7 best Into the Inklands ruby cards in Disney Lorcana
Always better to banish.
Disney Lorcana, the trading card game featuring characters from across Disney animated history, is getting its third official set - Into the Inklands. With this set, players can expect 204 new cards to add to their decks, including lots of fresh ruby ink cards to help take control of their Lorcana games. Ruby ink cards are typically focused around putting their players on a better foot to challenge their opponents’ characters, as well as enabling them to banish opposing characters more easily.
Players who use ruby cards will often find themselves leaning towards a more aggressive gameplay approach simply because this ink type rewards challenging and banishment. Ruby cards will offer benefits to players that enjoy taking control of the battlefield and ensuring that their opponents struggle to keep their characters on the table. Players who apply successful strategies using ruby cards will quickly dominate their games, striking down characters and taking no prisoners.
Best Into the Inklands ruby cards
- Simba, Scrappy Cub
- Prince Eric, Expert Helmsman
- Jim Hawkins, Space Traveler
- Moana, Born Leader
- Captain Hook, Master Swordsman
- Hydra, Deadly Serpent
- Maui, Whale
The ruby cards found in Disney Lorcana: Into the Inklands feature a cast of characters from a range of beloved Disney franchises such as Moana, Peter Pan, The Little Mermaid, Lilo & Stitch, Atlantis and Treasure Planet. Make your opponents shiver in their boots with a team of cutthroat characters ready to banish, here are the seven best ruby cards in Into the Inklands.
1. Simba, Scrappy Cub
Small but brainy
Before his glow-up, little Simba is a small lion cub who has a lot of learning and growing up to do - but he has plenty of potential too, as reflected in this Disney Lorcana card: Simba, Scrappy Cub. A ruby two-cost card, Simba, Scrappy Cub doesn’t have much in the willpower and health department - with just one willpower and one health - but is absolutely killing it when it comes to gathering lore.
What makes up for the character’s otherwise poor stats is its ability to collect three lore every time it quests, which is an astonishing amount considering that Simba, Scrappy Cub only costs two ink to play. If you’re able to protect this little kitty for long enough, then Simba, Scrappy Cub could give you a seriously good head start in the lore gathering game.
Considering pairing Simba, Scrappy Cub with cards like Little John, Robin’s Pal, Aurora, Dreaming Guardian and Fang, River City - one of the newly added location cards found in Into the Inklands. These cards will provide options to Bodyguard - force enemy opponents to target this character over others - and apply Ward, which prevents a card from being targeted by anything except challenges, to Simba, Scrappy Cub, thereby keeping this card out for longer.
2. Prince Eric, Expert Helmsman
Put your opponent in choppy waters
Prince Eric, Expert Helmsman is a ruby card that you play whenever there’s an opposing character that you’re desperate to get rid of without having to use one of your precious song or action cards. A four-cost card, Prince Eric, Expert Helmsman hasn’t got terrible stats - though two willpower and two health isn’t great - and getting two lore when questing is nothing to scoff at, but it’s the card’s ability that makes it well worth playing.
Surprise Maneuver is an ability that allows the player to choose a character to banish whenever Prince Eric, Expert Helmsman is banished itself. Losing characters isn’t usually something you want to happen in Lorcana, however, in the case of Prince Eric, Expert Helmsman getting this card banished will give you the opportunity to banish a card of your choice, which opens up so many strategic possibilities.
Besides characters with the Ward keyword - meaning that they cannot be targeted by any method besides challenging - Prince Eric, Expert Helmsman’s ability can be used against any card you fancy. This means that you could cast out that pesky opposing character with Resist, which reduces damage dealt to it by a certain amount, the card that getting your opponent all that lore or a character with a really good ability.
This kind of removal - one that comes from a character you can get use out of before it’s banished - is just a really good deal, giving Prince Eric, Expert Helmsman a well-deserved spot in your next Lorcana ruby deck.
3. Jim Hawkins, Space Traveler
Reach for the stars
The plucky skipper who finds a space on the RLS Legacy, Jim Hawkins from Treasure Planet makes his Lorcana debut in Into the Inklands. Jim Hawkins, Space Traveler is the better of the two Lorcana cards featuring the character largely thanks to its two abilities: This is It! and Take the Helm.
With This is it!, when you play this card you have the option to play a location card that costs four or less ink for free. Location cards are the latest card type introduced to Disney Lorcana in Into the Inklands and provide a passive influx of lore, as well as a variety of benefits to cards placed there. Jim Hawkins, Space Traveler’s This is it! ability essentially nets you a free location card play, as long as it doesn’t cost more than four ink.
This ability also ties in well with Jim Hawkins, Space Traveler’s other ability - Take the Helm, which enables you to move the character to a location you’ve just played for free, rather than having to pay the usual ink cost. Both of these abilities make Jim Hawkins, Space Traveler the ideal card to put into any deck focused on utilising location cards, thanks to the fact that it both enables them and is enabled by them.
4. Moana, Born Leader
Voyage onto new locations
There are already some great Moana cards found in Disney Lorcana and Into the Inklands is adding yet another. Moana, Born Leader is a five-cost ruby card that has the Shift keyword, which allows players to place it on top of another Moana card at a reduced ink cost of three, instead of five. Considering that there are several great Moana cards you could put into your deck, it shouldn’t be too difficult to take full advantage of this instance of Shift.
What makes this card better is its ability Welcome to my Boat - which allows players to ready all other characters at the same location card as Moana, Born Leader whenever it quests, though they aren’t allowed to quest for the rest of this turn. Location cards are the newest card type introduced in Into the Inklands. Alongside providing a passive source of lore, locations can grant character placed on them additional benefits.
By playing Moana, Born Leader at a location card with several other characters you’ll be able to quest with her to gain two lore, as well as ready any other characters there at the same time. This ability is ideal to be played alongside either cards that have excellent abilities that trigger when readied - such as Christopher Robin, Adventurer - or have very strong stats that are built for challenging opposing characters - thereby allowing them to quest and challenge in a single turn.
This is also a good ability to help protect your characters from being challenged after using them on your turn, as readying them will prevent this from happening - though it won’t stop them from being targeted by songs, actions or direct attack abilities.
5. Captain Hook, Master Swordsman
A pirate’s life for me
Captain of the Jolly Rodger and leader of the pirates terrorising Neverland, Captain Hook has a reputation of villainy that very much precedes him. This villainy is put into good practice with his first Disney Lorcana card - Captain Hook, Master Swordsman.
This five-cost ruby card has some good stats - five willpower and four health - which can be put to good use by both of Captain Hook, Master Swordsman’s abilities. Nemesis allows players to ready Captain Hook, Master Swordsman whenever it successfully banishes another character in a challenge during the player’s turn: though the character cannot quest for the rest of the turn if it is readied this way.
With Nemesis, players will be able to continuously throw Captain Hook, Master Swordsman at characters with health that’s lower than five, as long as this card has enough health to survive multiple exchanges. This ability can be bolstered through characters with the Support keyword, which allows them to temporarily grant their willpower to another character as an added bonus, and with characters and items that give Resist - which will help Captain Hook, Master Swordsman to take less damage.
In addition to this, Captain Hook, Master Swordsman has the Man-to-Man ability, which forces all and any characters called Peter Pan to lose the Evasive keyword and be unable to give others Evasive: which prevents them from being challenged by other characters unless they have Evasive themselves. This ability will allow Captain Hook, Master Swordsman to take out such dreaded cards as Peter Pan, Pirate’s Bane on the player’s turn, thereby removing it before it has a chance to utilise its You’re Next! ability, which prevents the card from taking damage whenever it challenges a Pirate card.
6. Hydra, Deadly Serpent
Get ahead in the game
A fearsome beast known for its many heads, the Hydra from Disney’s Hercules absolutely bites back in its Lorcana card form. Not only is this a card with a whopping six willpower and five health, Hydra, Deadly Serpent has an ability that makes it especially deadly to players brave enough to attempt to take it on.
Watch the Teeth is an ability that flips the damage taken by Hydra, Deadly Serpent against characters foolish after to deal it. With Watch the Teeth, whenever Hydra, Deadly Serpent is dealt damage, the player can deal the same amount of damage to an opposing character of their choice. This makes the Hydra, Deadly Serpent a serious threat regardless of whether it’s challenging, being challenged or targeted by direct damage.
With this ability, players will be able to potentially banish a character by challenging it with Hydra, Deadly Serpent before dealing the damage it received to deal damage or even banish another opposing character in a vicious two-strike attack. The key is to pick your challenges where it works best to ensure that Hydra, Deadly Serpent stays alive long enough to use its nasty ability.
Combine this card with ones that have abilities that ready up other cards - such as Moana, Born Leader - and Hydra, Deadly Serpent becomes a serious killing machine.
7. Maui, Whale
Have whale of a time
Maui, the demigod from Moana, has many incredible powers including the ability to turn into a variety of different animals. This particular power is on display in several ruby cards found in Into the Inklands, such as Maui, Whale. Using this card, players will be able to deploy a huge threat against their opponents’ characters, as long as they’re able to utilise it in the right way.
Costing a hefty seven ink, Maui, Whale may seem initially not that great thanks to one of its abilities: This Mission is Cursed, which prevents this card from being readied at the start of the player’s turn. Players can use the card’s I Got Your Back ability to help circumvent this, which readies the card at a cost of two ink, though it can’t be used to quest for the rest of the turn.
Nevertheless, there are better ways to overcome the This Mission is Cursed ability than having to pay two ink every time. By combining Maui, Whale with cards like Moana, Born Leader, which can ready up all other card placed on the same location as Moana, Born Leader, or Benard, Brand-New Agent or many of the other cards in Lorcana that can ready other characters, then this card suddenly becomes a lot more viable.
You can also get characters costing two ink or more to sing song cards I’ve Got a Dream or Go the Distance to ready up Maui, Whale without having to pay the ready up cost or the cost of the song
You’ll want to do this because Maui, Whale has a gigantic eight willpower and eight health, which can be used to smash into opposing characters through challenges, proposing a serious threat on the battlefield and potentially shutting down enemy strategies involving key characters.