You've Got a Friend in Me: Strategy Guide

Amber/Emerald Toy tribal with a payoff most Toy decks do not get to run. You flood the board with cheap Toys, quest with all of them, and let Elinor - Renowned Diplomat convert that into value every single turn.

Read Elinor first, because she changes how you play everything else. At the end of your turn, if you have 3 or more exerted characters in play, she deals 1 damage to a chosen opposing character, gains you 1 lore, and draws you a card. Three exerted characters is not a condition you build toward in this deck. It is what happens when you quest normally.

Three checkpoints:

• Turn 3. Three characters on board: Elinor is live the turn she lands. If you are at one or two bodies, you deployed too slowly.
• Turn 4. Elinor down and questing: from here you are drawing an extra card and gaining an extra lore every turn.
• Turn 6. A Shift finisher resolved: either Woody or the pair. If you are still casting from hand at seven ink, the curve went wrong.

The rule that wins games: quest with everything. Elinor counts exerted characters, and questing is what exerts them. Holding two bodies back turns her off, which costs you a lore, a card and a point of damage. Take the hit instead.

The free-play chain, and why Jessie turns it into removal

Three cards give you free bodies, and all three cap at cost 2:

• Woody - Jungle Guide: on quest, draw a card, then play a character costing 2 or less for free.
• Woody & Buzz Lightyear - Best Buddies: on quest, play a card costing 2 or less for free.
• Woody - Helping a Friend: on play, with another Toy out, you choose both modes: return a cost-2-or-less character from your discard and play a cost-2-or-less character for free.

Now the piece that is easy to miss. Jessie - Lively Cowgirl gives a chosen opposing character -1 strength until the start of your next turn whenever you pay 2 ink or less to play a card. The trigger counts the ink actually paid, and a card played for free is a payment of zero, which is two or less. So it fires on every one of those free bodies.

That means each free play is also a debuff. Quest with Jungle Guide: draw a card, drop a free Toy, and shrink something on their side. Do it with Best Buddies as well and that is two bodies and two points of strength stripped off their board, none of it costing ink.

Stack that on Elinor - Renowned Diplomat's end-of-turn damage and you have a removal package in a deck that runs no removal spells. It is slow, it is free, and it never stops.

Two details that decide games

Land Elinor on turn three. Aurora - Holding Court discounts the next Princess or Queen you play that turn, and Elinor is a Queen. Aurora has to quest to give the discount, so the lore and the discount come from the same action. With Grandmother Willow - Ancient Advisor out as well, Elinor costs 2.

Jungle Guide's anthem is a survivability switch. It gives your other Toy characters +1 willpower, which takes Rex - Protective Dinosaur from 3/1 to 3/2. A board of 1-willpower bodies dies to any incidental ping; at 2 it survives. Note the wording twice over: it is other characters, so Jungle Guide does not pump himself, and it is Toy characters, so Elinor gets nothing.

Your first game, turn by turn

This is the line the deck wants. Your real game will not match it exactly, and the closing note says what to do when it does not.

Turn 1. Ink a card, then play Woody - Waiting for a Friend or Aurora - Holding Court. Both cost 1 and both matter later than they look: Woody is the body your two biggest cards get played on top of, and Aurora is a discount on Elinor. Nothing quests on turn one, because a character cannot quest on the turn you play it.

Turn 2. Ink again, quest with your turn-one character for 1 lore, then spend both ink on two more one-cost characters. Three bodies out at the end of turn two is worth more than one good body. If you do not have two one-drops, Rex - Protective Dinosaur is the play.

Turn 3. Ink to three. Quest with all three characters. If Aurora - Holding Court is one of them, her ROYAL WELCOME makes the next Princess or Queen you play this turn cost 1 less, and Elinor is a Queen, so she costs 3 and lands right now. When the turn ends you have three exerted characters, so Elinor immediately deals 1 damage, gains 1 lore and draws a card. That is 5 lore and an extra card by the end of turn three.

Turn 4. Ink to four. Quest with everything, Elinor included. Add Bullseye - Loyal Horse, who costs 2 instead of 3 whenever you have a Woody or Jessie in play. Elinor fires again at end of turn.

Turn 5. Ink to five. Play Woody - Jungle Guide by Shift: pay 3 and put him on top of the Woody - Waiting for a Friend you played on turn one. Because that body had been in play since the start of your turn, Jungle Guide can quest the same turn, which draws you a card and lets you put a character costing 2 or less into play for free.

Turn 6 and after. Every turn is the same shape: quest with everything, take the free plays, let Elinor pay you. Woody & Buzz Lightyear - Best Buddies costs 5 instead of 7 when you Shift onto any Woody or Buzz.

When the draw does not cooperate: the priority order is three bodies, then Elinor, then a Shift finisher. A turn spent only getting to three characters is never a wasted turn in this deck.

How this deck loses

You hold characters back to defend: there is no blocking in Lorcana. A character you leave ready cannot be challenged at all, and one that quests can. That is a genuine choice in most decks, and this one resolves it in a single direction, because Elinor is checking exerted characters at the end of every turn. Two bodies held back is one lore, one card and one damage handed to your opponent to save a one-drop.

You miss ink drops: eighteen of these sixty cards cannot go into your inkwell, and they include most of your best ones. Read the inkwell section under Mulligan before your first game, not after it.

You hard cast your finishers: Woody - Jungle Guide costs 5 from hand and 3 by Shift, and Woody & Buzz Lightyear - Best Buddies costs 7 from hand and 5 by Shift. If you never played a cheap Woody on turn one, you are paying full price two turns late, which is most of the gap between a good game and a bad one.

You quest with RC and forget the ink: RC - Remote-Controlled Car has LOW BATTERIES, so it cannot quest or challenge unless you pay 1 ink, and you pay that every single time. Two lore for one ink is the best rate in the deck only when you have left an ink open for it.

You expect Rex to live: Rex - Protective Dinosaur has 3 strength and 1 willpower. Bodyguard means an opposing character challenging your board has to choose him, and then almost anything kills him. That is the trade, and it is a good one: he buys a turn and hands you 1 lore when he goes on their turn. Do not plan around him surviving unless Woody - Jungle Guide is out giving your other Toys +1 willpower.

Matchup role. You are the value deck, not the fastest one. You lose short races and win every long game.

Two opening keeps.

• Option 1. Curve keep (default): any one-cost character plus a two-cost character plus a way to reach Elinor on four. Woody - Waiting for a Friend and Aurora - Holding Court are the one-drops you want; Grandmother Willow - Ancient Advisor and Mike Wazowski - Heroic Climber are the twos.
• Option 2. Discount keep: Aurora - Holding Court plus Elinor - Renowned Diplomat in hand. Aurora's ROYAL WELCOME discounts the next Princess or Queen you play that turn, and Elinor is a Queen. Quest Aurora on turn 2 and Elinor lands on turn 3 instead of turn 4.

On the play vs. on the draw:

• On the play: take the curve keep. Getting to three bodies first is what makes Elinor matter.
• On the draw: prefer the discount keep, or any hand with Grandmother Willow - Ancient Advisor. Her once-a-turn cost reduction is how you catch back up a tempo.

Never keep: an opener that is two or more copies of Woody & Buzz Lightyear - Best Buddies with no one-cost Woody or Buzz to shift onto, or a hand whose only Toys cost four or more. You've Got a Friend in Me is fine to keep but it is not a first-turn play; it needs a character already in play to sing it.

What to put in your inkwell

Eighteen of the sixty cards here have no inkwell symbol and can never be inked: all four Elinor - Renowned Diplomat, all four Woody - Jungle Guide, all four Grandmother Willow - Ancient Advisor, all four Mike Wazowski - Heroic Climber, and both Woody - Helping a Friend. That is close to a third of the deck, so hands that cannot make an ink drop are a real thing here rather than bad luck. Count your inkable cards when you keep.

Ink in roughly this order:

• A spare copy of something you already have. You want one Woody - Waiting for a Friend in play, not three in hand.
• You've Got a Friend in Me after the first copy. It finds Toys, and finding Toys is not the problem you have on turn two.
• Buzz Lightyear - Space Ranger and extra Alien - True Believer. Replaceable bodies.
• Woody & Buzz Lightyear - Best Buddies after the first copy. Seven ink is a long way off and you are running four of them.

Two cards to keep out of the inkwell even when the hand is awkward: your first Woody - Waiting for a Friend, because both of your finishers need a Woody already on the board to be played on top of, and your first Aurora - Holding Court, because she is the whole reason Elinor can be a turn-three play.

Ideal line. One-drop on turn 1. Two more bodies on turn 2. Elinor on turn 3, discounted by Aurora if you have her. From turn 4 you quest with everything and Elinor pays you a lore and a card each turn while pinging their board down.

The three cards that decide the game

Elinor - Renowned Diplomat is the deck. At the end of your turn, with three or more exerted characters in play, she deals 1 damage to a chosen opposing character, gains you 1 lore and draws you a card. Every other decision in this guide exists to have three characters exerted when the turn ends.

Woody - Waiting for a Friend is the card first-time pilots throw in the inkwell, and it is the most expensive mistake available. He has no ability and 1 ink buys a plain body. What he actually is: the discount on Woody - Jungle Guide and on Woody & Buzz Lightyear - Best Buddies, worth 2 ink each. Play him turn one and leave him alone.

Woody - Jungle Guide is where the game turns. Shift him onto any Woody for 3 ink instead of paying 5. If the Woody underneath had been in play since the start of your turn, Jungle Guide can quest that same turn, and questing with him draws a card and puts a character costing 2 or less into play for free.

Openers. One ink, play them on turn 1 even when they look small:

• Woody - Waiting for a Friend: 1 ink, 2 strength, 2 willpower, 1 lore. No text, and that is fine. He is a Woody, which makes him the Shift target for both Woody - Jungle Guide and Woody & Buzz Lightyear - Best Buddies. Playing him on turn 1 is a decision about turn 5.
• Aurora - Holding Court: 1 ink, 1 strength, 2 willpower, 1 lore. ROYAL WELCOME: whenever she quests, the next Princess or Queen you play this turn costs 1 less. Elinor - Renowned Diplomat is a Queen, so this is a real one-ink discount on your best card.
• Alien - True Believer: 1 ink, 1 lore. WE ARE ONE gives him +1 strength for each other Toy character you have in play, so he grows with the board. When he is banished during your turn he returns another Alien from your discard to hand.
• RC - Remote-Controlled Car: 1 ink, 3 strength, 2 willpower, 2 lore, which is the best rate in the deck on paper. LOW BATTERIES means he cannot quest or challenge unless you pay 1 ink, and the cost is paid every time. Budget that ink before you count on his lore.

Two-drops. The turn-2 play, and the free hits off your Shift finishers:

• Grandmother Willow - Ancient Advisor: SMOOTH THE WAY, once during your turn, the next character you play costs 1 less. Unlike Aurora this has no tribal restriction. She cannot be inked.
• Mike Wazowski - Heroic Climber: 0 strength, 4 willpower. FIND A FRIEND has each player reveal the top card of their deck when he is played and whenever he quests, and each may take it if it is a character. Worth knowing that your opponent gets their reveal too. A wall that draws.
• Rex - Protective Dinosaur: 3 strength, 1 willpower. Bodyguard, so an opposing character challenging your board must choose him if it can. That is how Elinor - Renowned Diplomat survives a turn. RUN AWAY! gains you 1 lore when he is banished during an opponent's turn, so they lose either way.
• Buzz Lightyear - Space Ranger: 3 strength, 3 willpower, no text. A clean body, and the Buzz half of the Best Buddies Shift.

Three-drops and the engine:

• Bullseye - Loyal Horse: 4 strength for 3 ink, and LET'S RIDE drops him to 2 if you have a character named Woody or Jessie in play. Usually your best turn-3 body.
• Jessie - Lively Cowgirl: PART OF A FAMILY draws a card when she quests with 2 or more other Toy characters out. YODEL-AY-HEE-HOO! shrinks a chosen opposing character by 1 strength whenever you pay 2 ink or less for a card, which this deck does constantly.
• Lenny - Toy Binoculars: TAKE A GOOD LOOK has a chosen opponent reveal their hand and discard an action card of your choice when he is played. COMIN' UP FAST readies him once a turn whenever you play an action.
• Elinor - Renowned Diplomat: 4 ink, 3 strength, 4 willpower. The card the deck is built around. At end of turn with 3 or more exerted characters: 1 damage, 1 lore, 1 card. Play her the turn you can protect her, and remember she cannot be inked.

Finishers. Read the Shift cost, not the printed cost:

• Woody - Helping a Friend: 4 ink, 2 lore. HANG ON! lets you return a character costing 2 or less from your discard to hand, or play one for free, and you get both if you have another Toy character in play. Also another Woody to shift onto.
• Woody - Jungle Guide: Shift 3. Questing with him draws a card and then lets you play a character costing 2 or less for free. EVERYONE GATHER 'ROUND gives your other Toy characters +1 willpower, which turns Rex and Alien from trades into survivors.
• Woody & Buzz Lightyear - Best Buddies: Shift 5, 3 lore. TO INFINITY... draws you up to the chosen opponent's hand size when he is played, if they have more cards than you. ...AND BEYOND! plays a free card costing 2 or less on every quest.

Consistency:

• You've Got a Friend in Me: 3 ink song. Look at the top 4 of your deck and take up to 2 Toy characters. Any character costing 3 or more can exert to sing it for free, and 25 of your characters qualify. The rule that catches new players: a character cannot sing on the turn you played it, the same way it cannot quest.

Reading an opponent you have never seen

Nobody at a kitchen table announces an archetype. Watch what they actually do in their first three turns and pick the block below that matches.

• They play one and two cost characters and quest with them straight away. They are racing you. Read the mirror or the Boost block. You go wider than they do and Elinor's ping removes their small bodies for free, so quest through it rather than trading.
• They ink two or three turns without doing much, then land a four or five cost character. That is a midrange deck and it is the hard matchup. Read the Amber/Amethyst block. Stop deploying at four characters and hold a Shift finisher in hand.
• They play items and almost no characters. Read the control block. Elinor still gains you the lore and the card even when her damage has nothing good to hit, and your clock is much faster than theirs, so commit and close.
• They play one large character and pass. Read the Boost block. Rex - Protective Dinosaur absorbs the challenge, and you win by ignoring their body and questing.

vs. Amber/Emerald mirror (Even): Watch for: Elinor - Renowned Diplomat, Bullseye - Loyal Horse The most common matchup in Core by a wide margin, and both decks are trying to do the same thing. Whoever resolves Elinor first usually wins, because her ping picks off the other side's one-drops before they can widen. If you are on the draw, prioritise the Aurora discount line to land her a turn early. Do not trade your Bodyguard away early; you need Rex alive on the turn their Elinor comes down.

vs. Amber/Amethyst Midrange (Unfavorable): Watch for: Demona - Scourge of the Wyvern Clan, Hades - Looking for a Deal The best-converting deck in the current tournament field, and the one that punishes a wide board. Their removal is cheaper than your threats and their card quality is higher. Your line is to be ahead on lore before their four and five drops land, and to use Lenny to strip the removal spell aimed at Elinor. Do not overextend into an open board past four characters.

vs. Emerald/Steel (Even): Watch for: Angel - Experiment 624, One Last Hope A rising pair with several different shells behind it, so identify which one you are facing before committing. Against the Touch Paradise builds you are the faster deck and should race. Against the Detective builds you are the slower one and want Elinor value. Rex holding Bodyguard matters more here than anywhere else.

vs. Amber/Emerald Book Control (Favorable): Watch for: Enigmatic Inkcaster, Raging Storm They have almost no board of their own, which means your characters get to quest unopposed, but they answer wide boards with sweepers. Commit enough to close within a few turns and hold one Shift finisher in hand as a rebuild. Elinor's ping is close to dead here since they run few characters; play her for the lore and the card.

vs. Amber/Ruby Boost (Favorable): Watch for: Ohana Means Family, Mr. Incredible - Super Strong Ninety-two players brought this to Set 13 qualifiers and none of them made a Top 8. It loses to Amber/Emerald about two games in three. They go tall, you go wide, and Elinor pings down the support pieces their big threats need. Keep Rex for their largest attacker and quest through it.

One thing to know before you change anything: this list is already thirteen four-ofs, and Lorcana caps you at four copies of a card. Only three slots have room to grow. Buzz Lightyear - Space Ranger and Lenny - Toy Binoculars are at three copies, and Woody - Helping a Friend is at two. Everything else is maxed, so every other change means cutting rather than adding.

Against heavy removal, the deck's weakness is drawing Elinor into an open board. Swap 1 copy of Bullseye - Loyal Horse for a third Woody - Helping a Friend: the HANG ON! rebuy turns their removal spell into a tempo loss rather than a card loss.

Against faster aggro, cut 1 Woody & Buzz Lightyear - Best Buddies for the fourth Buzz Lightyear - Space Ranger. Seven ink is too slow when the game ends on turn six, and a 3 strength, 3 willpower body on turn two trades with their whole early curve. Another Rex - Protective Dinosaur is what you actually want here, and the list already runs the maximum four.

Against control and sweepers, trim 2 Alien - True Believer, who dies to every sweeper printed, for the fourth Lenny - Toy Binoculars and the third Woody - Helping a Friend. Lenny's TAKE A GOOD LOOK strips the sweeper out of their hand before they ever cast it, and Woody rebuilds the board after one resolves.

If you keep missing ink drops: the honest fix is fewer uninkable cards rather than a better one. Cutting 1 Woody - Jungle Guide is the cheapest place to start, because you rarely want to draw the second and third copy of him anyway, and it moves one card off the eighteen you cannot ink.

Outlook. Every card here is Core-legal by name and the engine sits in Sets 11 through 13, so this list survives the October rotation intact. Elinor - Renowned Diplomat is currently the most-played card in the format's strongest ink pair, which is worth knowing in both directions: she is why the deck is good, and she is the card everyone is building to answer.