Table of Contents
Introduction
Disney Lorcana's second set Rise of the Floodborn has been out for a few days now and already new deck archetypes are forming and competing to be crowned king of the new meta. After spending much of the weekend playtesting Lorcana online, I wanted to highlight three powerful new archetypes that have arisen from this second set. We will look at each deck in-depth, providing a breakdown of their most powerful cards and combos and give you an example list so you can try them out for yourself!
Best Early Decks in Rise of the Floodborn
Amethyst/Ruby Bounce
The first deck we are going to look at is an Amethyst "bounce" deck. This was one of the new deck archetypes introduced by the game designers in this set, with many of Amethyst's cards revolving around the mechanic. Even the starter deck is built around this theme.
My initial assumption was that the best ink pair for this archetype would be Emerald, because of cards like Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo, Bounce and Mother Knows Best. But it is actually the ol' tried-and-true pairing of Amethyst and Ruby that is working the best, so far. This is down to Ruby having access to a key card in Lefou - Instigator. Lefou being able to ready your Arthur - Wizard's Apprentice is very important, allowing you to get multiple triggers off of Arthur's bounce effect plus lore gain.
Ruby also gives the deck some control options with Maui - Hero to All, Be Prepared and Maleficent - Monstrous Dragon. Maui can protect your board by clearing your opponent's threats. He is also a nice bounce target, letting you heal him and use him again and again. He basically becomes a reusable removal spell. Be Prepared can reset the board if your opponent gets too far ahead while Maleficent is normally ink but can become a great finisher after you've cast Be Prepared and you and your opponent are both in top-deck mode.
As for the bounce package, you are running all the best bounce cards: Merlin - Goat and Merlin - Rabbit as your bounce targets, Madam Mim - Snake and Madam Mim - Fox as your bouncers. And then there is Arthur. This card is actually insane, the amount of lore you can generate with him. It's not uncommon for one Arthur to get you 9 or more lore in a game.
We round the deck out with some solid early game in Archimedes - Highly Educated Owl and Minnie Mouse - Always Classy and great aggresive cards in Pascal - Rapunzel's Companion, Pinocchio - Star Attraction and Minnie Mouse - Stylish Surfer. These cards are great for getting on board early and generating us a lot of lore. Pinocchio, in particular, can represent a lot of lore gain and is also a great target for Lefou or bounce, allowing you to get multiple quests with him for big lore bursts.
Overall, I'd say this is one of the strongest decks in this early Rise of the Floodborn meta. This list by Zef_YT is the one I've been running and having a lot of success with on Pixelborn. Take it for a spin and see how it feels for you.
Amber/Steel Steelsongs
Amber/Steel Midrange aka Steelsongs was arguably the best deck in The First Chapter meta. Well, it has continued to flex its strength in the new meta thanks to some key additions from Rise of the Floodborn.
Two of those cards are Cinderella - Ballroom Sensation and Let the Storm Rage On. These two make for an amazing turn 1 and 2 curve, allowing you to play Cinderella on 1 and sing Storm on turn 2, clearing something of your opponent's and drawing you a card for zero ink. You then can throw down your regular turn 2 play of Simba - Protective Cub or Cinderella - Knight in Training.
Speaking of Cinderella, the new Cinderella - Stouthearted is another fantastic addition to the deck. You can shift her out onto one of your other Cinderellas or just play her for 7 ink as a late-game bomb. She quests for 3, which is fantastic, but more importantly she acts as hard removal for just about anything your opponent plays, provided you can play a song to activate her ability.
That shouldn't be too difficult though as this deck runs upwards of 16 songs. We've already mentioned Let the Storm Rage On, but there are also two other new removal songs in World's Greatest Criminal Mind and Strength of a Raging Fire, allowing you to deal with nearly any threat for free when you sing them. And, of course, there is still the set one songs Grab Your Sword and A Whole New World, which continue to be as powerful as they were in the First Chapter meta.
The last new cards to make this list are the Floodborn Queen and her Shift target, The Queen - Commanding Presence and The Queen - Regal Monarch. These make for a great alternative turn 1 and 2 play to the aforementioned Cinderella and Storm. Shifting out the Floodborn Queen on curve allows us to sing any song in our deck... on turn 2! In addition, she is great for controlling the board throughout the game by generating favorable trades for us every time she quests.
The rest of the deck includes a lot of the best cards from set one including Rapunzel - Gifted with Healing, Ariel - Spectacular Singer and all the good Stitch cards. These cards, plus A Whole New World, give us tons of draw so we never run out of resources even in long, grinding matches.
This list from BannibalHarca has been dominate in online play for me, both playing with it and against it, and looks to be a contender for best deck from Rise of the Floodborn.
Amber/Emerald Discard
The last deck I want to highlight today is an Amber/Emerald Discard list. While this one hasn't been as prevalent on ladder, it did just top a 100 player tournament in Germany over the weekend, so it clearly can stand up with some of the best decks out there.
Discard was an archetype that many were excited about coming into Rise of the Floodborn and, when building that list, this pairing of inks just makes sense. That is because you have access to Prince John - Greediest of All and You Have Forgotten Me. This two-card combo is a great turn 3 to 4 curve that forces your opponent to discard two cards from their hand and letting you draw two. That's a four card swing!
Prince John, in particular, gets a ton of value from all the discard synergies in this deck. And because he has Ward, he is very difficult to remove. You can just leave him on the board until your opponent's hand is empty and then start questing with him. And it doesn't take long to empty your opponent's hand either, thanks to new cards like Hypnotize and Daisy Duck - Secret Agent. These cards, paired with the discard options from last set like Sudden Chill and Flynn Rider - Charming Rogue, make for a potent cocktail of discard that can drain the hands of just about every deck out there.
And once you have emptied your opponent's hand, Flynn Rider - His Own Biggest Fan swings in and starts questing for 4 lore each turn. Plus his Evasive means your opponent will be hard pressed to get rid of him, even if they have a board presence. The other new card that can score us a lot of lore early on is Enchantress - Unexpected Judge. She is fragile to ping effects but if you can get her down early, before Tinker Bell - Giant Fairy can come out, she can get us a solid 2 lore and a great early trade.
One surprising inclusion in this list is Grand Duke - Advisor to the King. I didn't rate this card very highly in my Amber set review but he actually synergizes quite well with a lot of the cards in this list, especially Simba - Protective Cub. Giving Simba that one extra Strength means he now trades evenly with cards like Rafiki - Mysterious Sage and Madam Mim - Fox, which is a big deal. In addition, Grand Duke buffs all your Flynn Riders, your Prince Johns, your Rapunzels, and your Queens. The extra Strength on each of those cards could make the difference between an even trade and a free trade for your opponent.
As I mentioned, this list by Hendrick Pfau came in first place in the Battle Bear x Lorcana DACH tournament over the weekend, going undefeated in all its matchups. I've given it a spin on Pixelborn as well and, while it doesn't feel quite as strong as the first two decks I've highlighted, it still is good and also very fun to play.
That's it for this early look at the best decks in the Rise of the Floodborn meta. There are definitely more archetypes out there that are also strong, such as an "items matter" Sapphire/Ruby list and a very control oriented Sapphire/Steel ramp list. As for myself, I've been trying to make an Emerald/Steel deck work that abuses Beast - Relentless and Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo. I think it's close but needs a bit more time in the oven.
So far, the first few days of Rise of the Floodborn have been a ton of fun. I can't wait to see how things develop from here and what other powerful deck archetypes may still be out there, waiting to be discovered.
Stay tuned to lorcana.gg for more coverage of Rise of the Floodborn including our first meta report, coming soon!
