Partial Disney Lorcana rules leak, new details on how the Magic competitor works

By James On Apr 10, 2023

An introduction to the rules of Disney LorcanaRavensburger’s new trading card game, leaked a little early as part of Game Trading MagazineMay’s cover story. Issue #279, like all issues of GTM, is meant to be read by an audience of independent retailers, but the multi-page snapshot answers some lingering questions about the highly anticipated new game. Here’s what we know.

“Disney Lorcana is an exciting new trading card game (TCG) for collectors featuring glimpses of Disney characters appearing in both familiar and reimagined forms,” the ad begins. “Developed by Ravensburger, Disney Lorcana is designed to be accessible and welcoming to newcomers to TCGs, while still providing strategic depth and challenge for veteran players.

Monday’s leak of rules explains almost all of the symbolism on the Disney Lorcana Cards, including attack and defense value (both five here) and the knowledge value, represented by the diamond shapes, which is four on this card. We also know that this card can be converted to ink because there is a circle around the casting cost – that’s four inks.

Image: Ravensburger, Disney

According to the copy, players (called illumineers) race to be the first to collect 20 Lore. Each illuminator starts with seven cards in their hand, each drawn from a personal deck of 60 cards. Beginning with the first round of play, illuminators take cards from their hand to create a pool of ink, the game’s energy source. Like land in Magic: The Gathering, ink is then used to summon creatures and cast spells. Decks are each composed of no more than two colors of ink and can be purchased as pre-assembled starter decks.

“All cards have an ink cost,” the ad continues, “which can be paid for with the ink in your inkwell. The more cards you have in your inkwell, the more powerful cards you can play and the more you can do.”

Tradition — Disney Lorcana‘s stand-in for life or hit points – is generated by sending characters on missions. By “exercising” these characters (turning them sideways on the table) players earn their value in knowledge, which is represented by small diamond-shaped icons on the bottom half of the map.

Once characters have been exercised in this way, other players can challenge those characters with their own. The characters involved in these challenges both take damage during the exchange, and once a character’s willpower is exceeded, they are banned – that is, removed from the game.

This may sound like a big leak, but it’s actually quite thin. Many of the intricacies of the game go unnoticed. For example, it’s unclear how challenging a character affects their ability to generate knowledge. The ad copy glosses over multiple types of cards, as well as the rules of building decks, and even the intricacies of how ink is generated. It does mention Lorcana League, an introductory series of in-store events that will run for 12 weeks, as well as the fact that playmats, card covers and card portfolios will all be part of the launch product lineup.

Expect more information about Disney Lorcana here at Polygon ahead of this summer’s big launch at Gen Con.