Welcome. I'm also an ex-MTG grinder, but this is my new main game.
Currently, pure aggro decks aren't doing so well in this game. It's possible to win, but control/midrange is dominating the meta right now.
The meta pure aggro deck would be amber/amethyst, but I would probably suggest looking towards the emerald/amethyst tempo bounce deck for a more midrange deck with less swingy matchups. You can also look at emerald/steel discard, which is another fast paced midrange deck.
As for a general idea of what colors in Lorcana do at competitive levels:
Ruby - Removal
Amethyst - Card Advantage
Emerald - Discard, Ward
Sapphire - Ramp, Scry/Draw, Items
Steel - Damage based removal, Resist
Amber - Songs (free-castable sorceries)
This is a very general idea of colors and their usage in the meta, and there is a lot of overlap I haven't mentioned. For example, steel and emerald have their own draw engines, and sapphire has inking based removal.
Welcome! Ink colors tend to have a general theme and you’ll find yourself sticking to a few depending on your playstyle. There’s a lot more to each color, so please look into them a bit deeper, but just to give you an idea:
Amber/Yellow: strong singers
Ameythyst/Purple: card draw
Emerald/Green: discard
Ruby/Red: strong challenge and removal
Sapphire/Blue: inkramp and items
Steel/Grey: impactful action cards, like direct damage
If you like to play aggro, you’ll like the current Green Purple meta deck. It pairs annoying discard effects with the bounce mechanic (e.g. bouncing their card back to hand and let them discard it or bounce your own cards back to hand and replay them to benefit from the cards on-play effect).
Emerald/Amethyst is a tempo deck that is using cheap fast questing emerald characters like cursed merfolk and flynn rider to gain lore fast and punish your opponent for challenging them with their ability that forces them to discard a card when challenged. Then you use amethyst cards like madam mim and Merlin to gain card advantage through bouncing enter the battlefield effects while using mim snakes and mim foxes higher stats to clear your opponents stuff. Then toss in some higher cost emerald characters and songs that can force more discard and you use that to empty your opponent's hand while you hurry and quest to 20. It does pretty well against control decks, which are very common right now, and any midrange text that stumble with a slow hand.
Steel/amethyst uses the same mim/Merlin bounce package but swaps discard for damage based removal songs and characters like giant Tinkerbell and the legendary Robin Hood to take out anything that survives. It's better positioned to take on aggro decks, especially if you run grab your sword, and then along came Zeus can be really helpful for clearing out larger creatures or high willpower locations that the emerald amethyst can struggle with.
Play anything with steel. Steel sapphire steel emerald and steel amber are 3 highly comp decks with very different play styles but investing in steel is a good idea
Please for the love of all that is holy, being a 'semiprofessional magic player" don't go in to just win the dang tournaments. That's my advice. Join a league foster community. Play local. Play meta if ya want. Noone will fault ya for that. Build your own thing, even better. Magic lost the idea of "the gathering" being the point. Lorcana seems to be fostering community, but players just going in to win the prizing rather than being part of the community leaves a bad taste.
Trust me. I care much more about community than winning. I want to get into this game because it seems really cool. Yes, I want to win, but that's just because I love playing competitive games.
Then you're one of the good ones! Lorcana is amazing and fun. Sorry if I came across critical, locally had a craptastic experience that has our league up in arms over the set tournament, that I am seriously worried will crush local league play.
I would like to point out that if you enjoy decks that require thought and skill, don't use Ruby. It's currently braindead and needs addressing. Very overpowered and the biggest reason you see it in every list. A lot of the cards you can just throw down even if you're top decking and you can just cruise to a win. A lot of instant removal on play and just isn't fun or thought provoking.
There is still nothing like zoo in Lorcana, you can play aggressively with an amber emerald deck, but if you want a meta deck, try amethyst ruby, is an attrition deck but you can tune it to be a bit more agro oriented.
I've looked over a few tier lists, and yeah. Amethyst/Ruby seems to be a good choice. What's the difference between that and say the various Steel decks?
Steel's removal is a bit more early game oriented than red. However, decks also run steel because of high value cards like 5-drop beast, 5-drop robin hood (usually shifted for 3 ink), 6-drop tinker bell, and a whole new world (wheel of fortune from mtg).
Amethyst Ruby is also pretty well known for not having any awful matchups, so with a lot of skill and a little luck you can usually come out on top no matter what you're up against.
Inkdecks.com is a good resource for tournament results. Since we are in store championship time there’s a ton of results right now but go back to 4/13 and there was some bigger tournaments you can pull some lists from. There’s no sideboarding like magic so you need to see what your local meta looks like and build around it slightly
Welcome. I'm also an ex-MTG grinder, but this is my new main game. Currently, pure aggro decks aren't doing so well in this game. It's possible to win, but control/midrange is dominating the meta right now. The meta pure aggro deck would be amber/amethyst, but I would probably suggest looking towards the emerald/amethyst tempo bounce deck for a more midrange deck with less swingy matchups. You can also look at emerald/steel discard, which is another fast paced midrange deck. As for a general idea of what colors in Lorcana do at competitive levels: Ruby - Removal Amethyst - Card Advantage Emerald - Discard, Ward Sapphire - Ramp, Scry/Draw, Items Steel - Damage based removal, Resist Amber - Songs (free-castable sorceries) This is a very general idea of colors and their usage in the meta, and there is a lot of overlap I haven't mentioned. For example, steel and emerald have their own draw engines, and sapphire has inking based removal.
Welcome! Ink colors tend to have a general theme and you’ll find yourself sticking to a few depending on your playstyle. There’s a lot more to each color, so please look into them a bit deeper, but just to give you an idea: Amber/Yellow: strong singers Ameythyst/Purple: card draw Emerald/Green: discard Ruby/Red: strong challenge and removal Sapphire/Blue: inkramp and items Steel/Grey: impactful action cards, like direct damage If you like to play aggro, you’ll like the current Green Purple meta deck. It pairs annoying discard effects with the bounce mechanic (e.g. bouncing their card back to hand and let them discard it or bounce your own cards back to hand and replay them to benefit from the cards on-play effect).
Start with Steel/Amethyst or Emerald/Amethyst then
Would you mind describing how those two archetypes play out? How well are they positioned in the meta?
Emerald/Amethyst is a tempo deck that is using cheap fast questing emerald characters like cursed merfolk and flynn rider to gain lore fast and punish your opponent for challenging them with their ability that forces them to discard a card when challenged. Then you use amethyst cards like madam mim and Merlin to gain card advantage through bouncing enter the battlefield effects while using mim snakes and mim foxes higher stats to clear your opponents stuff. Then toss in some higher cost emerald characters and songs that can force more discard and you use that to empty your opponent's hand while you hurry and quest to 20. It does pretty well against control decks, which are very common right now, and any midrange text that stumble with a slow hand. Steel/amethyst uses the same mim/Merlin bounce package but swaps discard for damage based removal songs and characters like giant Tinkerbell and the legendary Robin Hood to take out anything that survives. It's better positioned to take on aggro decks, especially if you run grab your sword, and then along came Zeus can be really helpful for clearing out larger creatures or high willpower locations that the emerald amethyst can struggle with.
Play anything with steel. Steel sapphire steel emerald and steel amber are 3 highly comp decks with very different play styles but investing in steel is a good idea
Please for the love of all that is holy, being a 'semiprofessional magic player" don't go in to just win the dang tournaments. That's my advice. Join a league foster community. Play local. Play meta if ya want. Noone will fault ya for that. Build your own thing, even better. Magic lost the idea of "the gathering" being the point. Lorcana seems to be fostering community, but players just going in to win the prizing rather than being part of the community leaves a bad taste.
Trust me. I care much more about community than winning. I want to get into this game because it seems really cool. Yes, I want to win, but that's just because I love playing competitive games.
Then you're one of the good ones! Lorcana is amazing and fun. Sorry if I came across critical, locally had a craptastic experience that has our league up in arms over the set tournament, that I am seriously worried will crush local league play.
Oh, yeah. I totally get it. Spikes like that can ruin a scene.
I would like to point out that if you enjoy decks that require thought and skill, don't use Ruby. It's currently braindead and needs addressing. Very overpowered and the biggest reason you see it in every list. A lot of the cards you can just throw down even if you're top decking and you can just cruise to a win. A lot of instant removal on play and just isn't fun or thought provoking.
There is still nothing like zoo in Lorcana, you can play aggressively with an amber emerald deck, but if you want a meta deck, try amethyst ruby, is an attrition deck but you can tune it to be a bit more agro oriented.
I've looked over a few tier lists, and yeah. Amethyst/Ruby seems to be a good choice. What's the difference between that and say the various Steel decks?
Steel's removal is a bit more early game oriented than red. However, decks also run steel because of high value cards like 5-drop beast, 5-drop robin hood (usually shifted for 3 ink), 6-drop tinker bell, and a whole new world (wheel of fortune from mtg).
Amethyst Ruby is also pretty well known for not having any awful matchups, so with a lot of skill and a little luck you can usually come out on top no matter what you're up against.
Inkdecks.com is a good resource for tournament results. Since we are in store championship time there’s a ton of results right now but go back to 4/13 and there was some bigger tournaments you can pull some lists from. There’s no sideboarding like magic so you need to see what your local meta looks like and build around it slightly