If you regularly read my articles you know how I feel about this time in the card cycle. With Set Champs mostly done and only one more Challenge without Azurite Sea, now is the time to push the envelope and play whatever crazy brew has been tickling your brain. I feel too many players look at a new list and only ask "can this card go into my current competition deck?". That is a quick way to mental stagnation and a boring environment.

So just like my article at the end of Ursula's Return "To Meta or Not to Meta in Lorcana," I would like to bring your attention to a couple of off brand decks that with a nudge or two could find their way into the spotlight.

It's A Shifty World is the first deck I want to show you. The goal is to build a win condition that is rarely seen and mill your opponent down to no cards. As of writing this the deck is just a bit short of viable. You may call it luck dependent but I like to think of it as Karma. So be good to your neighbor and you just might find the deck winning for you. Trust me on this one, the win feels very good when it happens and it even has chances of just grabbing Lore like all the other "normal" decks.

The way the mill happens is a bit mundane but you basically play A Whole New World as soon as possible. Then use Do It Again! and Lady Tremaine - Wicked Stepmother to grab "The Wheel" back to your hand. Replay until your opponents can't draw. Be aware that you draw before your opponents as the Action resolves so you need to make sure you have enough cards on deck to not mill yourself. The easiest way to do this is to carry more than 60 in the deck. I settled in at 65 but I played 64 comfortably as well. In the deck we also run 4 copies of You're Welcome which helps to remove threats as well as putting our opponent one card closer to game over.

The real issue is getting the ability to play and replay a couple of A Whole New World in one turn. 10 ink is a lot to ask of Emerald/Steel and waiting till turn five for the first play can be very detrimental. So the solution I have found is using Shift to ramp into a 5 cost Singer, then Singing The Wheel into play. This truly pays off future turns as my number of Singers increase to be able to hard cast Do It Again! and reuse A Whole New multiple times.

Does the deck have problems? Of course it does, else it would be in a competitive article. Many times you may find yourself with a hand containing more than one A Whole New World. Or some games you find Lady Tremaine only to find nothing worthwhile in your discard. Also, notice the high number of uninkables making Hidden Inkcaster a valuable asset, but don't use it twice. You should never dig too deep. On top of that, once people know your deck they simply go after your Shift chain so you have to hard cast your singers and that is just too slow. But ultimately the wins are satisfying enough I consider the losses worth it.

It's a Shifty World | Dan Eckstein

• Characters (40)
• 2 Robin Hood - Archery Contestant
• 3 Pegasus - Cloud Racer
• 3 Pegasus - Gift for Hercules
• 4 Lady Tremaine - Wicked Stepmother
• 4 Morph - Space Goo
• 4 Mother Gothel - Conceited Manipulator
• 4 Mother Gothel - Unwavering Schemer
• 4 Robin Hood - Beloved Outlaw
• 4 Robin Hood - Sneaky Sleuth
• 4 Tinker Bell - Giant Fairy
• 4 Tinker Bell - Tiny Tactician

• Items (4)
• 4 Hidden Inkcaster

• Actions (7)
• 3 Smash
• 4 Do It Again!

• Songs (14)
• 2 We Don't Talk About Bruno
• 4 A Whole New World
• 4 Grab Your Sword
• 4 You're Welcome

Before you go hollering about Robin Hood - Champion of Sherwood, I realize he would be great in this deck for both Singing and increasing the consistency of our shift chains but I felt putting $140 into one card slot would move this out of the casual environment.

I would also like to highlight (make fun of) one of my favorite plays in this deck. We were on turn six or 7 and my opponent had a Diablo - Devoted Herald exerted and a Prince John - Greediest of All on the field. I sang A Whole New World and he drew 14 cards missing the 2 triggers on Prince John. My New World included another copy so my second and last singer sang it. This time he also utilized his Prince to draw 20 cards. I felt ethically bound to advise him they were "may" triggers but he insisted. So, I cast my Grab Your Sword and passed. This left him with an Ursula - Deceiver and The Muses - Proclaimers of Heroes in play about a 12 card deck and only 7 Lore but 20 cards in hand.

My next deck is very fresh and has barely been shuffled. One of the guys at my Local runs a heavy Hero tribal deck and I wanted to joke and play a Villain theme in response. Turns out if you want to go Villian Tribal you might as well go "The Queen" viral while you're at it. While building it one of my teenage jams popped in my head. Specifically, the line "be my queen if you know what I mean and let's do the WildThing" by Tone Loc. So here is Be My Queen.

Be My Queen | Dan Eckstein

• Characters (34)
• 3 The Queen - Fairest of All
• 3 The Queen - Mirror Seeker
• 4 Hans - Noble Scoundrel
• 4 Pacha - Emperor's Guide
• 4 The Queen - Commanding Presence
• 4 The Queen - Crown of the Council
• 4 The Queen - Cruelest of All
• 4 The Queen - Diviner
• 4 The Queen - Regal Monarch

• Items (12)
• 4 Latern
• 4 Pawpsicle
• 4 Queen's Sensor Core

• Songs (3)
• 3 Let it Go

• Locations (11)
• 3 Motunui - Island Paradise
• 4 Never Land - Mermaid Lagoon
• 4 The Underworld - River Styx

So that's my current go to casual decks. I do always have about 10-12 brews trickling in my brain so who knows what I might bring you in the future. As always, know that decks that are your creation will always be more satisfying than a deck you just copy.

Until next time remember that ALL the coolest Ink can be found at coolstuffinc.com.