Lorcana Into the Inklands Amber & Emerald Starter Deck Guide

Quick answer

Play the Amber & Emerald starter deck by keeping a hand with cheap characters, inking every turn, and using Amber's healing and Emerald's evasive tricks to win quests before your opponent stabilizes.

How to play your first games with this deck

1. Set up and shuffle: Shuffle your 60-card deck thoroughly, draw 7 cards, and place your deck in the inkwell area. Decide who goes first; the first player does not draw on their first turn. Check that you have exactly 60 cards before shuffling; missing cards can make the deck inconsistent.
2. Mulligan for cheap characters: Before play begins, you may choose any number of cards to put on the bottom of your deck and draw that many new ones. Keep hands with at least two characters that cost 1 or 2 ink; put back expensive cards or situational actions. Do not keep a hand with only high-cost cards, even if they are powerful; you need early board presence.
3. Ink a card every turn: On each of your turns, you may place one card from your hand face down into your inkwell. Do this almost every turn, especially in the first four turns, to build the ink you need for bigger plays. Avoid inking cards you might need soon, such as key removal or healing effects; ink the least useful card in your hand.
4. Play cheap characters first: Use your available ink to play 1-cost and 2-cost characters early. These characters can quest for lore and also serve as challengers to slow your opponent. Do not attack with characters that could quest for lore unless you need to remove a threat; questing is usually the better default.
5. Quest for lore each turn: Once a character is in play and not summoning sick, you can exert it to quest for its lore value. Quest with as many characters as possible while keeping some ready for defense if your opponent has evasive or challenging characters. Track your lore total; you win at 20, so questing aggressively can end games quickly.
6. Use Emerald tricks to disrupt: Emerald cards often let you return opposing characters to hand, force discards, or gain evasive. Save these for key moments, such as removing a large threat or clearing the way for your questers. Do not waste disruptive actions on minor characters; save them for cards that threaten your lore lead.
7. Leverage Amber healing and support: Amber cards can heal your characters or grant lore bonuses. Use healing to keep your questers alive after challenges, and use support abilities to boost characters that are close to being banished. Healing is most valuable on characters with high lore values; do not heal a character that will still be banished next turn.

Starter deck at a glance

• Into the Inklands - Starter Deck (Amber & Emerald): Ready-to-play 60-card deck designed by Team Lorcana for the Into the Inklands set. You can start playing immediately without building a deck, which makes it ideal for learning the game's basics.