Last weekend’s Disney Lorcana Challenge events in Las Vegas and Birmingham hosted a combined 4,000 players competing for bragging rights, prize cards, and an invitation to the upcoming continental championships starting later this year. These were our ꦓfirst official tournaments 🌊in the Shimmering Skies meta, and as expected, we saw a lot of new tech and strategies that aren’t yet well known. Also as expected, the big three: Ruby/Sapphire, Amber/Steel, and Ruby/Amethyst, made up most of the field at both events, but the big story of the weekend was the sudden, unexpected return of Emerald/Steel Discard.
Emerald/Steel has been dormant in the meta game since the end of Ursula’s Return, when its star player, Bucky, Squirrel Squeak Tutor, got hit with 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Lorcana’s first-ever nerf. This change moved players off of Eme🌃rald/Steel in the cu🍌rrent meta, with Amber/Emerald taking over as the most popular discard/control deck. Recent tournaments like the CCS 10K in Atlanta have featured Ruby/Sapphire and Amber/Steel Song decks in the top cut, with the ever-present Amethyst/Ruby rounding out what players are now referring to as the ‘Big 3’.
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Those three decks comprised 60 percent of the field in Las Vegas and 56 percent in Birmingham. No other deck archetype represented more than ten percent of the fieꦅld individually, although Amethyst/Emerald was the fourth most represented deck in both Las Vegas an𒈔d Birmingham, with seven percent and ten percent representation respectively.
Emerald/Steel Overperformed In Las Vegas
Fewer than 200 players ꦺacross both of this weekend’s Challenges brought Emerald/Steel, an archetype that averaged just six percent of the field, yet in Las Vegas, nine of the 64 decks, or 14 percent of the decks in day two were Emerald/Steel. That’s a coꦆnversion rate of more than double, and by the time we reached the semi-finals, three of the four contenders were on Emerald/Steel. Zan Syed’s Emerald/Steel discard/control deck took down the grand finals. Among the Top 16 players who earned their Continental invites, four of them played Emerald/Steel.
While our Las Vegas data is nearly complete, we’re still waiting to see the full breakdown for Birmingham. We know Federico M. won with Ruby/Sapphire, anཧd from what we can tell there wasn’t a single Emerald/Steel deck in the top 64. This is the starkest differenceﷺ in meta we’ve ever seen between NA and EU.
It’s a fascinating turn of events after many declared the archetype dead following Bucky’s nerf, and even more fascinating that so many top players seemed to come to the same conclusion when preparing for this tournament. While the previous Bucky iteration relied on playing Floodborn characters, this new Bucky-less version utilizes 
The Muses - Proclaimers of Heroes and a heavy song package to bounce the opponent's characters off the board while simultaneously whittling away at their hand with cards like Sudden Chill; Ursula - Deceiver; and the💯 new Anna, Diplomatic Queen. With the addition of Pete, Games Referee, this new version of Emerald/Steel is able to out-control every other deck in the game, slowly starving the opponent of cards and board presence until they’re unable to catch back up.
Syed’s w൲inning deck list skews discard heavy but a different list featuring a wide range of Floodborn characters was also popular in Vegas, and had some success making the cut for day two. None of the nine Emerald/Steel decks in the Top 64 were running the same list. Some are as many as 20 cards different from each other.
With three Emerald/Steel in the Top Four, you might think this ink color combo is suddenly unbeatable. Ruby/Sapphire was not only the most represented deck this weekend, but it also had a positive conversion rate into the Top 64, overperforming as the most popular deck and, theoretically, favored to beat Emerald/Steel. And yet, Emerald/Steel was able to shut it downꦕ at nearly every turn throughout day two.
Emerald/Steel Is Strong, But Not Unbeatable
Watching the matches though, it's♓ clear that, like Amber/Steel and Ruby/Sapphire, Emerald/Steel relies on high-rolling with a strong opening hand. It has to take control of the board early, sing songs efficiently, and get its draw engines going as soon as possible to win. shows exactly how weak this deck can be without early-game pressure. Zach Bivens, who finished day one as the number one seed🐷 playing a similar deck, was eliminated in the top 64 largely due to getting a slow start against his opponent in both games.
There’s no doubt Emerald/Steel will be a popular choice both at next month’s DLC Seattle and the upcoming🃏 Set Championships, thanks to Syed, Bivens, and the other Emerald/Steel players who found success in Las Vegas. With ten of the Top 16 featuring Emerald, it's safe to say this💖 ink color has been vastly underestimated in Shimmering Skies so far, but no longer.
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