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One ofDisney Lorcana’sRise of the Floodborn starter decks is an Amethyst/Steel deck that focuses on the expansion’s two new mechanics: Resist and Bounce. By returning high-impact cards back to your hand that do something when they’re played, this deck allows you to get even more value out of your cards, while also keeping your opponent guessing.
This guide includes three different versions of the deck, depending on how many cards you have access to, starting with a budget version that uses minimal rares, then a more advanced one that includes some super rares, and finally, a top-end set that you can use in a competitive environment. All three decks are designed to focus on the things this deck already does well.
Befuddle (x3)
Friends on the Other Side (x4)
Merlin - Goat (x4)
Simba, Future King (x4)
The Prince, Never Gives Up (x4)
Our budget Amethyst/Steel deck is a much morenarrow and focused version of the basic deck that goes all in on Merlin, Madam Mim, and the effects you may use to bounce cards backinto your hand. It is weighted heavily towards two and three-cost so that you can play multiple cards each turn and havemore opportunities to build your board while bouncing other cards back to your hand.
You can swap out a lot of the vanilla cards in the basic version of the starter deck, like Eli La Bouff, Big Daddy, Hercules, Hero in training, and Prince Naveen, Penniless Royal, in favor of cards that help you achieve your bounce strategy, such as Befuddle and Magic Broom, Industrial Model.
The Pinocchio package can help us establish a board early by bouncing your opponent’s cheap cards back, or it can be played later to help you bounce more of your Merlin cards back.
Merlin, Goat is going to be a centerpiece of every version of this deck,so finding opportunties to return him to your hand and replay him for free lore will help you earn sneaky victories. Many of your cards, including Simba, Future King; Cinderella, Knight in Training; Merlin; Squirrel, and Friends On The Other Side are there to help you find your Goats.
Keep in mind that other cards in this deck besides Merlin can be useful bounce targets too.Pinocchio, Talkative Puppet is a cheap card that exerts an opponent’s character when played, so returning it to your hand to be played again can be a strong, inexpensive way to control the board.
You can also use Befuddle to bounce Madam Mim, Snake back to your hand, allowing you to then bounce a higher-cost character like Merlin, Goat back to your hand with Mim. This is a tricky deck with lots of playlines, but this refined version should help you start to get a handle on everything bounce is capable of
To minimize the number of rares in this deck in order and keep it as budget as possible, we’ve only added one Kronk, Junion Chipmunk and one Merlin, Rabbit. In the mid-cost version, we’ll be looking at some more rare and super rare card with Resist that can help us have a more dominant presence on the board while you bounce your Merlins around.
The Prince, Never Gives Up (x2)
The mid-cost version gets us much closer to the original design of the deck: dominating the board with sticky Resist characters while feeding yourself lore, cards, and extra Strength through bouncing cards.
To find the right balance you can add back in Hercules, Hero in Training as well as the new Floodborn character, Hercules, Divine Hero. You can also use Cinderella, Stouthearted to shift your Cinderella, Knight in Training into a more formidable threat, then bulk up your Kronk, Junior Chipmunks for some seriously impressive board control.
Once you start considering Super Rares for this deck, Arthur, Wizard’s Apprentice stands out as a superior option. You can quest with him and return a Merlin, Goat back to your hand, giving you four lore instantly, and allowing you to play the Goat again to immediately gain one more, and another when the Goat leaves play.
With this powerful strategy, you can cut back on some of your Madam Mim cards and make room for cards like Kronk and Hercules that will have more of an impact on the battlefield.
You may have noticed Tiana, Celebrating Princess is not in either of the decks, despite one copy being included in the deck. WIth the superior draw power of Amethyst, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to use a card that relies on your hand being empty, especially an uninkable one.
It’s better you use some draw tools like Friends on the Otherside and Merlin, Rabbit, along with some strong Resist characters like Hercules and Kronk, than plan on having an empty hand with Tiana. There are some decks where Tiana might really shine, but it probably isn’t this one, especially when so many of your characters are meant to return to your hand.
Though we’ve added some six, and even a seven-cost character, this deck is still heavily weighted towards cheap targets that can be bounced back to your hand.
Bouncing a damaged Kronk or The Prince, Never Gives Up can be a great way to heal them so they can be played again, while bouncing a shifted Hercules or Cinderella will always give you two cards back, and even allow you to add one of them to your inkwell if you’re in a position to play the Floodborn card for full price.
Bounce gives this deck a lot of flexibility, and your army of Resist characters will make it difficult for your opponent to establish a board.
Befuddle (x4)
Friends of the Other Side (x4)
Pinocchio, Talkative Puppet (x3)
This version of the deck sees a significant change in the card pool, but it maintains a consistent strategy with the base starter deck. The combination of two Floodborn characters,Fairy Godmother, Mystic Armorer, and Madam Mim, Rival of Merlin, creates a powerful synergy that will allow you to rush out cards with +3 Strength and run them into your opponent’s board, then return them to your hand to be played again.
This is an incrediblypotent combo when used with Either Merlin, Goat; or Merlin, Rabbit. You can play either character for free, they get +3 Strength and Rush, and when they are banished they go back to your hand. This means you can play a Goat for free, gain a lore, run it into an opposing character, and gain another lore.
If you have enough ink, you may even do it again. You won’t always be able to get both Madam Mim and Fairy Godmother to stick on the board long enough to pull this off, but with their reduced Shift cost of three and two-ink respectively,you’ll likely get both of them down on the board at the same time fairly often.
We haven’t lost our strong Resist synergy either. With a full playset ofCinderella, Stouthearted, and some Hercules, Divine Hero, we’ll still have some big threats on the board that can easily take out opponents even when they’re not exerted. And when theyareexerted, Pinocchio, On the Run can solve that problem.
This version of the deck cuts Kronk in favor of Fairy Godmother and Dama Mim, but there could be room for him if you drop Pinocchio. This version also cuts Mouse Armor which we still think is great, especially for protecting vulnerable Fairy Godmothers, but keeping the deck at 60 cards means there just isn’t room for an item that may get banished before we can use it.
The nice thing about this deck is thatit only uses one Legendary card. It may not be considered a budget deck, but you should be able to build a strong Bounce-focused deck without breaking the bank, especially if you get some lucky pulls like Cinderella, Stouthearted and Arthur, Wizard’s Apprentice.
Your Bounce cards all help to gain lots of lore while you focus on challenging your opponent,which means you won’t fall behind on points as you try to gain control. Try this deck out if you like the bounce strategy the starter deck introduces but want to see more consistent results.
