North America Championship Recap

Anaheim, California was all abuzz with Illumineers gathered for the Disney Lorcana Trading Card Game North America Championship event!

After three Disney Lorcana Challenges in North America—Milwaukee, WI, Richmond, VA, and Indianapolis, ID—as well as many CCQ events, qualified players made their way to the Disneyland® Hotel for a chance to claim the title of North America Champion and win an invite to this season’s World Championship.

Before diving into the main event, Disney Lorcana players had one last chance to qualify by playing in the LCQ event. Two pods of 512 players competed in a single-elimination bracket, and after six rounds, the top 8 players from each bracket would round out the 136 qualified players for the main Championship event.

Besides the LCQ and the main competition, players and fans had many other activities to participate in. There were side events all weekend long, and players could earn tickets to redeem at the prize wall by playing Core Constructed pods, Sealed, Draft, and more! Fans could also purchase Disney Lorcana products at the Ravensburger booth or participate in a Collection Quest. In the center of the ballroom, tables were filled with Disney Lorcana TCG cards where Illumineers traded all weekend as they worked together to complete their Collection Quests and earn a promo card. While working on their quests, fans could watch the feature matches on the large screens in the room to keep up with the excitement of the competition.

Upstairs from the main ballroom, three incredible Disney Lorcana TCG card artists met and greeted fans. Tom Bancroft, Marcel Berg, and Brittney Hackett were all smiles as they signed cards and art posters.

Also upstairs was the main room for the Championship competition and the feature match area. Illumineers from around the world watched the live broadcast. Led by co-hosts Rebekah Quests and Baker “Lorcana Villain,” the team included casters JDZ Quest, Brent Mukai, and Willobeez. New to the broadcast was the analyst desk led by Katie Casts, Liam Kozma, and Jan Moy from the Disney Lorcana Game Development and Design Team.

With 136 of the world’s best players in attendance, the community knew the competition would be fierce. While there was plenty of fun and camaraderie throughout the event, the atmosphere inside the main competition hall was serious and focused. Every match counted.

The field included many well-known members of the community, rising stars, unfamiliar faces, and even three young Illumineers. Players quested their way toward the top tables, hoping to secure a place on Day 2. By day’s end, 16 remained, each advancing to the pivotal Top 16 round.

The North America Championship concluded with a showdown between Sky Duntz, second at Disney Lorcana Challenge Richmond playing Emerald Steel, and Dillon LeDuc, winner of DLC Melbourne and DLC Manila playing Amber Amethyst. Dillon started off strong and took games one and two, but Sky made a bit of a comeback in game three. In game four, Dillon maintained momentum, taking the game and the match to win and claim the title of North America Champion.

Congratulations to all the players going to the Disney Lorcana World Championship: Alphos, Joseph Quigley, Dylan Brown, Dave Solberg, vWonderland, s4iler, and Sky Duntz.

And huge congratulations to the newly crowned Disney Lorcana North America Champion, Dillon LeDuc!

Mwuhahaha! 
 
Season two of the Disney Lorcana Challenge has seen illumineers travel far and wide throughout the globe to test their skills against the best players in the world. Those events led to the first of our championship events, the Disney Lorcana North America Championship at the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim, starting with the Last Chance Qualifier on Friday, August 28th. This was the final opportunity for players to stamp their ticket into the main event over the weekend, with the top eight of each pod earning the right to play in the main event the following day. 

In the lead-up to the event, pro players believed our post-rotation meta game was wide open, with a variety of decks having the potential to go all the way. That said, two decks were expected to be the most popular picks, those being Amber/Emerald aggro with its ability to play a plethora of Glimmers rapidly onto the board with cards like Grandmother Willow – Ancient Advisor and Pocahontas – Leading The Tribe and rush its way to 20 lore, while keeping the opponent at arm's length by utilizing cards such as Mickey Mouse – Expedition Leader which reduces an opposing characters Strength by two every time one of your characters quests. Then there’s the all too familiar song card Under the Sea, which places all opposing characters with two strength or less on the bottom of their player's deck.

The other deck expected to perform well was Amber/Amethyst, as the premier mid-range deck acting as the spiritual successor to pre-rotation Amethyst Sapphire, with its ability to reduce character cost with cards like Hamm – Piggy Bank, and its toolkit of removal such as The Horseman Strikes, and the new Gaston – Superior Archer who can banish a character with five Strength or more! 

However, a last-minute contender emerged a week before the Championship event at a third-party CCQ in the form of Emerald/Amethyst. This deck takes advantage of the item card Retro Evolution Devise, which allows you to banish one of your own characters to play another from your hand up to a cost of two ink more than the one you banished, providing a way to “cheat” more powerful glimmers into play sooner than usual. This deck can curve into extremely powerful glimmers such as Chernabog – Unnatural Force, Milo Thatch – Getting His Hands Dirty, and Prince Phillip – Vanquisher of Foes, all of whom can instantly remove opposing characters from the board! These decks were anticipated to be well represented at the North America Championship, but it was honestly hard to be sure what would come out on top as other ink combinations, including Ruby/Amethyst featuring new tools like Randall Boggs – Envious Co-worker , who can quest very aggressively in the early game while carrying the ever-important Evasive keyword.   

Amber/Emerald decks could also come in a variety of packages in addition to the aforementioned aggro style. The items build features cards like My Adventure Book to gain card advantage along with songs and actions like Strange Things to slow the opponent down and then wipe the board with Raging Storm. Enigmatic Inkcaster and one of the very limited character cards, such as Kevin – Flightless Bird, then act as this deck’s win condition. 

Emerald/Steel Everywhere! 
 

As the main event came around, llumineers were locked in and laser-focused (as JDZ would say) to compete in nine rounds of Swiss on Saturday, followed by a cut to the Top 16 on championship Sunday. Many magnificent prizes were on the line, not least of all an invitation to the season two World Championship later this year, which would be awarded to the top eight players of the event and was the priority achievement for many competitors. 

Once all main event decks were confirmed, the meta share revealed that it was Emerald/Steel which was the most popular, taking up nearly a quarter of the field at 24.4%. Steel gives you access to traditional removal like Strength of a Raging Fire to keep tempo on the board and gains more recent tools such as The Terror That Flaps in the Night, which deals two damage to a character, or three if you control a Darkwing Duck! The Crimefighter and the brand-new Shadowy Superhero provide a cheap package to support this strategy, while including Launchpad – Trusty Sidekick as the draw engine! 

I spoke to former Worlds player Pierre-Marc Duguay, more commonly known in the community as "s4iler” who was one of many piloting this deck, to get some insight as to why this was a good pick for the event. 
 

Why was Emerald/Steel such a strong choice for the North America Championship? 
 
I decided to bring Emerald/Steel and pushed my team to do so with me because anything we could pick had a bad matchup, and we decided that Amber/Amethyst was going to be the one we would sacrifice. The reason is that we didn't want to play it ourselves because it didn't have an edge going second against almost any deck, specifically in the mirror. There was also a rise in Emerald/Amethyst Retro and Amber/Emerald Items that were bad news for it. If we didn't want to bring it, we assumed most wouldn't either, so we picked Emerald Steel and built it to beat Emerald/Amethyst, Amber/Emerald aggro , and the mirror match. 

This strategy paid off in a huge way for s4iler and his friends, with three of the playtest group making it all the way to the top four and stamping their tickets to the World Championship, playing near-identical lists! 

In fact, Emerald/Steel proved to be an excellent choice all round, as when the nine rounds of Swiss were said and done, the top 16 players consisted of 11 Emerald/Steel, three Amber/Amethyst, one Amber/Emerald, and one Amber/Steel deck. 
 
4 Angel – Experiment 624  

4 Angela – Night Warrior  

4 Broadway – Sturdy and Strong  

4 Darkwing Duck – Crime Fighter  

1 Darkwing Duck – Shadowy Superhero  

4 Elinor – Renowned Diplomat  

3 Hamish, Hubert & Harris – Troublemaking Triplets  

2 He Hurled His Thunderbolt  

4 Launchpad – Trusty Sidekick  

4 Mushu – Stealthy Dragon  

4 Strength of a Raging Fire  

2 The Queen – Devious Disguise  

4 The Terror That Flaps in the Night  

4 Tod – All Alone  

4 Ursula – Deceiver  

4 Vixey – Forest Friend  

4 White Rabbit – Late Again 

 
Amber/Amethyst Wears the Crown! 

Emerald/Steel dominating in this fashion wasn’t on my radar, but clearly, it was for some of the best players in the world! As the Top 16 played out, we were indeed left with a final four of one Amber/Amethyst and three Emerald/Steel, which, as s4iler said, does not have a great matchup into the former. As you know from Rebekah’s part of the article, it was Dylan LeDuc who went all the way to follow in the footsteps of Ed Chiu to become your second-ever North America Champion. After only qualifying in the Friday LCQ, no less! 
Amber/Amethyst really is the deck that has all the tools to answer the majority of the most expected decks in format, with its worst matchup seemingly being Amber/Emerald items. But it performs extremely well against any other mid-range deck with its “pseudo ramp” Grandmother Willow – Ancient Advisor to gain access to its strongest characters sooner, and cards like Tigger – Bouncing all the Way, which slow down the speedier decks. It may have only been the fourth most represented deck in the room, but it came with consistency and was best positioned to prey on what the most seasoned players clearly knew would be the most common deck in the room, Emerald/Steel. 
 
4 Besties, Assemble!  

4 Cheshire Cat – Inexplicable  

4 Demona – Scourge of the Wyvern Clan  

3 Dumbo – The Flying Elephant  

4 Gaston – Superior Archer  

4 Grandmother Willow – Ancient Advisor  

4 Hamm – Piggy Bank  

4 Isis Vanderchill – Ice Queen of St. Canard  

3 Luisa Madrigal – Confident Climber  

4 Luisa Madrigal – Pushing Through  

3 Nakoma – Waiting Out the Storm  

1 Ohana Means Family  

4 Rafiki – Mystical Fighter  

4 Stitch – Carefree Surfer  

2 Sven – Leaping Reindeer  

4 The Horseman Strikes!  

4 Tigger – Bouncing All the Way 
 

 

Europe Championship Approaches! 
 

And that’s that for the season two North America Championship! The European Championship event approaches next week, on September 11–13, and is sure to draw data from North America. It will be interesting to see how players respond to these results, and if we will see similar meta shares in Paris! I hope to see you there, but until then Illumineers, be prepared.