Analysis: The Metagame of DLC SP / April 2026!
How the metagame presented itself in the tournament?
Hello, everyone!
Today we’ll continue our analysis of the first Brazilian Disney Lorcana Challenge, DLC São Paulo. If you haven’t checked out our previous articles yet, we already covered a general recap of the event and an analysis of the champion’s decklist, which you can find at the following links:
Today’s focus will be a broader analysis of the “metagame” - a term widely used in card games (and gaming in general) that basically refers to the tendency for the strongest and most competitive decks to appear more frequently, leading other decks to adapt in order to face them. This cycle of adaptations and readaptations is incredibly interesting, as it allows players from all over the world to share information, test ideas, and continuously “refine” their decks as if it were a collective effort.
So, let’s take a look at how the metagame shaped up at Disney Lorcana Challenge São Paulo, and which strategies found the most success throughout the event. To do so, we’ll analyze, for each ink color, the most popular cards found in the Top 16 decks - meaning the players who undoubtedly demonstrated strong knowledge and proficiency with their decks!
Before making room for each ink’s “champions,” we need to take a brief moment of silence.
Unfortunately, no Ruby deck made it into the Top 16 at DLC São Paulo. This is a trend that has already been observed in other major events around the world, where Ruby has consistently been one of the least represented ink colors overall - which, of course, makes it harder for it to stand out competitively.
Another category deserving an honorable mention is Dual-Ink cards, meaning cards with more than one ink color.
It would be somewhat unfair to count these cards as belonging equally to both inks they represent, but it would also be unfair to arbitrarily decide which ink they should “count” toward.
So, to avoid any misunderstandings, consider multicolor cards as belonging to their own separate category. As we can see above, the most popular ones represent the two decks most present in the Top 16: Amber-Emerald Dogs and Amethyst-Sapphire Ramp/Control.
Among Amber’s most popular cards are several characters with fairly unique effects within the game, so it’s no surprise players aimed to include the maximum number of copies in their decks.
Nani combines card selection and card draw with solid stats of 3 Strength and 3 Willpower - all for just 3 ink. There is a restriction, of course: you need to run a healthy number of characters costing 2 ink or less so her ability consistently finds something, effectively allowing you to “draw” a card while simultaneously developing your board presence.
Not coincidentally, the other two characters are exactly the kind of characters Nani can find with her ability!
Additionally, they both feature very unique effects within the game, which explains why players prefer running them in maximum quantities.
Lilo is a difficult threat to deal with because even through challenges, she can repeatedly return from the discard pile. Since she has 2 Lore, she applies tremendous pressure despite her relatively low stats!
Similarly, Willow is an extremely important piece for aggressive decks looking to flood the board with smaller characters. In practice, it’s almost as if she gives you 1 additional ink every turn, since her discount effect is continuous. She’s another example of a character that pressures the opponent by accelerating your game plan over the following turns.
Within Amethyst, we observe three very different cards that all fulfill important board control roles.
It’s also important to note that these cards are commonly found in the two most popular Amethyst decks in the Top 16: Amethyst-Sapphire and Amethyst-Steel.
Demona stands out the most, combining two extremely powerful effects: exerting all opposing characters, fully exposing them to challenges; and allowing each player to draw until they have 3 cards in hand. Although the latter benefits both players, because you fully control when to play Demona, you’ll naturally choose moments where you can maximize the advantage from the effect. As if that weren’t enough, she also boasts excellent stats: 5 Strength and 6 Willpower!
Elsa combines several excellent abilities: Rush, Evasive, and the ability to exert an opposing character - usually whichever threat is causing the biggest problem - allowing you to remove it from the board through challenges.
Cheshire Cat combines two strengths: solid stats for its cost, especially its 4 Willpower; and the ability to generate long-term value if it remains on the board, helping keep your characters undamaged while also assisting in removing opposing characters.
Emerald brings several cards heavily present in Dog Decks, though not necessarily exclusive to them!
Bobby has increasingly become a fundamental early-game piece for virtually any Emerald deck because his ability is extremely important for consistency across all strategies. Additionally, he helps “filter” uninkable cards from your hand.
Tramp - Enterprising Dog is indeed a card found almost exclusively in Dog Decks, as it’s probably the deck’s best tool for generating favorable trades. With the board in your favor, Enterprising Dog allow even your “small” characters to challenge and banish much larger opposing characters! On top of that, Enterprising Dog also features a built-in cost reduction if you control a Lady.
Under the Sea is precisely one of the key answers against Dog Decks themselves - one of the few cards in the format capable of effectively dealing with threats such as Lilo - Escape Artist and others. The possibility of combining Under the Sea with additional strength reduction effects like Della Moon’s Lullaby or Hands Held High often turns the song into one of the most efficient board clears in the format!
In Sapphire, it’s no surprise that the most popular cards ended up in a virtual tie between the various ink ramp tools. Because of that, we took the liberty of also including the next two most popular cards.
Sail the Azurite Sea and Tipo - Growing Son are excellent reasons to play Sapphire, as they enable something nearly exclusive to this ink color: ink acceleration. Unlike cost reducers such as Grandmother Willow (in Amber), Sail and Tipo provide permanent advantages, since they don’t rely on staying on the board for you to keep the extra ink.
Beyond the ramp cards, we also see how Sapphire possesses excellent board control options - which helps explain why it pairs so naturally with Amethyst, perhaps forming the strongest control deck in the format.
As such, Let it Go and Hades essentially perform the same role, with Hades leaving behind a strong 3 Strength / 6 Willpower character, while Let it Go benefits from being singable, saving you ink. In fact, it can even be sung by Hades himself, showcasing the internal synergy within the ink color.
Finally, within Steel, we once again see a combination of board control and card draw tools.
Strength of a Raging Fire is one of the most iconic songs from Mulan, and also one of Steel’s most important tools. Its combination of effects is highly efficient: it’s a low-cost song capable of removing both small and larger characters (depending on how many characters you control), and if it isn’t needed, it can always be inked.
Angel features an interesting ability that allows its controller to turn any card in hand into a copy of Fire the Cannons! (in other words, dealing 2 damage to any character). This effect is often underestimated, since even against slightly larger characters, it can help one of your smaller characters make favorable challenges.
Then we have Doc, a card that newer players often struggle to fully appreciate - why would discarding your hand and drawing two cards be so strong? The reason is that there’s no requirement to actually discard anything in order to draw the two cards. In other words, if Doc is the last card in your hand, you essentially paid 2 ink to draw two cards while also putting another character into play - an ink efficiency most other colors would envy!
As we’ve seen, the most popular cards from each ink color help us understand not only the identity of those inks within the competitive metagame, but also the strategies most commonly used.
And, of course, the recurring importance of effects such as card draw/card selection, board control, and more.
It’s also worth remembering that we’ll soon have a new set release, Wilds Unknown, which could certainly shift the popularity of some of the cards on this list!
But of course, that discussion will be left for our next Disney Lorcana Challenge, arriving soon on July 4-5! Stay tuned to COPAG’s official channels so you don’t miss any updates about the next major Disney Lorcana event in Brazil.
See you next time!
Today we’ll continue our analysis of the first Brazilian Disney Lorcana Challenge, DLC São Paulo. If you haven’t checked out our previous articles yet, we already covered a general recap of the event and an analysis of the champion’s decklist, which you can find at the following links:
Today’s focus will be a broader analysis of the “metagame” - a term widely used in card games (and gaming in general) that basically refers to the tendency for the strongest and most competitive decks to appear more frequently, leading other decks to adapt in order to face them. This cycle of adaptations and readaptations is incredibly interesting, as it allows players from all over the world to share information, test ideas, and continuously “refine” their decks as if it were a collective effort.
So, let’s take a look at how the metagame shaped up at Disney Lorcana Challenge São Paulo, and which strategies found the most success throughout the event. To do so, we’ll analyze, for each ink color, the most popular cards found in the Top 16 decks - meaning the players who undoubtedly demonstrated strong knowledge and proficiency with their decks!
A TRIBUTE TO THE ABSENT
Before making room for each ink’s “champions,” we need to take a brief moment of silence.
Unfortunately, no Ruby deck made it into the Top 16 at DLC São Paulo. This is a trend that has already been observed in other major events around the world, where Ruby has consistently been one of the least represented ink colors overall - which, of course, makes it harder for it to stand out competitively.Another category deserving an honorable mention is Dual-Ink cards, meaning cards with more than one ink color.
It would be somewhat unfair to count these cards as belonging equally to both inks they represent, but it would also be unfair to arbitrarily decide which ink they should “count” toward.
So, to avoid any misunderstandings, consider multicolor cards as belonging to their own separate category. As we can see above, the most popular ones represent the two decks most present in the Top 16: Amber-Emerald Dogs and Amethyst-Sapphire Ramp/Control.
AMBER
Nani combines card selection and card draw with solid stats of 3 Strength and 3 Willpower - all for just 3 ink. There is a restriction, of course: you need to run a healthy number of characters costing 2 ink or less so her ability consistently finds something, effectively allowing you to “draw” a card while simultaneously developing your board presence.
Not coincidentally, the other two characters are exactly the kind of characters Nani can find with her ability!
Additionally, they both feature very unique effects within the game, which explains why players prefer running them in maximum quantities.
Lilo is a difficult threat to deal with because even through challenges, she can repeatedly return from the discard pile. Since she has 2 Lore, she applies tremendous pressure despite her relatively low stats!
Similarly, Willow is an extremely important piece for aggressive decks looking to flood the board with smaller characters. In practice, it’s almost as if she gives you 1 additional ink every turn, since her discount effect is continuous. She’s another example of a character that pressures the opponent by accelerating your game plan over the following turns.
AMETHYST
Within Amethyst, we observe three very different cards that all fulfill important board control roles.It’s also important to note that these cards are commonly found in the two most popular Amethyst decks in the Top 16: Amethyst-Sapphire and Amethyst-Steel.
Demona stands out the most, combining two extremely powerful effects: exerting all opposing characters, fully exposing them to challenges; and allowing each player to draw until they have 3 cards in hand. Although the latter benefits both players, because you fully control when to play Demona, you’ll naturally choose moments where you can maximize the advantage from the effect. As if that weren’t enough, she also boasts excellent stats: 5 Strength and 6 Willpower!
Elsa combines several excellent abilities: Rush, Evasive, and the ability to exert an opposing character - usually whichever threat is causing the biggest problem - allowing you to remove it from the board through challenges.
Cheshire Cat combines two strengths: solid stats for its cost, especially its 4 Willpower; and the ability to generate long-term value if it remains on the board, helping keep your characters undamaged while also assisting in removing opposing characters.
EMERALD
Emerald brings several cards heavily present in Dog Decks, though not necessarily exclusive to them!Bobby has increasingly become a fundamental early-game piece for virtually any Emerald deck because his ability is extremely important for consistency across all strategies. Additionally, he helps “filter” uninkable cards from your hand.
Tramp - Enterprising Dog is indeed a card found almost exclusively in Dog Decks, as it’s probably the deck’s best tool for generating favorable trades. With the board in your favor, Enterprising Dog allow even your “small” characters to challenge and banish much larger opposing characters! On top of that, Enterprising Dog also features a built-in cost reduction if you control a Lady.
Under the Sea is precisely one of the key answers against Dog Decks themselves - one of the few cards in the format capable of effectively dealing with threats such as Lilo - Escape Artist and others. The possibility of combining Under the Sea with additional strength reduction effects like Della Moon’s Lullaby or Hands Held High often turns the song into one of the most efficient board clears in the format!
SAPPHIRE
In Sapphire, it’s no surprise that the most popular cards ended up in a virtual tie between the various ink ramp tools. Because of that, we took the liberty of also including the next two most popular cards.Sail the Azurite Sea and Tipo - Growing Son are excellent reasons to play Sapphire, as they enable something nearly exclusive to this ink color: ink acceleration. Unlike cost reducers such as Grandmother Willow (in Amber), Sail and Tipo provide permanent advantages, since they don’t rely on staying on the board for you to keep the extra ink.
Beyond the ramp cards, we also see how Sapphire possesses excellent board control options - which helps explain why it pairs so naturally with Amethyst, perhaps forming the strongest control deck in the format.
As such, Let it Go and Hades essentially perform the same role, with Hades leaving behind a strong 3 Strength / 6 Willpower character, while Let it Go benefits from being singable, saving you ink. In fact, it can even be sung by Hades himself, showcasing the internal synergy within the ink color.
STEEL
Finally, within Steel, we once again see a combination of board control and card draw tools.Strength of a Raging Fire is one of the most iconic songs from Mulan, and also one of Steel’s most important tools. Its combination of effects is highly efficient: it’s a low-cost song capable of removing both small and larger characters (depending on how many characters you control), and if it isn’t needed, it can always be inked.
Angel features an interesting ability that allows its controller to turn any card in hand into a copy of Fire the Cannons! (in other words, dealing 2 damage to any character). This effect is often underestimated, since even against slightly larger characters, it can help one of your smaller characters make favorable challenges.
Then we have Doc, a card that newer players often struggle to fully appreciate - why would discarding your hand and drawing two cards be so strong? The reason is that there’s no requirement to actually discard anything in order to draw the two cards. In other words, if Doc is the last card in your hand, you essentially paid 2 ink to draw two cards while also putting another character into play - an ink efficiency most other colors would envy!
PAINTING WITH ALL THE COLORS OF THE WIND
As we’ve seen, the most popular cards from each ink color help us understand not only the identity of those inks within the competitive metagame, but also the strategies most commonly used.
And, of course, the recurring importance of effects such as card draw/card selection, board control, and more.
It’s also worth remembering that we’ll soon have a new set release, Wilds Unknown, which could certainly shift the popularity of some of the cards on this list!
But of course, that discussion will be left for our next Disney Lorcana Challenge, arriving soon on July 4-5! Stay tuned to COPAG’s official channels so you don’t miss any updates about the next major Disney Lorcana event in Brazil.
See you next time!
