Top 10 Coconut Cards That Core and Infinity Never Played

Playing against three opponents increases the value of some cards, compared with what they are worth in a single-opponent format. An effect that reads “each opponent” resolves three times for the same ink. A trigger that watches the table now watches three boards. In the census post I went through the whole pool and found 179 cards that scale this way and never saw much use in Core or Infinity Constructed, in any meta. These are the ten I think gain the most at a table of four, counted down from 10 to 1. The order is my call and the gaps between neighbors are small.

A note on what “never saw much use” means here: under a 5% play rate in every meta of both formats on inkdecks, all-time, The First Chapter through Attack of the Vine. One meta over that line disqualified a card, and 43 of the 222 scaling cards fell that way. The full method is in the census post. Card texts below are as printed on September 12, 2026.

10. Grimorum Arcanorum

Amethyst item, 3 ink, inkable, from Whispers in the Well. DOCTRINA ADDUCERE: “During your turn, whenever an opposing character becomes exerted, gain 1 lore.”

Last on the list because it does nothing on its own: it requires you to exert ready opposing characters during your turn, which takes another card, and singleton decks are bad at assembling pairs. What keeps it on the list is that the enabler is a whole Amethyst package, not one card. Five effects exert one character per opponent, 3 lore each at a full table: Swooping Strike at 1 ink, Anna — Eager Acolyte, Ursula’s Plan, Chernabog — Creature of the Night, and Gwythaint — Savage Hunter, which repeats on every quest. Anna — Mystical Majesty and Demona — Scourge of the Wyvern Clan exert every opposing character at once, and Restoring the Crown, an Amethyst and Steel dual, does the same while paying its own lore. Below those sits a pile of smaller exerts in the same ink: Elsa — Spirit of Winter takes up to 2 on arrival, Elsa — Snow Queen exerts one every turn, Peter Pan — Shadow Catcher exerts one for each card you put into your inkwell during your turn, and one-shots like Petrify, Freeze and Isis Vanderchill — Ice Queen of St. Canard round it out. Demona is the key: the current Core meta plays her, 48.7% in the Whispers in the Well meta, CELERITAS on the book names her, and an Amethyst Coconut deck wants her with or without the book. The floor is still a dead draw when no enabler is out, and being inkable is the consolation. The ceiling is the whole table exerted with the book down, 1 lore per character. The book’s maximum usage rate in decks is 0.8%, in the Whispers in the Well meta of Core.

9. Pack Tactics

Emerald action, 4 ink, inkable, from Rise of the Floodborn. “Gain 1 lore for each damaged character opponents have in play.”

Pack Tactics counts damaged characters across three boards at once, and those boards damage each other without my help: challenges between my opponents happen on turns I never touch. In my games, five damaged characters by the midgame is an ordinary table, and that is 5 lore for 4 ink. The next card on the list keeps those counters where they are. Its maximum usage rate in decks is 0.4%, in the Whispers in the Well meta of Infinity.

8. Vision Slab

Emerald item, 3 ink, inkable, from Ursula’s Return. DANGER REVEALED: “At the start of your turn, if an opposing character has damage, gain 1 lore.” TRAPPED!: “Damage counters can’t be removed.”

The condition is the whole card. In 1v1 it switches off every time the board trades clean. At a four-player table, challenges between my opponents keep damage on the board through no effort of mine, and TRAPPED! stops the table from healing it away, which also protects the Pack Tactics count from the previous entry. A 3-ink inkable item that pays 1 lore at the start of each of my turns. Its maximum usage rate in decks is 0.6%, in the Fabled meta of Infinity, a 170-deck sample; 0.3% or less everywhere else.

7. Ursula’s Trickery

Emerald action, 1 ink, from Ursula’s Return. “Each opponent may choose and discard a card. For each opponent who doesn’t, you draw a card.”

Each opponent decides alone: give up a card or let me draw one. In 1v1 that is a single decision, and the opponent takes whichever side hurts less. At four players it is three separate decisions, a ceiling of draw 3 for 1 ink, a floor of three discards, and every mix in between gives me something. No meta of either format records it at all.

6. Flotilla — Coconut Armada

Ruby location, 2 ink, 6 willpower, from Azurite Sea. TINY THIEVES: “At the start of your turn, if you have a character here, all opponents lose 1 lore and you gain lore equal to the lore lost this way.”

Yes, the format’s codename is Coconut and this is a Coconut Armada. It still had to pass the same cut as everything else. In 1v1 this is drain 1, gain 1. At a full table it is drain 3, gain 3, a 6-lore swing at the start of every one of my turns, from a 2-ink location that takes 6 willpower to remove. The real cost is keeping a character alive at the location through three opposing turns until the trigger comes back around. Its maximum usage rate in decks is 0.1%, in the Archazia’s Island meta of Core.

5. Sign the Scroll

Amber action, 3 ink, from Ursula’s Return. “Each opponent may choose and discard a card. For each opponent who doesn’t, you gain 2 lore.”

The same three-way choice Ursula’s Trickery offered at number 7, paid in lore at three times the ink. The ceiling is 6 lore for 3 ink, the floor is three cards stripped from three hands, and every combination between those pays. Like Ursula’s Trickery, it never shows up in any meta’s numbers.

4. Ink Amplifier

Sapphire item, 3 ink, inkable, from Whispers in the Well. ENERGY CAPTURE: “Whenever an opponent draws a card during their turn, if it’s the second card they’ve drawn this turn, you may put the top card of your deck into your inkwell facedown and exerted.”

In 1v1 there is one opposing turn per round, and the trigger needs that one opponent to draw past their turn draw. At a Coconut table there are three opposing turns per round, and singleton decks lean on draw effects to find their pieces. Each trigger is a free card into my inkwell, up to 3 extra ink per round from a 3-ink item. Its maximum usage rate in decks is 0.3%, in the Winterspell meta of Infinity; the Core meta it was printed into, 6,269 decks, shows it at 0.0%.

3. Scrooge McDuck — Ebenezer Scrooge

Ruby character, 4 ink, 4 strength, 3 willpower, 1 lore, from Winterspell. PAYMENT DUE: “Whenever this character quests, each opponent loses 1 lore. Draw a card for each 1 lore lost this way.”

Core and Infinity like Scrooges, just not this one. Scrooge McDuck — Ghostly Ebenezer sits at 13.8% in the current Core meta, Scrooge McDuck — Resourceful Miser held 6.7% in two Core metas and above 17% in three Infinity metas, and this version’s maximum usage rate in decks is 0.5%, in the Winterspell meta of Core. Read PAYMENT DUE at a full table: every quest is quest for 1, drain 1 from each of three opponents, draw 3. FORECLOSURE adds 1 more lore at the end of my turn if any opponent sits at 0, which the drain makes likelier in the early game.

2. Colors of the Wind

Amethyst song, 4 ink, inkable, from Winterspell. “Each player reveals the top card of their deck. Draw a card for each different ink type of cards revealed this way.”

Two reveals in 1v1 keep the draw small, and its own launch meta ran it at 0.8%. At four players it reveals four cards, dual-ink cards count both of their inks, and six ink types exist, so the ceiling is draw 6 for 4 ink on a song a character can sing. Its maximum usage rate in decks is 2.6%, in the current Core meta, Attack of the Vine.

1. Source of the Vine

Amethyst item, 4 ink, from Attack of the Vine. SIPHON: “Whenever an opposing character quests, you gain 1 lore unless their player pays 1 ink.”

It sees use in 1.0% of decks in the current Core meta, Attack of the Vine, so the format has seen it and passed. Against one opponent, SIPHON taxes one player’s quests. At a Coconut table it taxes every quest from three boards, and each one is the same choice: pay 1 ink now or hand me 1 lore. Paying slows their turn, not paying feeds my race, and the question repeats for every quest by every opponent. When the table starts holding ink to play around it, RADIANT BLOOM sets the floor: exert the item, pay 2 ink, gain 1 lore.

That is the ten, dated September 12, 2026. Which card should have made the cut?