Anti-Meta TIANA is Taking Over

[Music] Tiana is finally having her time in the spotlight as she's been played in a number of decks over the last couple weeks used to fight back against the powerful action and songs that Define The lorana Meta as a card that can put a lock down on those opponent actions Tiana is a really interesting character and when I first saw her even in the starter decks I knew there was something interesting that could be tapped into and even though the cost for her ability to kick in an empty hand is quite steep it can be deadly if handled well in fact I've been trying to make a Tiana deck work all set long but I was trying a control play style and it wasn't quite working consistently enough but now aggro Tiana lists are emerging running her alongside bodyguards to shut down valuable action and song removal in a way the idea is similar to a Mufasa deck Tiana enables an agro list to nullify the impact of removal like be prepared or grab your sword many great players have been playing and developing this deck since its introduction so let's dive in and check out these Tiana decks is she really a meta killer that can disrupt the top lists or is this simply a new Evolution of aggro an improvement still doomed to live under the terror of removal well let's start by breaking down just how the deck works so there's a few different versions of the Tiana deck let's start with the standard Amber Steel version this deck opens with the classic aggressive Amber opener of Lilo plus bodyguard Simba and you also have the Amber shifters of Stitch and the queen both their one drops and their flood porne counterparts add in Cinderella and some songs for her to sing and you have incredible early game Power on turn three you can start stacking more bodyguards after Simba with Hercules the prince and even Donald and Tiana also makes her appearance on four allowing you to lock out actions starting on turn five assuming you're able to empty your hand and keep Tiana safe the bodyguards help you in that regard and to help you find Tiana more consistently cards like the Huntsman and Rapunzel can help you dig early to find her some lists like to run a Cindy package as shifting into the stouthearted Cindy on five can be the kill shot you need to close out a game and although the small steel Cindy is a guaranteed search when you play her I've been liking the Huntsman a bit more for his two lore and I swap big Cinderella out for bodyguard Donald finally here are four more considerations smash is great if you don't run the one cost singing Cindy bja is great if items are prevalent and tragic Beast is never a bad choice finally Mufasa is certainly viable as well adding even more antib prepared action to the deck here's my deck list that runs him less songs and actions and more characters as you'd expect and I do think this is one of the strongest versions of this Tiana deck I'll also be covering an amethyst steel list and a sapphire steel list and discuss some of the counters to this deck later on and although this isn't a full deck guide I wanted to go ahead and share all the info I have as these decks continue to be developed by the community but before we jump jump into all that let's take a look at this Amber Steel Tiana deck in [Music] action in this game I queue up against another Amber Steel and I'm thinking it might be a mirror match against another Tiana deck so I throw back my bja it ends up being a steel song flute deck so bja would have been handy ironically but at least I have a good hand with Tiana already found and some great combos for the queen with the shift package and Criminal Mind I know I want make use of that song early plus get down some lore quickly so I shift out the queen on turn two after they play Simba I decided to play my own out to protect the queen for another turn if I [Music] [Music] [Music] can [Music] they play out aiel on turn three and find grab your sword so now I know they are for sure a song deck and I need to keep that grab from being played out if possible so I have to take down Ariel the best line here is probably to take out Tiana and sing strength of a raging fire with the queen to banish her but I like the idea of questing more with the queen so I do so and use Criminal Mind to take her down instead now I can play out the Tiana next turn and empty my hand right before they can hard cast their songs on turn five on their turn they set up Cinderella and their flute but for some reason decide to not ink so I have time to stall my Tiana one turn and instead play out bencha to deal with their flute [Music] [Music] [Music] and now I have Tiana out ready to freeze their actions after that it's pretty much game over for them even if they had Inked earlier one grab your sword can't stop my board on the next turn I replace my banished Lelo with another and they don't have enough damage to take out Tiana even if Simba wasn't there as an additional bodyguard they try to play out a final action or song here I think but it's too late Tiana is there preventing it this game is a great example of what this deck was doing early on it was unknown and opponents seemed to not expect it or know how to play around it but really we need to see how this deck does against Ruby amethyst control after all that is the top deck deck and Tiana's anti- prepared power is therefore a potential counter right well next up here's a game where I managed to make short work of Ruby amethyst oh wait hang on this game and all its info has been redacted yeah sorry I actually have been asked to not show this match that's weird anyways in an unrelated note shout out to first to 20 what an awesome guy make sure to follow him on YouTube and Twitter for awesome lorana content and don't worry I'll show a different game against control soon enough for now let's take a look at the amethyst list just like the amber version this list runs Hercules the prince and Donald ready to help keep Tiana alive when she turns off actions instead of the Amber Lilo we play Maleficent and add in the amethyst bounce package with MIM snake MIM Fox and Arthur these strong characters are joined by Pinocchio and goat opening the door for even more aggressive lore Gathering by questing or bouncing and the deck also runs additional one cost characters with Tiana and Simba Simba is here to help find your big Tiana or your bounce cards early similar to Cinderella or the Huntsman as we saw before and finally befuddle is a great tool for both offense and defense it can bounce back early game characters if you can't find snake or it could be used to slow down opponents and stop them from Trading into your characters early on to round out the list Smash and strength are also added as great removal tools and another great card to consider is let the storm rage on but unlike the Amber list you don't have Cella to singing it early on and this deck already has a huge number of unequal cards other than this some card draw options like friends on the other side and Maleficent should be considered especially the friends as it can be sung efficiently by the three cost bodyguards and I did run this during my testing and it's always a great staple just remember when using this deck that sometimes the character bounce and card draw don't align with your gameplay of emptying your hand for the Tiana to take effect and for this reason the deck can be a bit tricky to Pilot anyways let's look at some games I actually have some great footage of this deck being played by Bjorn who developed and popularized these Tiana lists in fact he played against me with it while I was playing the Amber Tiana list so let's break down the game and show off a bit of both decks I start off with a bad opening hand so I keep Tiana and Pitch back six cards fortunately after that I end up with a pretty good [Music] hand on my first turn I respond to his two lore one drop with a two two the amethyst version of this deck can't bodyguard on two like SBA can so this should deter him from questing unless he has befuddle or snake my main problem right now is I don't have a very good turn three and will likely end up hard casting let the storm rage on but after that I can get out Tiana or Rapunzel if I have a good heal available and it seems like the better choice [Music] luckily for me Bjorn hasn't found a turn three bodyguard and has to resort to bja I go ahead and take down Pinocchio and draw a card before [Music] questing [Music] he responds with buffle and uses Binga to take out the Queen the buffle is actually even better against me than usual since my goal with Tiana is to empty my hand on my turn I play out Cinderella intending to sing with her on the next turn but I realize after my best move is probably to take down the Binga [Music] [Music] now next he plays out his Tiana on four and I want to make sure I can take her out soon so I play out my flood borne Queen later I could use her to buff up my own t to take down his Hercules is played out next along with strength of a raging fire to take down my queen and that's a great play that ruins all my momentum now it's going to be pretty much impossible to stop him from winning the race all I have are one and two strength characters with Lilo and Tiana that just don't cut it [Music] [Music] I draw one final card a storm it can hold out for one more turn but those bodyguards are just insurmountable for my [Music] characters a good match showing off both lists though and what they're capable of going against other aggro decks in this specific matchup Amber has a strong and consistent opener with Simba and the queen but amethyst has great tools to fight back against The Bodyguard and aggression with befuddle and fox MIM and of course Bjorn piloted the deck [Music] masterfully in this next game I'm playing the amethyst tanus Now versus lemon lime and it ends up being a lemon lion deck or the green faasa deck that's been making the [Music] rounds I don't see Tiana yet so Simba is a great opener to scout the deck a bit bja is an easy ink in this matchup as this deck likely doesn't run any items other than a potential Lantern or two although they're most likely running all characters other than a couple copies of bibity Bob [Music] boo after they set up Lilo and Simba I take them both down after my fox rushes in Fox is one of the best cards in this set especially into these aggro decks on the next turn I decide to go ahead and take down their Stitch as well by singing strength I don't want to see that Rockstar Stitch shifting in and I follow this up with Tiana which I just drew on this turn the ink their Mufasa to play Rapunzel which is great news for me their deck is already starting to run out of gas and even though my Tiana doesn't offer much utility against a Mufasa Deck with almost no actions her two lore and four willpower plus two resist means she's almost unkillable the Ruby mu fosil list would have Maui but Emerald simply cannot deal with Tiana unless the queen shifts in and [Music] assists I take out their muas here with Smash and a small misplay I could have sung strength there before trading my Simba to take him down first before smashing whatever flies out and of course it's perhaps the most important smash Target too the three lore Bell but regardless I'm able to take the game soon after as I'm simply too far ahead [Music] already as we saw in this game and in the pre previous this amethyst steel list finds itself in a curious position where it can play aggressive while also dealing with rival aggro decks but how does it do against control decks let's take that match up for a spin in this opening hand I have my Tiana and a turn one character but I really need to find a strong turn two so I throw back some cards in search of snake or the Huntsman I do find my snake and befuddle two great options and for my first ink I use one of my friends on the other side I have Tiana after all and I'm up against a ruby control deck so I think I'll be aiming to get her out with an empty hand to stop the be prepared in other words card draw isn't welcome in this particular game [Music] State instead of using snake here I simply befal the Olaf not only does this contribute to emptying my hand as opposed to the snake bounce it really shuts down the opposing control decks opening after all they'd love to bounce Olaf themselves and send out snake or Fox [Music] here they play out Merlin rabbit and I reset my Maleficent with my own Fox I should have just enough time to get Tiana out and set up before the beat prepared as long as I can play out whatever I draw next alongside the [Music] Arthur the bad news is I'm severely lacking in any protection for Tiana from my bodyguards but before I can even consider that my opponent clears my other characters and uses train to take down Tiana it was a mistake by me it was too risky to have both my characters sideways there and that's a huge turning point in this game and at this point the game is all but [Music] lost you can see just how fragile the execution with Tiana can be especially in the matchup against Ruby even if they didn't have Tain it's a tough battle as Maui can also take down Tiana if she doesn't have her bodyguards and even though I made a good effort in getting some lore quick once we're at S 8 and 9 ink there's not much I can do to stop their [Music] Onslaught I'll showcase another control match in a bit but first let's take a look at the final Tiana deck list the Sapphire version this deck contains the same steel core with Tiana and her guards no Donald this time around but the Huntsman is still here to Quest and cycle cards for one cost characters hook and Simba join the party and are joined by a couple one cost actions these are efficient in a deck that wants to stay pretty low on ink throughout the game next we have two cost Aurora and cogsworth 2 they can Quest early but are really here to shift into their flood porne versions who then Grant your field of characters either resist or Ward they can also sing Let It Go or the steal songs right away adding to the early flexibility of this deck finally this list runs two copies of mouse armor which could be a great tool in any of these Tiana decks and we'll get to see that in action in this next game I'm playing here with sapphire Tiana against the Amber Tiana deck although at the beginning here I'm not sure if it's that or a steel song list I throw back my unable cards other than my fire the Cannons which is really good into pretty much every Amber steel [Music] deck I play out hook to begin and they respond with their Stitch new [Music] dog and I saw them ink Cinderella to play that Stitch so it's pretty likely they have the rockar in hand so I go ahead and take him out with fire the Cannons they ink Rockstar Stitch next turn so that was a pretty good read but they still play out another Cindy plus Lilo I keep up the defense by throwing storm on Lilo and after this I'll be at 4 in next turn and have a few options to go with on their turn they ink and pass so now I have room to set up here with herk plus [Music] Simba on their turn they play out their Tiana and now I know for sure that it's a Tiana Showdown I sing storm with Hercules to take out Cinderella is as crucial as they could shift into their stouthearted Cinderella on the next turn if I don't I also play out my cogsworth and now Hercules will be very difficult to take out for them surviving any steel damage they have and remember this is a Tiana deck so they aren't going to be running grab your sword or anything like that either they get their Tiana out but my efforts to take down their early board might just pay off even if they empty their hand in quest with Tiana there's not many actions or songs I need to play at this point in the game that she would be preventing it's just a pure race now with the addition of mouse armor here Kirk is super formidable now and their only chance would be to challenge in with an injured Beast instead they take the opportunity to draw three times with Rapunzel to search for an answer but it's too late they do have a mouse armor of their own and I saw them inam muasa so I really like the list they have here but they're unable to bring the game back from the lead I've gained well [Music] played all right let's show one final game against control before we wrap up here I'm playing Amber Steel again and this is the more character focused list with Mufasa added let's get into it my opening hand is a bit awkward with several three cost characters I keep Hercules over the prince as he trades fully with Madame MIM Fox during a challenge I also hold on to the queen hoping to find her one drop [Music] version I play out Lilo on turn one but they take advantage of being on the play and have teeth and Ambitions [Music] ready [Music] I play out steel Cindy on turn two hoping to find either Tiana or Mufasa but find neither but I do find my small Queen they play Maleficent next and I respond with Hercules [Music] on the next turn they take down herk with Fox but he trades back just like I was saying and now I play my other herk out along with the queen now I can set up my board sum including the Huntsman who continues to cycle the deck looking for Tiana or maasa and here they would need a second fox or Maui to break through the second [Music] bodyguard they do have that second Fox after all and they play her out along with Spellbook I continued to Quest and Scout with the Huntsman if you're doing this in your games remember to keep one card in your hand to discard another reason to not play every card here and keep some in your hand is they're about to be at s Inc and we all know know what that means so in all honesty my time limit to find Tiana has pretty much already run out my plan is now relegated to the usual aggro Strat keep questing hard but assume they have be prepared around the corner and ultimately I haven't found either Tiana or Mufasa it looks like luck is on my side though as they weren't able to find their board wipe either so I take the win off my aggro pressure alone I know that game was a bit odd but I wanted to show that this deck still functions as a core aggro deck and as you saw there even if I'm unlucky and didn't find my Tiana or Mufasa it works out because my opponent equally wasn't able to find the card that those are meant to counter so in this way Tiana and Mufasa are essentially tech cards in the list but they're also sort of the core component simply because the other cards are built around them helping to find them and protect them because of this I think you could technically call this an anti- meta deck since it's built to specifically match up against the top meta list but I don't think this deck is nearly as effective enough for my liking it's not exactly anti meta in terms of its win rate against this deck it's just a bit unfortunate that Ruby amethyst has so many supporting cards that are able to directly shut down these otherwise powerful counters and I guess we should talk about that now let's talk about the counters against the Tiana Deck cards that can directly disrupt her are the queen Maui crab isma Hades and dragon Fox and termain can also be included although Fox can't take down Tiana she does a great job at shutting down the steel bodyguards and although chain is situational she still gets past the anti- action lockdown there are other cards as well but these are the popular ones and as you can see a huge majority of these cards are already a part of the typical Ruby amethyst lists and if you look further if it was actually needed a simple counter Tech card like lafu or shield and Ruby could simply turn Tiana so you can just be prepared the board anyways and Scar is yet another Choice that's almost tailormade to take down Tiana along with her bodyguards now real quick a couple ways to fight back against some of these counters are to increase the resistance on your bodyguards or Tiana or add Ward to protect against targeted removal from characters so in Sapphire stacking cogsworth can be quite effective for resist while Aurora can give Tiana Ward however Sapphire isn't nearly as aggressive compared to Amber or amethyst so that's an important trade-off to note in all three decks Mouse armor can be added as well one Mouse armor on Tiana can prevent the Maui banish unless he has crab or support strength on him this has been working pretty nice in practice but I haven't played enough to be certain of any meaningful difference and the card being unable makes it harder to slot into any of the lists those are the tools we have to work with for now but as they stand it's simply not enough to fight back against Ruby and Amethyst it's unfortunate that such a potentially metad disrupting card that's versatile across multiple decks is directly countered by the number one deck in the format Tiana can beat control decks but it's often thanks to speed rather than Reliance on her as a specific Tech into the matchup but with that all said I still see this Tiana deck trend as a positive for the game and emerging strategies it shows that new discoveries are possible which is always a healthy sign for the game so after all that discussion what do you think does Tiana have a legitimate place in the top deck discussion or is she just a short-term Trend that'll fizzle out drop your thoughts below I'd love to read and join in the discussion thanks for sticking around and watching and as you may have noticed these decks are still definitely in development so don't consider this an in-depth deck guide or recommendation instead it's more of an essay on the emerging Tiana de that encourages others out there to join in the discussion anyways if you did watch the video this long thank you so much for tuning in drop a like and a comment down below and I'll see you in the next video [Music] [Music] peace

Channel: Steadfast

Views: 10,180

Keywords: Disney, Lorcana, Steadfast, TCG, MTG, Arena, Card unboxing, Card opening, Amber, Emerald, Steel, Amethyst, Ruby, Sapphire

Id: VFSQf9OBI7Y

Length: 30min 1sec (1801 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 20 2024