With more and more tournaments showing up in the wild, and Ravensburger ramping up more official organized play, the meta has shifted inch-by-inch. Ursula's Revenge is on the horizon, and some decks have clawed their ways from the bottom to the top tier decks. Today we're talking about Amethyst/Emerald Tempo. This deck started showing up early on in the set and came out swinging early in Set Championships. Fortunately, it deals with other meta decks handily with a specific toolkit that counters them. This deck list comes all the way from Seattle's Mox Boarding House and Brendan Gamache who took Top 4.

Amethyst/Emerald Tempo | Brendan Gamache, Top 4 Set Champ

• Characters (50)
• 2 Pinocchio - Talkative Puppet
• 2 Wildcat - Mechanic
• 2 Yzma - Scary Beyond All Reason
• 3 Chernabog's Followers - Creatures of Evil
• 3 Kit Cloudkicker - Tough Guy
• 3 Kuzco - Wanted Llama
• 3 Rafiki - Mystical Fighter
• 4 Cursed Merfolk - Ursula's Handiwork
• 4 Madam Mim - Fox
• 4 Madam Mim - Snake
• 4 Merlin - Crab
• 4 Merlin - Goat
• 4 Merlin - Rabbit
• 4 Ursula - Deceiver
• 4 Ursula - Deceiver of All

• Songs (7)
• 3 Mother Knows Best
• 4 Friends On The Other Side

• Locations (3)
• 3 The Queen's Castle - Mirror Chamber

If you read my previews of Into the Inklands you'll remember how much I loved Cursed Merfolk - Ursula's Handiwork. And this is exactly the sort of thing I was hoping for with the card. Amethyst/Emerald Tempo feels like a natural evolution of the Amethyst/Ruby Bounce Control from last season. This uses a nearly identical Madam Mim and Merlin Amethyst package (including our favorite Kuzco - Wanted Llama) as a win condition. And instead of some of the lore control and removal from Ruby we try to have a little more presence on the board. This means we don't just watch our opponent and play two separate games. It also means we don't have to gamble each turn on whether we draw new removal to keep out racing our opponent.

Instead, Emerald gives us a different sort of control. Mother Knows Best comes gives us some musical removal, letting us exert a Mim or Merlin on board instead of using our precious ink. Of course, this song doesn't banish them, it only returns it to their hand. Buying us a turn is good enough sometimes, especially while we're also running Cursed Merfolk. This is either the Two Lore Engine that could or forcing your opponent to lose a card in their hand. The best thing about this is how soon we can drop Cursed Merfolk - as early as turn one. I could go on and on about how good this card is, but you can read from my preview how much I love it. In the same vein we get Ursula - Deceiver to grab an enemies Dragon Fire or Be Prepared! so we can survive another round.

We also run characters that will help us gain board presence like Pinocchio - Talkative Puppet. Again, this isn't banishment, but it helps us buy another turn by choosing a character who needs to be active for an ability and turning that off. Obviously, we can also choose a character who we need to take out - allowing our challengers to get in and do what they need to do.

One of the most fun additions to this deck is Yzma - Scary Beyond All Reason. Not only does she have two lore that will help close out the game this late in the game, but she provides removal. This board advantage is key to the deck, and the reason why the Tempo works so well. This removal seems better than the rest - it goes above and beyond banishment to shuffling it into their deck. The drawback is steep, but if you time Yzma correctly you minimize how much they gain off those two cards. Using this character to remove an obstacle for your final turn is key.

Speaking of Tempo, our card advantage comes from yet another Into the Inklands card that I talked about just a few months ago. Ursula - Deceiver of All is a cheap character that sits on your side of the board, ready at all times. This doubles the effectiveness of Mother Knows Best to get rid of two characters at a time. Friends on the Other Side will also let you fill your hand back up from empty.

Unlike Amethyst/Ruby Control we need character presence, even from utility characters like Ursula and Cursed Merfolk. Let's talk about this meta-counter package. Specifically, this comes from two cards. Wildcat - Mechanic allows us to deal with any deck utilizing multiple items but is particularly effective against Sleepy's Flute and Lucky Dime. The other is Kit Cloudkicker - Tough Guy who disrupts a few different decks by sending their small cost characters back to hand. Whatever you do just make sure to time your Madam Mim bounces correctly to disrupt their pattern.

If you take this deck out for a trial run here are some things to keep in mind while building. Maybe Shift on Yzma is a distraction since you don't want your opponent to draw too much, but with how much discard we run I would consider running Yzma - Alchemist. This can get our Yzma bomb as early as turn three. The removal is more important than the cards.

And since most of these characters we're running have powerful effects when played I would consider playing one or two copies of Gruesome and Grim. With our double songs on Ursula, we can play two characters for free and get their effects.

Good luck with the remaining tournaments this season and keep tuned while Stefen and I both talk about Ursula's Revenge!