Playing the Emerald/Sapphire Starter Deck in Disney Lorcana

Disney Lorcana’s Azurite Sea expansion brought significant excitement to the game, showcasing the Big Hero 6 team for the very first time. Baymax, Hiro, Honey Lemon, and their companions became such a highlight in Azurite Sea that they earned the spotlight in one of the two Starter Decks released with the set.

This deck focuses on the Inventor card type, leveraging Robots and Items to enhance the team’s capabilities and potentially generate a substantial amount of lore in a single turn. Although it can sometimes lack focus, mastering its strategies will enable you to outsmart your opponent effectively.

Azurite Sea Emerald/Sapphire Starter Decklist

This deck heavily features characters, aiming to create a roster of Inventors, supplemented by a few Ally and Hero cards.

Key Cards

Gadget Hackwrench, Brilliant Bosun

A key player in this deck, Brilliant Bosun can easily transition into a Perceptive Mouse, allowing it to quest for a significant amount of lore while being tough to defeat in challenges.

More importantly, Brilliant Bosun contributes to the Inventor theme by enabling you to reduce costs for other Inventors based on the number of items you control. This card has a strong potential to turn the tide in your favor and serves as a valuable engine to help build your board state. If you plan to enhance this deck, consider adding another Brilliant Bosun for increased effectiveness.

Hiro Hamada, Robotics Prodigy

In Lorcana, tutor cards, which allow you to seek out other cards, are crucial for assembling your deck’s strategy. Hiro stands out as an exceptional example; he gives you the opportunity to search for an Item or Robot and place it on top of your deck.

This not only helps you locate the few items in this predominantly Item-focused deck but also enables you to find Baymax or B.E.N., the two robots included. Consequently, Baymax’s Healthcare Chip becomes an essential card, as having a Robot on the board increases its healing potential from a mere one point to three points every turn.

Aunt Cass, Biggest Fan

While she may appear to be a standard card, Aunt Cass, Biggest Fan plays a vital role in supporting the Inventor theme. With her three willpower, she’s an excellent early game option when you have smaller Inventors like Gadget Hackwrench, Perceptive Mouse on the board.

A significant challenge for this deck is straying from its focus on Inventors and Items, often including too many Ally and Hero cards. However, Cass is one of the few non-Inventors that is crucial to success. Use her as a removal option for threats to your bigger characters, and try to have multiple Aunt Cass cards active at once.

You Came Back

You Came Back is regarded as one of the most effective cards within this starter deck and throughout Azurite Sea. Although it may seem unremarkable, this simple three-ink action card can drastically influence the outcome of a game.

Typically, readying a chosen character comes at the cost of not being able to quest that turn, but You Came Back allows for both actions. Picture having Aunt Cass and Gadget Hackwrench, Brilliant Bosun in play; if both characters quest, and then you ready Gadget once more, you could potentially achieve a total of 11 lore in a single turn.

Institute Of Technology, Prestigious University

Locations can be challenging for opponents to manage because there is limited targeted removal. This makes cards like Institute Of Technology particularly dangerous, allowing for passive lore gain effortlessly.

When you place an Inventor on this Location, they gain +1 willpower, which helps them stay on the board longer. However, the real power lies in the fact that having any character on the Institute grants you one extra lore per turn. This means that combining lore gains with character survival, all for just one ink, is incredibly powerful.

Emerald/Sapphire Playstyle

Understanding this deck’s playstyle can be complex, as it often emphasizes thematic elements over mechanics. While it is fundamentally an Inventor deck focused on Item synergies, it can veer off-course with the inclusion of Heroes and Allies to showcase popular characters from Big Hero 6 and Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers.

These additional cards may not be essential, so your main strategy should be to build a board full of Inventors first and Items second. Once you have assembled your Inventors, characters like Aunt Cass can become key win conditions, while the Institute of Technology acts as a timer for you to achieve victory.

That said, the non-Inventor cards can still be useful. They serve as distractions, allowing your Inventors to press forward to victory. In particular, B.E.N., Eccentric Robot’s support ability enables advantageous quests and can strengthen other characters before bringing out Go Go Tomago to gather even more lore.

Although you’ll want to develop your Items, the deck contains limited options. Emerald Chromicon serves to keep your cards in play rather than discarded, while Baymax’s Healthcare Chip should be your top priority for healing consistent amounts of damage.

Your Opening Hand And When To Mulligan

Even though she is a vital part of the deck, you don’t need Gadget Hackwrench, Brilliant Bosun right at the start. She is costly to play without shifting, so aim to find Persistent Mouse and hope to draw into Brilliant Bosun as you approach the endgame.

Your best early game moves are usually Fred, Mascot By Day and Institute of Technology, Prestigious University. If you play Fred on your first turn, it forces your opponent to make a tough decision: either banish him and risk losing two lore or let you place him on the Location and activate its passive lore effect.

Make sure your starting hand contains playable cards as well. Fortunately, many cards in this deck that don’t contribute directly to your win strategy can be used for ink, such as:

• Ludwig Von Drake, Self-Proclaimed Genius
• Prince Phillip, Royal Explorer
• Basil, Hypnotized Mouse
• Dawson, Basil’s Assistant

Weaknesses

As mentioned earlier, this deck can be quite scattered, often featuring cards that don’t directly contribute to your victory. If your key engines are eliminated and you’re only left with a Ludwig Von Drake, securing a win will be challenging.

While Inventors and Item cards are meant to work hand-in-hand, the deck contains only six Item cards, which can make it hard to find what you need. This is why Robotics Prodigy is so important; it adds a bit more consistency to your draws. Without him, you’ll have to rely on luck to draw important cards.

Additionally, this deck has limited interactive plays. Megabot serves as your best option for dealing with damaged characters, but having to use it as part of the cost to banish means that you’re leaving yourself with even fewer items to work with.