Last week, I prepared a column proposing why five cards should and should not be banned in Disney Lorcana: Hiram Flaversham – Toymaker, Diablo – Devoted Herald, Pawpsicle, Sisu – Empowered Sibling, and Sapphire Coil.

I laid out why it should not just be Sapphire Coil getting a banning but also the introduction of set rotation starting in Disney Lorcana Set 9, entitled Fabled. The logic was that there are several cards that should either be removed from the format (Hiram, Diablo, Sisu, A Whole New World, among others), as well as some that could use some updates. The best way to do this was use Fabled as a chance to reprint updated versions of Disney Lorcana staples while removing problematic cards from the game.

Then, Ravensburger decided to just outright ban Hiram and Fortisphere. So much for all the work I did.

With the first ever ban in Disney Lorcana behind us, many people were excited to see how the meta would look over the weekend in the first major tournaments following the shocking announcement. Will we see discard decks reign supreme? Would decks like Steelsong and Ruby/Amethyst return to the metagame? How will the Sapphire decks adjust?

Here’s everything we learned over the weekend about the new Archazia’s Island metagame in Disney Lorcana.

Winners Following Disney Lorcana’s First Ban

Coming into the weekend, we had an idea of what decks would perform well at major tournaments. There were a couple of big takeaways as to what to expect: Diablo – Devoted Herald was looking to be one of the best cards in the meta; how would decks deal with it? Would older decks like Steelsong and Ruby/Amethyst return? Could Blurple make its triumphant comeback? Is Chernadog capable of putting up more results? Let’s find out.

Ruby/Sapphire

It turns out that banning Hiram wasn’t going to stop Ruby/Sapphire, though the deck is looking a little different than what was dominating the meta before. Rather than relying on Sisu and Sapphire Coil, it’s a return to the Set 6 version, nicknamed “DKP Burn,” focusing on Maui – Half-Shark, McDuck Manor, and actions to win the game.

This is the same shell that Ding Khang Pham played that led him to victory at DLC Melbourne. Unlike the other traditional builds of Ruby/Sapphire, this list never relied on Hiram for card advantage. Thanks to actions like Develop Your Brain, Vision of the Future, and How Far I’ll Go, you’re churning through your deck. Maui – Half-Shark lets you get them back from your discard pile to keep the card advantage engine flowing while gaining lore.

Tamatoa – Happy as a Clam, one of the new additions from Archazia’s Island, does a great job of replacing Hiram.

Ruby/Amethyst

What is dead may never die.

We’ll talk more about the lack of Emerald-based discard decks, but if you’re wondering why they struggled, this is the biggest reason.

Ruby/Amethyst’s match-up against older discard decks was hard but not impossible, thanks to your ability to draw a steady stream of cards. Merlin – Rabbit, Genie – Wish Fulfilled, and Friends on the Other Side are all excellent at keeping your hand fully stocked, even when facing off against Sudden Chill and Hypnotize. Of course, Diablo – Devoted Herald punishes you for drawing cards, so it’s important for Ruby/Amethyst to deal with the character.

Enter Peter Pan – Shadow Finder, another aggressively costed answer to Diablo. You no longer rely on Brawl to deal with it; you can now answer the bird while adding to your board state. As good as rushing a Peter Pan can be, have you ever rushed Genie – Wish Fulfilled or Maui – Half-Shark? This combination also works well for taking care of locations, especially with Lumiere – Fiery Friend. Not only does Lumiere give your characters an edge in combat, but it also protects them from Sisu – Empowered Sibling.

Amethyst/Steel

While Amethyst/Steel decks didn’t perform well in Europe, they dominated North America.

The logic makes sense here, too. It was already somewhat well positioned in the meta, particularly against Ruby/Sapphire, and now, with Sapphire/Steel getting hit the hardest with bannings, it’s far better positioned. Having played Ruby/Sapphire into this version of Amethyst/Steel, it’s a rough match-up. Amethyst/Steel combines early aggression, card draw, and impressive lore gain into one well-rounded archetype.

More often than not, Amethyst/Steel is the ultimate “50/50” deck that has game against every other deck in the metagame. It also offers a lot of flexibility in how it can be built, eschewing the higher cost cards like Elsa – The Fifth Spirit for even more aggressive options like Honeymaren – Nothuldra Guide.

Steelsong

While Steelsong didn’t perform as well as I expected over the weekend, it’s still far better positioned than before the bannings. If Ruby/Amethyst and Amethyst/Steel are going to perform well, that’s good news for Steelsong enthusiasts, who will still enjoy their favorable match-ups there.

Plus, if the DKP version of Ruby/Sapphire is one of the best decks moving forward, then Pete – Games Referee is an excellent way to shut it down.

New additions like Miss Bianca – Unwavering Agent give the game better reach to control the board outside of singing songs. If we’re going to see more locations, having a character with 5 Strength is super beneficial, and it can sing every song in the deck. Plus, it’s inkable!

I’ve also seen versions utilizing Bolt – Superdog over Robin Hood – Champion of Sherwood and have been very impressed with its performance and ability to win games quickly.

Losers Following Disney Lorcana’s First Ban

Following a major ban announcement like this, it’s natural to see certain decks fall off. Sometimes it’s due to the banning itself. Other times, it’s because certain archetypes were gaining momentum because they were uniquely equipped to handle a problematic metagame.

Let’s look at some decks that didn’t perform well over the weekend.

Sapphire/Steel

This one isn’t entirely surprising as it was the deck most affected by the banning of Hiram Flaversham – Toymaker and Fortisphere. Still, there’s a good shell here that can take advantage of playing cards on curve that are problematic to remove and capable of gaining lore.

Steel has some of the best removal options in the game, with its only weakness being the lack of a proper board wipe like Be Prepared. Ironically, the trade-off is being able to easily deal with Diablo – Devoted Herald.

I suspect we’ll see Sapphire Steel try its best to play a more fair game of Disney Lorcana rather than do broken things on the backs of Hiram and Belle – Apprentice Inventor. Again, if Ruby/Sapphire goes all-in on actions, playing a Steel deck will be your best bet, and this one does a far better job of managing the board without relying on actions or high-cost removal. It may not be Tier 1, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see Sapphire/Steel remain somewhat competitive.

Diablo – Devoted Herald

Everyone predicted that we’d be stuck living in a discarded metagame. There’s just one problem: people planned for it.

The Ruby/Amethyst deck we talked about earlier absolutely preys on this match-up. Maybe Ravensburger was right when they said Diablo didn’t need a banning because there were plenty of answers already for it.

There’s the other side of the coin regarding the Ruby/Sapphire match-up, where they get to focus on ramping cards and rely on their powerful top decks. No matter how many cards you make your opponent discard, you can’t discard the top of their deck.

That’s not to say that these Emerald-based decks are bad. They just underperformed over the weekend and may not be the Tier 0 menace we all anticipated.

Chernadog

While Sapphire dominated the pre-ban Archazia’s Island meta, innovation was still happening with the Chernadog deck. The Amber/Emerald aggro deck focuses on playing aggressive creatures while comboing with Tramp – Street-Smart Dog to help fuel Chernabog – Evildoer. This, combined with the recursion of Lilo – Escapist Artist,  gives the deck the top-end needed to close out games in a hurry.

With bannings in place, many people were excited to see what the deck could do in a more fair and balanced metagame. Sadly, it turns out that maybe this deck just took advantage of the situation at hand.

Playing Cursed Merfolk – Ursula’s Handiwork is a huge risk in a world where Steelsong has improved, and with the deck so focused on getting out to a fast start and closing things out with Chernabog, anything that can disrupt that gameplan is hugely advantaged. In a world filled with Be Prepared, discard, and Steel-based removal, I’d prefer to play Amethyst/Steel as my preferred aggro deck.

Blurple

The fan-favorite deck still appears to be on the outside looking in. Over the weekend, there are only four reported Top 8 finishes for Blurple, with its sole Top 4 finish being 1st place at a 26-player event.

While the loss of Hiram doesn’t cripple Blurple’s draw power, as it still has access to cards like Merlin – Rabbit, Genie – Wish Fulfilled, and Friends on the Other Side, the one glaring weakness of Blurple continues to be its lacking removal suite.

The introduction of Peter Pan – Shadow Finder in Ruby/Amethyst should be adopted here, especially since it combos well with Iago – Giant Spectral Parrot. Still, there’s one issue here with Blurple that doesn’t affect Ruby/Amethyst: the lack of Lumiere means Iago cannot remove Maui – Half-Shark in combat.

If Maui once again becomes the best card in Disney Lorcana, then Blurple will continue to struggle.

Where Does The Archazia’s Island Meta Go From Here?

The easy thing to do here is overreact and cry out that Ruby/Sapphire needs another banning. The deck lost Hiram, and it’s still taking down tournaments! We’re not here to overreact, though. We’re here to talk sensibly, so let’s do just that.

We already saw players plan ahead for the expected onslaught of Diablo decks with the innovation of Ruby/Amethyst, and its match-up into Ruby/Sapphire is better than before as well. There’s still the issue with Steelsong, though, but decks having strengths and weaknesses are the sign of a healthy metagame, which is how things are looking thus far.

Despite its success at the weekend’s biggest tournament, Ruby/Sapphire didn’t dominate, and the same can be said for Amethyst/Steel, which took home three of the Top 4 spots at a 57-player event but was MIA at the bigger tournament in Germany.

Moving forward, it’s all about being proactive against what you expect to appear at a tournament. Locally, I know that there are a lot of Steelsong players, so trying out Ruby/Amethyst may not be the best idea. There are ways I can adjust the list to be better equipped, but I’ll lose percentage points in other match-ups.

Emerald-based Diablo decks should be able to recover and should become better equipped to deal with Ruby/Amethyst. An uptick in popularity from Steelsong should also help those decks out as well. When everything settles in for Set Championship season, don’t be surprised to see seven viable decks capable of winning an event. The most important thing moving forward won’t be playing the “best” or “most broken” deck, but instead finding the one that plays to your strengths and learning the ins and outs of its match-ups. Leveraging experience, especially when playing in an unfavored match-up, will be the key to success as the Archazia’s Island meta develops post-ban.

With that being said, let’s talk tier list!

Archazia’s Island Tier List

Given the variety of decks capable of taking down events, I’m doing things differently.

Several decks are more powerful than Tier 2 but not quite strong enough to be Tier 1, so we’re “cheating” by introducing the good ol’ Tier 1.5 for this list.

Tier 1

Ink Combination	Reasoning
Ruby/Sapphire	It’s still very good at drawing cards, controlling the board, and gaining lore. It’s not invulnerable anymore, though, and it can no longer draw out of its slower starts thanks to Hiram.
Ruby/Amethyst	The addition of Peter Pan – Shadow Finder and Lumiere – Fiery Friend have set Ruby/Amethyst up super well after bannings. Losing Flynn Rider – Frenemy means it can’t get explosive starts by gaining three lore a turn any more, but the inclusion of Maui – Half-Shark more than makes up for it.
Amethyst/Steel	This is the best aggro deck in the game that’s capable of early aggression, card draw, thanks to Doc – Bold Knight, and extra lore gain, thanks to Giant Cobra – Ghostly Serpent and Merlin – Goat. The deck can gain 10 lore in the blink of an eye, and that extra reach helps to negate any Pirate’s Lifes that may be played by opponents.

Tier 1.5

Ink Combination	Reasoning
Emerald/Steel	Both Diablo – Devoted Herald decks are in Tier 1.5 based on their raw power but slight underperformance from the weekend. The Steel version is generally regarded as the list with the most variance, which can range from completely locking your opponent out of the game, to being too slow to do much of anything.
Amethyst/Emerald	Amethyst/Emerald’s build of Discard has less variance but also less explosiveness. This is the one I prefer, honestly, as the Amethyst package lets you draw more cards and have a better time dealing with the board and locations.
Amber/Steel	The only thing that really held Steelsong back before was how broken Sapphire/Steel and Ruby/Sapphire were. Now that we’ve had the bannings, Steelsong is back and ready to strike. I need to see more out of it, though, before putting it above Tier 1.5.

Tier 2

Ink Combination	Reasoning
Sapphire/Steel	Sapphire/Steel can still perform well with its currently unoptimized shell, but I’m getting flashbacks to its overall performance last set, where it desperately needed a reason to be played over the Ruby decks. Still, it can produce one of the best opening curves in the game.

Check out our full list of the cards in the Archazia’s Island set, our picks for the best cards in Archazia’s Island and our list of the most wanted cards in the set from a collector’s (rather than a player’s) perspective. For an early glimpse at Lorcana’s future, take a look at what we know about the next set, Reign of Jafar, so far.