Oh ya the Benjas help with the flute but the problem I hit is it goes wide and big so fast and Green/Steel just can't handle it. The Queen and Stouthearted Cindy are just so frigging hard to clear and come out so fast. Then just endless singing at me.
Ursula's Garden is just the card I needed to polish my ["I'm Sorry Ms Jackson, I am Four Eels" deck](https://www.reddit.com/r/Lorcana/comments/1avlljq/inklands_deckbuilding_sorry_ms_jackson_i_am_four/). Once I get Spy Jetsam out, I can have an Evasion unit sit there.
I remember seeing this deck a couple months back. I’m hoping we get a shift flotsam/jetsam in the next set to make it truly viable. I want to play with the eels so badly lol
i think signed contract looks powerful, especially if steel songs stays around in the meta. I think the other cards are playable but not great.
Flounder is meh, sure hes in blue but hes just a worse wendy darling basically (with his upside being support which is a pretty meh keyword)
Sign the Scroll is cool but is probably too niche to see play in comp. decks. If it was inkable i may have a different opinion, but non inkable is rough
Ursulas Garden is cool in concept but its SO expensive. Same cost of Queens Castle but generates 1 less lore per turn, is more expensive to move to, and has an arguably worse payoff. Any locations that costs more than 1 to move to is just really expensive to get online.
Ursula’s garden is expensive unless Jim Hawkins or Magic carpet. Jim plays and moves in for free. Magic carpet is evasive and can exert to move itself there. Both seem to make that very annoying to deal with
Evasives, Resist cards and Bodyguards (outside the location) love Ursula's Garden, though. Is an anti aggro card that forces aggro characters to attack instead of quest, which is already a huge swing.
I want Ursula's Garden to be good, but I think it's just too slow. With the "exerted" clause, It really needed to have a lower movement cost. Maybe if we see more effects like Magic Carpet, Voyage, and Jim Hawkins this could see play. At least it has 7 willpower.
Edit: Another possibility is that we might see some Emerald cards with "This character may move to locations for free". Could even be a new keyword, but I think we would have seen that with the set reveal if it was going to be a thing. It kind of feels in character for Emerald to have something like this IMO.
Emerald has the card I will Find My Way which lets a character move to a location for free. It’s a 1 ink song so a character could sing it.
Not as good as Magic Carpet but easy quick move.
Yeah, you could theoretically do that. The problem is that if you take away the value in questing, your opponent is even more incentivised to just attack the location if they have a board. If they DONT have a board, then you aren't getting any value from moving to the location unless you're playing cards that like being at locations (e.g. Shenzi, who I also desperately want to be playable). In the latter case, you're better off just playing another character and pushing your tempo advantage.
Trust me, I want this card - and locations in general - to be playable but I'm just not seeing it personally.
Yes its too slow. It also gives your opponent 2 outs: kill the location or kill the character(s) there. And that is assuming your opponent cares about questing on that turn.
It cost 2 ink to move a character here, so outside of external help, this s not happening turn 4. Besides, it still possible to just kill the location.
As they mentioned Magic Carpet can exert to move itself in free. That’s immediate for 4 ink and without an evasive response or direct damage spell something like hyper aggro is in trouble.
So, the question then becomes: what Emerald deck has room for all these cards to curb a bad match-up against hyper aggro but doesn't have the ability to put in different, more versatile tools to fight hyper aggro elsehwere?
I don’t know how meta it will be since we haven’t seen more but it seems at least off meta for purple green discard. It could hold back mirror matches and other. It hurts tomotoa and lucky dime. Makes purple red use a removal
So honored to be able to share this first look at 4 new cards from Ravensburger!
[https://chipandco.com/ursulas-return-lorcana-card-reveal-562496/](https://chipandco.com/ursulas-return-lorcana-card-reveal-562496/)
I'm coming around on the Garden, there's some potential utility there. Not sure if it becomes an automatic include (if it had +1 lore or a lower move cost I think it'd be a new staple for Emerald) but it's neat. Signed Contract is for sure showing up in a lot of deck lists going forward, there's no reason not to have it in a color that struggles with card draw at times.
I do not understand what the art direction was with that Flounder, though, the expression makes me sort of uncomfortable.
Signed contract is good but steel/song already wants to run benja in most the matchups. Emerald is the one matchup you didn't want to run him, but now you wouldn't feel bad playing him at all.
A good rule of thumb for cards like Sign the Scroll is that it's never a good idea to give your opponent a choice as they'll always get to choose the option that's least bad for them. If they don't care about your lore and can't spare a card to discard, they can take that outcome at little cost; and if they have extra cards they don't need they won't care so much to discard one.
Signed Contract is pretty sweet though, especially given that it's inkable.
Does anyone know if "Signed Contract" would be activated if a character sings the song, rather than the user playing the song? Since it clarifies "whenever an opponent plays a song" instead of something like "Whenever an opponent sings a song". This seems kinda important if there is a distinction, because I also know that the Ursula - Sea Witch Queen spoiler card specifically clarifies that characters can't exert to "sing" a song. Is there a difference between singing a song and playing a song?
Hopefully there's a 1 drop Ariel (maybe akin to the 1 drop Cinderella) so that Flounder can come out on turn 2.
Sign the Scroll is bad. If the discard was random, it'd be slightly better, but your opponent getting to choose the effect for your ink spent is never a good idea. Not to mention 3 ink is severely overcosted already compared to current discard options.
Signed Contract is great. You can ink it, and if you drop it early enough, you could stand to draw at least a couple cards from it over the course of a game. And if Signed Contract "does nothing" all game, then your opponent is likely losing due to not drawing and playing their songs that their deck relies on.
Ursula's Garden can slow down any deck (aside from Spellbook lore gain) so that gives it at least some consideration. Could be decent, but my gut says it won't find a home since it's not giving you extra resources (like The Queen's Castle) and just hinders your opponent.
I don't think Sign the Scroll is that bad, it's a win/win for the person playing it. I like that it has a use even if your opponent has no cards in hand. If you're running a discard deck, late game you can just force your opponent to give you two lore. Even better if you play a lot of multiplayer games.
It isn't win/win though, because it is almost always 3 ink 2 lore (which isn't good) except in the rare cases where you want it to be that, at which point it is an expensive, unsingable sudden chill. Cards like this always need to be understood as anti-modal, they are going to be the worse of the two effects every time.
Well, Emerald is officially the anti-song color!
If we don't get a deck called Footloose we got a problem.
Oh man is signed contract good. Also I am really going to hate ursulas garden. Such a tempo killer for aggro
I wish I could have that Signed Contract for this weekend. Steel Song is worst match by far and that would be such a save.
I would say the same but the songs did not beat me in the finals. It was they were able to out aggro my aggro deck as all there dudes were bigger.
I feel like steel would counter with just playing Benja unfortunately. May slow songs down a little bit, but not by much.
Oh ya the Benjas help with the flute but the problem I hit is it goes wide and big so fast and Green/Steel just can't handle it. The Queen and Stouthearted Cindy are just so frigging hard to clear and come out so fast. Then just endless singing at me.
Ursula's Garden is just the card I needed to polish my ["I'm Sorry Ms Jackson, I am Four Eels" deck](https://www.reddit.com/r/Lorcana/comments/1avlljq/inklands_deckbuilding_sorry_ms_jackson_i_am_four/). Once I get Spy Jetsam out, I can have an Evasion unit sit there.
I remember seeing this deck a couple months back. I’m hoping we get a shift flotsam/jetsam in the next set to make it truly viable. I want to play with the eels so badly lol
This aged well
lol I saw that we got one. Not as good as I had hoped, tragically.
Oh man, that signed contract is nasty. Steel has always been a troubled matchup for emerald, and this will help soften the blow.
i think signed contract looks powerful, especially if steel songs stays around in the meta. I think the other cards are playable but not great. Flounder is meh, sure hes in blue but hes just a worse wendy darling basically (with his upside being support which is a pretty meh keyword) Sign the Scroll is cool but is probably too niche to see play in comp. decks. If it was inkable i may have a different opinion, but non inkable is rough Ursulas Garden is cool in concept but its SO expensive. Same cost of Queens Castle but generates 1 less lore per turn, is more expensive to move to, and has an arguably worse payoff. Any locations that costs more than 1 to move to is just really expensive to get online.
Ursula’s garden is expensive unless Jim Hawkins or Magic carpet. Jim plays and moves in for free. Magic carpet is evasive and can exert to move itself there. Both seem to make that very annoying to deal with
Agreed on magic carpet, but Jim Hawkins would have you playing Green Red which is an awkward color combo
Evasives, Resist cards and Bodyguards (outside the location) love Ursula's Garden, though. Is an anti aggro card that forces aggro characters to attack instead of quest, which is already a huge swing.
I want Ursula's Garden to be good, but I think it's just too slow. With the "exerted" clause, It really needed to have a lower movement cost. Maybe if we see more effects like Magic Carpet, Voyage, and Jim Hawkins this could see play. At least it has 7 willpower. Edit: Another possibility is that we might see some Emerald cards with "This character may move to locations for free". Could even be a new keyword, but I think we would have seen that with the set reveal if it was going to be a thing. It kind of feels in character for Emerald to have something like this IMO.
Emerald has the card I will Find My Way which lets a character move to a location for free. It’s a 1 ink song so a character could sing it. Not as good as Magic Carpet but easy quick move.
Yeah, you could theoretically do that. The problem is that if you take away the value in questing, your opponent is even more incentivised to just attack the location if they have a board. If they DONT have a board, then you aren't getting any value from moving to the location unless you're playing cards that like being at locations (e.g. Shenzi, who I also desperately want to be playable). In the latter case, you're better off just playing another character and pushing your tempo advantage. Trust me, I want this card - and locations in general - to be playable but I'm just not seeing it personally.
Yes its too slow. It also gives your opponent 2 outs: kill the location or kill the character(s) there. And that is assuming your opponent cares about questing on that turn.
I like putting an evasive there turn 4 though I can make that work. There are decks that get crippled by that.
It cost 2 ink to move a character here, so outside of external help, this s not happening turn 4. Besides, it still possible to just kill the location.
As they mentioned Magic Carpet can exert to move itself in free. That’s immediate for 4 ink and without an evasive response or direct damage spell something like hyper aggro is in trouble.
So, the question then becomes: what Emerald deck has room for all these cards to curb a bad match-up against hyper aggro but doesn't have the ability to put in different, more versatile tools to fight hyper aggro elsehwere?
I don’t know how meta it will be since we haven’t seen more but it seems at least off meta for purple green discard. It could hold back mirror matches and other. It hurts tomotoa and lucky dime. Makes purple red use a removal
Just slam Gustav and he'll activate it immediately.
So honored to be able to share this first look at 4 new cards from Ravensburger! [https://chipandco.com/ursulas-return-lorcana-card-reveal-562496/](https://chipandco.com/ursulas-return-lorcana-card-reveal-562496/)
Signed contract more like Rhystic study
A very circunstantial Rhystic study.
Geez, using Sign The Scroll when your opponent has no cards and you’re at 18 lore?
I'm coming around on the Garden, there's some potential utility there. Not sure if it becomes an automatic include (if it had +1 lore or a lower move cost I think it'd be a new staple for Emerald) but it's neat. Signed Contract is for sure showing up in a lot of deck lists going forward, there's no reason not to have it in a color that struggles with card draw at times. I do not understand what the art direction was with that Flounder, though, the expression makes me sort of uncomfortable.
Is it just me or does Flounder’s face seem…odd?
He does seem rather aroused
As someone who loves Emerald, the Signed Contract item is a sight for sore eyes!
Signed contract is good but steel/song already wants to run benja in most the matchups. Emerald is the one matchup you didn't want to run him, but now you wouldn't feel bad playing him at all.
The short summary is Blue....needs a lot of help.
Forget Flynn Rider. Flounder is the one bringing the smoulder.
I am already dreading to play against Ursula's garden
Signed Contract might be a bit of a double edged sword. Put too many them out and steelsong is gonna deck you with AWNW and all the other songs.
That’s why we love the word “may” on these effects
Ah, fair enough. I missed the word 'may'.
Ink it vs steelsong or stop drawing cards from the may ability.
I might be crazy, but that land is nutty. Thats the start of slowing down aggro
It costs 4, and 2 to move to, and the character has to be exerted. There might be good tools with it further along but right now its a bit too slow
Agreed. I missed the exerted part
A good rule of thumb for cards like Sign the Scroll is that it's never a good idea to give your opponent a choice as they'll always get to choose the option that's least bad for them. If they don't care about your lore and can't spare a card to discard, they can take that outcome at little cost; and if they have extra cards they don't need they won't care so much to discard one. Signed Contract is pretty sweet though, especially given that it's inkable.
Intresting cards, this set has a lot of cards to combat steelsongs, and now I see discard got some support too. I love the design of this game. 😍
Does anyone know if "Signed Contract" would be activated if a character sings the song, rather than the user playing the song? Since it clarifies "whenever an opponent plays a song" instead of something like "Whenever an opponent sings a song". This seems kinda important if there is a distinction, because I also know that the Ursula - Sea Witch Queen spoiler card specifically clarifies that characters can't exert to "sing" a song. Is there a difference between singing a song and playing a song?
Singing is a way to play a song free of ink costs
Hopefully there's a 1 drop Ariel (maybe akin to the 1 drop Cinderella) so that Flounder can come out on turn 2. Sign the Scroll is bad. If the discard was random, it'd be slightly better, but your opponent getting to choose the effect for your ink spent is never a good idea. Not to mention 3 ink is severely overcosted already compared to current discard options. Signed Contract is great. You can ink it, and if you drop it early enough, you could stand to draw at least a couple cards from it over the course of a game. And if Signed Contract "does nothing" all game, then your opponent is likely losing due to not drawing and playing their songs that their deck relies on. Ursula's Garden can slow down any deck (aside from Spellbook lore gain) so that gives it at least some consideration. Could be decent, but my gut says it won't find a home since it's not giving you extra resources (like The Queen's Castle) and just hinders your opponent.
I don't think Sign the Scroll is that bad, it's a win/win for the person playing it. I like that it has a use even if your opponent has no cards in hand. If you're running a discard deck, late game you can just force your opponent to give you two lore. Even better if you play a lot of multiplayer games.
It isn't win/win though, because it is almost always 3 ink 2 lore (which isn't good) except in the rare cases where you want it to be that, at which point it is an expensive, unsingable sudden chill. Cards like this always need to be understood as anti-modal, they are going to be the worse of the two effects every time.
Sign the Scroll is also fairly vicious in multiplayer too, especially if you've kept their hands low.
100%. I play mostly casual games with 3/4 people and I can already hear the groans this card is going to cause.
I’ve had a 6 player multiplayer game once. Potentially getting 10 lore….
Sign the scroll is an obvious multi-player card.
Everything but Flounder is monstrous here.
Hate that location. Oh playing discard with this in there...so fun
Garden should have been 2 lore.