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Hidden in the mountains of Colombia sits the Encanto, a magical house run by the incredible Madrigal family. With their special abilities, they keep the town safe and happy, and now, withLorcana’sAmber/Amethyst starter deck for Ursula’s Return, they can also help you gather all the lore you need.
This is a tricky deck that requires careful timing and knowing when to hold your Mirabels and play your Isabelas. But with a bit of practice, you can really put the Surface Pressure on your opponent and show them why they shouldn’t talk about Bruno.
Full Decklist
Here is every card in the Ursula’s Return Amber/Amethyst starter deck.
In total, this deck has:
Key Cards
There are lots of cards in this deck that muddy your main strategy, and so here are the key ones to focus on.
Mirabel Madrigal, Gift Of The Family
Mirabel is the linchpin of the entire Madrigal strategy. Byboosting your other Madrigalsand having them quest for more lore, you’ll be able to rush your opponent before they have much of a chance to build a solid defense.
While there are lots of flashy Madrigals in the deck like Camilo, Delores, Luisa, and Isabela, Mirabel actually works better with thenon-gifted members of the family, Félix Madrigal, Fun-Loving Family Man, and Augustin Madrigal, Clumsy Dad.
Antonio Madrigal, Animal Expert hits harder in a challenge than Félix, but quests for less, which makes him less useful if you’re trying to speed to victory.
By the time you have enough ink to get Mirabel out, you may have multiple copies of both out, ready to quest for a ridiculous amount of lore in one go. They’re decently statted for their costs, too, so making sure youhave a few of them in your opening handis paramount.
The big problem you’ll find in this deck is that there’s only one Gift of the Family. If she’s banished, your strategy immediately becomes a whole lot weaker. you may make use of some of the Because of this, ugprades should focus onshoring things up with a few more copies of Mirabel Madrigal, Gift of the Family.The ability stacks, too, so the more Gift of the Family you have out, the bigger the buff to lore value.
Camilo Madrigal, Prankster
Most of the big players of this deck are going to be Madrigals, but Camilo stands on his own as a great all-rounder, even without his family backing him up. Camilo Madrigal, Prankster is a rare ‘toolbox’ card for Lorcana, meaning he offers flexibility no matter the situation.
If you’re already dominating the table, he can quest for two lore (three with Mirabel). Alternatively, he can bea powerful challengerthanks to his second choice, which gives him Challenger +2.
Hitting as a 4/5 when you need to get rid of threats on the board is great, especially if you pair him up with his other,Pepa Madrigal, Weather Makerto exert characters you want Camilo to take out.
Isabela Madrigal, Golden Child
The golden child of the Madrigal family is a tricky character to play. She doesn’t fit in with the rest of the family, asnothing else can quest after her,but she’s an excellent way to claw things back in a pinch.
The best time to play Isabela is when the rest of your board has been taken out. Maybe someone played a Be Prepared, or Camilo and your other more defensive characters fell to an overwhelming force from your opponent. Either way, with the rest of the board empty, Isabela canbe an absolute monster.
When Isabela is the first character to quest in a turn, she quests for a whoppingfour lore. Combine thatwith her evasivenessand reasonable 3/4 stat line, and you’ve got something that can single handedly close out a game in a pinch.
Hold on toPrince Eric,Seafaring Princeto keep her safe, and plenty of the healing cards likeHealing GlowandJulieta Madrigal, Excellent Cook, and you should be able to keep Isabela in play long enough to get you the win.
Look At This Family
One of the big flaws of this deck is that it has too many non-Madrigal characters, making getting a big family out trickier to pull off. Fortunately, Look At This Family is a song card that helps you do just that.
It uses a mechanic introduced in Ursula’s Return,Sing Together. This means you may exert multiple characters to pay for it, or, just throw outAriel, Singing Mermaid to pay for it all herself.When you do this, you get to effectively filter the top five cards of your deck for the characters you need and put them into your hand.
You’ll likely be using this to find eitherMirabel Madrigal, Gift of the Family or Isabela Madrigal, Golden Child, which serve as your primary win conditions, or evenJulieta MadrigalorPepa Madrigalif you’re struggling to keep your characters from getting banished.
Amber/Amethyst Playstyle
As the key cards probably suggest, this is primarily aMadrigal typal deck, focused on getting as many members of the family out as possible for a quick win. Your goal is to flood the board with Madrigals, before dropping aMirabel Madrigal, Gift of the Familyand overwhelming your opponent with a massive amount of lore.
However, the rest of the deck feels a little muddled in what it’s trying to do. There’s abig focus on supporting, with cards likeMickey Mouse, Leader of the Band and Rolly, Hungry Pup, but other than challenging and removing characters that threaten your Madrigals, there isn’t much to do with them.
There are also a few other curious additions, like Tick-Tock, Ever-Present Pursuer and The Queen, Hateful Rival. Though they’re not bad cards by any means, they don’t have much synergy with the rest of the deck, and seem to exist as filler.
There are a lot of ways to heal damage in this deck, too.Julieta Madrigal, Excellent Cook;Healing Glow,andHeal What Has Been Hurtoffer a great number of ways to remove damage, whether that be from your sweepers, or from the Madrigals themselves to keep them in play.
With all this in mind, your focus will always be onprotecting the Madrigals. Use your other characters and their beefy stats to challenge threats with all the support characters, leaving the Madrigals free to quest to their hearts' content.
Your Opening Hand And When To Mulligan
A strength of this deck is itshigh number of inkable cards, meaning you’re less likely to be caught holding onto things you can’t use for the majority of the game. Naturally, you’ll want to focus onthe curve of your hand– can you ink a card and play a card on at least your firstthree turns? If not, you might want to consider a mulligan.
In your opening hand, you’ll want to try and getAgustin Madrigal, Clumsy DadandCasa Madrigal, Casita, as it kickstarts your collection of Madrigals while also generating extra lore. Following it up with something like Félix or Juliet when you can pay three ink helps keep the train going long enough for you to drop Mirabel Madrigal, Gift Of The Family on turn five.
Poor Unfortunate Soulsis also a really, really good early card. A song you’re able to sing for just two cost, it can keep threats away from the squisher Madrigals like Agustin by bouncing either himself or your opponents' things back to their own hand.
You’re likely not going to want to have Mirabel Madrgial, Gift Of The Family in your opening hand, because inking her completely shuts down the deck, but you’ll also not be playing her until a few turns in. Instead, you could focus on gettingAriel, Singing MermaidandLook At This Familyto more quickly get her when the time comes.
One of the uninkable cards in the deck isMarshmallow, Terrifying Snowman. Though the lack of inkability makes it a risky choice for an opening hand, it costs three and will likely be a fairly heavy-hitter thanks to basing its Strength on the number of cards in your hand. Between Look At This Family, Heal What Has Been Hurt, andDelores Madrigal, Easy Listener, it’s quite easy to replenish your hand and keep Marshmallow hitting hard.
In other words, if the rest of your hand is full of cheap and inkable cards, Marshmallow isn’t the worst thing in the world to keep.
Weaknesses
By far the biggest weakness of this deck is how unfocused it is. You’re relying on cards you’ve only got one copy of, like Mirabel and Isabela, to win you the game, while it’s alsofull of stuff you don’t need like Rolly, The Queen, and Tick-Tock. Getting those win conditions is going to be the luck of the draw, so any upgrades to it should putmultiple copies of Mirabel and Isabelainto the deck.
There’s also not a lot here toprotect your own characters. There’s a lack of Bodyguards in the deck, with onlythree copies of Prince Eric, to ensure Mirabel is nice and safe as she drives the family to victory.
With these in mind, highly aggressive and challenge-focused decks will be this deck’s biggest weakness. You’reincredibly vulnerable to removal, and anything big enough to take out a character before Julieta can get in there and heal it is going to absolute devastate your game plan.
