How to Play and First Impressions

Disney trading card game Lorcana experienced a fan hype at Gen Con last week – something that publishers Ravensburger really didn’t expect it. drawing night lines and Every day no more product, Lorcana was the game that All at the annual gaming convention what was talked about. Some people were lining up just to grab the tickets that will open to the public in September and some were there because of Disney –boot most people were just curious if the hot new game would garner as much attention.

I was given the opportunity to demonstrate the game, but was specifically forbidden from asking too many questions the demo player who was very nice and taught me and three others how to play the new TCG. Using Glimmer—the universal name for the “fragments of Disney tales” that illustrate the playing cards—Illumineers (players) compete against other players to collect the lore scattered across the universe called Lorcana.

In more practical terms, here’s how it works. Lorcana Cards come in six colors: Sapphire (blue), steel (grey), ruby ​​(red), emerald (green), amber (orange) and amethyst (purple). Decks can be of any two colors, but the three pairings that make up starter decks are Sapphire/Steel, Ruby/Emerald, and Amber/Amethyst. As you can see below, I’ve grabbed a Sapphire/Steel deck that has illustrations of various Disney objects, including Cinderella, Peter Pan (The Pirates!)Rapunzel, Sleeping Beauty, Beauty and the Beast, And Moiana.

After you create a deck Lorcana In cards, two or more players (up to four) take turns drawing cards, playing cards, and performing actions. You start with a hand of seven cards. In order to play cards into the lorcana, a player must first place cards into an inkwell – essentially an economy for the glimmers to appear in the lorcana. The face down cards in the photo above are in the inkwell. There are no specific economy/inkwell cards in the deck – instead All cards with the Inkwell icon in the top left (a fractal hex fill with the ink cost) can be placed in the Inkwell. In the photo above both are “Aurora” cards and the item “Magic Golden Flower” can be “colored”. Because “Fire the cannons!” Since it’s a simple hex, it can’t be colored.

This means that in the initial seven card often Hand players “color” high cost cards first to get low cards.Get characters onto the field quickly. (For example, in the starting hand above, you probably want to “color”Mufasa”, a six-ink cost card, first.) You can only colorize one card per turn. When a card with ink is placed on the field, the ink isn’t dry and you can’t activate its powers right away. Exceptions are cards with a gold border, as seen on “Magic Golden Flower”.‘ and on action cards such as ‘One Jump Ahead,‘, with the card text taking effect immediately.

Once your cards are on the table and the ink is dry (in the round after you play them), You can send your characters in search of knowledge. As soon as you say your character is going on a quest, you gain the knowledge and turn the card sideways to indicate that it is “spent.” If you acquire 20 lore, you win immediately. When your card is claimed, it becomes subject to attacks and attacks may be “challenged” by another character on the other players turn. You cannot reply to cards played on another player’It’s your turn, so there’s no need to save ink. Use as much as you can to get as many cards out as possible as fast as you can

The game starts out slow, as players usually find the balance between attacking – removing other players’ characters from the field, known as “Banishing” –and defense, which usually means gaining as much knowledge as possible faster than the other players. I found this push and pull difficult to master since the Sapphire/Steel deck is a hard-hitting fighter deck where you start out controlling the board (through quick action cards like “Fire the cannons!”) and then questing with them on big ones Cards like “Simba” which have more power when used mid-game.

My tendency to fight first and then complete the quest made me fall behind pretty quickly. The Amber/Amethyst deck is much more quest-oriented – it features a mechanic called Evasive, meaning cards can only be challenged if the challenging character also has Evasive. I particularly liked “dr facilitator” Amethyst cards that really allowed players to control their own deck. The Emerald/Ruby deck is tricky and the hardest to master. It is considered an antagonist deck with cards like “Aladdin, heroic outlaw”, “Cruela De Vil, miserable as ever” and “Mad Hatter, Gracious Host” forces your opponent to play against themselves.

My first impressions of the game were positive; It was easy to pick up and I picked it up quickly (obviously I lost every game I played, but that’s typical of me and TCGs). I think the decision to not have reactions is interesting because it’s often the case in other TCGs that reactions allow players to quickly turn the tide of the game. It’s also a way for players to directly control the game board. In Lorcana You must wait for effects to trigger against your own cards in order to exercise board control over other people’s turns.

One frustration I see with this mechanical choice is that people can see the “win conditions” a few turns further. Since you gain Knowledge instantly, you can easily go from 12 to 20 Knowledge and win as you don’t have to battle other characters or players to gain Knowledge. But with action and item cards, there are ways to slow down other players while also sending your characters on quests themselves.

I wouldn’t try to make decks based on specific franchises. as characters from different films appear in different colors and not in large numbers. The little mermaidFor example, is spread across Sapphire (“Ariel, Whoseit Collector”), Amethyst (“Ursula, Power Hungry”), and Amber (“Ariel, On Human Legs”). Given the limited number of maps available – 204 as of this writing – there aren’t many 60-Card decks that work well. Right now, Sapphire/Steel is what people see as a powerhouse, but I’d be interested to see what an Amethyst/Emerald deck can do – mega dodge, super deck control.

Lorcana is honestly a very cool little game that will challenge TCG fans to think differently about the way they play. There’s a lot of strategy behind it, even if the mechanics feel simple and intuitive. The Lorcana The app is also very good as it has a card catalogue, allows users to build a library with the cards they own and provides a lore counter for games. The tutorial is solid too, so if you’re looking for a more in-depth guide,Detailed explanation, download it. I’m curious where Lorcana because it’s off to a solid start on becoming a lasting game. And the art… that’s it very good. I know some collectors will be interested because it’s Disney-And without strong representation of properties such as Brave, Treasure Planet, Encanto, Zootopia, or Atlantis In the game there is plenty of room for Lorcana to expand in the future.

Lorcana will be available in local gaming stores on August 18th. and September 1st at mass-market retailers Wal-Mart and Target.

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