Disney Lorcana · Set 1 Starter Deck
The First Chapter Sapphire & Steel: Upgrade Guide
Aurora and Simba lead a sturdy deck that ramps its inkwell with Sapphire and fights with Steel's challengers.
At a glance
Sapphire & Steel · Ramp and challengers
How it plays out of the box
This is the slow, solid deck of the original three. Sapphire smooths your draws and heals, Steel challenges and sweeps small characters with Grab Your Sword, and the deck wins long games by keeping its characters alive longer than the opponent's.
It's forgiving. Most of its cards do one obvious thing, and Aurora protecting your board from targeted removal covers a lot of mistakes. Its weakness is speed: a fast questing deck can get far ahead before the Steel half takes over.
The cards on the box
Aurora - Dreaming Guardian
The First Chapter #139
Shift 3. Your other characters gain Ward, so opponents can't target them except to challenge.
Simba - Returned King
The First Chapter #189
Challenger +4, and Evasive during your turn so he can challenge Evasive characters.
Other cards to know
Grab Your Sword
The First Chapter #198
A free song for a cost-5 character: 2 damage to each opposing character.
Coconut Basket
The First Chapter #166
Removes up to 2 damage whenever you play a character.
Captain Hook - Forceful Duelist
The First Chapter #174
A 1-cost Challenger +2 that trades up early.
The rating: power 3, difficulty 2
Durable and simple, with a board sweeper, but slow enough that a fast deck can outrace it.
Both numbers are TurnZero HQ's own editorial read, not an official Ravensburger rating. Power compares the deck out of the box against the other starter decks, not against a tuned tournament list. Difficulty is how much the deck asks of the person playing it.
What to cut first
Cut the vanilla characters and the items that don't affect the board, keeping Coconut Basket and the challengers. The deck needs fewer 1-damage effects and more ways to remove a big threat.
A Lorcana deck needs at least 60 cards, no more than 4 copies of a card with the same full name, and at most two inks, so every card you add means one you take out. The deck building rules →
Upgrade direction 1: Sapphire and Steel control
The direction the deck has always pointed: remove threats, protect your own characters, and win late with characters that quest for 2 or more. The newer sets give Sapphire and Steel its best removal yet.
Control decks lose to running out of cards, so keep some card selection like Develop Your Brain alongside the removal.
Let It Go
Winterspell #163
A song for a cost-5 character that puts any character into its owner's inkwell.
Strength of a Raging Fire
Fabled #201
Damage equal to the number of characters you have in play.
Windstorm
Attack of the Vine! #203
1 damage to every opposing character and location, 2 more to Evasive ones.
Aurora - Dreaming Guardian
Fabled #153
The Fabled reprint of the box's Aurora, legal in Core.
Upgrade direction 2: Challenge for value
Turn every won challenge into lore or cards. Steel's newer characters reward banishing things in challenges, and Sapphire can bank the characters you lose as extra ink.
Darkwing Duck & Launchpad - St. Canard's Finest
Attack of the Vine! #165
A dual-ink Sapphire and Steel character with Ward that gains 2 lore whenever it banishes a character in a challenge.
Angela - Night Warrior
Winterspell #187
Gives a character Challenger +2 and Resist +2 when played.
Belle - Snowfield Strategist
Winterspell #158
Puts your banished characters into your inkwell.
Mickey Mouse - Bob Cratchit
Winterspell #159
A 2-cost quester that stores a card under himself each time he quests.
Core or Infinity
As of October 2026, this deck is not legal in Core Constructed as sold, because Core uses sets 9 (Fabled) onward. A card counts as Core-legal when any printing with its full name is, so the cards from this box that were reprinted in Fabled or later can still be played there. The whole deck is legal in Infinity Constructed, which allows every set, and at any kitchen table.
Every upgrade pick on this page is from set 9 or later, so all of them are Core-legal. Core Constructed vs. Infinity →
Buying the sealed deck? Search TCGplayer for the Sapphire & Steel deck → The link goes through our TCGplayer affiliate link; see our affiliate disclosure.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the Sapphire and Steel starter deck good?
It's the steadiest of the three First Chapter decks and the easiest to win long games with. It's slow, so expect to lose some races to questing decks.
Which upgrade helps it most?
Removal. Let It Go and Strength of a Raging Fire answer the big characters the box can't, and both are legal in Core.
Build the upgraded deck in TurnZero HQ.
Add the deck to the Deck Lab, make your swaps, and it checks the list against Core Constructed or Infinity as you go. Publish it to share the link. Free to start.
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