With Into the Inklands out and about the environment has changed so wildly that it's barely recognizable from the dominated format of Rise of the Floodborn. Today we're looking at the top cards from the new set. As always, these are the cards I'm excited to see now that we've had a chance to play with the new shiny cards.

The Queen's Castle - Mirror Chamber

This might be the most disappointing element of this article, so let's get it out of the way. Locations have been softly tested - but there have been several large-scale tournaments in the last few weeks. Obviously, it's a small sample size, but Locations seem to have made little impact on the competitive side of the game. That hasn't stopped people from testing the waters and trying different things out, including an attempt from the King of the Meta trying out this card and Jim Hawkins. This Location seems to be the one that would be in a deck if any. Pairing this with Maleficent - Mistress of All Evil and Jafar - Striking Illusionist is an incredible deck all on its own.

Mickey Mouse - Trumpeter

If you wanna see Sir Goofy or Chernabog on turn five, here you go. The Mouse comes with tricks these day, and what a trick it is. Cheating your big characters into play is an obvious win. Will this see meta play? Maybe. He's quite fragile without any Strength and only 1 Willpower. If he isn't banished the turn after being played you can gain a lot of board presence.

Morph - Space Goo

Stefen and I have talked ad nauseum about Morph. I won't take up much more space here talking about him. Just let it be known that a turn two Morph leads to a turn three Beast - Tragic Hero.

Maleficent - Mistress of All Evil

Lower down this list you'll find Jafar - Striking Illusionist. On her own, Maleficent is pretty good utility that lets you draw a card every turn. In addition, she helps keep your guys alive while slowly pinging away at your opponent's characters. But when paired with Jafar the two of them become so much more. A quest for 2 lore, draw a card, gain another lore. It's simple, it's elegant, and they come in the same ink package. It's no surprise that Ravensburger decided to give Maleficent an Enchanted version. The only wrinkle in this pairing is that you're likely paying 5-ink for both and that becomes expensive. Thankfully you can add Sapphire to your deck for ink ramp and even more card draw!

Jim Hawkins - Space Traveler

Despite the early experimentation and eagerness of Location cards they're still somewhat of an unknown quantity. Early Amethyst/Ruby decks were playing with The Queen's Castle - Mirror Chamber and Jim, but a $5k tournament recently had an Amethyst/Ruby Control deck that had cut both of them in favor of Rafiki and Pinocchio. Jim Hawkins is interesting and a good standard showcasing the evolution of the game, but I'm hard pressed to put him further up the list without more proof of Locations being more competitively viable. In the meantime, I appreciate that people have tried to mess around with him.

Kida - Protector of Atlantis

She's not removal. She's not a game ending bomb. But she provides board control, both of offensively and defensively. Kida is my favorite kind of control card because she can make sure that your opponent doesn't take out any of your characters if you slap her down at the end of the turn. Or you can play her at the beginning of your turn to make a big play as pseudo-removal that helps you protect your team while taking out enemy characters. This is why she belongs on this list. You get to control the flow of the game and say "we're not having challenges this turn!" by making everyone weaker.

Jafar - Striking Illusionist

Amethyst is going to have a fun time settling on how exactly to utilize this card, but once it fully marries into a Sapphire deck this card will be just as annoying as Merlin and Madam Mim were. By saving 2 ink with his Shift cost you can start turning your card drawing engine into a game winning engine in no time. And having him quest first thing on your turn isn't nearly as risky since he's Evasive. This is one of the first meta cards that might force decks to include Evasive counters. Good luck to all the deck tech-ers out there trying to make this a Tier 1 deck - I want to believe.

Gramma Tala - Spirit of the Ocean

A month ago, I wrote about Gramma Tala and the other Sapphire cards coming along in this set. I desperately wanted her to find a home. It seems I got my wish with the new Steel/Sapphire Gramma Ramp, which might also be my favorite deck name ever. The list itself doesn't utilize as much ramp as I'd like and most of the lists I see use Fishbone Quill which I have my own gripes with. But Gramma Tala takes the cake with her 8 Willpower and easily abused lore engine. This one's a no-brainer and despite being Legendary and a 4-of in a Tier 1 deck it's wildly underpriced (for the time being).

Ursula - Deceiver of All

As soon as this Legendary Emerald queen was revealed, I knew that she would be a menace in the Emerald/Steel discard deck going around. I wasn't prepared for just how much disruption she would cause to the meta. Especially with Steelsong winning a big 8k tournament recently, Ursula seems poised to be one of the strongest cards in the new set with each of your songs becoming twice as powerful.

Robin Hood - Champion of Sherwood

It's about time that Robin Hood came to shine in this game. We've seen several other iterations, which is great for the 3-ink shift cost on the Champion. What really makes him shine, though, is that he's a SKILLED COMBATANT that gives you 2 lore every time he banishes an enemy character. With 6 Willpower that means he can stick around for quite some time, whittling away at your opponent's board while still gaining ground on the lore race. And just to kick your opponent in the pants even further when Robin Hood is defeated, you get to draw a card.

Now that we're firmly in Into the Inklands season, it's going to be fun looking through new ideas and new decks. Even though it looks like Amethyst/Ruby Control will continue dominating the meta, at least the deck looks somewhat different. Hopefully some magical deck-techer out there will find a better counter, especially with as far as Mufasa Midrange has fallen. If you wanna share your decks or chat about your favorite cards you can find me on Instagram or @wlsobel.