Lorcana Deck Tech: Ruby/Amethyst Control Masterclass

Geeky Domain Crew
2026-05-02T23:02:48-07:00

Ruby/Amethyst Bounce Control is the gold standard of the competitive Lorcana meta. Learn how to pilot the Merlin/Mim draw engine, exactly when to time your Be Prepared board wipes, and discover which Enchanted cards from this dominant archetype make the safest blue-chip investments for high-end slab collectors.

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Archetype Masterclass: Ruby / Amethyst Bounce Control

Master the engine. Control the board. Invest in the slabs. The definitive guide to Lorcana's most resilient competitive deck.

In the volatile economy of Disney Lorcana, metas shift, decks fall out of favor, and prices crash. However, since the release of Rise of the Floodborn, one deck archetype has proven itself to be functionally immortal: Ruby / Amethyst Bounce Control.

This deck does not rely on a single, fragile combo that can be easily countered by a new set release. Instead, it relies on fundamental trading card mechanics—card advantage, recursive value, and absolute board wipes. By utilizing Amethyst's incredible draw power and Ruby's unparalleled removal suite, this archetype systematically starves the opponent of resources before closing the game with massive lore swings.

Whether you are looking to build the raw deck to grind the weekend Set Championships or you are a high-end collector looking for the safest Enchanted slabs to hold in your vault, understanding the mechanics of Ruby/Amethyst is mandatory.

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Read the Lorcana Playability Multiplier Guide

The Engine: The Merlin & Mim Bounce Loop

The core identity of this deck revolves around the "Bounce" mechanic—playing characters that force you to return another character from your board back to your hand. While this sounds like a massive loss of tempo, the Amethyst ink utilizes it to generate infinite value.

The engine is powered by the synergy between the Madam Mim and Merlin character lines.

The Recursive Card Advantage

When you play Merlin - Rabbit, you draw a card. When he leaves play, you draw another card. By deploying a character like Madam Mim - Fox, you can banish an opponent's character with her Rush ability, and fulfill her deployment cost by bouncing your own Merlin - Rabbit back to your hand.

You just destroyed an opposing threat, established a 4/3 body on the board, and drew a card in the process. Next turn, you simply replay the Rabbit and draw again. This loop ensures your hand is always full while your opponent's hand slowly empties.

The Anvil: Ruby's Removal Suite

If Amethyst provides the cards, Ruby provides the anvil. As a control player, you must be able to answer any threat your opponent places on the board, regardless of its Willpower or abilities. Ruby offers the most efficient, un-inkable removal package in the game.

The Surgical Strike: Maui - Hero to All
With the Rush keyword and a massive 6 Strength, Maui is your premier spot removal. He enters the board and instantly crushes your opponent's primary lore-generator. Because he boasts 5 Willpower, he often survives the initial trade, forcing the opponent to dedicate a second card to remove him from the board.

The Reset Button: Be Prepared
This is the single most important card in the deck. For 7 ink, you banish all characters on the board. When the aggro player over-commits and floods the table with characters, you cast Be Prepared to completely wipe out their investment. Because you are running the Amethyst bounce engine, your hand will be full of cards to rebuild your board, while their hand will be entirely empty.

Turns 1 to 3: Surviving the Aggro Rush

The only inherent weakness of Ruby/Amethyst Control is the first three turns of the game. Aggressive Amber decks will attempt to gain 10 lore before you even have enough ink to deploy your removal engine. You cannot panic, and you cannot waste your resources inefficiently.

Not That: Questing for Early Lore

Do not exert your early 1-cost and 2-cost characters to quest for lore. You are playing a control deck; you do not care about the lore total on Turn 3. If you exert your characters to quest, you leave them vulnerable to being challenged and banished by the opponent's board.

Do This: Establishing the Bodyguards

Keep your early characters readied so they cannot be challenged. Use Madam Mim - Snake to establish a massive 3/3 body on Turn 2, which walls out most early aggro threats. Your entire goal is to stall the game safely until you reach Turn 5 to begin executing your Maui strikes and Turn 7 to drop your board wipes.

The Mid-Game: Securing The Queen's Castle

Once you have stabilized the board around Turn 4, your primary objective shifts from pure survival to out-resourcing your opponent. In the modern Ruby/Amethyst build, this is accomplished through the most oppressive Location card in the game: The Queen's Castle - Mirror Chamber.

At a cost of 4 ink, the Castle boasts a massive 7 Willpower, making it incredibly difficult for an opponent to banish in a single turn without sacrificing their entire board. However, it is the passive draw engine that breaks the game open.

The Card Advantage Squeeze

At the start of your turn, you draw one card for each of your characters at the Castle. By moving cheap characters or recursive bodies like Merlin - Rabbit to the Castle, you can easily draw 2 to 3 extra cards per turn. Furthermore, simply having the Castle in play generates 1 lore per turn passively. If your opponent ignores it, they lose the game to passive lore. If they attack it, they leave your characters untouched. It is the ultimate lose-lose scenario for the aggro player.

The Finisher: Unpreventable Lore

Control decks often struggle to actually close out a game once they have established dominance. Traditional characters have to wait a full turn before they can quest, leaving them vulnerable to removal. Ruby/Amethyst bypasses this vulnerability entirely by generating "Unpreventable Lore."

The centerpiece of this strategy is Merlin - Goat. When he enters play, you gain 1 lore. When he leaves play, you gain 1 lore. Because this lore is generated via an ability rather than questing, it cannot be stopped by cards that prevent characters from questing.

The Goat Loop: On Turn 7, you can play Merlin - Goat (gain 1 lore), immediately play Madam Mim - Fox to bounce the Goat back to your hand (gain 1 lore), and you still have a 4/3 Rush character on the board.

The Math: Because of the bounce engine, a single copy of Merlin - Goat in your hand effectively represents 6 to 8 points of guaranteed lore over the course of the late game. Once you drop your opponent's board with Be Prepared, the Goat Loop closes the door before they can recover.

The Ultimate Test: Surviving the Mirror Match

Because Ruby/Amethyst is the premier deck in the Lorcana meta, you will inevitably face it in tournaments. The "Mirror Match" is a grueling, 45-minute test of patience and resource management. In this matchup, the player who acts first usually loses.

Here are the two golden rules for winning the Ruby/Amethyst mirror:

1. The "Be Prepared" Chicken Game

Do not overextend your board. If you play three characters and your opponent only has one, you are giving them maximum value for their Be Prepared. Only deploy exactly enough characters to maintain pressure. Force them to cast their 7-ink board wipe on a suboptimal target.

2. Ink Your Removal

In the mirror match, cards like Brawl and Madame Medusa are often dead draws because both players are constantly bouncing their characters back to their hands to protect them. Do not hesitate to put your heavy removal into your inkwell. Prioritize keeping your card draw (Rabbits and Castles) and your win conditions (Goats) in your hand.

The Arsenal: The Standard Tournament 60

This is the optimized, stock 60-card list for the 2026 meta. Note: You do not need the Enchanted versions to play this deck at a tournament level. You can build the entire raw deck utilizing the standard-rarity cards below.

Amethyst Engine (34)

4x Chernabog's Followers - Creatures of Evil

4x Snake - Madam Mim

4x Fox - Madam Mim

4x Merlin - Rabbit

4x Merlin - Goat

3x Merlin - Crab

4x Friends on the Other Side

4x The Queen's Castle - Mirror Chamber

3x Yzma - Scary Beyond All Reason

Ruby Control Suite (26)

4x Minnie Mouse - Surfer

4x Brawl

4x Maui - Hero to All

3x Madame Medusa - The Boss

4x Be Prepared

3x Tremaine - Imperious Queen

4x Flynn Rider - Frenemy

*Need to assemble the deck? Use our TCGplayer affiliate links to pick up your raw playsets and support Geeky Domain in the process.*

The Vault: Upgrading to Enchanteds

Because Ruby/Amethyst Control is a foundational pillar of the Lorcana meta, its core cards are heavily insulated by the Playability Multiplier. While standard-rarity cards will naturally fluctuate, the Enchanted versions of these specific meta staples are considered some of the safest blue-chip investments in the game.

If you are a high-end collector looking to park your capital into proven tournament assets rather than unplayable hype cards, these are the exact slabs you should target to upgrade your deck's equity.

Enchanted Lady Tremaine - Imperious Queen

The ultimate answer to Ward characters. Tremaine's forced banish mechanic ensures she will see play in every Ruby control list for the foreseeable future. A pristine, graded copy is a cornerstone asset.

Enchanted Madame Medusa - The Boss

A surgical 6-ink strike that instantly removes any 3-Strength threat without allowing opponent interaction. Her Enchanted rarity from Into the Inklands commands a massive premium among competitive players.

The Geeky Domain Verdict

Inevitable Value.

The Ruby/Amethyst Control deck does not win by surprising the opponent with an obscure combo. It wins through the inevitable, mathematical advantage of recursive card draw and hyper-efficient board removal. It is the ultimate test of a Lorcana pilot's patience and resource management.

If you are preparing for a major Set Championship, mastering the Merlin/Mim bounce engine and the Be Prepared timing window is non-negotiable. Whether you are assembling the standard tournament 60-card list via raw singles, or securing the long-term equity of the Enchanted slabs for your vault, Ruby/Amethyst is the gold standard of the Disney Lorcana economy.

Secure Your Arsenal:

→ Shop The Vault: Graded Lorcana Slabs

→ Read the Guide: The Lorcana Grading Trap

→ Build on a Budget: Best Staples Under $10

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