Trials and Tribulations: Strategy Guide

Amber/Amethyst song-control with a damage-move ping engine. Two engines run in parallel and feed each other. The first is song spam: 12 songs (4× Trials and Tribulations, 4× Friends on the Other Side, 4× Making Magic — see note), powered by Singers at every relevant cost. Every song you sing erodes the opposing board: Tiana - Natural Talent's CAPTIVATING MELODY drops every opposing character's strength by 1, and Trials and Tribulations sticks a -4 strength debuff on the biggest one. The second is the damage-move ping: Juju - Mama Odie's Companion and Making Magic each shift 1 damage counter from your side to theirs. Stacked with negative-strength characters, a single moved damage point banishes a 1-STR opposing quester.

Win condition. Quest behind unkillable bodies. Eudora - Accomplished Seamstress is a 5-ink 1/9 2-lore wall — 9 willpower survives nearly every challenge in the format, and behind a friendly Tiana - Restaurant Owner (SPECIAL RESERVATION taxes challengers -3 strength unless they pay 3 ink), even a Challenger +2 deals nothing back. Tiana's Palace - Jazz Restaurant makes the character questing on it unchallengeable entirely via NIGHT OUT. Dr. Facilier - Agent Provocateur is the closer — 7-cost 4/5 3-lore Floodborn (Shift 5 onto any Dr. Facilier), and INTO THE SHADOWS recurs any of your characters banished in a challenge back to hand.

Matchup role. Controller in every matchup. You are never racing — your lore comes from 2-3-lore questers behind walls, not flooding.

Singer + 2-drop keep. Cast a song every turn from turn 3 onward. Mulligan for a 1-2 cost singer plus a song.

Always keep:

• Charlotte La Bouff - Mardi Gras Princess — 1-cost 1/3 1-lore. Best turn-1 play.
• Prince Naveen - Carefree Explorer — 2-cost 2/3 1-lore vanilla. First body that sings Trials free.
• Tiana - Restaurant Owner — 3-cost 1/4 2-lore. Turn-3 anchor: 2 lore + SPECIAL RESERVATION taxes challengers -3 strength.
• Trials and Tribulations OR Making Magic — at least one interaction piece. Trials sung off Naveen turn 2 is the cleanest -4 strength removal in format.

Conditional keep:

• Dr. Facilier - Remarkable Gentleman on the draw — DREAMS MADE REAL scries 2 every song.
• Prince Naveen - Ukulele Player ONLY with a song already in hand. Otherwise a 4-cost 3/3 with blank trigger.

Ship hands:

• All top-end. Eudora + Naveen VFM + Facilier AP with no 1-3 cost plays = three wasted turns.
• All songs, no singers. Six songs + zero characters = six dead cards.
• Dr. Facilier - Agent Provocateur opening hand — uninkable 7-cost dead weight. Ship.

Ideal T1-T3. Charlotte T1 -> Naveen CE T2 sings Trials free (-4 on their biggest body) -> Tiana RO T3 quests for 2 with SPECIAL RESERVATION live. End T3: 3-4 lore, opposing quester crippled, anti-challenge tax up.

Singers (the engine):

• Prince Naveen - Carefree Explorer: 2-ink Amber 2/3 1-lore vanilla. Most-cast singer — sings Trials free from turn 2. Only 2-3 needed in play.
• Dr. Facilier - Charlatan: 2-ink Amethyst 0/4 1-lore, Challenger +2. Shift target for Facilier AP. 0 strength = doesn't trade voluntarily; Challenger +2 swings as a 2 when forced. Sings Trials.
• Tiana - Restaurant Owner: 3-ink Amber 1/4 2-lore. SPECIAL RESERVATION — while exerted, challengers get -3 strength unless their player pays 3 ink. Opposing 2-3 strength challengers refuse to engage. Sings Friends and Trials.
• Tiana - Natural Talent: 4-ink Amber 2/4 1-lore, Singer 6. CAPTIVATING MELODY — every song gives each opposing character -1 strength. STACKS per song that turn. Two songs = opposing board at -2 + Trials' targeted -4. Single Juju ping banishes them.
• Prince Naveen - Ukulele Player: 4-ink Amber 3/3 2-lore, Singer 6. IT'S BEAUTIFUL, NO? — on play, may play a song cost 6 or less for free. Most explosive turn-4: Naveen UP + free Friends (draw 2) + free Trials off another body. Triple-trigger.

Walls / questers:

• Charlotte La Bouff - Mardi Gras Princess: 1-ink Amber 1/3 1-lore vanilla. Turn-1 play.
• Dr. Facilier - Remarkable Gentleman: 3-ink Amethyst 2/4 1-lore. DREAMS MADE REAL — scry 2 every song. Draws stay curated.
• Dr. Facilier - Savvy Opportunist: 4-ink Amethyst 4/2 1-lore, Evasive. Only Evasive quester. 2 WP is fragile — deploy with a follow-up.
• Eudora - Accomplished Seamstress: 5-ink Amber 1/9 2-lore vanilla. Nine willpower is top-five in format. She absorbs, doesn't trade. Drop on Tiana's Palace for an effectively immortal 2-lore quester. Behind Tiana RO, challengers eat -3 strength or pay 3 ink.
• Prince Naveen - Vigilant First Mate: 5-ink Amber 2/6 2-lore, Shift 3, Bodyguard. Shifts onto Naveen CE for 3 ink. Funnels challenges so Eudora keeps questing.
• Dr. Facilier - Agent Provocateur: 7-ink Amethyst 4/5 3-lore Floodborn, Shift 5. INTO THE SHADOWS — when another of your characters is banished in a challenge, may return that card to hand. Shift 5 onto a Charlatan = 5 ink for a 4/5 3-lore recursion engine. Asymmetric — challenge-banished only, NOT spell-removed.

Damage-move ping engine:

• Juju - Mama Odie's Companion: 2-ink Amethyst 1/2 1-lore. BEES' KNEES — on play, move 1 damage counter from chosen character to chosen opposing character. With Tiana NT and one song, opposing characters are at -1 to -5 effective strength; one moved damage point banishes them.
• Making Magic: 3-ink Amethyst action. NOT A SONG (no Singer interaction; no song-payoffs fire). Move 1 damage + draw a card. On demand and cycles, but doesn't trigger Tiana NT / Tiana RG / Naveen UP.

Songs:

• Trials and Tribulations: 2-ink Amber song. Chosen character gets -4 strength. Sung free by cost-2+ (every body except Charlotte). Pair with Juju to neutralize a key attacker: -4 STR strips a 4-strength threat of its ability to challenge or kill our questers. (Note: -4 STR is not banishment — banishing requires damage ≥ willpower; Juju's 1-damage move only banishes a 1-WP target.)
• Friends on the Other Side: 3-ink Amethyst song. Draw 2. Sung free by cost-3+. Best second cast off Naveen UP.

Location:

• Tiana's Palace - Jazz Restaurant: 3-ink Amber 8-WP 1-lore, move cost 2. NIGHT OUT — characters can't be challenged while here. Drop turn 3, move Eudora on for an unchallengeable 2-lore quester. Adds 1 lore/turn passively.

vs. Amethyst/Sapphire Evasive (Unfavorable): Watch for: their Evasive top-end, fast scry/draw engines Format's biggest archetype, our hardest matchup. Evasive bypasses our challenge stack entirely — Tiana RO's SPECIAL RESERVATION only triggers on challenges, and they never challenge. Dr. Facilier - Savvy Opportunist is our only Evasive body — land him turn 4 to contest. Dr. Facilier - Agent Provocateur turn 7 closes if we're within range. Below 8 lore by turn 6 is losing.

vs. Amber/Emerald Aggro (Favorable): Watch for: 1-2 cost flood, wide boards by turn 4 Best matchup. Tiana RO's tax makes their 1-2 strength challengers refuse to engage — pay 3 ink for a -3 strength trade or eat the wall. Trials on their biggest 3-cost erases the flood. Eudora turn 5 absorbs; Naveen VFM Bodyguard finishes the lockout. They burn out by turn 6 while we sit at 8+ lore.

vs. Amethyst/Steel Challengers (Even): Watch for: pump-tricks (Strength of a Raging Fire, scaled Challenger +N) Grind matchup. Tiana RO's -3 tax forces them to pay 3 ink per trade or eat negative-strength swings. Hold Trials for their pump-turn — a -4 stacked on a +2 swing flips the trade. Eudora's 9 WP survives all but combo'd removal. Past turn 6 Facilier AP recursion edges this.

vs. Amber/Steel Steelsong (Favorable): Watch for: their songs racing ours, He Hurled His Thunderbolt sweeper Two song decks — ours interact with their board (-strength, damage-move) while theirs are damage/lore. Resist doesn't matter when we don't attack. Trials neutralizes their 4-cost questers (-4 STR makes them unable to profitably challenge); Making Magic finishes a 1-damage 1-WP target. Eudora's 9 WP survives Thunderbolt (5 dmg). Out-grind them by turn 8.

vs. Ruby/Sapphire Control (Unfavorable): Watch for: hard removal (Dragon Fire), Maui Challenger, top-end finishers Removal eats Eudora (5-cost vanilla, no protection). Damage-move doesn't bypass Ward. Plan: deploy threats in pairs so single-target removal leaves a 2-lore body behind. Facilier AP's INTO THE SHADOWS recurs challenge-banished only — Dragon Fire bypasses the loop. Race under turn 8 or grind out.

vs. Mirror (Amber/Amethyst Songs) (Even): Watch for: their Tiana NT stacking against your board, their Facilier AP mirror Symmetric. Tiebreak: whoever lands Tiana NT first snowballs. Don't waste Trials on their Eudora — she's a 1/9 quester (already low STR), so -4 STR is a no-op and Juju's 1-damage move is nowhere near her 9 WP. Save Trials for their Tiana NT or Naveen UP (4-cost engine pieces). Sequence two Faciliers in play before Shift to threaten recursion immediately. Whoever fires Naveen UP's free song first takes the race.

Against Evasive-heavy meta (6+ Evasive across the field): -2 Tiana - Natural Talent / +2 Dr. Facilier - Savvy Opportunist (to 6). Tiana NT's strength debuff is dead vs opponents who don't challenge; more Facilier SO contests air with our own Evasive body.

Against hard-removal control (Dragon Fire, Wrong Lever! Mode 2): -2 Eudora / +2 Tiana's Palace (to 4). Eudora is a 5-cost vanilla — removal-magnet, no protection. Tiana's Palace makes our 2-lore questers unchallengeable; most removal can't cleanly target locations.

Against discard-heavy meta (Pull the Lever! Mode 2 decks): -1 Making Magic / +1 Friends on the Other Side (to 5). Friends frontloads hand size before they discard.

Core upgrade path: Deck is Infinity-only — 9 of 16 unique cards (Eudora, all four Dr. Faciliers, Friends on the Other Side, Tiana's Palace) are S1-S4 not Core-legal. Rebuilding as Core loses the Facilier shell and Shift recursion entirely. A Core-only Princess-and-the-Frog deck must reframe around a different engine (e.g. S6+ Tiana - Diligent Waitress + Mama Odie - Storyteller). Recommend keeping this Infinity-only and listing a separate Core variant.

Outlook: Infinity-stable, no rotation risk. The Facilier Floodborn/Shift package and the Trials + CAPTIVATING MELODY stack are evergreen at Infinity. Watch for new Singer 6 Heroes in S12+ that could replace Naveen UP at a different cost slot.