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Ursula’s Return caps off the first year ofLorcanawith a full-scale war against Ursula and her forces. While her corrupting seaweed spreads, the forces of good have amassed against her, with all kinds of Heroes answering the call.
This is the focus of the set’s Sapphire/Steel starter deck. Pull all your greatest Heroes together, support them with Allies, and grind out that lore in a slow-and-steady deck that can be frightful to deal with.
Smash (x2)
The deck contains:
Key Cards
Though this deck is surprisingly strong, there are still a few stand-out cards you’ll definitely want to avoid inking.
Ling, Imperial Soldier
Challenging is a big part of this deck, as the focus is on amassing an army of Hero characters to stomp your opponent down while you grind up your lore. With that goal in mind,Ling, Imperial Soldier is the dark horse of the deckthanks to his passive buff to all your Heroes.
For three ink, a 3/3 on its own isn’t bad. It can tank hits from lots of early game threats, and is out of range of a dreaded Grab Your Swords. More importantly, though, is thatLing’s ability stacks: it stacks with Challenger, it stacks with other buffs, and it stacks for each Ling you have in play.
If you can get two or even three of these bad boys out, all of your other Heroes will easily be in range to challenge and remove most threats your opponent can play.
Anna, True-Hearted
While the Amber/Amethyst deck from Ursula’s Return heavily relies on Mirabel Madrigal, Gift of the Family to get a win,this deck doesn’t rely on Anna, True-Heartednearly as much. That doesn’t make it a great help to you, though, as she gives aboost your Heroes' lore valueswhenever she quests.
You’re often going to be splitting the party between which Heroes quest and which challenge each turn, but Anna helps even things out and pushes those questing Heroes a bit further. She’s also got nice, high willpower to keep her in play, andquesting for two just on her own is useful. This is one of the few cards in the deck you’re likely never going to challenge with.
If you have multiple Annas in play, each one will buff the lore value of any other Annas to quest after it. This deck only includes one out of the box, but you may always upgrade it and add more to snowball that questing into something terrifying.
Thebes, The Big Olive
After debuting in Into the Inklands,Locations are backfor a second set, and here they give Heroes a mightily powerful way of passively generating lore. Something only costing two lore but havingseven willpower is immense, and that’s before you see the ability on it.
The plan is simple: move your heaviest hitters onto Thebes, and use them to take out your opponents' characters in a challenge.For each you banish, you’ll be making two lore, which for many is as if they’d simultaneously quested and challenged.
verify you stagger when you play Thebes. Thanks to its high willpower andincredibly cheap move costyou could just keep playing another to replace the ones you lose for most of the game.
Prince Phillip, Gallant Defender
Finally, a payoff for supporting a character beyond just raising their strength. It still makes it so that it’s only worth supporitng characters who are going to challenge this turn, but the addition of an extra resist is still very nice indeed.
As the abilities specifically states the character getsResist +1, it stacks on top of any resist that is already there.
Quest with all your support characters, and you may make one character hit for a massive amount and be virtually indestructible at the same time. It behooves you to have lots of support characters out in play, specifically so Prince Phillip can help pass out the extra goodies as well. The fact a lot of those supporters are Heroes you’d be questing with anyway just makes it all the more synergistic.
Philoctetes, No-Nonsense Instructor
Prince Phillip isn’t the only Phil in this deck. Philoctetes is the closest thing this deck has toa discrete win condition, and ideally should be playedbefore you play any Heroes.
Whenever you play a Hero with Philoctetes out, you gain one lore. That’s good enough on its own to fuel a deck, but combined with it giving all your Heroes Challenger +1 as well, you’ve got a card thatshores up both sides of the deck’s strategy at the same time.
You won’t be up the creek without a paddle if Philoctetes gets banished, but keeping him in play should be one of yourtop priorities. The passive lore generation, the buff to your Heroes, and its two lore value on its own make it a turbo boost for this deck.
Sapphire/Steel Playstyle
Compared to the Amber/Amethyst starter deck, Sapphire/Steel has a much simpler playstyle. You’re focusing on amassingHeroesand grinding out your opponent withlots of challengingas you amass your lore.
The deck has a whopping17 different Heroes, with some making up your early plays likeRobin Hood, Beloved OutlawandAladdin, Resolute Swordsman, while others are splashier pieces of the puzzle, likeHercules, Beloved HeroandSisu, Wise Friend.
You’re going to be relying on a lot of different Hero synergies.Philoctetes, No-Nonsense Instructor; Anna, Braving The Storm; Anna, True-Hearted; Ling, Imperial Soldier; One Last Hope, and Imperial Bowall care about you having Heroes out.
Heroes are nothing without their allies backing them up, though, and this deck also features a lot of Ally characters who play a more supportive role. Ling,Transformed Chef,Flounder, and Pascalall offer really useful abilities, like healing characters with Transformed Chef (a rare ability in these ink colours), filtering the top cards of your deck with PAscal, and a good old simple Support trigger with Flounder.
Speaking of support, this deck isn’t scared of putting its Heroes to work, as there is a heavy focus on supporting characters and throwing them at your opponents'. It’s this that fuelsThebes, The Big Oliveas a possible win condition.
When you combine it with support tools likeBasil, Philoctetes; Mickey Mouse, Standard Bearer;and, of course,Prince Phillip, Gallant Defender, you’ll be free to take out threats through challenges with half of your characters, quest with the other half, and gain lots of lore in the process.
Your Opening Hand And When To Mulligan
This deck is very grindy, meaning you’re not going for a fast combo win, but instead digging in for the long haul with your characters. That means you’ve got a lot more options for keeping your opening hand than normal, but you’ll still want to make the right choices.
For your opening hand, you’re wanting agood varietyof options rather than specific cards. Early characters like Kida; Aurora, Tranquil Princess; Basil, and Anna, Braving The Storm are great to have, as are more supporting cards likePascalandTransformed Chef, andImperial Bow.
Though you’ve got one-drops with Robin Hood and Aladdin, playing too many of them early on means youmiss out on lore from Philoctetes, No-Nonsense Instructor.You’ll only want one or possibly two in your opening hand, or you could find yourself running out of steam later on.
Focus on the foundation of the deck, with cards likePhiloctetes, Prince Philip,and, most importantly,Thebes, The Big Olive. That way, you’re ready to immediately dump your Heroes into play and get to work.
While it’s tempting to keep splashy cards in your opening hand, keep in mindanything you may’t play is useless. Dig A Little Deeper, for instance, should be an immediate mulligan, as you won’t be playing that in the first few turns of the game. Likewise,Herculeswould likely only be used for ink, which is a waste when it has a much bigger impact later on.
Weaknesses
This is a rock-solid deck that can be monstrously consistent, which immediately puts it ahead of the other Ursula’s Return deck. It can tank most aggressive decks, and However, it does have one big flaw: it completelyfolds to control.
If your opponent isexerting your characters, or bouncing them back to your hand, your squishier key pieces are much more vulnerable. You’relimited in healing, with just Transformed Chef, which makes every hit your characters take all the more threatening.
There’s also not a lot ofdirect interaction with your opponent’s boardgoing on here either, outside of challenges. You’re squarely focused on building up your own characters and swinging in, but if you needed to get threats like Bodyguards out the way, you’ve not got a whole lot of options.
There’s also asevere lack ofevasive characters. Outside of Imperial Bow, you haveno way of dealing with evasive threats, giving them the chance to run away with the game before you’ve assembled your engine.
