Quick Links
When starting out withDisney Lorcana, there’s a large chance you’ll be playing one of the three starter decks. These pre-constructed. 60-card decks are a great way to learn the game and familiarize yourself with many of its mechanics and strategies. The Mickey and Moana starter deck is a Amber/Amethyst deck that’s all about powerful combo and dominating your opponent by keeping your hand size healthy.
RELATED:Disney Lorcana: Beginner’s Guide
Many of this deck’s cards are designed to help you refill your hand and reacquire cards when they get banished, which will allow you to play aggressively. With an abundance of low-cost cards and a variety of win conditions, the Amber/Amethyst deck is the most exciting and unpredictable starter deck to play.
Cinderella - Gentle And Kind (x2)
Dinglehopper (x3)
Hades - Lord of the Underworld (x1)
Maleficent - Sorceress (x2)
Moana - of Motunui (x1)
Yzma - Alchemist (x2)
Key Cards
Mickey Mouse, Wayward Sorcerer
This card works like a miniature Dr. Facilier, Agent Provacateur, allowing you toplay Broom cards for cheap and put them back in your handevery time they get banished. The strategy is tokeep Mickey alive so that you can play your Magic Broom, Bucket Brigade, use them to Challenge your opponents, and put them right back into your hand to play again on the next turn.
This isa great combo for maintaing board controlin the mid-game, and will help you keep your hand healthy while you stall out your opponent. Even having just one Broom to combo with Mickey is valuable, but attempt to keep Mickey alive until you have a resource to recover him, like Hades, Lord of the Underworld, Part of Your World, or Dr. Facilier, Agent Provacatuer.
Moana, Of Motnui
Moana isthe core of any Princessdeck because she allows you to Ready your other Princesses every time Moana quests, effectively letting your other princesses Quest or Challenge without putting them at risk of getting Challenged back.
Moana has a lot of Princess synergy in this deck, including three copies of Minnie Mouse, Beloved Princess, and two copies of Ariel, On Human Legs, but theonly card you really need to get value from Moana is Cinderella, Gentle and Kind. When these two work together, your opponent is forced to take Moana out all at once rather than chip away at her Willpower, which can be difficult to do.
Using Cinderella to heal Moana, herself, and other Princesses, allows you to be aggressive on the board, remove damage, and keep Cinderella safe. Moana’s three lore will force your opponent to deal with her, which will buy you more time to build your board and take control of the game.
Dr. Facilier, Agent Provacateur
If you canget Dr. Facilier, Agent Provacateur out on turn five by shifting Dr. Facilier, Charlatan, your opponent will have a big problem to deal with. Dr Facilier allows you to be aggressive with your characters without having to worry about running out of cards, because when they get banished they go right back into your hand.
Your opponent will have to think twice about the resources they expend to get rid of your high-value cards, because you’ll be able to replay them again on the next turn.One especially potent combo is playing Rafiki, Mysterious Sage while Dr. Facilier is on your board.If you have enough ink, you can play this Rush card multiple times and clean up your opponent’s side of the board lickety-split.
Friends On The Other Side
Card draw is king in Lorcana,and Friends on the Other Side is one of the best tools in the game. This three-cost song can be sung by most of the characters in the deck, allowing you to keep your ink available to play whatever you happen to draw.
You’re going to have to play a lot of cheap characters to keep up with your opponent early in the game, and Friends on the Other Side will help you keep your handed loaded while you wait for your key cards to appear.
Evasives
The Ruby/Emerald starter deck is the most Evasive-focused deck of the bunch, but this deck has some great tools as well. Pascal, Rapunzel’s Companion is a perfect turn one card that can generate a lot of lore for you if he stays on the board, while Jetsam, Ursula’s Spy can Challenge and Banish Pongo, Ol' Rascal and still stay on the board. If you manage to get Flotsom, Ursula’s Spy out as well, you’ll have a strong Evasive combo that will be hard for your opponent to deal with.
There are no hard removal actions in this deck, so you’ll be relying on your characters to control the board. Playing lots of cheap characters will force your opponent to trade, giving you an early lore advantage, while cards like Rafiki, Mysterious Sage, Control Your Temper!, and Heihei, Boat Snack will help you make favorable trades when your opponent adding too many cards to their board.
Your Opening Hand And When To Mulligan
You can only mulligan (known in Lorcana as ‘altering your hand’) after your first game in a match. In the first game, you must take whatever opening hand you draw.
When assessing your opening hand for this deck, there are a few things you’ll want to keep in mind:
Amber/Amethyst Playstyle
The playstyle of this deck isall about overwhelming your opponent with characters to try to outpace themby Questing, then following up withdevastating combosthat will be costly for your opponent to deal with.
Amber/Amethyst has a variety of tools that help you draw cards and put Banished characters back into your hand, which will enable you tokeep a card advantage over your opponent and eventually stall them out. Ideally, your opponent should be chasing after you as you quest each turn, forcing them to use up resources to fight for the board, and making it safer for you to play your high value combos later on.
There arefour combos you’re lookingfor anytime you place this deck:Mickey and his Brooms, Moana and the Princesses, Flotsam and Jetsam, and the Dr. Faclier Shift combo. Keep in mind that all of these combos rely on pulling cards you only have one of in the deck, so you won’t be able to reliably play all of these combos every game.
These combos are not win conditions in an of themselves, but they will distract your opponent and force them to make difficult decisions with their resources while you continue to build your board turn after turn.
Another characteristic of this deck isits ability to continually refill your hand, which will give you a huge advatage the longer the game goes on.Both Mickey Mouse, Wayward Sorcerer and Dr. Facilier, Agent Provocateurlet you put Banished characters back in your hand, which means you can play more aggressively with your characters when they’re on the board.
Meanwhile,Hades, Lord of the Underworld and Part of Your Worldlet you dig through your discard pile for a combo piece, or just pull out another Rafiki, Mysterious Sage to ram into your opponent. You also haveFriends on the Other Side, one of the best card draw actions in the game, andYzma, Alchemist, which will help you filter your deck each turn while you look for your combo cards.
This deck can be incredibly frustrating for you opponent as they attempt to clear your board only to watch your hand fill back up with cards.
Weaknesses
This deck has very few tools for answering your opponents players, instead relying on a large board that forces your opponent to answer your plays. It’s also the most unpredicatable deck to pilot out of the three starter decks, since you only have one copy of most of your most valuable combo cards.
Every game you play will feel like you’re playing with a different deck, until you learn to recognize the nuances and most reliable strategies. Because of its large amount of low-Willpower characters, it’s also fairly susceptible to removal actions like Grab Your Sword. This is a great deck if you like to play a lot of characters, but it can often feel like your goal is to fill up your board and hope that your opponent can’t stop you.
