Disney Lorcana has arrived at Archazia’s Island and it’s quite a destination. There are pets everywhere, a couple of illusionary characters, a Baymax that can shift onto any character, more Moana variants, and of course the new dual ink cards. So far I’m not entirely convinced that the dual inks are going to make a huge impact on the competitive meta but they sure are fun. Likewise, the Illusion keyword is almost comically underused, almost as if it’s a preview of more to come with the mechanic. But by and large, it’s another fun set with a lot of new options for every ink color and maybe- just maybe- some new deck archetypes to shake things up. Hope you are prepared for Sapphire supremacy because it is fast upon us!
As is tradition, I’ve gone through the set and picked out a couple of cards in each color that I particularly like or think have some potential either in the meta or as a fun casual card. I’m not overly concerned with what the “best” or “most powerful” cards are so if that’s what you are after dear reader, I don’t know if I can give it to you. But I can tell you what I like, and what I like is these cards.
Here’s an example of a couple of cards that may not win you a set championship, but I love the design and what they do. Cinderella is already well-represented in the game, but this set of cards stands in for an element of her story. In a fun twist, you can only have two copies of The Glass Slipper and its Search the Kingdom ability allows you to banish it and exert a Prince to find a Princess character card in your deck. Rather scandalously, it doesn’t have to be Prince Charming when you go fishing for Cinderella. But when you do find her, you can take that Glass Slipper out of discard and claim 3 Lore. I love it. It’s fun, narrative, and really captures the Disney princess vibe. This is what I want most from Lorcana.
I think this is one of the definitive cards of the set, with a new and potentially earth-shaking ability. Obfuscate changes the win condition of the game, pushing the bar up to 25- which is enough to possibly close the gap in a very close game or to buy time when you are down at heel and scrambling in the late game to gain some points. Dropping this card when the opponent has 19 lore is going to feel so, so sweet. It’s expensive and uninkable, but it’s; also a 5/6 body with 3 lore. It’s stupid powerful, but also balanced.
Another wonderfully thematic card, this version of The Queen goes searching for discarded princesses in the opponent’s discard. No Ordinary Apple can net you 3 lore at a cost of putting 3 cards from the opposing discard on the bottom of their deck, but if you find a princess, it’s 4 lore. It’s also a great looking, evocative card. I love that it’s not entirely useless against a princess-less deck, but you get a little extra reward for your evildoings when you are up against one.
If you read last week’s column this should come as no surprise. I’m picking this one because it’s just so disruptive and possibly game-changing. We haven’t seen how the card will perform competitively yet, but the theorycrafting has got me thinking about how this card in a discard deck could be absolutely ruthless. I’m looking at building something that throws everything away, caps at 3 ink, and ramps hard to try get a Bell S&S to pop off. Stay tuned.
Tam’s poised to become the signature card of this set and this Legendary certainly is in the top strata of Archazia’s Island. This card is a serious powerhouse for Sapphire decks using lots of items, offering recursion and 100% off discounts on a solid body that is priced understandably at 6 ink. Over the past couple of sets it feels like that whole Ruby Sapphire thing that everybody was running back in the Pawpsicle days really kind of set the tone. With cards like this, I think it’s become apparent that Ruby Amethyst has an equal.
On points, this card isn’t super impressive really but Mushu was a long time coming to the game and his berth here feels earned. I do like the abilities here although they are sort of redundant with the usual Steel/Ruby fare. That said, a two lore gain built into a 4/4 character that also gets Resist +2 is nothing to dismiss out of hand. This could be a very useful card in brawler decks that use these colors.
Wait, what? A Ruby card that messes around with the Inkwell? I love it. Every time you ink, drop two damage on every character in play. Granted, this caps his uses at 2, but four damage in a turn where you are also using a Sapphire ramp effect ain’t too bad. And he can quest for 3 if he survives somehow. This card could be a real threat in the Ruby Sapphire builds that are going to completely dominate the game for who knows how long- but at 8 ink, he certainly ain’t cheap. But there again, blue ramps, so…yeah.
This is another one where my Lorcana master buddy Neuromorph were like “what the hell is going on here”. This is a potentially brutal card what with all the Emerald stuff that does things like, say, banish a character with a damage counter on it. Or that give you advantages to having damage counters. I’m thinking cards like Pack Tactics and Ring the bell are going to leverage this malicious monarch to good effect. Shifting in at 3 means that she can make it tough to play low willpower characters early in the game so plan accordingly!
Lady T’s tradition of being cruel and insufferable continues unabated with this lovely card. She’s expensive and uninkable but her exert ability, That’s Quite Enough, is as nasty as it gets. It works great in a discard deck because you get the removal of a damaged character (see the Queen of Hearts above for a simple combo) and you get the discard. The fun thing is that if you are discarding like you should by the time this card hits the table, you can probably force a discard of whatever damaged character was removed to hand.
Leave it to Heihei to bring a silly, possibly un-useful but possibly super great ability to the game. It looks like Heihei has gotten into some mushrooms or something and his Floodborn guise offers Resist (I mean why not) and Clear Your Mind which is exactly the kind of extreme BS I tend to enjoy. When you play this Heihei, you throw your entire hand into the Inkwell. I love it. With decks that have heavy draw, you could wind up with a sudden surge of ink as early as turn 3. Granted, you’re left hellbent and topdecking but hey (hey), I’ll take 5-6 ink on turn 3, sure. The drawback here is that it’s Sapphire Steel, and I really, really wish it was Sapphire Emerald. But that would just be disgusting.
Steel certainly has no shortage of Bodyguard, but what if you had a bodyguard that is also a Grab Your Sword? I’d buy that for 5 ink, sure. I love that this card is somehow the same price as that classic, but inkable and attached to a decent character. This is a fine (but not ludicrously overpriced or overdesired) legendary that will work well in conjunction with Musketeer decks or anything where you are relying on Steel to cover vulnerable, ability trigger characters.
Next week: How to get into Lorcana in the Year of our Mouse, 2025!
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