I am sure that everyone reading this, assuming at least a handful of games, has ran into the one of the following scenarios. Your opponent has a weaker board state that you but just doesn't exert his characters because of their imminent demise. You're playing against my deck from last week and your opponent has an empty field with 18 Lore and plays a Caterpillar - Calm and Collected and you have no way to stop it from exerting next turn. Both situations come from one stem. You're lacking either direct damage or non-challenge removal. My first builds in Lorcana had the same issue so I started hunting for solutions. In walked this little pair.

This bubble quickly popped as I realized that my very own Huntsman Quest would cause him to fall prey to the very available challenge removal. The Sheriff still haunted me, bringing in cards like; The Bayou - Mysterious Swamp, Simba - Future King, Cinderella - Knight in Training, and (my favorite) Tinkerbell - Tiny Tactician. All of which fell short because the Sheriff hi-jinks are just about 1 to 1.5 turns to slow to get going. It did help to buttress up my defense with some basics like Ba-Boom! and Smash. I even pushed the envelope of my fiscal minded self by adding And Then Along Came Zeus and Grab Your Sword. Yet still I muddled! Until I found these two and then I discovered that the Sherriff turned out to be some fat guy in a bad jacket.

These boys come online faster, don't need supporting ingredients, and have better Stamina than most of the above players. Now for the hard part. Supporting color? Due to flavor alone my Capable Fighter asked for Emerald. At first, I was like no way, the best removal color that isn't Steel is Ruby but after a few looks I saw the value. While Emerald doesn't have its own non-Challenge sources of damage it loves to make already existing damage better.

The Queen of Hearts is also an impressive Lore gainer while she lives and when our direct damage is online she often evades most Challenge damage by having no Challengers. Robin's Bow does present me with an issue. I try to build with a budget in mind and Robin Hood - Champion of Sherwood reaches well past my parameters. I you're building with me and have the resources feel free to insert him here. Regardless, you do want to add Robin Hood - Beloved Outlaw and Robin Hood - Daydreamer. They all add lore while expanding the reach of our Bow. Imagine this scene. My opponent and I were stalling out and he top decks a Beast - Tragic Hero. Plays said Beast and passes. I quest Hans (1), exert my Bow (2), quest Robin Hood - Beloved Outlaw, ready Bow, exert Bow (3), quest Robin Hood - Capable Fighter, ready Bow, exert Bow (4), quest Robin Hood - Daydreamer, ready Bow, exert Bow (5). Beast is gone and I gained 6 Lore and still haven't used my ink.

While we're on the Beast subject area it is crazy how much Beast loves this deck design. He contributes with Beast - Forbidding Recluse, while only a one shot on the damage side of things he presents a Challenge damage source as well. Beast cards also feed off our damage with Beast - Relentless. I can proudly say that grabbing 12 lore in one turn from one card is satisfying. (I only needed 8 for the win but whatever). Also, using a Beast to Sing a Grab Your Sword only to immediately find a ready Beast is an impressive free play. Finally, I do feel the Beast - Tragic Hero would be very solid card generator in this deck it doesn't make the final list do the budget aspect. Same goes for Diablo - Devoted Herald which was used for much of the play-testing for this article before his price began to soar evasively, pun intended.

So here is what my build currently runs with.

Using Direct Damage | Lorcana | Dan Eckstein

• Characters (38)
• 3 Beast - Relentless
• 3 Robin Hood - Daydreamer
• 4 Beast - Forbidding Recluse
• 4 Captain Hook - Forceful Duelist
• 4 Cursed Merfolk - Ursula's Handiwork
• 4 Hans - Thirteenth in Line
• 4 Queen of Hearts - Quick-Tempered
• 4 Robin Hood - Beloved Outlaw
• 4 Robin Hood - Capable Fighter
• 4 Tinker Bell - Giant Fairy

• Actions (15)
• 3 Ring the Bell
• 4 Avalanche
• 4 Ba-Boom!
• 4 Smash

• Songs (2)
• 2 Grab Your Sword

• Items (5)
• 1 Vision Slab
• 4 Robin's Bow

I think most of you will enjoy playing this deck. It'll definitely raise attention amongst your playgroup. Enjoy, and always remember that the win is more rewarding when it was made by your own gameplan.