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Though dual-ink cards were the main event ofDisney Lorcana’sArchazia’s Island, the set also introduced a new keyword in vanish. Characters with vanish can hit harder, but are more easily banished - that’s if you’re not an evil, illusion-slinging vizier, that is.
The Amethyst/Steel Starter Deck for Archazia’s Island features Jafar and his hordes of Illusions, as they cause chaos across the island. Amass your illusions, slow down your opponent, and grind out the win with this starter deck.
Retrosphere (x2)
Restoring the Crown
Key Cards
Compared to most other Lorcana starter decks, this one doesn’t lean too hard into any particular theme, instead preferring to be an all-roundmidrange deckthat keeps its options open. That being said, some of the tools in your toolbox are worth keeping an eye out for.
Jafar, Newly Crowned
Jafar sets out exactly what this deck wants to do:play Illusions, challenge, and bounce them back to your hand. He takes the vanish keyword and turns it on its head, turning it from a signficant downside to something that will actually help you win the game.
Vanish is a keyword introduced in Archazia’s Island. Whenever a character with vanishing ischosen as the target of an action, youbanish it. Or, if you have Jafar out, you return it to your hand instead.
Though this deckdoesn’t run a lot of Illusions, having an easy way to recur them means even a couple can prove difficult for your opponent to deal with as theykeep coming backagain and again.
Giant Cobra, Deadly Serpent
This is the Illusion you’ll most want to start recurring with Jafar. A 4/4 for three ink is already well ahead of the curve, but it also comes withan enter triggerthat could be backbreaking if left unchecked.
Illusions all have two things in common: they havevanish, and their stats arehigher than non-vanishing characters of the same cost. This makes them glass cannons that can dish out damage in a challenge, but fold easily to interaction.
Whenever Deadly Serpent enters, you’re able to discard a card from your hand togain two lore. Lore is good, but putting a card in the bin ready forRetrosphereto pluck back later is even better.
Fa Zhou, War Hero
Fa Zhou fits in to the deck’schallenge-matters subtheme, and helps solve one of the key problems of such a deck. Usually, focusing on challenging means you’ll fall behind in lore, but Fa Zhou evens it out bygiving you three lore on your second challenge per turn.
You’re safe toswing outand take out key threats without feeling like you’re falling behind. You’ll still need some cards dedicated to lore generation, but being more open to challenging will really help youcontrol the board better.
Magical Manuevers
This deck lovesexerting your opponents' charactersas a form of control, and Magical Maneuvers goes one further by also letting youbounce one of your characters to your hand.
Similarly to Jafar, this gives you a way to repeat enter triggers on cards like Giant Cobra. However, it alsosets up challenges, by making your opponents' key piecesvulnerable to attack. The two sides of this deck can feel somewhat disparate at times, but Magical Maneuvers helpsclose the gap.
Restoring The Crown
This deck is very grindy, prefering you tocontrol the gameand win slowly. However, when you’re close enough to take the win, a well-timed Restoring the Crown can easily get you past the finish line.
Exerting all of your opponents' characters makes them sitting ducks, ready to be taken down in challenges. Crucially, this also gives youtwo lore for each of your opponents' characters you banish, giving you a way to go out swinging and surge ahead in lore.
At six ink, this is one you’ll need tobe absolutely sure you may winwith before playing, but with your illusions often having high stats, and a large number ofchallengersin the deck, taking out any opposition should be pretty easy.
Amethyst/Steel Playstyle
As mentioned, this deck isn’t leaning as heavily into a theme as some other starter decks. Instead, itgrinds out wins through challenging, and making heavy use of recurring your illusions.
Illusions are yourprimary threat, as they’rebigger than non-vanishing characters, and can be easily brought back into play with Jafar. However, if you’re able to’t use them tokeep your opponent downand they get a foothold in, you’re going to find itvery difficult to claw your way back.
Exerting your opponents' charactersis key, as that lets you take out key engine pieces through challenging. Make frequent use of cards likeRestoring the CrownandMagical Manueversto exert major lore generators, or anything that synergises with your opponents' other cards, before using an Illusion totake them out.
If you haveFa Zhouout, try and get at leasttwo challenges per turnto keep up with any incidental lore your opponent is gaining.
Keeping your challengers in top condition isvital, so use challengers likeTe Ka and Helga Sinclair,or useAmethyst Coilto move the damage your characters take back on to your opponents'. If you need to quickly blast a character out,Double Troubleis a direct-damage action that can ping two at the same time.
Your Opening Hand And When To Mulligan
There are only two one-drop characters in the entire deck, and bothPain and Heiheiare vanilla. So instead of aiming for a turn one play, it’s better toensure you have a few Illusions in your handto get the train started by the time you drop Jafar. For this, the cheapest you can play isRajah, Ghostly Tiger, but having aGiant Cobrain your hand is also definitely one to keep.
Outside of Illusions, you’re going to wantinterraction. Remember that this deck is all about grinding out the win and slowing your opponent down with exerting, so cards likeDouble TroubleandThe Carpentercan buy you enough time to set up your primary win conditions.
Helga Sinclairmay not be an inkable card, but a 0/4 that becomes an evasive 3/4 when it challenges is incredible at two ink. She pairs nicely withTraining Dummy, as she’s a big wall of willpower that, if turned into a Bodyguard, early characters won’t be able to get around.
Weaknesses
There’s no two ways about it:this deck is slow. It wants to drag the game to a crawl through exerting and replaying characters, and doesn’t have a lot of lore generation. You’replaying the long game, and any deck that focuses onaggrowill often be able to storm ahead before you can put up a solid answer.
Thelack of Illusionsis also a problem. There are onlyseven Illusion cards in the deck, and a lot of the remainder, likeTreasure Guardian, build on them. It’s likely you won’t draw enough Illusions for Jafar to be effective, meaning your first priority with any upgrades will beadding more Illusionsto replace the numerous filler vanilla characters, like Akela and Royal Guard.
Jafar also only triggers if the Illusion is banished using itsvanish ability. If it’s taken out in a challenge, and you’re able to’t get it back with aRetrosphere, your already slim number of Illusions will only geteven smaller.
