FloodBorn.Ink The Two-Ink Color Pairs
A legal Lorcana deck uses cards from at most two of the six inks. Picking your pair is the first big deckbuilding decision — it sets your strengths, your weaknesses, and your whole game plan.
What each ink brings
Every color has a personality:
| Ink | Strengths |
|---|---|
| Amber | Go-wide boards, support effects, healing, songs |
| Amethyst | Card draw, tempo, bounce |
| Emerald | Disruption, returning characters to hand, evasive threats |
| Ruby | Aggression, challengers, direct pressure |
| Sapphire | Ramp, items, card advantage, value engines |
| Steel | Hard removal, damage, big durable bodies |
Pick your second ink to cover a weakness
The golden rule: your second ink should patch a hole in your first. Aggressive inks want a splash that can remove blockers; value inks want a way to actually close out the game.
| Pairing | Plays like | Why it works |
|---|---|---|
| Amber / Steel | Go-wide aggro-midrange | Wide boards backed by removal |
| Ruby / Amethyst | Tempo aggro | Fast bodies plus draw to refuel |
| Sapphire / Steel | Ramp control | Ramp into big, hard-to-kill threats |
| Amber / Amethyst | Songs & tempo | Cheap singers plus card flow |
| Emerald / Ruby | Disruptive aggro | Pressure while bouncing their blockers |
| Sapphire / Amber | Value midrange | Ramp into a wide, supportive board |
Mono-ink is allowed too
You don't have to play two inks. A single-ink deck has perfectly consistent ink (you never have the "wrong color" in your inkwell), at the cost of a narrower card pool. It's a great, low-stress way to learn — and a real competitive choice when a single color has everything a plan needs.
Choosing as a new player
If you're just starting, pick a pair where you like both halves of the plan, and lean on whichever color you opened the most of. For a deeper walk-through, see choosing your first ink pair. Then test the list in the goldfish simulator before you buy anything.