There are so many incredible new Brave-inspired cards, from the Legendary Merida – Formidable Archer to Elinor – Renowned Diplomat and Mor’du – Savage Cursed Prince. These cards can be found across three ink colors: Amethyst, Emerald, and Steel, each with unique synergies.
With that in mind, I’ve done what any logical person would do: create three different theme decks!
Check out each deck below and I hope you’ll be brave enough to try one of them out!
Let Your Arrows Fly – Emerald/Steel
Emerald/Steel is a fun ink pairing and it’s a deck which has found much success in the history of Disney Lorcana TCG! Not only has it done well at past tournaments, it’s also a personal favorite of mine for another theme deck featuring glimmers from Robin Hood.
This Brave theme deck, called LET YOUR ARROWS FLY, is designed to take full advantage of the synergy between Merida – Formidable Archer and action cards that deal damage, like the new Three Arrows. Three Arrows is a fantastic action which will deal 2 damage to one chosen character and an additional 1 damage to another chosen character. On its own, this action is excellent, but paired together with Merida’s Steady Aim ability, it becomes even more powerful! Steady Aim ensures that any damage dealt takes perfect aim and does an additional 2 damage to the opposing character that took damage from the action you played.
Yes . . . any character that takes damage! This means, when you play Three Arrows, both characters that take damage will take an additional 2 damage with the Steady Aim. And with Full Quiver, when Merida – Formidable Archer comes into play, you can bring back Three Arrows from your iscard to your hand. Talk about amazing synergy!
I included other powerful Steel action cards, such as Strength of a Raging Fire, He Hurled His Thunderbolt, and Double Trouble, which will do double duty with Merida’s Steady Aim ability. Double Trouble is another favorite inclusion since it targets two characters. Plus, when the Legendary Merida is in play, instead of firing 1 damage at up to two characters, you can deal 3 damage total to each character! Yup, that’s pretty Legendary.
This deck is built to deal lots of damage through actions and character abilities. Whenever the Floodborn Merida – Gifted Archer is exerted, opposing characters who challenge will take damage with her Fierce Protection ability. Play Merida – Defiant Daughter on turn two then Shift the Gifted Archer on turn three. This will cause your opponent to think twice before challenging, allowing you to maintain early board control.
Many other glimmers from Brave come together to give you a variety of ways to protect your own characters and keep control. Angus – Mighty Horse and Hamish, Hubert & Harris – Troublemaking Triplets will help you deal with Evasive threats. Meanwhile, Fergus – King of DunBroch and Lord Macintosh – Wiry and High-Strung can help protect your characters with Bodyguard and Resist, respectively. And one copy of Lord MacGuffin – Clever Swordsman cleverly deals damage when he enters play.
For card draw, I added Donald Duck – Perfect Gentleman and two copies of Goliath – Clan Leader (he’s from Scotland, too!). There are also a few copies of the Song card, Education or Elimination, which will have great synergy in this deck, no matter which option you choose. And remember, since this deck deals a lot of damage, you should be able to take advantage of the ability to banish an opposing damaged character.
This deck has many different ways to keep control throughout the game and there are only 13 uninkable cards in this deck. With a fairly even cost curve, you should have something you can play every turn. Lots of damage, lots of synergy, and lots of fun when you let your arrows fly!
Decklist:
4 Young MacGuffin – Soft-Spoken Son
4 Mulan – Disguised Soldier
4 Merida – Defiant Daughter
4 Fergus – King of DunBroch
4 Angus – Mighty Horse
3 Hamish, Hubert & Harris – Troublemaking Triplets
2 Wee Dingwall – Scrappy Lad
4 Lord MacIntosh – Wiry and High-Strung
4 Donald Duck – Perfect Gentleman
4 Merida – Formidable Archer
4 Merida – Gifted Archer
2 Goliath – Clan Leader
4 Three Arrows
2 Double Trouble
2 Fire the Cannons!
4 Strength of a Raging Fire
3 Education or Elimination
2 He Hurled His Thunderbolt
Locations and Legends – Amethyst/Steel
When I first saw Fergus – Outpost Builder and the new Song card Touch the Sky, I knew I wanted to build a locations-focused deck. Fergus has fantastic synergy with location cards, and together with other Brave glimmers, I created this Amethyst/Steel deck where LOCATIONS AND LEGENDS come together in fabulous fashion.
Fergus has two incredible abilities that synergize with location cards. While Fergus is at a location, Hold Fast allows you to deal 4 damage to a chosen character whenever any location of yours is challenged and banished. But his Just the Spot ability is my favorite. Whenever Fergus is exerted on your turn, whether he sings a song, quests, or challenges, you may play a location with a cost of 4 or less for free from either your hand OR your discard! With twenty locations in this deck, you should always have something to play!
Among the locations is the new Ring of Stones – Place of Legends. Ring of Stones has an expensive move cost, but an exerted character can move there for free. Multiple glimmers in this deck have an ability which allows them to enter play exerted: Hamish, Hubert & Harris – Making Mischief, Lord Macintosh – Wiry and High-Strung, and Lord Dingwall – Bullheaded. This means they could all move into Ring of Stones immediately on play to gain 1 lore. With 7 Willpower, this location will be difficult, though not impossible, for your opponent to remove in one go. Which means you should be able to get at least 2 or 3 lore with this location in play.
Other locations include The Library and The Great Illuminary, which help with card draw. Then there’s Castle Wyvern which buffs your characters. And finally, Illuminary Tunnels helps you play locations at a discount while stacking lore. None of the locations cost more than 4, which means any of them could be played for free with Fergus – Outpost Builder’s Just the Spot ability.
For more location synergy, I added in a couple of action cards specifically for this locations-heavy deck. Winterspell will help protect your locations by preventing them from being challenged. For just 1 cost, this little card does a lot and also replaces itself by drawing a card. For more card draw, sing the new 2 cost Touch the Sky action to move a character to a location for free and draw cards equal to that location’s lore. Touch the Sky has amazing synergy if you can stack lore with Illuminary Tunnels, which will get an additional lore for every location you have in play, and you could possibly draw quite a few cards!
Since this is a locations-heavy deck, I couldn’t resist including John Silver – Greedy Treasure Seeker. This glimmer has been around since Into the Inklands and was reprinted in Fabled. For each location you have in play he gains Resist +1 and gets +1 lore. With 3 Strength and 3 Willpower, John Silver has a pretty good body to start with and as you start to play out more locations, he can become very difficult for your opponent to deal with.
I rounded out this deck with a few more Brave glimmers, including Mor’du. The new Mor’du – Savage Cursed Prince with 8 Strength, 8 Willpower, and 3 lore is quite the bear to deal with. The drawback is that your other characters not named Mor’du can’t ready when he’s in play, which actually makes a locations-heavy deck a perfect deck to play him in. Your locations can continue to help you gain lore while Mor’du is in play.
There are only 8 uninkable cards in this deck with a healthy cost curve; most cards are your 3 cost characters and locations. With plenty of Locations and Legends from, this deck is sure to give your opponent some trouble.
Decklist:
4 Will o’ the Wisp – Forest Spirit
2 Mulan – Disguised Soldier
4 Mor’du – Wicked with Pride
2 Hamish, Hubert & Harris – Making Mischief
4 John Silver - Greedy Treasure Seeker
2 Elinor – Bespelled Queen
2 Lord MacIntosh – Wiry and High-Strung
3 Lord Dingwall – Bullheaded
2 Mor’du – Savage Cursed Prince
4 Fergus – Outpost Builder
2 Zootopia – Police Headquarters
2 Castle Wyvern – Above the Clouds
2 The Great Illuminary – Abandoned Laboratory
4 The Frozen Vine - Monstrous Plant
4 Illuminary Tunnels - Linked Caverns
2 The Library – A Gift for Belle
4 Ring of Stones – Place of Legends
3 Winterspell
4 Touch the Sky
4 Strength of a Raging Fire
Challenge Your Fate – Emerald/Amethyst
This Emerald/Amethyst deck, CHALLENGE YOUR FATE, is all about challenging and putting damage on opposing characters. Then you use that damage to your advantage to stay ahead of the game.
Bring out Merida – Defiant Daughter on turn two and Shift Merida – Gifted Archer turn three to help dissuade your opponent from challenging. If they do challenge, the challenging character may take some damage with Merida’s Fierce Protection ability. You also have glimmers like Elinor – Bespelled Queen, Kenai – Magical Bear, both of which have Challenger +2, and Elsa – Fifth Spirit, who has Rush, all of whom can do a lot of challenging when needed.
With all that challenging, use the Boost ability on Cheshire Cat – Inexplicable to move damage around to help banish opposing characters. And if you can’t completely banish your opponent’s characters, with King of Hearts – Picky Ruler in play, any damaged characters won’t be able to challenge at all!
Elinor – Renowned Diplomat is one of my favorite cards in this deck. With lots of challenges, you should hopefully have multiple characters exerted at the end of your turn to take advantage of her Coordinated Efforts ability. This ability allows you to deal 1 damage to an opposing character, gain 1 lore, and draw a card when at least three characters are exerted at the end of your turn! I also love the inclusion of The Witch – Wily Woodcarver whose Unsatisfied Customers ability will cause your opponent(s) to lose 1 lore whenever she is challenged. As a 4 Strength, 6 Willpower character who quests for 2, this is a threat that your opponents will eventually have to deal with one way or another.
For the late game, three copies of Go Go Tomago – Darting Dynamo will help clinch the win with the Stop Whining, Woman Up ability. There are so many glimmers who can do a lot of damage which is perfect synergy to gain lore equal to the damage on an opposing character. I also included 3 copies of Demona – Scourge of the Wyvern Clan, so you can exert all opposing characters to make sure you have characters who can be challenged - not to mention, her Ad Saxum Commutate ability also allows you to draw up to 3 cards if you’re running low on cards.
There are no actions or locations in this deck, but I have included three items that all work together with the strategy of this deck. Snow Fort is an item from Winterspell, which will give your characters +1 Strength, making their challenges more effective, and the Resist +1 on your opponents’ turns will make them harder to banish. With all the challenges you’ll be doing, you may find too many of your characters have made their way to your discard. Use the new DunBroch Family Tapestry item to shuffle them back into your deck. As a 2-cost item, you can play this whenever you have the ink available, then banish at the most opportune time to Mend the Bond.
The final item is the new 2 cost Merida’s Bow. It’s an Easy Shot to deal 1 damage to a character when the item is played. Then, at any time, you may pay 1 additional ink and banish the item for that Final Arrow to deal 1 damage when needed.
This deck has a bit higher uninkable count at 15 cards, but most of them are 2 and 3 cost cards so you should rarely find yourself without ink. This deck also has a very healthy cost curve to help make sure you’re able to play characters each turn and last into the late game with powerful glimmers. Challenging, dealing damage, and moving damage is what this deck is all about. In the end, fate will decide if you can keep your opponent on their toes enough to outpace them to 20 lore and win.
Decklist:
4 Young MacGuffin – Soft-Spoken Son
4 Will o’ the Wisp – Forest Spirit
4 Merida – Defiant Daughter
3 Go Go Tomago - Darting Dynamo
4 White Rabbit – Late Again
4 Hamish, Huvert & Harris – Troublemaking Triplets
4 Cheshire Cat – Inexplicable
4 Hamish, Hubert & Harris – Making Mischief
3 Kenai – Magical Bear
4 Elinor – Renowned Diplomat
2 Elinor – Bespelled Queen
2 King of Hearts – Picky Ruler
4 Merida – Gifted Archer
2 TheWitch – Wily Woodcarver
2 Elsa – The Fifth Spirit
3 Demona – Scourge of the Wyvern clan
3 Merida’s Bow
2 Dunbroch Family Tapestry
2 Snow Fort
There are so many fantastic glimmers from Brave you can add to your new Disney Lorcana decks. Not only that, but a few Brave cards have also been given the Epic, Enchanted, and Iconic treatment in Wilds Unknown. Perhaps you’ll be able to add one of these beautiful cards to your deck or collection!
