Lucina

## Overview

Written by: Basil

Lucina is an aggressive deck that wants to use the numerous blue manaketes to ramp and class change herself multiple times. Her 5(4) from B22 is great tempo, getting out cards that can generate value and pressure like Nowi 4 or Robin M 4(3). The ketes are not super likely to hit early, but because you have so many, you are likely to ramp and get them bigger sooner than normal, also accelerating your gameplan. Finally, once you have a decent board and your opponent is at little to no orbs, you can class change into the other Lucina 5(4) to buff your board of ketes and other stuff to make a push for lethal.

## Gameplan

Early on, you’re mostly trying to play your ketes and swing to ramp. You aren’t likely to hit a lot early, but you’re mostly doing this to ramp. What’s nice is since your hand size will be low from deploying and ramping, you can bond Lachesis 4 to keep your hand size up pretty regularly.

You usually run a decent number of bridges, 6-8, so if you fail to ramp or aren’t able to directly go into the 5(4) then you can go into a bridge instead. If you run B08 Frederick, you’ll want to get him out too, as clearing him early can be quite a pain for the opponent and he will just help you put pressure on.

Once you’re at 4 bonds, hopefully you have swung enough and have a decent 4 cost in retreat to deploy when you class change into B22 Lucina 5(4). The staples are B14 Robin M 4(3) since your opponent will be low on orbs and want to dodge, resulting in free cards for you, and B12 Nowi 4, since she can get big and lets you pick up the bonds you put down early game. There are plenty of other options though, depending on what you prefer to run- Lissa 4(3), Nah 3, and Tiki 4 are other common options.

Mid game is mostly just continuing to CC Lucina 5(4)s by either drawing them or using Naga 5 to CC from Retreat, and trying to put on pressure. Her pull skill is quite useful for decks that have backline threats like Canas or Micaiah, easily clearing them and then continuing to go face.

You may be able to finish the opponent off like that, but likely you will at some point run low on cards and start to slow down. This is fine as long as you succeeded to get your opponent to low orbs. Now you can build up a bit of a hand, deploying only when necessary and clearing what the opponent is trying to set up. This may not be necessary if your opponent struggles to clear your backline though, but the main thing is when your opponent is low on orbs, you want a decent number of cards to dump on the field or already on the field so you can CC into Exalt Lucina and buff them.

Your Exalt turn is probably the last turn if you time it right, just use your buffed units to hit face 5-6 times. You can do multiple smaller Exalt turns if needed, such as to clear board, but usually once will be enough.

## Strengths and Weaknesses

Strengths:

* Lots of build options that can vary in aggressiveness and value
* Strong tempo skill in the B22 5(4) Lucina and good deploy options in blue
* Built-in finisher that is easy to pull of, just have any deploys and opponent on low orbs
* Lots of dodges and bridges makes her good into other aggro decks

Weaknesses:

* Early aggression can be hit or miss since the ketes aren’t very good attackers
* Can brick early game if too many Lucinas or high costs in hand
* Can struggle to hit 80 at times

## Key Cards

### Manaketes

Your manaketes are the main reason the deck works- you want to play them and hit their support skills early to ramp and accelerate your gameplan. They scale into the late game and can hit, their range is also useful for clearing if needed or just sitting in the backline being annoying to clear (except Nowi). Nah especially is nice since if you swing with her first and hit a dragonstone, you can stack another. Later on they are your main deploys on your Exalt turn to finish out the game.

### Naga 5

Naga is critical in this deck since you likely won’t just draw all the Lucinas you need. Class changing from the retreat is very nice, since she becomes a net flip 1 cycle (deploy her then draw to replace her), you get the class change skill on Lucina, and she ramps and buffs the board. A nice loop is to deploy Naga, CC into Lucina 5(4), deploy Nowi 4, then use Nowi to grab Naga back again. Also, due to how skills work in this game, her skill 2 can happen after you deploy with Lucina, letting your value cards like Nowi and Robin get the +20 from her as well.

### Nowi 4

The most mandatory 4 cost in the deck, her ability to grab back a bond for free is very nice as you’ll be throwing everything that isn’t a low cost into there early on as you ramp. She also scales into the late game as well, potentially getting up to 90 base, letting her be great value and a strong presence on the board with range.

### Robin M 4(3)

Not as mandatory but still very common, Robin can just be an annoying card for the opponent to deal with. He can potentially net a free card every turn, including the opponent’s, and makes your opponent have to play very awkwardly to deal with him. If he is out and your opponent has no orbs, you guaranteed get the card, but if they have orbs they can risk not dodging in exchange for making Exalt Lucina easier to get out. His Thoron skill is also quite nice if your build does not flip many bonds, letting him hit basically anything with ease and possibly forcing out a dodge himself.

### Lachesis BS

Lachesis is a staple in many decks that ramp a lot with manaketes, and Lucina is no exception. She is basically a free bond if you are low on cards, which is pretty easy since Lucina wants to dump ketes from her hand on the board and use them to swing and ramp. Really good for keeping your hand size up early without giving up opportunities to ramp, and can make a loop if picked up with Nowi 4, hit a kete and ramp with Lachesis.

## Other 4 Cost Options

As long as you have orbs, she is effectively flip 1 draw and makes sure you get a Lucina CC later. If she sticks she can also swing for a pretty big number when you CC.

Adds a bit of a tempo/combo element to the deck, allowing you to potentially CC Lucina multiple times a turn or deploy this Tiki and still be able to CC Lucina at the cost of 1 flip.

Not a 4 cost, but lets you grab a bond back like Nowi 4 without losing the bond, which is nice in the early-mid game when you want to build up your bonds.

Much slower, but if you are up in orbs she is free draw every turn and can make Lucina 80 base, patching up a weakness of hers in exchange for not swinging.

## Sample Decks

Aggro Lucina
4 Lucina, Divine Dragon's Exalt+
2 Lucina, Parallel Paladin
4 Lucina, Princess Striving for a Hopeful Future
4 Nah, Serious Manakete
4 Tiki, Sleeping Princess of Ancient Times
3 Nowi, Playful Millenary Dragon
4 Nowi, Long-Lived Little Dragon
2 Robin (Male), Tactician of Exalted Strategies
3 Naga, Divine Dragon of Salvation+
4 Lucina, Hope Ruling Queen
3 Peony, Sweet Dream-Bringing Lass
4 Lachesis, Leonine Princess+
4 Chrom, Prince of the Exalted Bloodline
4 Frederick, The Exalt's Guardian Knight
MC:
1 Lucina, Princess from a Desperate Future