Lorcana reset twice in one week. On July 17, the first Core Constructed rotation removed four sets from the format, and Attack of the Vine! became tournament legal the same day. Two weeks of major events later, the shape of the new format is clear: Amber/Emerald Elinor aggro leads with 20% of top-8 finishes and 4 wins out of 8 tournaments, Amber ink appears in two thirds of all successful decks, and every single top-8 list runs Attack of the Vine! cards.
- The July 17 rotation cut Core Constructed to five sets: Fabled, Whispers in the Well, Winterspell, Wilds Unknown, and Attack of the Vine!
- Amber/Emerald Elinor aggro is the deck to beat: 13 of 64 top-8 finishes (20%) and 4 of 8 tournament wins, including the 230-player Asia Championship Qualifier Thailand
- Amber is in 43 of 64 decks (67%); the top four archetypes all run it
- All 64 decks play Attack of the Vine! cards, averaging 9.5 of 60 slots. The set upgraded every shell instead of creating one dominant new deck
- Gaston - Superior Archer is the most-adopted new card, in 19 of 64 lists across four different archetypes
- 15 distinct archetypes reached a top 8, so the field is wide under the Amber-heavy top
Decklists come from the events listed on /decklists: three Asia Championship Qualifiers (Thailand, Singapore, Philippines), the Ink Inc Open $3k, La Forge 2K, a Challenge Championship Qualifier, and two case tournaments. Two weeks is an early window; shares will move.
The double reset
This format change was bigger than a normal set release. Rotation removed Shimmering Skies, Azurite Sea, Archazia's Island, and Reign of Jafar from Core Constructed, which means every deck lost cards and had to rebuild from a five-set pool. Attack of the Vine! arrived into that vacuum on the same weekend, so every list below was rebuilt from scratch, and the builds converged fast: the top archetype already has nine cards at 100% inclusion across 13 independent top-8 lists.
Amber/Emerald Elinor: the deck to beat
The community calls it Elinor after its engine card, Elinor - Renowned Diplomat. It is a lore-race aggro deck: cheap Amber questers backed by Emerald disruption, with Elinor converting the wide board into card flow. Its tournament record is the strongest in the format: 13 top-8 finishes and 4 wins, including the two biggest events in the sample (Thailand at 230 players and Singapore at 184). The one Attack of the Vine! addition at full consensus is Mike Wazowski - Heroic Climber, which every list runs as a playset.
Elinor consensus build (13 top-8 lists)
Nine cards at 100% inclusion. The 14 shown cover about 52 of the 60 slots; the rest are meta calls.
Amber/Amethyst Midrange: the format's second pillar
The second-most successful shell (8 top-8s, 2 wins) is built on the Whispers in the Well draw engine: Eilonwy, Cheshire Cat, Demona, and Junior Woodchuck Guidebook, all at 100%. Its new-set pickup is Gaston - Superior Archer, also at 100%, and it gives the deck targeted removal it previously lacked. This is the most flexible of the top decks, with more slots that change from list to list.
Amber/Amethyst consensus build (8 top-8 lists)
Eight cards at 100% inclusion, with Gaston the Attack of the Vine! addition.
The song decks: two shells, one new engine
Song strategies took 13 of the 64 slots across two ink pairs, and Attack of the Vine! is the reason. Meilin Lee - Losing Control is at 100% inclusion in both shells, and each got its own new payoff besides: Tod - Clever Fox in the Amber/Emerald version, and Stitch - Protector of Frogs plus Lilo & Stitch - Fun-Loving Friends in the Amber/Steel Steelsong version. Steelsong is the most locked-in list in the format: ten cards at 100% across its six lists.
Amber/Emerald Songs consensus (7 top-8 lists)
Meilin Lee, Tod, and Circle of Life are unanimous playsets.
Amber/Steel Steelsong consensus (6 top-8 lists)
Ten cards at 100%, three of them from Attack of the Vine!. Almost no flex room.
What Attack of the Vine! actually added
Unlike set releases that spawn one defining deck, Attack of the Vine! spread its impact across the whole format. Every top-8 deck in the sample plays cards from it, at an average of 9.5 slots per 60-card list. The pattern is upgrades: each established shell took the two or three new cards that fit its plan. Gaston - Superior Archer is the extreme case, showing up in 19 of 64 lists across four different archetypes.
Most-adopted new cards (share of all 64 decks)
The full field
| Archetype | Top-8 decks | Share | Event wins |
|---|---|---|---|
| Amber/Emerald Elinor (aggro) | 13 | 20% | 4 |
| Amber/Amethyst Midrange | 8 | 13% | 2 |
| Amber/Emerald Songs | 7 | 11% | 0 |
| Amber/Steel Steelsong | 6 | 9% | 0 |
| Amethyst/Ruby Midrange | 6 | 9% | 0 |
| Amethyst/Steel Bounce | 5 | 8% | 1 |
| Amber/Ruby Midrange | 5 | 8% | 0 |
| 8 other archetypes | 14 | 22% | 1 |
Two reads on this table. First, the top is concentrated: the four leading archetypes all play Amber, and Amber is in 43 of the 64 decks overall. Second, the field under them stays wide: 15 distinct archetypes reached a top 8, and the win column doesn't track the share column perfectly. Amethyst/Steel Bounce won an event from an 8% share, and Amber/Emerald Songs converted none of its 7 top-8s into a win.
What to watch
- Whether Elinor's 4-of-8 win rate draws enough hate to knock it off the top. Emerald and Steel both have tools against wide boards, and a 20% share makes it the obvious deck to target
- Whether the Amber concentration (67% of decks) holds. The last time one ink was this central, the following set shifted the color balance
- Gaston - Superior Archer singles prices. A three-of in four different archetypes two weeks after release is the profile of the format's most-demanded card
- Hyperia City lands October 23, so this five-set format has a runway of about twelve weeks before the next shake-up
Tournament decklists update daily on /decklists, every card in this article links to its page in the database, and you can rebuild any of these lists in the deck builder.