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The Sapphire Item synergy has been a dominant force during the Inklands meta, joining forces with the Ruby control tools to create one of the most potent control and ramp oriented decks of the format. In Ursula's Return, this build still exists, but isn't the only one looking to leverage ramping and a synergy around items. Indeed, Steel gained 004-200 and immediately became a potential new color pairing for Sapphire item synergy.
For the first weeks of the expansion, the deck didn't make too many waves. However, Savjz, a popular streamer and routine top ranked player, shared his take on the archetype. It is fantastic and we'll tell you all about why in this guide.
Decklist & Card Breakdown
Key Synergies
The way this deck often wins is to pair 003-165 with either 001-159 or 001-142 for a massive lore gain. Your strategy mostly revolves around reaching the point where you can pull off this combo, often needed twice, to get your twenty lore. With 001-142, you require 13 inks to get the full combo, worth 10 lore, in one turn. It will be much more rare to be able to pull it off with the 8-cost card, so plan that one over two turns.
Apart from the win condition, the synergies in the deck are pretty basic. We have lots of 4 and 5 cost cards to make sure we can sing our songs. You can also sing 001-164 with 003-184 early in the match. Be careful with that specific song as you could put an important card in your inkwell when using it. As such, you might want to keep 003-165 in your opening hand if you know the opponent will play it slow, to avoid a potential disaster.
As for draw, we have 002-149 paired with any of our cheap items to draw two in addition to our cards already drawing when played. Later in the match, you can also use 001-159 to pick up either 002-169 or 002-200 for extra draw as well. You can even banish them before just for the sake of replaying them and get the card.
What to Ink?
001-168 allows us to ink any card in our deck, so the critical tiebreaker is the match-up. Our deck has three kinds of cards: draw, lore, and board control; each being influential against different opponents or at different times of a match.
Here are a few questions you want to ask yourself to pick what to ink:
- Do I want to sing my expensive songs, or can I afford to play them? If you anticipate the need to sing, you might want to keep a 5-cost character rather than inking it.
- Am I rushing to the finish line or trying to slow my opponent down first and foremost? If you think you'll have to play control, you can ink 001-159 or 001-142 early on.
- Am I winning through 001-159 or 001-142? If you don't need the 8-cost, you can ink your items more carelessly during the match.
Alternate Cards to Consider
The deck makes a lot of sense already, particularly when it comes to the balance of characters at each cost to sing our important songs. While there are cards you could replace for another one with a similar ability, it is also important to consider the song you wish to sing, which puts a big emphasis on playing enough 4 and 5-cost cards.
One balance decision I can't seem to decide on is whether I want four copies of 003-195 or 001-195. Savjz has only one copy of 001-197 and played four of each, but I like having two copies of the cheap removal. We have lots of draws already, so I tend to lean towards three of 001-195 lately.
Captain Hook - Forceful Duelist
During set 3, this was 003-184's best friend to avoid our 2-cost taking damage from being without his Captain buddy on the board. Considering it is an inkable card, you could play a few copies of Captain Hook and treat it as a small removal.
Another card to consider as potential early removal is 002-184, which can challenge Evasive opponent characters.
Benja - Guardian of the Dragon Gem
I often felt like 001-172 was too expensive, even in a ramp deck, and we were just playing it due to its ability to sing our 5-cost songs. If you feel the same way, this is a good replacement while still contributing to two lore when questing. You lose the ability to sing, but you are more flexible against item-based decks.
Scuttle - Expert on Humans
This felt like a staple of any item deck at the start of the expansion, but slowly started losing some momentum in favor of reactive cards, in order to limit opposing development. However, if you were trying to hedge your bets against slower decks, this is definitely a consideration.
The Queen - Diviner Lorcana Card
I feel like this is a little too much, and investing in defensive tools is better for this deck. Still, if this card isn't dealt with quickly, we can get some nice value out of it.
Hades - Infernal Schemer
A big removal you might want to consider against other ramp-oriented decks. For example, 001-159 isn't so simple to remove before it can give your opponent a lot of lore, which can sometimes be too late. 001-163 is an inkable option with the same ability, but you don't get a character attached to it.
Smash
Another removal to consider in the deck, especially as this one can be inked. However, you can't sing it like you would 001-198 or 003-195.
How to Play
This deck is trying to do three main things. Ramp, gain lore, and make sure the opponent can't beat us to the finish line. The order is pretty important here, as the first two are what our deck is looking to accomplish, while the third one should constantly be in the back of our mind when pondering a decision.
As such, a good way to approach this deck is to think proactively first, planning out your next few turns based on your hand and potential draws. Then, compare this to what you expect your opponent to develop, and assess who benefits the most from the situation you visualize. If you are fine giving them the space to develop, as your progression is more valuable, focus on yourself. On the other hand, if you fear you might lose some ground by the end of your sequence, it might be good to be reactive for a turn, stop their progression, and then refocus on your own development.
Simply put, you will always look to ramp during the first turns of a match, except if you consider your opponent development is more important to take care of. Then, the same logic will apply with setting up for your big lore gain, except if you think you won't get there in time based on your opponent's current progression.
One significant thing to keep in mind is the fact that some of your main control tools are songs. So, you might look like you are developing a character, but you are actually setting yourself up for a big removal turn. 002-142 is particularly good in this role, as the Ward keyword makes it almost impossible to remove for a lot of decks.
Lastly, 001-195 means you can often go bankrupt when it comes to cards in your hand. If your opponent also spends proactively, we have a very good average draw due to our deck being amongst the greediest archetypes in the game, so we are typically fine with both players only having their draw to play. If they pace themselves, you can just discard their hand when you'll sing with your wheel to refill your hand.
Mulligan
The average card in the deck is pretty expensive, so we need to find our ramp early on to get the deck going. Logically, this makes 001-164 and 001-168 a priority to find, especially if you anticipate your opponent giving you the leeway to play those.
004-200 and 002-169 having a draw ability attached aren't bad keeps either. You could keep one to play on the first turn, or three for the second turn as well. They are inkables so it isn't that big of a risk.
002-149 and 003-142 represent our first playable characters in a lot of matches, so could be kept. The cards mentioned above are more important though, so these come as a good keep once we have the essentials already.
The rest of our cards will be more match-up based :
- 003-165 can be kept against slow opponents, or alongside an already super hand, as we only have two in the deck.
- 003-184, 001-197 and 001-198 are our main tools against aggressive, go-wide decks so should be kept in those match-ups. Both our 5-costs are inkable so you could keep those to potentially sing, they will go in the inkwell at worst. 003-195 could also be a consideration, but serves for larger, single targets.
Weaknesses to Be Aware Of
The main weakness you have with this deck is the limited removal. Indeed, while we have a bit of everything, we don't have absolute removal such as 001-128. As such, we cannot afford to fall too far behind on the board, except if we can afford to completely ignore what our opponent is doing because we have a guaranteed win the next turn.
Simply put, don't let the situation get out of hand, as we only have 001-198 or 001-216 as AoE abilities. Think ramp when it comes to your development, but midrange when it comes to keeping the board under control.
Closing Words
Without the Ruby control elements, the deck can feel weaker at first, especially when we fall behind on the board and can't seem to find a way to catch-up. However, this deck is built so it doesn't have to be in such a position, instead constantly limiting the opposing development rather than coming back with a big swing. In exchange for those weaker defenses, the Ramp Item strategy gained a lot of draw, making it more reliable overall.
I hope this guide was helpful in picking up this returning archetype in Ursula's Return. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out through my Twitter page.
