Cracking Video Zach! Gonna try the deck at locals! Thanks for the guide, didn’t realize all the complexities of the deck and great to get your thought processes!
Yes sir 🫡 starting my day off with a bivens deck breakdown. Was so surprised to see you pull up with this deck, but glad to see ya do so well with it ❤
This list is amazing!! Been really enjoying it cause aggro is my style. Only change I’ve made so far was cutting a few cards to squeeze in benja for the item removal. It’s mostly helpful in amber matchups
@@LorcanaCastle as someone who can’t play other decks cause I am missin integral parts this is probably the only deck I’ve seen that I actually have everything for lmao
thanks for this deck. i have a good win ratios against most of the new emerald steel speci's discard prince john with this deck but teched with tiana resist.
Incredible video and incredible deck construction! I plan to play it in Set Championship since there isn't much SteelSongs in my area. You mentioned that the card that convinced you the least was Friends, would you change any copy? What would you put in?
Played a similar deck toward the end of set 2, but swapped to Emerald Amethyst when inklands came out. I do think I’m switching back to this, but if you had to put a pair of Benjas in here (to deal with the now relevant lucky dime) what would you swap out? Great video and love the deck!
I personally don't think this deck needs to answer Lucky Dime. It was already a threat at the 8k but this deck is great into the Sapphire decks :) If you wanted to fit them then you could consider cutting down on the friends on the other side, cutting 1 olaf or 1 pinocchio. Really appreciate you watching and for the comment!
Definitely try it! It’s much better than Emerald/Amethyst imo. E/A doesn’t actually beat top level Ruby/Amethyst players or Sapphire/Steel. This deck performs well into both
I'm going to give it a try for sure. What's keeping me leaning to emerald is having a second 1 cost 2 quester in cursed merfolk. Giving that up seems like it's going to hurt
hey, loved the list and saw you playing it on stream the other day at the 1k and enchanted morph tournament. I saw that you made some changes to the list adding some low cost removal but can't figure out what you cut for it. Could you give some insight on the changes you've made to the deck and what did you cut for it?
So sick that you saw me on feature stream matches at another event! I was specifically targeting the Amber/Steel matchup that day. The changes I played with gave me a 50+% win rate against Zan Syed’s 8k winning SteelSong list, as that event just ended and his listed was super hyped in that moment. The changes make the deck much more complex and they weaken all of the other matchups. I actually don’t recommend them for these reasons and that a lot of the hype has died down
I also made a deck very similar to this one to participate in locals, and I always made top 4 (always lost to amber/steel song). Thank you for the advice you gave us, it's very useful. I have a couple of doubts to ask you: - what's your opinion against locations deck? for me it's hard, cause the only real solutions are Hercules and fox, and sometimes they have too many of them on the field. - Do you always use befuddle on your Maleficent? very often I use it to bounce the opponent's first card so I can leave Maleficent tapped on the field, but I cannot understand what is better. - steel/ song is the worst matchup for us, what do you think is the best way to approach this matchup? I aim to start super aggressive and gain lore as fast as possible, but a lot of time aren't enough. - in mullingans tips you said that you keep Smee if you have bodyguard on t3, so this means that you play like this: T1: maleficent; T2: Smee, without questing maleficent; T3: bodyguard, questing smee and maleficent; U always prioritize saving maleficent, right? Thanks for all your tips, and Congratulations for all the results you are achieving.
Not Zach but I use this exact deck. Locations are usually slow so I tend to ignore them unless it’s the sorcerers castle. I never befuddle my Maleficent unless I have no choice, it’s much better to hit their guys turn 2. Steelsong is an auto lose. Unless you go first and they brick there’s usually nothing you can do. Try and take out the singers asap with fox or raging fire. And that’s correct with your order of turns. That’s what I do with great success. Always save her unless it’s not a benefit to do so.
Hey, thank you! I wouldn't add Robin Hood personally. But I do think Robin Hood is super solid in here so if you wanted it then replace the Olafs with the 1 costs and probably the Friends for 3 of the shift RH.
What do you think about amber amethyst aggro, that could also use Bare Necessities to discard Grab your Sword ? They have nice bodygards (simba+baloo) and winning conditions (Kidas?). I plan to play aggro at our local tournament but afraid to play it against steel :(
Amber/Amethyst is decent and easy to play! I think it’s a solid choice for a local tournament. Though, like you said it struggles against any steel deck. Bare necessities doesn’t solve the problem sadly, because they play so many other songs that are a problem. Discarding sword is good but the other songs are enough to take out your stuff. Plus a lot of the steel decks play tinkerbell. The reason I prefer Amethyst/Steel personally, is that it’s actually good against the steel decks that aren’t Amber/Steel.
Castle is a great thought. I didn’t include them because the deck would get extremely punished if the castle is removed quickly. It can’t afford to invest 4 ink into it and lose it without value. It’s a card that will generally be great when you are already way ahead but could completely kill you if you draw it when you need characters. Just feels like there’s too much counter play to it at the moment for this deck to handle with Maui, Fox, fish hook, crab, queen, rise of the titans, and even Zeus.
To go even or even be favored against Steel song, the deck has to be changed up fairly significantly and then it compromises your Ruby/Amethyst match up some. It’s a tough task to balance! Tiana doesn’t really help with all the SteelSong lists playing queen now. Queen buffs their characters to easily take out Tiana
Interesting. I understand that this being budget doesn't mean that it is bad, but would you reccomend any upgrades? Or is this deck basically already at how you want it?
Great question! During the 1st day of competition you won’t know what colors they are playing. But if you have a good enough record to make it to day 2, where it is usually just the top 64 players playing, it is open decklist. Meaning not only does everyone know everyone’s colors, but you also know what cards are in their deck
I was 7-1 going into top 8. I only lost to an Emerald/Steel deck. Then beat Ruby/Amethyst in top 8 and lost in top 4 to the eventual winner, Zan Syed, playing Amber/Steel songs
Yes, for the aggro. I don’t spend too much time attacking opposing characters and can’t afford to play an uninkable 1/1 character that quest for 1. Lmk if you have any other questions
Yes, but SteelSong is much more popular now than it was going into the 8k. SteelSong was at an all time low and was looked at as a bad play for this event with the rise of the Sapphire decks. That's what made me so confident in crafting this list for that specific event. The deck is still good but SteelSong gaining popularity again is a big blow for sure.
I mean, i understand this deck made it far. But to not show matches against actual meta decks. To top it off the second match your opponent really only lost because he decided not to swing with the beast there. Higher level player would definitely had taken out the rabit
While I respect your opinion, I disagree. There were 3 Emerald/Steel decks in the top 8 of a 300 player tournament yesterday, as meta as it gets. Amber/Ruby Mufasa is also very much an actual meta deck as well. My opponent swinging into Rabbit with Beast on the final turn did not change the outcome of the game in my opinion. Would have simply delayed the result by a turn. They had no cards in hand and with me ending my turn at 19 with a Goat on board, there was no way out. I appreciate the discussion and hope that you are having a great day
Yo you're already improving so much with your editing man. We love to see it.
One day I’ll get to Villain level 😈
Cracking Video Zach! Gonna try the deck at locals! Thanks for the guide, didn’t realize all the complexities of the deck and great to get your thought processes!
Thanks so much, Mark! Let me know how it goes at locals
Yes sir 🫡 starting my day off with a bivens deck breakdown. Was so surprised to see you pull up with this deck, but glad to see ya do so well with it ❤
Starting my day off with a Craig comment? Yes sir!!
@@LorcanaCastle hope you’re doing well my friend. Enjoyed the insight this am. Great player, great content 🔥
Been loving these videos Zach! Always manage to learn something from watching you
You're the best, Brandon! Really happy that the videos help
Thanks man I already have all these cards and didn't have anything to play for tomorrow night but now I do!
Awesome! Hope it treats you well
howde it go?
Love it. if i dont run the steel/discard might consider this for the lorcana challenge. Glad to have met ya at underworld last weekend!
Was so great to meet you! Loved your deck 💚
This list is amazing!! Been really enjoying it cause aggro is my style. Only change I’ve made so far was cutting a few cards to squeeze in benja for the item removal. It’s mostly helpful in amber matchups
This makes me so happy to hear! Really appreciate the comment and glad it’s treating you well
Great vid keep up the great work!
I really appreciate this comment! Thanks so much
Thanks for the tips and tricks
Really appreciate you watching and commenting!
Thank you! For giving me a deck I can actually play
I'm excited that you want to try it! Thanks for watching!
@@LorcanaCastle as someone who can’t play other decks cause I am missin integral parts this is probably the only deck I’ve seen that I actually have everything for lmao
thanks for this deck. i have a good win ratios against most of the new emerald steel speci's discard prince john with this deck but teched with tiana resist.
Awesome! Glad you're doing well with it!
another great video!
That means a lot, John! Thank you!
Hey I just took this deck to my 25 man championship and took 1st! Thanks so much!
Amazing video
The EC stamp of approval is all I need!
Incredible video and incredible deck construction!
I plan to play it in Set Championship since there isn't much SteelSongs in my area.
You mentioned that the card that convinced you the least was Friends, would you change any copy? What would you put in?
Im so tempted to take this to my LGS for set championship! 😂
Haha it was the perfect play for the 8k with SteelSong being at an all time low. They’ve been creeping back up though
@@LorcanaCastle yeah… i blame zan and brennan for that. Hahaha 😂 i’m curious to see you play steel song again too!
Man’s built different
You too 👀
@@LorcanaCastle I’m trying 😭
I like the 2/8 Beast... takes the hits so your low cost high quest characters can live
It's an interesting card for sure. Thanks so much for watching!
Looks a lot like Daniel Phelps' Bodyguard Bounce list from SCGCON Cincy.
Looking it up now! I count a 24 card difference but absolutely a lot of similarities. Cool to see!
Ive played that deck 4 tournaments but there are matchups (grab your sword things) that are literally impossible to face off.
Played a similar deck toward the end of set 2, but swapped to Emerald Amethyst when inklands came out. I do think I’m switching back to this, but if you had to put a pair of Benjas in here (to deal with the now relevant lucky dime) what would you swap out?
Great video and love the deck!
I personally don't think this deck needs to answer Lucky Dime. It was already a threat at the 8k but this deck is great into the Sapphire decks :) If you wanted to fit them then you could consider cutting down on the friends on the other side, cutting 1 olaf or 1 pinocchio. Really appreciate you watching and for the comment!
Amethyst Sorcerers with Steel Bodyguard
True!
I would like to try this. I've been doing well with Emerald Amethyst. But I miss the bodyguards from when it was amber amethyst.
Definitely try it! It’s much better than Emerald/Amethyst imo. E/A doesn’t actually beat top level Ruby/Amethyst players or Sapphire/Steel. This deck performs well into both
I'm going to give it a try for sure. What's keeping me leaning to emerald is having a second 1 cost 2 quester in cursed merfolk. Giving that up seems like it's going to hurt
hey, loved the list and saw you playing it on stream the other day at the 1k and enchanted morph tournament. I saw that you made some changes to the list adding some low cost removal but can't figure out what you cut for it. Could you give some insight on the changes you've made to the deck and what did you cut for it?
So sick that you saw me on feature stream matches at another event! I was specifically targeting the Amber/Steel matchup that day. The changes I played with gave me a 50+% win rate against Zan Syed’s 8k winning SteelSong list, as that event just ended and his listed was super hyped in that moment. The changes make the deck much more complex and they weaken all of the other matchups. I actually don’t recommend them for these reasons and that a lot of the hype has died down
@@LorcanaCastle that makes a lot of sense, thanks :)
I also made a deck very similar to this one to participate in locals, and I always made top 4 (always lost to amber/steel song). Thank you for the advice you gave us, it's very useful. I have a couple of doubts to ask you:
- what's your opinion against locations deck? for me it's hard, cause the only real solutions are Hercules and fox, and sometimes they have too many of them on the field.
- Do you always use befuddle on your Maleficent? very often I use it to bounce the opponent's first card so I can leave Maleficent tapped on the field, but I cannot understand what is better.
- steel/ song is the worst matchup for us, what do you think is the best way to approach this matchup? I aim to start super aggressive and gain lore as fast as possible, but a lot of time aren't enough.
- in mullingans tips you said that you keep Smee if you have bodyguard on t3, so this means that you play like this:
T1: maleficent;
T2: Smee, without questing maleficent;
T3: bodyguard, questing smee and maleficent;
U always prioritize saving maleficent, right?
Thanks for all your tips, and Congratulations for all the results you are achieving.
Not Zach but I use this exact deck. Locations are usually slow so I tend to ignore them unless it’s the sorcerers castle.
I never befuddle my Maleficent unless I have no choice, it’s much better to hit their guys turn 2.
Steelsong is an auto lose. Unless you go first and they brick there’s usually nothing you can do. Try and take out the singers asap with fox or raging fire.
And that’s correct with your order of turns. That’s what I do with great success. Always save her unless it’s not a benefit to do so.
Hello awesome vidéo !
What would you remove in this deck to add the robin hood package ? Thanks
Hey, thank you! I wouldn't add Robin Hood personally. But I do think Robin Hood is super solid in here so if you wanted it then replace the Olafs with the 1 costs and probably the Friends for 3 of the shift RH.
What do you think about amber amethyst aggro, that could also use Bare Necessities to discard Grab your Sword ? They have nice bodygards (simba+baloo) and winning conditions (Kidas?). I plan to play aggro at our local tournament but afraid to play it against steel :(
Amber/Amethyst is decent and easy to play! I think it’s a solid choice for a local tournament. Though, like you said it struggles against any steel deck. Bare necessities doesn’t solve the problem sadly, because they play so many other songs that are a problem. Discarding sword is good but the other songs are enough to take out your stuff. Plus a lot of the steel decks play tinkerbell. The reason I prefer Amethyst/Steel personally, is that it’s actually good against the steel decks that aren’t Amber/Steel.
Why is it good against steel?
Any thoughts on queens castle? Probably hard to fit but I’ve been trying over some rabbits
Castle is a great thought. I didn’t include them because the deck would get extremely punished if the castle is removed quickly. It can’t afford to invest 4 ink into it and lose it without value. It’s a card that will generally be great when you are already way ahead but could completely kill you if you draw it when you need characters. Just feels like there’s too much counter play to it at the moment for this deck to handle with Maui, Fox, fish hook, crab, queen, rise of the titans, and even Zeus.
Any advice to help for the Steelsong matchup or is it just doomed ? (Tiana maybe ?)
To go even or even be favored against Steel song, the deck has to be changed up fairly significantly and then it compromises your Ruby/Amethyst match up some. It’s a tough task to balance! Tiana doesn’t really help with all the SteelSong lists playing queen now. Queen buffs their characters to easily take out Tiana
Whats your answer to Amber Steelsongs?
Interesting. I understand that this being budget doesn't mean that it is bad, but would you reccomend any upgrades? Or is this deck basically already at how you want it?
Oh I could have played different cards but this was exactly how I wanted the deck. This was the perfect 60 cards for the meta
@@LorcanaCastle Gotcha, super cool tech, great video. Would love to see more gameplay and techs on it,
any updates on this deck?
When u play a tournament do you know what colors your opponent are playing or do u find out in the match ?
Great question! During the 1st day of competition you won’t know what colors they are playing. But if you have a good enough record to make it to day 2, where it is usually just the top 64 players playing, it is open decklist. Meaning not only does everyone know everyone’s colors, but you also know what cards are in their deck
Out of curiosity, was the tournament best of 3 or the new 2 game format?
This one was best of 3!
Curious as to which decks you actually lost to and what your weaknesses were if you don't mind sharing!
I was 7-1 going into top 8. I only lost to an Emerald/Steel deck. Then beat Ruby/Amethyst in top 8 and lost in top 4 to the eventual winner, Zan Syed, playing Amber/Steel songs
@@LorcanaCastle amazing ! Thanks for the reply!! Happy to see such an awesome deck, gonna try it out and see if I’m witty enough to use it well 😂
@@ChaoticGoodEats You got this 🧠
I wanted to ask: Is there a reason why you’re using the 3 lore Pinocchio and not the exert chosen character one? Is it just for the Aggro of it all?
Yes, for the aggro. I don’t spend too much time attacking opposing characters and can’t afford to play an uninkable 1/1 character that quest for 1. Lmk if you have any other questions
If you had to run somehting other than Raging Fire what would it be?
That's a tough one, raging fire is so strong in this deck. Probably smash. Smash can help against Ariel and Ursula
@@LorcanaCastle Yeah I was thinking that. Im a steel Ameythist main and I learn a lot from watching you play so I'd like to see your thought processes
@@LorcanaCastle Oh what about Maleficent. Would something like this be worth running without the one drop Maleficents?
@@NeoGenMike I actually think the 1 drop Maleficent is the most important card in the deck. The early game is played around protecting her
Hey man do you think the Robin Hood shift line would do good with this deck? Also awesome deck!
Yes, I think it’s fine. I prefer without it at the moment
You think this is still viable for the store championships?
Yes, but SteelSong is much more popular now than it was going into the 8k. SteelSong was at an all time low and was looked at as a bad play for this event with the rise of the Sapphire decks. That's what made me so confident in crafting this list for that specific event. The deck is still good but SteelSong gaining popularity again is a big blow for sure.
@@LorcanaCastle interesting enough no one plays steel song in my area except me lol. So I think I'll give it a try
Why does friends on the other side look like pot of greed?
I mean, i understand this deck made it far. But to not show matches against actual meta decks. To top it off the second match your opponent really only lost because he decided not to swing with the beast there. Higher level player would definitely had taken out the rabit
While I respect your opinion, I disagree. There were 3 Emerald/Steel decks in the top 8 of a 300 player tournament yesterday, as meta as it gets. Amber/Ruby Mufasa is also very much an actual meta deck as well.
My opponent swinging into Rabbit with Beast on the final turn did not change the outcome of the game in my opinion. Would have simply delayed the result by a turn. They had no cards in hand and with me ending my turn at 19 with a Goat on board, there was no way out.
I appreciate the discussion and hope that you are having a great day