Lorcana's Into the Inklands introduced a new card type called Locations and players have had some time now to brew a bit and figure out where Locations will fit in their deck lists. Today we're going to do a tier list to review locations where they stand right now in the meta and consider their importance as the meta continues to evolve. Let's jump right into it.

S-Tier

The Queen's Castle - Mirror Chamber is our first S-Tier card, and by this point I'm pretty sure you already know why. There's absolutely no downside to this Location as it grants 2 lore per turn, and can draw a card for each character at this location. High-level Ruby/Amethyst players are usually playing this with Jim Hawkins - Space Traveler to essentially play the Location for free and establish a character to draw next turn. If you're playing an Amethyst/X deck, strongly consider this location.

McDuck Manor - Scrooge's Mansion is another fantastic card for Sapphire/X decks. With 9 Willpower, this location is an absolute tank. Sapphire/Steel decks have been making this a 4 of since any other color, besides Steel, will have an issue taking them down. With Sapphire/Steel's ability to ramp so easily, having a few of these on the board won't be a challenge. Gaining the same amount of lore as The Queen's Castle and Agrabah, this location rightfully deserves it's S-Tier rating.

A-Tier

Pride Lands - Pride Rock is a location that truly shines when it comes to the Amber ink. Perfectly fitting the profile of supporting the effects of going wide for a cheaper ink cost and granting characters at the location 2 additional Willpower is huge and can make playing cards such as Grab Your Swords less effective. One particularly fun deck taking advantage of this Location is an Amber/Emerald aggro/combo deck. It involves trying to play Flynn Rider - Confident Vagabond, Flynn Rider - Charming Rogue, or Simba - Protective Cub and Pride Lands - Pride Rock ASAP to take advantage of discounted characters. Then, play Stitch - Rock Star (hopefully Shifted on Stitch - New Dog) and play characters for cheap or free while drawing thanks to Stitch - Rock Star. I've seen huge board state swings in a single turn to this set up.

Agrabah - Marketplace is an excellent location for low to the ground decks looking to go wide and gain a strong lore advantage early game. Having 5 willpower can seem a bit low, but there are some great Ruby/Steel pirate decks that do a good job at challenging exerted characters or utilizing raw character removal to maintain a good board state for playing a few of these. If you see this on the board, deal with it ASAP.

Jolly Roger - Hook's Ship is another great Ruby location to include in pirate themed decks. Giving the ability for pirates to move to the location for free and get Rush is not only thematic, but problematic for your opponent if they aren't prepared to deal with it. It's super cheap just at one ink, allowing you to start the pressure right away. Look out for the synergy with John Silver - Greedy Treasure Seeker, which grants Resist +1 and Lore +1 per Location in play.

RLS Legacy - Solar Galleon wraps up another solid Ruby Location. Initially seeing a lot of play in Ruby/Amethyst Control decks, we're seeing that it's not as important as it was once considered. However, let's not downplay the fact that it still does synergize with Jim Hawkins - Space Traveler which enables the discount to move future characters to this location. Then, all characters at this location gaining Evasive allows you to be threatening and deal with Evasive threats as well. With 8 Willpower, this location has the capability of sticking around for a while.

Motunui - Island Paradise is a particular location that requires a bit of planning. You won't be utilizing it much for lore gain, but for ramping effects. This seems to have great success in Red/Blue rush and ramp decks due to the fact that you're consistently challenging exerted characters if they're available. Making favorable trades and granting the ability to ink your banished characters in the process gives the tempo advantage to drop your heavy hitters and bombs much earlier than your opponent can manage with. I've seen some lines of play that will send Heihei - Accidental Explorer to Motonui - Island Paradise to not only drain a lore from your opponent, but then make a favorable trade due to his Attack of 3 for a 2 cost character. I would love to see more synergies like this in future sets.

The Bayou - Mysterious Swamp earns an A-tier due to the fact that it synergizes so well with Green/Steel's "OTK" combo deck. With 3 Willpower, this doesn't stay in play long, but the printed ability is more than enough to get great value for it for the one or two turns it remains in play. If you're playing Yellow/Steel, a location like this could be good for getting characters in the discard pile for the effects of Chernabog - Evil Doer or Perdita - Devoted Mother.

B-Tier

Tiana's Place - Jazz Restaurant hasn't seen play in competitive play, but don't let that discourage you from considering it. Having a character at this location can make it a really sticky situation for your opponent. They'll have to work on taking out your location, and with 8 Willpower, that could take some time. If the characters at this location also have Ward, they could be literally untouchable. I would definitely consider keeping an eye on this location if you're considering an Amber/X combo deck.

The Sorcerer's Tower - Wondrous Workspace is an extremely thematic Location for an extremely specific deck including Magic Broom characters. So far, Amethyst and Steel are the only inks with Magic Broom characters, so you're pretty much locked into those colors. However, establishing a board of Magic Brooms becomes more impactful once one or a few of these Locations come into play. Comboing this with Mickey Mouse - Wayward Sorcerer can create a really challenging board state for your opponent to deal with.

Fang - River City is a great Location that follows the core concept of Emerald ink, which is consistently making sticky situations for your opponent. Characters at this location having Evasive and Ward will make it particularly difficult when it comes to challenging or targeting them. Two lore per turn is great tempo as well if the Location can stay in play. I would look into this if you're considering any type of Emerald/X combo style deck.

Kuzco's Palace - Home of the Emperor definitely pays tribute to The First Chapter's Kuzco - Temperamental Emperor. Granting the City Walls effect to characters at this location can make your opponent think twice about challenging and focusing more on challenging the Location instead. With 7 Willpower, this location could stay around for a bit. The only prohibiting factor is the 3 ink cost to move to this location.

Belle's House - Maurice's Workshop does a good job at following Sapphire's profile of discounted items. Unfortunately, it does require at least one character at this location. However, once you do have the character here, that's when the discount for items becomes available. This can synergize well with other items reducing effects from characters or other items, capitalizing on the discounts even further.

C-Tier

Never Land - Mermaid Lagoon is a basic Location that provides little to no benefit outside of playing it early on turn one or 2. With 4 Willpower, You will most likely expect it to be banished without much challenge. You will probably see more value using this card in a limited format over constructed if you do not have any early characters to play over this.

Forbidden Mountain - Maleficent's Castle is Amethyst's vanilla Location. While 6 Willpower is nice, it does cost 2 ink to play this. You're more inclined to see this more in limited than anything as we're not seeing any top level competitive decks playing this.

De Vil Manor - Cruella's Estate is Emerald's vanilla Location. As with the other Locations mentioned in this tier, you won't expect to see much top-level play with it. My thought is that these locations were meant as an introduction to Locations or simple locations to play in the new starter decks.

Maui's Place of Exile - Hidden Island earns its spot in the C-tier mainly because we're not finding much utility from it. Sure, +1 resist is great, but it will really only add to the effect of other characters with some amount of Resist already. It can also synergize well with John Silver - Greedy Treasure Seeker. I'm valuing this more for a situational card at best, maybe even better for limited formats.

Nottingham - Prince John's Castle is Steel's vanilla location for the set. There's really not much more to share other than I'm disappointed that 2 of the 3 Steel locations are in this tier. Perhaps Steel's profile doesn't fit much for locations yet. This location will more likely see play in limited formats.

Conclusion

Locations are a great need mechanic that Lorcana decided to explore in Into the Inklands. It gave players two sets to become familiar with the base ruleset of the game. We have a good spread of Locations to utilize in a multitude of deck types, and I'm sure more will be coming in future sets.

Which of these Locations have been working for you? Are you running any of them at all? Which ones do you find most challenging to deal with?

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