7 best Lorcana emerald cards in The First Chapter
Make your opponents green with envy.
The best Lorcana emerald cards excel in adapting to different game states, providing a flexible way of defending against your opponents or taking the challenge to them.
The ink colour comes full of characters boasting control effects that can shift cards between your deck, hand and discard pile, as well as controlling your opponents’ cards by forcing them to exert or even banishing them. With a mixture of card draw potential, defensive abilities and powers that accelerate your lore gain, emerald makes for an excellent ink to combine with any of Lorcana’s other colours.
Best Lorcana emerald cards
- Mother Gothel, Selfish Manipulator
- Flynn Rider, Charming Rogue
- Mad Hatter, Gracious Host
- Cheshire Cat, Not All There
- Genie, Powers Unleashed
- Jasper, Common Crook
- Kuzco, Temperamental Emperor
Emerald cards in Lorcana are especially great if you prefer to fend off attacks from other players, using effects that fill your hand with cards or banish opposing characters whenever you’re attacking - forcing your opponents into tricky decisions about what they’re willing to sacrifice to slow you down. Emerald can be an extremely fun ink colour to play for this reason, and boasts some of the best Lorcana cards in The First Chapter as a whole, allowing the opportunity to mess with rival players and become a real thorn in their side.
Emerald Lorcana cards tend to prioritise defence and effects over strength, which you could choose to balance by combining it with a more challenge-focused colour such as ruby or support with the protective powers of amber or amethyst. To help you decide which cards to include with these emerald characters, take a look at our roundups of the best Lorcana song cards and best Lorcana item cards from the TCG’s The First Chapter set.
Whatever colour you choose to combine with emerald in your deck, below are the best emerald Lorcana cards to ensure your deck turns your opponents green with envy.
1. Mother Gothel, Selfish Manipulator
Mother knows best
The manipulative nature of Rapunzel’s controlling “mother” is in full force in this emerald star card from The First Chapter.
Whenever Mother Gothel, Selfish Manipulator is exerted - for instance, by challenging or questing - none of your opponents’ characters can quest. That’s right: none of them, for any of your opponents.
Mother Gothel’s Skip the Drama, Stay with Mama ability is exceptionally powerful against a single opponent, but is even more potent in multiplayer matches, locking down all of your rivals as long as you can keep Mother Gothel exerted. With two lore every time she quests, that can open up a seriously big gap between you and your rivals as you speed toward victory while they scramble to deal with being shut down.
With six willpower, it’ll likely take a few challenges to put Mother Gothel out of action too, wasting your opponents’ precious time and potentially seeing off any weaker characters with Gothel’s three strength. Combine this with effects that control your opponents’ ability to challenge or banish - such as cards with the Bodyguard or Ward keywords - and you’re looking at a formidable strategy.
That’s a lot of power and potential on a card that only costs six ink to play, and can always be added to your inkwell in a pinch. It turns out Mother truly does know best.
2. Flynn Rider, Charming Rogue
Catch your opponents in a tangle
Rapunzel’s Tangled companion lives up to his roguish nature on Flynn Rider, Charming Rogue, an emerald Lorcana card that can be a headache to find yourself against - and a gift to have in your hand.
Flynn Rider, Charming Rogue costs a mere two ink, so you’ll be looking to get this out early in a game. His stats aren’t much to speak of - one strength and two willpower - but they come alongside the chance to quest for two lore, presenting an opportunity to start building your way to victory very early in a game.
That’s especially handy because Flynn Rider, Charming Rogue can be surprisingly painful to get rid of as an opponent. While his willpower may only be two, whenever Flynn is challenged his Here Comes the Smolder effect activities, forcing the attacking player to discard a card of their choice.
Even if your opponents are able to get rid of Flynn in a single challenge, it’s still going to cost them a card - and if they hesitate, you might be gaining two lore each turn. For such a low ink cost, it can cause a real headache very early in the game, and its card-discarding effect can quickly throw a wrench in your opponents’ plans. Combined with the option to add it to your inkwell if you want, it’s a no-brainer in any emerald deck.
3. Mad Hatter, Gracious Host
Perfection to a tea
He’s a favourite in the Lorcana starter decks and at tea parties - and now he deserves a place in your emerald deck.
Mad Hatter, Gracious Host is a fantastic, annoying card. He costs five ink, so you’ll need to build your ink a little before getting him out - but when you do, any opponent is going to sigh.
Not only can he quest for three lore every time, his Tea Party ability can keep him safe in the meanwhile by allowing you to draw a card whenever Mad Hatter is challenged. This means that opponents generally want to kill him in one hit - otherwise, you get to nicely build up your hand. His willpower is four, so it takes a decently strong character to bring him down in one go - and ever if they do, you still get a free card out of it.
Card draw is often the biggest hindrance in Lorcana games, so a chance to gain more cards and also have a solid quester on the table is a great combo. The Hatter’s strength is only two, so you’re unlikely to challenge much with him, but it’s still a nice bite back when you’re on the defensive. Now, sit back and make yourself a cuppa - this game’s all but in the bag.
4. Cheshire Cat, Not All There
A very mischievous moggy
Alice in Wonderland’s mischievous moggy is yet another low-cost emerald card that can be a real pain to deal with for your opponents.
Costing just three ink - with the option to add it to your inkwell instead - Cheshire Cat, Not All There focuses entirely on questing, with zero strength but two precious lore points every time you quest.
That’s backed up by a very respectable three willpower for a three-ink card, and the added twist of the card’s Lose Something? ability. If Cheshire Cat, Not All There is challenged and banished, the character that challenged it is also banished.
That’s a very irritating effect for your opponents, helping to ward off potential threats that might be too costly for your rivals to sacrifice. While they’re working out how to chase off the cat, you can be questing for two lore each round.
Like Flynn Rider, Charming Rogue above, Cheshire Cat, Not All There is an excellent emerald card to get out early in the game to disrupt your opponents, forcing them into dilemmas that slow them down and ruin their plans.
5. Genie, Powers Unleashed
All your wishes granted
Genie, Powers Unleashed may cost a whopping eight ink but, once he’s on the table, he definitely feels worth it. He also has the shift ability, so if you’ve got another Genie card on the board, you can bring the cost down to six ink instead.
Genie, Powers Unleashed can quest for three lore every turn, which can very quickly add up with your other characters in the late game. With that Evasive keyword, he’s also much harder to challenge - only other characters with Evasive pose a direct threat - meaning he can become really annoying for your opponents.
Even if opposing characters do have Evasive and come after him, they have to get through five willpower - which will likely take a couple of hits. With three strength, he has a pretty nasty hit back, so an opponent is probably going to sacrifice one or two characters to get him off the board.
That’s not all! Genie, Powers Unleashed has a little ability called Phenomenal Cosmic Power!, which means that whenever he quests you can play an action with cost five or less for free. Free!
Emerald has some of the best Lorcana action cards in The First Chapter, so fill your deck with those, get the Genie out and the game is basically yours.
6. Jasper, Common Crook
Criminally good
Jasper, Common Crook joins Horace, No-Good Scoundrel in bringing Cruella de Vil’s dastardly minions from 101 Dalmations to Lorcana. Of the two, Jasper gets the standout emerald card, standing head and shoulders - literally - above his criminal companion.
That’s all down to Jasper, Common Crook’s Puppynapping ability, which lets you choose an opposing character whenever you quest using Jasper. While questing will only get you a single lore, the effect will let you stop whichever character you pick from questing on their own turn. This can be repeated endlessly as long as Jasper keeps questions on your turn, effectively shutting down a high-lore card until your opponent deals with Jasper.
That’s a seriously good ability on a card costing just three ink - and if you include the full four copies of Jasper, Common Crook in your deck, you could find yourself able to shut down your opponent’s entire field of characters.
With four willpower, Jasper will put up a solid fight before he’s put away too, likely throwing your opponent’s plans into turmoil along the way.
7. Kuzco, Temperamental Emperor
A card fit for a king
Kuzco, Temperamental Emperor is an enormous emerald card for just five ink, offering a massive three lore when you quest using The Emperor’s New Groove hero.
Three lore is good by any standard, but what makes Kuzco, Temperamental Emperor even better for its very reasonable ink cost are its abilities. First off, it has the Ward keyword - meaning that if players want to get rid of it, they’ll have to do so by challenging rather than playing any banish effects.
Even better is Kuzco’s signature ability No Touchy!, which means when he is finally banished, you can banish the challenging character - much like the Cheshire Cat, Not All There card.
With four willpower, Kuzco puts up a decent defence, and his pesky keywords and effects can make him hard to remove without your opponents spending a lot of turns and sacrificing at least one of their cards. With three lore every turn while they’re trying to do something about Kuzco, you’ll be well on your way to winning.