Metagames shift, and Lorcana's Core Constructed format is no exception — but at any given moment, a handful of archetypes tend to dominate tournament attendance and win rates while a long tail of rogue strategies fights for the remaining share. Knowing which decks currently define the format matters whether you're building toward the top of the metagame or specifically trying to beat it.

This tier list is a snapshot, not a permanent ranking — Lorcana's competitive metagame moves with every new set and ban list update, and this page will be refreshed as the format shifts. Use it as a current-state reference, not a fixed hierarchy.

Here's what's actually winning in Core Constructed right now, based on current tournament and metagame-tracking data.

Archetype	Approx. Metashare	Tier
Amethyst/Sapphire Evasive	~19%	S Tier
Amber/Emerald Aggro	~19%	S Tier
Amber/Amethyst Evasives	~13%	A Tier
Emerald/Sapphire Control	~12%	A Tier
Amber/Ruby Toys	~5%	B Tier

S Tier: Amethyst/Sapphire Evasive & Amber/Emerald Aggro

These two archetypes currently sit at the top of the format with nearly identical metashare, and they represent two genuinely different ways of winning. Amethyst/Sapphire Evasive builds a board of characters that are difficult to profitably block or challenge, converting that resilience into a steady, hard-to-interact-with lore clock. It rewards players who value consistency and disruption resistance over raw speed.

Amber/Emerald Aggro takes the opposite approach — deploying efficient, cheap threats quickly and racing to 20 lore before the opponent's answers catch up. It's currently the strongest budget-viable archetype in the format, meaning new and budget-conscious players have a genuine top-tier option rather than being priced out of the format's best decks.

Both decks being roughly co-equal at the top means the format currently has two very different gameplans to prepare for, which matters directly for sideboarding and deckbuilding decisions if you're trying to beat the field rather than just play a strong deck yourself.

What makes Amethyst/Sapphire Evasive particularly difficult to dislodge is the consistency of its gameplan — it doesn't rely on a single explosive turn or a narrow combo to win. Instead, it accumulates small advantages through evasive characters that reliably quest without needing to interact in combat, steadily building lore while forcing the opponent to find specific answers rather than just playing good cards on curve. That resistance to disruption is why the deck's win rate tends to hold up even in fields that know it's coming.

Amber/Emerald Aggro, conversely, wins by being faster than the opposing strategy's answers. Its ideal games end before the opponent stabilizes, which means the deck's main vulnerability is to opponents who can deploy cheap, efficient blockers or removal in the first three turns. When the aggro plan stalls, the deck's late-game is genuinely thin — which is why experienced pilots know to commit heavily early rather than trying to hedge against a long game that won't favor them regardless.

The practical implication of this co-leadership is that if you're building a deck to beat the metagame rather than just playing a strong list, you need answers to both a resilient, hard-to-interact-with questing plan and a fast, linear aggro plan — and those two answer profiles don't always overlap neatly. Decks that can address both tend to rise in the A tier precisely because of that flexibility.

A Tier: Amber/Amethyst Evasives & Emerald/Sapphire Control

Amber/Amethyst Evasives shares some strategic DNA with the S-tier Evasive deck above but leans harder into Amber's aggressive tools, giving it a faster clock at some cost to resilience. It's a strong, consistent choice without quite matching the ceiling of the top two decks.

Emerald/Sapphire Control is the format's clearest control representative in the current top tier, grinding through early pressure with removal and card advantage before taking over with a stronger late game. If you're building specifically to beat this deck, our control matchup guide covers the general principles that apply here.

Amber/Amethyst Evasives occupies an interesting niche as a deck that shares strategic DNA with the S-tier Amethyst/Sapphire build but trades some of that deck's pure resilience for Amber's ability to generate tempo advantages through lower-cost, more aggressive characters. The result is a deck that can race faster than the pure Evasive build but lacks its staying power in longer, grindier games — a meaningful tradeoff that makes the deck better in some matchup textures and worse in others rather than being a strictly weaker version of the same strategy.

Emerald/Sapphire Control's position in the A tier rather than the S tier reflects a specific vulnerability: it struggles against fast aggro openings that deploy more threats than the control deck can answer before lore totals become decisive. When it survives the early pressure, it's arguably the strongest late-game deck in the format — the question is whether it gets there often enough against a field that's roughly 40% fast or evasive strategies specifically designed to end games before control can stabilize.

B Tier: Amber/Ruby Toys

Amber/Ruby Toys holds a meaningfully smaller slice of the metagame than the top four archetypes, but it's a legitimate, repeatable strategy rather than a rogue one-off — enough players are consistently finding success with it that it belongs in a tier list rather than the long tail below it.

Decks in this tier are generally good choices if you want something with a real plan and real results, but slightly less contested than the top of the format — sometimes a real advantage, since opponents are less likely to have a tuned answer prepared specifically for it.

The Toys synergy package gives this deck a gameplan that's genuinely different from the other archetypes in the format — it's building toward a specific board state with stacking synergy effects rather than just playing the best standalone cards at each point on the curve. That makes it more rewarding for players who enjoy building toward a cohesive engine rather than just curving out efficiently, but also more punishing when key pieces don't come together — a higher variance strategy overall, which is part of why its metashare stays lower than the more consistent top-tier lists.

For a player looking to compete seriously but wanting to avoid mirror matches in a field dominated by Evasive and Aggro decks, Amber/Ruby Toys is a legitimate off-meta choice that wins real events rather than just looking interesting in theory. Our budget Toys build guide covers how to get started with the archetype without a significant upfront investment.

The Matchup Matrix

How the five archetypes line up against each other, based on current tournament data trends. Read each row as "this deck versus the column": favored (+), even (=), or unfavored (−). Piloting skill swings every one of these, but the overall shape of the format is clear.

Deck vs →	Am/Sap Evasive	Amb/Em Aggro	Amb/Am Evasive	Em/Sap Control	Amb/Ruby Toys
Am/Sap Evasive	—	+	+	=	+
Amb/Em Aggro	−	—	=	+	+
Amb/Am Evasive	−	=	—	=	+
Em/Sap Control	=	−	=	—	+
Amb/Ruby Toys	−	−	−	−	—

Approximate trends based on current tournament data. Individual results vary with pilot skill and list refinement.

How to Use This List

Metashare isn't the same as power level. A deck with a large metashare can be popular because it's genuinely strong, because it's affordable and well-documented, or both — Amber/Emerald Aggro's presence at the top is a good example of a deck that's both competitively excellent and accessible to build, which is part of why it's so widely played.

If you're choosing a deck to play, weigh this list alongside your own budget and playstyle preference rather than automatically picking the single highest metashare entry. If you're building specifically to beat the format, the top four decks here are exactly what you should be testing against before you register for an event.

A common mistake is treating a tier list as a power ranking in the strongest-to-weakest sense. That's not what this is. Tier placement here reflects a combination of metashare, consistency, and results at competitive events — a deck in B tier can absolutely beat a deck in S tier in any given game. What tier placement tells you is how likely you are to face each archetype at a real event and how consistently each strategy has been converting at the top tables across a sample of tournaments.

For players entering their first competitive Lorcana event specifically, this list serves a very practical purpose beyond deck selection: knowing what the top five archetypes do means you won't be surprised by your opponent's gameplan in the first four or five rounds of a Swiss tournament. Even if you're playing something outside this list entirely, understanding what roughly 70% of the field is doing gives you a meaningful preparation advantage over someone who shows up blind.

Finally, keep in mind that tier lists reflect aggregate performance across many events and many pilots, not your individual results with a specific deck. A skilled pilot on a B-tier deck will consistently outperform an inexperienced player on an S-tier deck, because pilot skill, matchup knowledge, and familiarity with your own list matter more than raw tier placement in any single event. Choose a deck you enjoy playing and invest in learning its matchups deeply rather than chasing the highest-tier option if it doesn't match how you actually want to play the game.

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