this was reusable but cost ink each time you used it, I would like it a lot better. As it is, it's probably not good enough but maybe you just really want as many bounce effects as possible?

Rating: 2/5

The Sorcerer's Spellbook

Now here is a spicy item. Having a way for you to gain lore each turn that your opponent can't interactive with (outside of the small chance they are running item removal) is interesting. It can really put a clock on them, especially if you get a few of these down on the board. I can see this going into the Amethyst/Ruby control deck as a way to just close out games. I like it.

Rating: 4/5

And that's it for Amethyst cards. Looking back over the reviews, I am pretty high on the bounce deck cards. That deck could be a complete miss and these ratings will make me look silly in a few weeks. But I love the idea of the deck and am really hoping it works.

Overall, I think Amethyst got a lot of solid cards this set, but maybe not any standouts. Will that be the case for our next ink, Emerald? Keep checking back with Lorcana.gg for the next in our series of Rise of the Floodborn reviews!

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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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