Heavy hitters for every ink from Into the Inklands: Rare edition

Amber: The Bare Necessities

As proven last set, Amber Steelsong is no joke. The Bare Necessities is a unique addition, representing powerful effects not seen in previous iterations of the deck. Stripping your opponent of their useful non-character cards is huge. Plucking a Be Prepared allows you to commit heavily to the board, allowing your singers and hefty steel characters to put in more work. Its other powerful effect is the information it gives you about your opponent's next few turns, especially after they've drawn a new hand from A Whole New World. The card ends up being a small and simple, yet incredibly effective control tool that helps the deck not only fight the board, but the hand as well.

Amethyst: Rafiki - Mystical Fighter

Putting on his best Captain Hook cosplay, this monkey also boasts a terrifying amount of strength to swing back with. Being able to banish characters costing up to 3 ink and sometimes even 4 is absolutely lethal. While we have seen the strength of this with our beloved Captain Hook, being in a different coloured ink makes all the difference. Every colour would love to have him in their deck, but without including steel, there has been limited options. Now being in amethyst, it opens up the deckbuilding much more, helping cement amethyst's top spot in the current meta.

Emerald: Morph - Space Goo

If Morph's cuteness wasn't enough to make you love him, his ability will make sure of it. Being able to shift any Floodborn character onto him is a dangerous ability right now, and will remain so for each set released. He makes those Floodborn characters that either have meagre shift targets, or which have a clunky ink cost to them, much more viable. Beast - Tragic Hero is perhaps the best example of this. While Beast does have his fair share of good cards, none are able to make much use of the Shift 3 of Tragic Hero due to their higher costs. Morph fixes this entirely, with him being able to facilitate a turn 3 Tragic Hero. Turn 3 draw a card each turn with potential 5 cost songs on the menu? Sign me up.

Ruby: Maui's Fish Hook

This is one I was certainly surprised by. But as it turns out, options are great, and even better when they're good. This trusty Fish Hook has a lot going for it. Both its abilities allow for offensive and defensive playstyles, protecting one of your precious questers for a turn, or pumping one up to wipe away big threats. Almost every ruby deck is using Maui - Hero to All, making these options much more fluid in weaving them throughout your turns. And with locations having so much willpower, giving him an extra 3 strength is enough to one shot any in the game currently. Even being an item is a sweet bonus, cash it in for 2 cards with Hiram Flaversham and bring it back later with Tamatoa!

Sapphire: Mama Odie - Mystical Maven

In the current meta, Sapphire has had its big hitters from the new set, but not so much in the rare slot. So I'm going with a pick that has the most potential out of all of them. Mama Odie is one of the new ink makers that sapphire loves so much, but what sets this apart from the others is its future applications. A big one being that it doesn't need to exert, meaning it's possible to just keep going with her. Songs are a key part of the game, so once we get a few more lower costed ones, she can start raking in the ink. And with Gramma Tala - Spirit of the Ocean around, the value this card offers may prove to be a scary threat.

Steel: And Then Along Came Zeus

Out of all the rares we've looked at from the new set, this one take the cake in terms of power. 5 damage is a very important number in this game, banishing almost all the entire roster of characters we see at the moment. And with the added bonus of hitting locations, there isn't much that can hide from the power of Zeus. While we have seen decent damage based removal in steel already, getting a new toy that hits above its weight is a huge upgrade. And if all of that wasn't enough, you can sing it too! What feels better than using a Beast - Tragic Hero to sing this, to then banish your opponent's one? Right now it's hard to beat. Bottom line is, if you play steel, play this card. You'll never look back.

And that's all, folks! Plenty of strong rares in the Inklands, so it was hard to make a list of 1 for each ink. But hopefully, these give you a good insight into what's going on in the competitive scene. Stay tuned for more posts, and feel free to drop anything you really want to see!