Lorcana Deck Guide: Amber-Emerald ChernaDogz

Disclaimer: this article was written before the recent bannings, but the deck itself was mostly unaffected!

Hello, everyone!

It's been more than a month since the release of Archazia's Island, and the metagame is starting to stabilize around some archetypes. This, of course, leads to a new dynamic within the meta, with the emergence of decks that seek to combat the currently most popular decks.

Today, let's talk about a deck that has shown good results, a new version of Amber-Emerald with a slight Lady and the Tramp theme: the so-called ChernaDog!

The Amber-Emerald combination has been associated, since Lorcana's first sets, with an aggressive strategy, focused on fast Lore generation. In fact, one of my first articles was precisely about this archetype, and it is very interesting to compare the lists and see how they evolved over the sets.

Decklist and Gameplan

Like any good aggro deck, the idea behind Amber-Emerald is to take the initiative and start generating Lore while preventing the opponent from interacting properly with your initial characters. To sustain a long game, some characters provide card draw or strong stats at a low cost, increasing your board advantage.

The following list was used by Kurt Spiess to win a 78-player tournament at Tournament City Games, in the USA. It is also worth noting that the list is entirely made up of characters - no other card type was used!

The list has an incredible ink curve from costs 1 to 3, and some higher-cost characters to keep the deck going once the opponent has dealt with your starting threats - because, if they don't, you won't even need the bigger characters!

There are two big differences between ChernaDog and traditional Amber-Emerald Aggro lists: more synergy between characters - that is, micro interactions within the deck, instead of just individually good cards -, and adaptation to the meta - the threats in the ChernaDog list are more resilient, and should fare well against the most popular decks.

Let's review each card and understand their role:

1-Drops: Lore and Resilience

With twenty 1-cost characters, the deck's first objective - to take the initiative on the board - is quite consistent.

Proof of the deck's adaptability is the absence of cards like Lilo - Making a Wish, which was considered a staple, but in the context of the current metagame, ends up giving way to more suitable options.

Daisy and Cursed Merfolk seem like opposites, since one grants cards to the opponent if it stays on the board, and the other takes cards away. In fact, both share the same goal: to make any resource exchange work in your favor, gaining both Lore and Tempo for you. The opponent, in fact, cannot afford to allow these characters to stay on the board for several turns, or they will fall behind quickly in Lore generation.

Nala and Little John, on the other hand, are resilient 1-Drops, capable of surviving, for example, a turn 1 Belle - Apprentice Inventor from the opponent - both from the character' challenges and from Steel songs, such as Strength of a Raging Fire and Let The Storm Rage On. They are also inkable, and thus guarantee utility even in matchups where you're constantly fighting for the board.

Finally, Lady is similar to the 2-Lore generators, but conditioned on you controlling a Tramp character. The deck has 8 Tramp-type characters, and they both benefit from a Lady character on the board - this synergy can really make a difference, even if Lady is very weak to some removals - such as the Steel ones we mentioned earlier.

2-Drops: Consistency and Disruption

It won't be uncommon for the deck's turn 2 to consist of playing two 1-Drops, but we also have some 2-Ink options that synergize with the rest of the deck.

Ursula allows you to remove a board control card from your opponent's hand, while Tramp helps you make good trades on the board - in addition, of course, to the synergies with Lady, which we already talked about. Yzma is quite useful for filtering unwanted cards from your hand, and at the same time feeding the discard.

Although Lilo - Making a Wish is no longer on the list, Lilo - Escape Artist is an essential piece of the engine! The deck has several ways to self-discard, and Lilo ensures that you continue to have options to play even if your hand is empty. Also, because it is capable of generating 2 Lore, it is a constant threat that the opponent cannot ignore - once again, granting you a Tempo advantage.

3-Drops: Protection

At 3-Cost, we have two characters whose function is to protect the others that were previously played.

Donald will, at the same time, delay the opponent's challenges and increase your Lore. It also has great synergy with Go Go Tomago - Darting Dynamo. Kit is a more proactive play, but very useful against other aggressive decks, since it can indirectly prevent the opponent from gaining a lot of Lore.

Game-Changers

After the 1-3 cost characters, we have a slew of characters with varying effects. The goal is to have a flexible selection so that, depending on the game state, using the right one should provide enough of an advantage to allow you to push through and end the game.

Let's talk first about Tramp - Street-Smart Dog - after all, it's one of the reasons this version came to be! Tramp has a powerful combination of good stats and card selection. It's not uncommon for the deck to have 4 or more characters on the board, which makes Tramp a 2/6 that generates 2 Lore for just 3 ink - or even less! In addition, it will also allow you to cycle through 4+ cards in your deck, making it easier to find some specific character and, as a bonus, make good plays in combination with cards like Chernabog and Lilo. That's a lot of synergy!

Tramp's high willpower, combined with the other high-willpower characters - Nala, Little John, Daisy, even Chernabog itself - also make other characters increase in value. Rapunzel will have many possible targets to help you draw cards, Cri-Kee will potentially have a full board to allow for advantageous trades for you, and Go Go Tomago can end a game out of nowhere if your opponent is too greedy in combat!

Variations

While there is a tight core to the list, there is also some flexibility in the deck slots, especially in the game-changers section. Let's point out some of these variants below:

Card Advantage

One idea that has been explored with some success is to use Lady - Miss Park Avenue to return characters from discard to hand, which in practice is like drawing two cards - limited, of course, to characters with a cost of 2 or less from the discard pile.

In addition to Lady, some versions also use Invited to the Ball, taking advantage of the high number of characters in the deck - using only one copy of the card, in fact, guarantees that you will always add two cards to your hand.

Full Speed

This version tries to abuse the song Zero to Hero in conjunction with cards that benefit from emptying the hand - especially Clarabelle - Light on Her Hooves - to combine a crowded board with a hand full of cards.

It can have some consistency issues, and often its game plan is not as aggro, tending more towards a midrange deck.

Budget

Rapunzel, in particular, can be intimidating to new players, since it's a 1st Edition staple and therefore not only scarce but also expensive. Some variants look for cards that are a little easier to acquire, and that potentially don't interfere as much with the deck's consistency.

Versions with Julieta Madrigal - Excellent Cook, Clarabelle - Contented Wallflower or even Peg - Natural Performer can maintain the game plan without a major loss in consistency, and certainly provide some relief on the financial side of the deck.

ChernaDog has been showing up more and more in tournament results, and demonstrates an interesting and important evolution, and an example of adaptation of decks to metagames.

Knowing how to adapt the deck to your specific meta will always make a difference, so don't be afraid to try it out.

I hope you enjoyed this analysis, and if you play or have played with any version of the deck, share it with us!

Cheers, and see you next time!