Shimmering Skies spoilers are now all over the place, especially if you peruse the r/Lorcana sub and it looks like players and collectors are queued up for a fun set releasing August 9 to hobby and a couple of weeks later for mass market, as usual. It’s the fifth set and so far every set has had plenty to offer in terms of keeping the game fresh while introducing new “Glimmers”, twists on beloved characters and settings. It’s hard to tell so far what the big meta winners are going to be, but frankly I’m more excited to see a host of new cards from Wreck-It Ralph (like all the Sugar Rush racers) and some treats like Snow White and the Seven Dwarves reimagined as a party of knights to join my soon-to-be-somewhat-viable Goofy-led knight deck. A new Pete depicted as a wrestling champ has me wishing for WWE-ified versions of other characters, and not just because a very, very enthusiastic Super Show group plays at the same time as our store’s league event.
The storyline is that Ursula has been defeated per the presumed events of the Illumineer’s Quest so Lorcana is having a celebration. And since it’s Disney, that means a near-apocalyptic fireworks barrage every single night of the year. As an aside, if you want to experience what nuclear Armageddon might sound like inside a fallout shelter, go into the bathrooms beside Gaston’s pub in Magic Kingdom during the fireworks show. It’s kind of terrifying.
Ravensburger has yet to include any parks content for Lorcana aside from A Pirate’s Life For Me, referencing Pirates of the Caribbean, but with this set they are expanding the aforementioned Wreck-It Ralph offering while also bringing on board Brother Bear of all things. I was in an H&M yesterday and the Powerline song “I to I” was playing and all I could think the whole time was that Lorcana went with Brother Bear over The Goofy Movie. But hey, fans of…whatever that bear’s name is will be thrilled and it’s great that the roster is expanding to lesser seen properties. We can only expect that Bolt and Meet the Robinsons are somewhere down the pipeline at this point.
Of course plenty of favorite characters are back in new forms and many are delightful, Donald Duck, Pie Slinger is one of the Enchanted cards and it’s a great showcase for the new Enchanted style that I think is frankly a tremendous improvement over the weirdly muted, dark oil portrait take from the last couple of sets. I’m still probably never going to pull one, but I’m still holding out hope that “car pack magic” will produce.
In terms of new mechanics, the set looks like more of refinement and restatement than a revision. There’s nothing like locations or sing together this time out, but I have noticed among the spoilers more card-specific or typal functions which are always welcome. For the first couple of sets, those kinds of options didn’t work well simply because there weren’t enough cards in the game to support them. But now, when Pete, Wrestling Champ lets you scry for another Pete, that may actually be a viable deckbuilding option. And Glimmer Verus Glimmer only suggests that more wrestling options should be made available,
There is a new Racer keyword specifically for all those Sugar Rushers and rather surprisingly, they are all in Ruby from Taffyta Muttonfudge (who has three cards) to Showanna Rainbeau to Rancis Fluggerbutter. There’s also the Sugar Rush Speedway, but I’m not quite sure how to use it yet as it lets you exert and damage a card to move them to a location for free. Granted, it’s free to move characters here and it just costs 1 ink, but I’m a bit baffled by it so far. But I really don’t care because I love theme-heavy decks and Shimmering Skies looks like it is going to have plenty in store for folks like me. You better bet I’ll be rolling up to league with a Sugar Rush deck and that unholy union between Goofy, Snow White, and the Dwarves. Sword and the Stone fans will be pleased to see more Madam Mim and Merlin, and bounce players will doubly be thrilled by them.
The only real disappointments so far are the disturbing lack of Powerline and that the Bad-Anon Villain Support Center card does not feature Zangief, Bowser, or Dr. Eggman. But hey, rights is rights. The product line has a slight disappointment in that there doesn’t appear to be an analog to the Illumineer’s Quest co-op game, but instead there is a new $25 “Gateway” box that is intended to be an onboarding product similar to what Pokemon and Magic have had on the shelves for years. This is a great move, as Lorcana is at its best when it is at its most accessible, inclusive, and welcoming. Word on the street is that it will not include any Shimmering Skies cards, so those already into the game can safely skip it. The deckbox, sleeves, and playmat range expands as always, and as has apparently become a “thing”, they will feature images from previous sets rather than the current one. The Trove is its usual format, and remains a good buy if only for the nice storage box you get for a couple of bucks over the 8 pack price.
So it looks like Lorcana is in for a bright fall as the game rapidly approaches the one year mark. It’s never been stronger in terms of playerbase and more importantly attracting new players. It’s hard to believe just a year ago we were out here scrapping for packs and many were declaring the game DOA. Shimmering Skies looks to be something of a victory lap for the game, with Vanellope Von Schweetz at the wheel.
Next time – the five things I want from digital Lorcana!
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