The deck Dan Arnold Lorcana brought to Set Champs week one costs $307.29 to build from the cheapest printing of each card. You can watch the full breakdown, including this list, in his North American Championship video.
What he chose is Amber Amethyst, built around a very specific idea: exert everything your opponent controls, then refuse to let them ready. The case for this approach is that it buys you questing turns your opponent simply cannot answer while their board sits sideways.
- The engine is cost reduction. Grandmother Willow - Ancient Advisor and Hamm - Piggy Bank let this deck land its biggest threats a full turn early.
- Demona - Scourge of the Wyvern Clan exerts the whole board on entry. At $43.34 each, four copies represent more than half the deck's price tag.
- Nine copies lean on Evasive. Any deck running board-wide Alert strips that protection entirely.
- Start with Cheshire Cat - Inexplicable if you're easing in. Four copies run $33.84 and the damage-moving engine works in a lot of lists.
The plan is not subtle. It is a tempo engine. Get your characters on the board cheap, lock your opponent's board down, and quest past them while they sit exerted and helpless.
Here's how it gets there.
The cost reduction engine
Two cards make the curve work. Grandmother Willow - Ancient Advisor costs 2 ink and reads: "Once during your turn, you pay 1 ⬡ less for the next character you play this turn." Hamm - Piggy Bank also costs 2 ink.
His ability is an exert effect that does the same thing. Run all eight copies, and you are consistently landing 4-ink and 5-ink characters on turn three.
Players treat this as the reason the curve holds together. Without the discounts, the curve stalls. With them, you're threatening Gaston - Superior Archer or Isis Vanderchill - Ice Queen of St. Canard a turn before your opponent expects it.
How the combat suite works
The early characters are not questing. They're threatening challenges. Luisa Madrigal - Pushing Through costs 1 ink and gets Challenger +2. Rafiki - Mystical Fighter costs 1 ink and gets Challenger +3. Both are in at four copies each. Their job is to contest the board in the first two turns and make your opponent spend resources answering small threats.
Sven - Leaping Reindeer costs 4 ink, has Rush and Challenger +3, and is Evasive. That combination means he comes down and challenges the same turn. He's in at two copies, which suggests he's a flex slot rather than a cornerstone, but two copies of Rush plus a meaningful Challenger bonus is still a real threat when you need it.
Luisa Madrigal - Confident Climber costs 5 ink with Shift 3. Her ability lets you move damage from your characters to hers, then, if she's sitting on three or more damage, push it all to an opposing character. That's removal dressed as a stat line.
The lockdown turn
This is what the deck is actually building toward. Demona - Scourge of the Wyvern Clan costs 6 ink. Her entry ability reads: "When you play this character, exert all opposing characters. Then, each player with fewer than 3 cards in their hand draws until they have 3." Every opposing character goes sideways the moment she hits the table.
The catch is printed right on the card. "If you have 3 or more cards in your hand, this character can't ready." She exerts and stays exerted as long as you're holding three or more cards.
So the hand management matters. You want to play into the refill clause, not against it. The deck runs Stitch - Carefree Surfer at 7 ink, who draws two cards on entry if you control two or more other characters.
That can push you back above three, which means Demona stays locked herself. Dan's build runs four copies of Demona and four of Stitch. That's a deliberate decision to fully commit to the top end of the curve.
At $43.34 per copy, those four Demonas cost $173.36 on their own. That's 56% of the deck's total price in one card slot.
Support that ties it together
The action suite is doing real work. The Horseman Strikes! costs 3 ink, draws a card, and can banish a character with Evasive. That's direct answers to the Evasive-heavy boards the deck might face. Besties, Assemble! costs 1 ink and digs four cards deep for a character. Both are in at four copies.
Cheshire Cat - Inexplicable costs 3 ink and has Boost 3, which lets you pay 3 ink to put the top card of your deck facedown under him.
Each time you do, his ability lets you move up to two damage counters from one of your characters to an opposing one. That is chip damage that adds up. Four copies at $8.46 each comes to $33.84.
Tigger - Bouncing All the Way costs 4 ink. On entry, he reads: "You may return chosen character, item, or location with cost 2 or less to their player's hand." That clears out small blockers or resets your own cheap characters for another play trigger.
The one copy of Ohana Means Family at 3 ink is the deck's healing option. It removes all damage from a chosen character, then draws a card for each 1 damage removed. At $22.91 for a singleton, it's the second most expensive card in the list and a deliberate flex choice rather than a four-of cornerstone.
Where the deck gets answered
Nine cards in this list depend on Evasive. Dumbo - The Flying Elephant grants it on entry. Sven - Leaping Reindeer has it natively. The Horseman Strikes! banishes Evasive characters outright.
That reliance is the soft spot. Any deck running board-wide Alert collapses the Evasive protection entirely. Cards like Judy Hopps - Lead Detective, Angus - Mighty Horse, and Infra-Pink Ultra Scan Specs all grant Alert to characters that need it, letting them challenge through Evasive bodies as though the keyword weren't there.
If you're playing into a field running those cards, the Evasive package stops being a shield and becomes a blank keyword.
Demona exerts the whole opposing board on entry. At $43.34 each, four copies represent more than half the deck's total cost.
The full list
*Deck total: $307.29* for all 60 cards, cheapest printing of each, from our daily price feed.
Who should build this
If the lockdown plan appeals to you and the price doesn't scare you off, start with Cheshire Cat - Inexplicable. Four copies at $8.46 each are the most reusable part of the deck. His damage-moving engine is good in multiple Amethyst lists, so picking him up first carries over even if you pivot.
Then decide whether $173.36 on four copies of Demona - Scourge of the Wyvern Clan is the investment you want to make. She is the point of this particular build. If she's out of range right now, you don't have this deck yet, and it's worth being honest about that before you sleeve up the rest.
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