With the Big Hero 6 gang, Gadget Hackwrench, and other Inventors making waves in Azurite Sea, Lorcana’s items are coming into focus with cards that scry for them, discount the cost of them, give you Lore for playing them, pull them out of discard, and all the other good stuff to leverage this card type. Now, item decks and the Inventor keyword have been around since The First Chapter, but until just recently I felt like that was one of those sort of underdeveloped deck concepts that didn’t really have the cards to make it fly- that whole Pawpsicle thing that was hot a few months back notwithstanding. But now, more than ever, there are plenty of great items throughout the game to power up a Tamatoa – So Shiny or keep Hiram Flaversham – Toymaker in business. Even old timey cards like Maurice – World Famous Inventor might see some new life in item-centrix decks.
This got me thinking about items and what some of the best of them in the game are so far so I thought we’d do one of those beloved listicles, naturally. As usual, this is the filthy casual perspective but look folks at least I didn’t put my beloved Plasma Blaster on here, OK?
For my ink, Fishbone Quill remains the best single item in the game and it’s the one I’ve used more than any other by a longshot. This was an early staple of ramp decks and it is still supremely useful as an accelerant in any Sapphire deck. Go Ahead and Sign is to my mind the best single ramp effect in the game as it allows you to ink even uninkable cards directly from your hand. Unlike Detective Mickey or One Jump Ahead for example, you aren’t putting a mystery card from top of deck into ink. I find this especially useful when I have a fat uninkable in hand that would otherwise not realize value until late game. The fact that the quill is inexpensive at 3 and is inkable itself makes it a useful card at all stages of a game.
I was thrilled to pieces when Duck Tales made its entrance into the Lorcana world with Into the Inklands and I’ve had a lot of fun (and success) with Lucky Dime. Like Fishbone Quill, it has a very simple ability that has a ton of utility. Exert, pay two ink, gain lore equal to a character’s Lore stat. Coming in late at the game with 7 ink, the hope here is that you’ll have a juicy quester out to dime for 3-4 Lore. I love running this with Belle – Strange but Special or Flynn Rider – His Own Biggest Fan for a sudden 8 Lore swing. If you’ve not read it, Carl Barks’ classic Uncle Scrooge comics can fill you in on the story behind this card- especially the stories The Round Money Bin and The Midas Touch which introduces Magica de Spell.
Simple but useful is the common thread here, as I think the best items are those that just work without any preamble, setup, or need for external synergies or conditions to be valuable. As the game’s take on MTG Enchantments, the value they bring is in persistent effects. Lantern is another First Chapter banger that I’ve seen drive quite a few aggro focused Amber decks. Birthday Lights: exert, get a discount of 1 ink off the next character you play. Simple, effective, and puts a Lilo – Making a Wish or a Maleficent – Biding Her Time on the table for free. Stack these Lanterns and you can come back from a Be Prepared or Grab Your Sword at no cost. Combine them with other character discounts to get heavy hitters on the table a few turns early. I want all of those things and Lantern gives them.
Pawpsicle is such an interesting card and it sort of bucks this simple is best trend because it works better with other cards and has two possible effects. Jumbo Pop is one of those desirable “replaces itself” plays whereby you draw a card for playing it. That’s Redwood is a simple 2 damage heal in exchange for banishing the item – which isn’t a loss unless you are hoping to power an effect that counts the number of items you have in play. But here’s the real value. It’s 1 ink. So this is a turn 1 board presence and redraw along with the heal that could keep an early game 3 willpower character on the table. But then when you factor in effects like Hiram Flaversham – Toymaker (which was the combo everybody was doing a while back) or other discard item effects this card more than proves its worth. And with Azurite Sea we now have a Jumbo Pop that does both of the things- but at the cost of 3 and it being uninkable. I’ve been kind of surprised to not see folks revisiting Pawpsicle decks with it.
As casual as I am with Lorcana and, well, pretty much all games I do like to play nasty cards that make people borderline upset. And Prince John’s Mirror is definitely nasty. It may be a little more niche than the other picks here, but for Emerald discard I think it is a must-run. You Look Regal is a 1 ink discount if you have Prince John in play and you will, most likely, have Prince John – Greediest of All or even his Opportunistic Briber variant in play by turn 4 to make it work. Or shoot, you can play it for free on turn 5 with Gold Lover’s Beautiful Lovely Taxes ability. This persistent nuisance offers A Feeling of Power, forcing the opponent to discard down to 3 cards at the end of their turn. This is brutal and borderline unreasonable, calling to mind the classic Cursed Rack from MTG’s ancient Antiquities set. It can be a crippling blow, a fall-back plan in case discard doesn’t pop off for you, or a way to shut down the A Whole New World hand reset. This piece of work has become one of my favorite cards in the game- it doesn’t always work but when it does, it can be decisive.
Runner up- even though I said I wasn’t going to include it, Plasma Blaster. I get it, this card is stupid as hell. It’s not great. It’s too expensive and uninkable. Then you gotta pay 2 to use the damn thing. It’s the Bad News Bears of Lorcana cards. But for some reason I keep thinking that this card’s time has just not yet come. I’ve tried maybe 10 or 11 times to build a deck using it and I always feel like it’s almost there- a pinger concept where you then use things like Ring the Bell and Pack Tactics, other cards that affect or play off damaged opponents. It does not work – yet. I haven’t tried it during Azurite Sea, but I’m gonna and I’ll report back when I do!
Next time: The Official Mikey Mouse Club Lorcana Holiday Gift Guide!
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