Disney Lorcana’s Starter Decks are a great way to learn how to play the game, or an even better way of kickstarting your collection. All three of them are full of powerful pieces that could become staples, increasing the temptation to tear them apart and build whole new decks with the cards.
The Amethyst/Amber deck is an aggressive one full of combos and ways to refill your hand. If you like sneaky plays or going wide, maybe some of these cards will be worth picking up for your own decks later on?
10 Hades, Lord Of The Underworld
Hades isn’t the only card in the Amber/Amethyst deck that can get characters back from discard to your hand, as A Part Of Your World can do the same thing for three ink. With that in mind, you should assess Hades less as a four-ink character with underwhelming 3/2 stats, and more like a one-ink 3/2 and a free copy of Part Of Your World bolted on instead.
More importantly, Hades’ cost allows him to sing A Part Of Your World, letting you get not just one character out of your discard pile, but two. Despite middling first appearances, Hades offers huge amounts of value with very little effort needed on your part.
9 Yzma, Alchemist
Yzma doesn’t quite offer raw hand advantage, but her ability does allow you to improve the quality of the cards you draw by dumping the bad ones to the bottom of your deck. The You’re Excused ability is effectively Lorcana’s version of Magic: The Gathering’s scry – an ability that has decades of success backing up its utility.
The only downside to Yzma is she is quite squishy. At just two Willpower, you’ll likely only get one or two You’re Excused triggers in with her before she’s banished in a challenge. Those could make all the difference, though, depending on what you set up on top of your deck.
8 Jetsam, Ursula’s Spy
Although Flotsam and Jetsam come as a pair, Jetsam is the real powerhouse of the duo. A 3/3 for four ink, the addition of Evasive makes him one of the best characters for taking out your opponents’ own Evasive pieces.
The ability to give another character Evasive is powerful, too. It may be limited to just Flotsams, but as the game developers and we get more cards featuring the two characters, Jetsam, Ursula’s Spy is only going to get more and more threatening.
7 Cinderella, Gentle And Kind
On her own, Cinderella is a banger. Four ink for a 2/5 with a lore value of two, but with the ability to sing songs as if it cost five is already a fantastic ability. You can sing the vast majority of the game’s songs with her, and she can take enough damage through challenging to give you at least a turn or two of use.
Cinderella is also incredible in one of The First Chapters’ most synergistic characteristics, Princesses. Her ability to remove a whopping three damage from a Princess (including herself, if you want) makes her a staple for the deck. She might be the only Cinderella in the whole of The First Chapter, but she’s already made her mark on the game.
6 Rafiki, Mysterious Sage
Aggro isn’t usually a strategy you associate with Amethyst cards. That’s more in the realm of Amber, Ruby, and maybe even Steel. And yet, Rafiki, Mysterious Sage is here to prove purple cards do have a way of sneaking in some quick and dirty damage.
It might not be inkable, but Rafiki has Rush, which allows him to challenge the same turn he enters play. With three Strength and Willpower, he could be an excellent early-game sweeper, and can act before your opponent can do anything about him.
5 Moana Of Motonui
Another Princess deck staple, Moana of Motonui can enable some frightful synergies thanks to her ability to ready all other Princesses whenever she quests. That could be ureadying an Ariel, Spectacular Singer to sing an extra song, locking down more characters with Elsa, Snow Queen, or letting Cinderella remove even more damage from a Princess.
The best thing about Moana is that she rewards you for doing the thing you’ll want to be doing with her anyway: questing. With six Willpower and a lore value of three, she is one of the best questers in the whole game – tricky to banish in a challenge, while quickly building up the lore. She’s a win condition and Princess support piece all in one.
4 Friends On The Other Side
Drawing cards is always good, especially when you’re able to do it while holding onto the ink you’d need to play those cards in the process. Singing a Friends On The Other Side is easy-peasy thanks to its low singing cost of just three, and the advantage it gives you is immense.
This is one of those cards that looks underwhelming at first, but quickly becomes an auto-include in just about any Amethyst deck. You’re going to have characters that can sing it very early on in the game, and, on the small chance you don’t, it’s inkable to give you extra resources of a different kind.
3 Pascal, Rapunzel’s Companion
Evasive is an awesome keyword, especially when played before your opponent has been able to play any characters that can deal with it. Pascal is the cheapest Evasive character in the game by a whole two ink – followed by Peter Pan, Never Landing at three.
If you can get this out quickly, you’ve likely got between two and four turns of unanswered questing, before your opponent can afford to play their own Evasive character to take Pascal out. That doesn’t seem like much, but an early advantage can snowball into a quick win very, very easily.
2 Dinglehopper
This card is so cheap it should just be considered a freebie. For one ink, you’re removing damage from any character you want, every single turn. There’s no other cost involved in using Dinglehopper – just exert it once per turn, and you’ll be keeping your key characters in play for so much longer.
Items are harder for your opponent to interact with than characters. Bar a few cards that can banish items, you’ll be safe to exert and heal for a long time. Dinglehopper is an unassuming card that packs a real punch that your opponent won’t fully appreciate until it’s already too late for them – especially if you get two or three of them in play at once.
1 Dr. Facilier, Agent Provocateur
Dr. Facilier, Agent Provocateur is an absolute house of a card. Seven ink costs a lot, but for that you get something that can dish out four damage, or quest for three lore. Add to that the Into The Shadows ability, which returns any other banished character back to your hand to be played again, and you’ve got the makings of an all-timer card.
Best of all, Agent Provocateur has a shift cost of five ink. You can get this out a lot earlier than that initial seven ink cost suggests, provided you have another Dr. Facilier to play it into. With the cost lowered by two ink, Dr. Facilier’s status as one of the best Amethyst cards in the whole of The First Chapter is just cemented even further.