Building Your First Budget Lorcana Deck

One of the best things about Lorcana is that a well-built common-and-uncommon deck can absolutely hang with expensive ones. Here's how to build something competitive without chasing enchanted chase cards.

Start with a plan, not a pile

Before buying anything, pick a game plan:

• Aggro — cheap characters with high lore, race to 20 before your opponent sets up. Ruby and Amber love this.
• Midrange — efficient characters that trade well and out-value the opponent. Most two-ink pairs can do this.
• Control — removal, card draw, and a few big finishers. Steel and Sapphire shine here.

Budget decks are usually aggro or midrange, because they win before the expensive cards in other decks matter.

The deckbuilding ratios that matter

A 60-card deck roughly wants:

• ~24–32 characters. Characters quest and challenge — they're your engine.
• A smooth ink curve. Plenty of 1–3 cost cards so you always have a play. Don't overload on 6+ drops.
• At least ~22–24 inkable cards. Every card you put in your inkwell is a card you can't play, so you need enough inkable cards to reliably ink every turn. Watch the swirl symbol when you're building.

Not sure how many copies of a card you'll actually see? Plug your numbers into the draw odds calculator. For example, with 4 copies in a 60-card deck you'll have drawn at least one about 40% of the time by turn 1, and the odds climb every turn.

Two inks, picked on purpose

Choose your second ink to cover a weakness. If your main ink is aggressive but has no removal, splash an ink that does. Common pairings to start with:

• Amber / Steel — go-wide aggression backed by removal.
• Ruby / Amethyst — fast characters plus card draw to refuel.
• Sapphire / Steel — ramp into big, hard-to-kill threats.

Test before you buy

You don't need the physical cards to know if a list works. Paste your deck into the goldfish simulator, draw a dozen opening hands, and ask:

• Do I have a turn-1 and turn-2 play almost every time?
• Am I flooded with expensive cards I can't cast?
• Can I ink every turn without throwing away my best cards?

Tweak, re-draw, repeat. When the hands feel good, then buy the singles — pick up the commons and uncommons first and save the splashy cards for last.

Upgrade over time

Budget decks are a foundation. As you play, swap one or two cards at a time for upgrades, keep your ratios intact, and you'll have a deck that grows with you — no enchanted cards required.