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It has been almost a month since Disney Lorcana Set 3 Into The Inklands was released. I hope you all are enjoying Set 3 as much as we are! Today we will be checking out the Top 8 Decks for The Pack Pixelborn Tournament.
Meta Breakdown
Since the Set 3 release, the Disney Lorcana competitive scene has been slowly but surely changing.
With the addition of 204 new cards, a lot of new decks have come to life in addition to existing meta decks that got an upgrade.
For the Top 8 Decks For The Pack Pixelborn Tournament you will notice right away the variety of new decks that has joined the meta. With a total of 8 different decks if you include the Top 16. This is very healthy for the game moving forward. I think we can all agree that seeing only 2-3 decks finding a lot of success for Set 1 and 2 was very stale and boring to watch or play against.
The Current State of the Meta
We still will see past decks like Amethyst/Ruby Bounce Control and Amber/Steel Song finding a lot of success. I think that moving forward these decks will always get better as more cards get released. These decks will become more well rounded and will find ways to adapt and adjust to the meta, at least for a little while. But it is also nice to see decks like Amethyst/Emerald Bounce Aggro and Amber/Ruby Mufasa fully come to life.
With Sapphire/Ruby Pawpsicle re-joining the Meta, there are now 2 different control decks that are being played a lot. This means that there is a lot of room for aggro decks to join the competitive scene again, since aggro is favored against control in a healthy "Rock, Paper, Scissors" meta. I know that aggro can get totally dominated by midrange decks especially the ones with Steel in it. But at least it no longer auto loses against it, with the help of the new Ursula - Deceiver and the new song, The Bare Necessities.
Top 8 Decks for the Pack Pixelborn Tournament
Here are the Top 8 decks and a short insight alongside it to help you understand its success in the tournament.
The Pack Top 8
Inkwell Gamers - Ruby Amethyst Bounce Control
This list runs cards that most Amethyst/Ruby Control Players run. Inkwell Gamers has also added some usual techs to make sure he doesn’t lose to certain match ups or have an advantage against them. Maui's Fish Hook is a great tech card for R/A this meta. With the addition of Locations and their high Willpower in the game, this card helps you gain more Strength to be able to remove your opponent’s Location cards in play. The Sorcerer's Spellbook, on the other hand, is a card that is amazing against mirror matches and against control decks in general. It helps you sneak in some lore and acts like a time bomb giving your opponents limited time to beat you or the game will be over for them.
Lastly, Pinocchio - Talkative Puppet. This card gives this deck an amazing start against a lot of decks, especially when going first. It allows your Rafiki - Mystical Fighter to get favorable trades or gain you strong tempo in the early turns.
Th3 Rat - Ruby Amethyst Bounce Control
Th3 Rat’s list is pretty similar to other Amethyst/Ruby Bounce Control decks. His list has fully cut the Lady Tremaine - Imperious Queen. Instead, he runs 2 Madame Medusa - The Boss. Just like Inkwell Gamer’s list, he also teched in Maui's Fish Hook, The Sorcerer's Spellbook, and Pinocchio - Talkative Puppet. This is becoming more common now for Amethyst/Ruby players, due to the current state of the meta. Lastly, this deck runs 1 copy of Dragon Fire. This is still a solid card, especially against cards like Beast - Tragic Hero.
Thomas Maurer - Sapphire Steel Cogsworth Midrange
Thomas Maurer’s list is running 3 techs that stood out for me. The first one is Lucky Dime. This card is a brand new tech for Sapphire players in general. It helps you close out the game much faster than usual. For this reason, it is quickly becoming a staple for these types of decks. Rise of the Titans Is another great tech for Steel players that might also become a staple. This card has a lot of potential targets in the meta, since there are a lot of Items and Locations that are being played. This card is flexible and cheap to play, which guarantees value.
Lastly, the deck runs Hades - Infernal Schemer. While a lot of Sapphire players have fully cut this card out of their decks, Hades still has a place in the meta since it can deal with cards like Mufasa - Betrayed Leader and Prince Eric - Expert Helmsman perfectly.
Killian Ma - Ruby Sapphire Pawp Control
Killian Ma’s List has two things I want to highlight. First is the amount of 2 ink characters that the deck is running to make sure it survives aggro. The deck has 2 Gramma Tala - Storyteller instead of One Jump Ahead. It’s also running 2 Scar - Vicious Cheater which has some great match ups, especially against Amethyst/Ruby. This led the deck into running 3 Be Prepared instead of 4. Lastly, just like most Sapphire decks nowadays, it also has Lucky Dime.
Top 4
Nicholas Wyllie - Emerald Amethyst Aggro
While most people will simplify and call this deck aggro, this is actually what you call a "Midgro" deck. Nicholas Wyllie’s list has the fundamentals of an aggro deck but at the same time has a lot of midrange aspects to it. Just like other Amethyst decks right now, this deck has added Pinocchio - Talkative Puppet. It really just gives you a super solid curve to gain tempo right away on the board.
Another tech that this deck is running is Yzma - Scary Beyond All Reason. I actually have asked on the video I made about this tournament, why is Yzma - Scary Beyond All Reason in this deck? The answer is that in the current meta running Genie - On the Job just feels bad, not only that it’s an uninkable card, it also just straight up loses against Madame Medusa - The Boss. Yzma is also a bit more flexible. It can be used for card draw, it's better for challenging, and can be used as an aggro card that gains you more tempo on the board while still being able to quest for 2 lore.
Denis - Amethyst Steel Aggro
Denis’ list is a great meta call and one of the decks I was super excited to see. This is a true aggro deck. The reason why this is a great meta call is that as the tournament gets closer, Sapphire/Ruby Pawp Control was gaining a lot of popularity. Aggro in general is the bane of control and, the faster it is, the better, since control shines in the later turns and aggro doesn’t allow the game to reach that part. This also made the meta spread with two strong control decks including Amethyst/Ruby Bounce Control.
This deck runs most of the cards that you would expect an Amethyst/Steel aggro deck to run. The only tech here really is 1 Benja - Guardian of the Dragon Gem, which has a lot of targets in the current meta. However, it is most likely that Benja is here for Fishbone Quill, to prevent Sapphire/Ruby getting into Be Prepared as fast as they can.
Top 2
Konstantin Schall (BlitzkriegBops) - Amber Steel Song Flutes
BlitzkriegBops’ list brings back the OG Amber/Steel Flutes deck but this time with only 2 Sleepy's Flute. He also brought back The Queen - Commanding Presence, which some players have dropped. The Queen is still a solid card for Amber/Steel Song decks, especially with Madame Medusa - The Boss being played everywhere at the moment. Other than that, it’s mostly what you will see from the typical Amber/Steel Song Flute build with -/+ 1 or 2 copies of a card.
Top 1
Schuyler Duntz - Steel Sapphire Cogsworth Midrange
This is Schuyler’s 2nd win in The Pack Tournament. This time, he takes it with his Sapphire/Steel deck with 2 Lucky Dime teched in it! Sapphire/Steel has been performing consistently well in these tournaments and it was only a matter of time that it was going to take 1st place with the right deck techs and player behind it. He also runs 2 copies of Rise of the Titans and 1 Let It Go. Both are a great answer to the meta. One, a great and cheap answer to both items and locations, and the other, an efficient answer to Mufasa - Betrayed Leader and Prince Eric - Expert Helmsman.
The Pack Conclusion
Looking at the Top 8 Decks for The Pack 1.7K Pixelborn Tournament we can see that there are some new decks that are joining the meta. It is important to understand, as well, that there are some aggro decks out there that will continue to challenge the reign of control decks which also leads to midrange getting favorable match ups later on against aggro. In a world of a healthy card game meta "Rock, Paper, Scissors" is the ideal scenario. Aggro beats control, control beats midrange, and midrange beats aggro. I just wanted to add as well that a great midrange deck and player will always find a way to close the gap with the odds of winning against control. In this case, Sapphire/Steel Midrange by Schuyler found the way.
If you wanna see more articles like this or more Lorcana content in general, be sure to check out our Lorcana.gg Homepage. Other than that, I hope you all enjoyed this article and I will see you on the next one!
