Disney Lorcana’s starter decks are a great way to learn how to play the game in a nice, controlled environment. More importantly, though, they’re a big box full of cards you can take apart and mix together to make some killer decks straight away.
The Sapphire and Steel deck offers big, smashy characters and lots of ways to ramp them out. If you like plays that take some time to pull off, but then hit hard, it’s a fantastic deck. Whether you’re just wanting to know what to play, or want to know which things to harvest for your next brew, here are the best cards in the Sapphire/Steel Starter Deck.
10 Captain Hook, Forceful Duelist
Captain Hook is a great first-turn play. He can hit hard thanks to his Challenger keyword, and with two Willpower he can take a beating from a large number of other potential early characters. He’s the perfect mix of offense and defense, allowing you to get in a few quests before your other cards can come out.
Outside of the starter deck, Forceful Duelist is the ideal target to shift Captain Hook, Thinking Happy Thoughts onto. It’s the only Captain Hook in The First Chapter that would result in you paying less ink in total for Happy Thoughts, setting you up for having a terrifying, unchallengeable challenger by turn three.
9 Hercules, True Hero
Hercules, True Hero is the only card in the Sapphire and Steel deck to have the Bodyguard keyword, which forces your opponents to challenge it before they can hit any of your softer targets. Whether you’re wanting to set up a shift, or need ways to get ahead in questing, Bodyguard is one of the most helpful keywords in the entire game.
The only downside to True Hero is his stats. With just three Willpower, he’s likely going to be taken out quicker than you’d have liked, making the time you play his absolutely vital. He might be a little on the delicate side, but with all the ways to heal damage and buff stats available in Lorcana, he could become a quick and cheap threat your opponents struggle to cope with.
8 Develop Your Brain
Card advantage is a crucial part of any TCG. Time spent digging through your deck for answers is time you’re spending not dealing with the problem, but cards like Develop Your Brain can put what you need directly into your hand.
Not only does this let you get the good cards into your hand, it also lets you kick less ideal cards down the road to draw later on. Of course, this does come with the downside of possibly having to put a good card at the bottom of your deck where you can’t use it, but the benefit of putting one into your hand still far outweighs that.
7 Simba, Returned King
Sometimes you just need a bit beater to knock down your opponents’ threats, and that’s exactly what Simba, Returned King is. With impressive 4/6 stats, and even a Challenger keyword to make it hit like it was an 8/6 instead, it’s a powerhouse designed for crashing down on your opponents’ characters.
He’s also an incredible quester, thanks to his lore value of two and high Willpower. He’s likely going to be the biggest character in play, and will generally get you four lore before your opponents are able to chip away at him, at great cost to themselves.
6 Mickey Mouse, Detective
He might be a bit expensive for a 1/3, and he can’t even be put in your inkwell, but Mickey Mouse, Detective is one of the most powerful ramping tools The First Chapter has to offer. Even if you’ve already put a card in your inkwell the turn he comes in, you’ll be able to put another from the top of your deck.
One of the most important aspects of Lorcana is having more resources than your opponent. You need ink to play cards, and the more you can play, the quicker you quest, and the faster you win. Having even one extra ink at your disposal over your opponent is a huge advantage, and one that more than makes up for Mickey’s underwhelming stats.
5 Maui, Demigod
Maui isn’t a smart card. It’s an 8/8 with no other abilities, so it’s obvious you’re meant to throw his weight around. He’s the bomb you drop on the board to win the game, and unless your opponent is packing a Dragon’s Fire or other way to get rid of him, he’s likely to do major damage before he leaves play.
Maui is flexible. He is by far the biggest character in the whole of the First Chapter, and can take down any non-Evasive character in a single challenge. He’s also got that beefy eight Willpower, and stunning lore value of three, letting you use him as a quester. No matter how you play Maui, he’s an incredible play that shows you don’t need bells and whistles to be a good Lorcana card.
4 Mufasa, King Of The Pridelands
Another big-stats-good type of card, Mufasa serves a slightly different role to Maui’s wrecking ball effect. Provided you’ve been adequately ramping, your opponent likely won’t have any way of dealing with Mufasa when he enters play, and with his lore value of three, he becomes an immediate target for any and all challenges.
This sounds bad – who wants to play a character for it to be banished quickly? – but getting rid of Mufasa will devastate your opponents, and likely cost them a few characters in the process. Before your opponents have any chance of rebuilding, you can then drop a Maui, or even another Mufasa, to keep the pressure up long enough for you to win.
3 Aurora, Dreaming Guardian
Aurora is almost the polar opposite of Maui. Where Maui is crushing your opponents under raw stats, Aurora is a tricky, unexpected card. It’s just one card in the deck’s protective repertoire, and stops those big, hulking Mauis being taken down by a single action. The shift keyword helps a lot too, as you can get it out as early as turn three to give you more breathing room to set up your big threats.
Aurora may not be able to protect herself, but when combined with a Bodyguard like Hercules, you’re effectively forcing your opponent to challenge you directly – something this deck and ink colours excels at. Aurora won’t win you games on her own, but she’ll absolutely set up your other pieces to take the victory in her place.
2 Coconut Basket
If you want your characters to stay in play longer, you’ll need to find ways to remove damage from them. Fortunately, Coconut Basket offers one of the most consistent, cheapest ways of doing just that. By simply playing a character, you can remove two damage from any other character.
Though the initial cost of three ink to play Coconut Basket and a character is quite high for removing two damage, the more characters you play, the better it gets. Run this in any go-wide deck, or one that uses plenty of cheap creatures, and Coconut Basket’s value soars through the stratosphere. These sure are a lovely bunch of a coconuts.
1 Grab Your Sword
Board wipes in Lorcana are uncommon. There’s Be Prepared, a red song that banishes all creatures, but that’s massively expensive and also hurts your own board state. Grab Your Sword, on the other hand, could tip things enough in your favour to secure the win.
Five ink to deal two damage to every opposing character is a fantastic deal. It doesn’t choose characters so bypasses Ward, and leaves your characters unharmed to clean up what survives. This can be a devastating play against anyone running a go-wide deck, and one you should want to pack multiple copies of in practically any Steel-using deck.