Author’s Bio: Antonio Faillace Antonio is a huge Disney fan since childhood and has been playing trading card games from a very young age. Therefore, Disney Lorcana was the perfect combination for him. Since the game’s release, Antonio has been passionate about Disney Lorcana and has shared that passion with the Brazilian player community through his articles.

 

Hello, everyone!

In our recent articles, we recapped everything that happened at the DLC Championship Brazil, discussed the main event and some of the side events, talked about the participation of the Brazilian Illumineers who made this first year of Disney Lorcana in our country so special, and took a look at the champion’s decklist, Frank Karsten.

Today, we’re going to take a closer look at the decks used by the players who made it into the event’s Top 8. In other words, after six rounds of Swiss pairings, these players finished in the top eight spots and advanced to the final elimination rounds.

AS STRONG AS A TYPHOON

As we mentioned in our event recap (if you haven’t read it yet, you can check it out clicking here), the DLC Championship Brazil had thirty-four participants, the cream of the crop among Illumineers in the first year of the Disney Lorcana competitive circuit in Brazil!

The main event was organized as follows: given the number of participants, we had six Swiss rounds, where players with similar scores face each other throughout the rounds. After that, the top eight players advanced to the final elimination rounds.




Before diving into any analysis, it’s important to understand the two points we highlighted in the previous paragraphs: first, this event featured highly skilled Illumineers, meaning every match was undoubtedly fiercely contested; and second, the reason we’re focusing on the top eight results is precisely to narrow our analysis down to the most relevant results among them.

So, let’s take a look at the decklists that made it into the event’s Top 8! Since our goal is to analyze the lists, we’ll group the decks by archetype and discuss each one separately.

Reminder: We use each player’s final placement in the event as our reference, meaning their standing after the Top 8 concluded!

MAY THE MOONLIGHT BRING US INSPIRATION

> First Place: Emerald/Steel “Ducktectives”

We already had the opportunity to publish a separate article celebrating our first champion’s decklist, so we won’t go into too much detail here. You can check out our full analysis clicking here.

In short, Frank Karsten’s Emerald/Steel list, nicknamed “Ducktectives” because it combines several cards from the Darkwing Duck series, proved to be flexible, efficient, and consistent, making it a worthy first-place finisher at the DLC Championship Brazil!

> Second Place / Seventh Place: Amber/Emerald Songs

When we see the “Amber/Emerald” combination, we might immediately think of an archetype featuring several low-cost characters, especially one popularized by the Dog Decks during the previous rotation. However, the list that finished in second place (along with another that finished in seventh) is quite different!

This Amber/Emerald list focuses on characters with the Singer ability and is packed with songs that help accelerate the game or control the opponent’s board. It is known as Amber/Emerald Songs.

The idea is to develop early-game characters with Singer, such as Alan-a-Dale - Loyal Bard, Angel - Siren Singer, or Ursula - Vanessa, accelerating your early turns and aiming to make two plays: a character and a song.

Thanks to this early sequence, you can access board control options such as Chernabog - Unnatural Force to remove a larger character, or combine the songs Malicious, Mean, and Scary and To Wither a Flower to banish several of your opponent’s smaller characters.

The deck’s big play involves discarding a copy of Prince Phillip - Vanquisher of Foes during the early turns, using Strike a Good Match, Tod - Clever Fox, or Gaetan Moliere - Clever Burrower. It might seem counterintuitive to discard one of your most powerful cards, right?

The secret lies in the song Circle of Life, which lets you play the powerful Prince Phillip directly from your discard at no cost. If you set up this play by using Malicious, Mean, and Scary beforehand, you’ll even banish your opponent’s entire board, thanks to Prince Phillip’s ability!

This combination of card draw and discard, along with cards that recover resources from your discard, gives Amber/Emerald Songs tremendous consistency. It’s no coincidence that two Illumineers made the event’s Top 8 with this deck.

> Third Place: Emerald/Sapphire Mickey & Minnie

This is perhaps one of the most fun decks in the current format: Emerald/Sapphire Mickey & Minnie.

As the name suggests, this deck focuses on Mickey Mouse & Minnie Mouse - Adventuring Duo, an incredibly powerful dual-ink card (meaning you must play the Emerald/Sapphire combination to use it).

Although it normally costs seven ink, Mickey & Minnie can be played for 0 ink, as long as you already have any Minnie Mouse card and any Mickey Mouse card on your board. This allows you to combine the two and play the Mickey & Minnie duo using the Shift ability.



As if being a 5/5 character that generates five lore weren’t enough (meaning this card alone can win you the game in four turns), if your opponent banishes it, it and all the cards underneath it go to their owner’s inkwell instead of the discard.

This puts your opponent in a difficult position: they obviously need to remove the powerful duo from the board, or winning the lore race becomes extremely difficult. On the other hand, doing so will accelerate the Emerald/Sapphire player’s game, giving them three extra ink.

Of course, the deck takes full advantage of this dilemma by including numerous cards that generate plenty of lore and are difficult to remove from the board, such as Milo Thatch - Getting His Hands Dirty, Dr. Bushroot - Evil Botanist, and Hades - Meticulous Schemer, for example.

The archetype’s main challenge, of course, is finding the Mickey & Minnie duo during the early turns, which can sometimes affect consistency. Even so, our beloved duo proved its strength at the DLC Championship Brazil, securing third place!

> Fourth Place / Sixth Place: Amber/Emerald Royals

Once again, we have the Amber/Emerald combination, but this time in a more traditional form, with several low-cost characters designed to fill the board and take advantage of the benefits provided by Elinor - Renowned Diplomat.

Since the deck focuses on Princess and Queen characters, it earned the nickname Amber/Emerald Royals, or sometimes simply Amber/Emerald Princess.

The idea is to combine several low-cost characters with cards that reduce ink costs, such as Aurora - Holding Court, Pluto - Friendly Pooch, and Grandmother Willow - Ancient Advisor. This allows you to fill your side of the board and gain an advantage in the lore race, especially if you manage to play multiple copies of Elinor - Renowned Diplomat.

Besides Elinor, we have several other ways to draw cards and continuously gain more resources, such as Mike Wazowski - Heroic Climber and Nani - Stage Manager.

Once your board is well established, you have several options to protect your characters and start going on quests to end the game as quickly as possible. David - Protective Snowboarder, Dale - Ready for His Shot, Mickey Mouse - Expedition Leader, and finally the incredibly powerful Pocahontas - Peacekeeper, who completely prevents your opponent from challenging your characters during their next turn.

> Fifth Place / Eighth Place: Amber/Amethyst “Yurple”

Last but certainly not least, we have the format’s midrange deck, Amber/Amethyst, affectionately nicknamed “Yurple”, combining the colors “Yellow” (Amber) and “Purple” (Amethyst).

Our featured list was piloted by Bruno Arruda, the Brazilian representative in the Top 8, who secured Brazil’s first-ever “Golden Mickey”!




The idea behind this list is simple: progressively develop your characters, maintaining a strong board presence turn after turn, and take control of the match by disrupting your opponent’s tempo with cards such as Tigger - Bouncing All the Way, Isis Vanderchill - Ice Queen of St. Canard, and the powerful Demona - Scourge of the Wyvern Clan.

Once again, we have cost reducers that help you bring out powerful characters several turns ahead of schedule. Grandmother Willow - Ancient Advisor makes another appearance, this time alongside Hamm - Piggy Bank, giving you eight options to play a cost 4 character as early as your third turn.

KEEP A FLAME BURNING IN YOUR SOUL

And with that, we’ve reached the end of our analysis of the decks in the Top 8 of the DLC Championship Brazil!

It’s incredibly rewarding to see how diverse the format has become, with so many competitive options available, as five different archetypes made it into the final elimination rounds.

In our next article, we’ll take a closer look at some other lists that performed well and came close to making the event’s Top 8. They deserve a closer look, as they may point toward decks that are still developing and could make an impact in the future!

I hope you enjoyed it! Follow the blog for more news, Championship deck analyses, and other updates!

Best wishes!