Disney Lorcana deviates even further from Magic: The Gathering with location cards
When Disney Lorcana launched in the summer, the majority of consumers seemed primarily interested in the bling: big shiny cards filled with their favorite Disney characters. But with the arrival of Ravensburger’s second set of cards in November, titled The rise of the Floodborn, it’s clear that many of the game’s most fundamental mechanical elements have yet to be revealed. An example of this is the all-new location cards, which will arrive with the game’s third set To the Inklands starts on March 8. A new map was revealed on Thursday and it’s clear that the mechanic could have the potential to significantly change the game’s strategy.
In Disney Lorcanaplayers take on the role of Illuminators: powerful spellcasters who use magical ink to summon beloved Disney characters to the battlefield. Once In the inklands arrives, illuminators can also call up locations. But unlike maps in Magic: the meeting, location cards are very open to attack. Each copy has a Willpower value, which represents its health, and all can be damaged by virtually any unit on the other side of the table.
Once in the game, location cards add knowledge, which represent victory points Disney Lorcana, at the start of each round that they remain in the game. This makes them valuable as reliable sources of income throughout the game, and prime targets for opponent attacks. However, since they have no intrinsic attack rating, there are no downsides to attacking them; they simply cannot fight back on their own. That means location maps are too more more vulnerable to attack than regular character cards.
Image: Ravensburger and Disney
On Thursday, Ravensburger unveiled Jim Hawkins, space traveler. This new hero card has a unique ability that is one of the first to communicate directly with locations. When the character is played, a location with a cost of four or less can also be played for free at the table. Hawkins’ Take The Helm ability, on the other hand, allows him to move to any new location you play. That means players can potentially set up defenses for locations as they are played, as long as they keep this character alive.
Ravensburger may be making this kind of defense even easier, noting in a press release shared with Polygon in December that characters who have just been played – who normally have to sit out a round while their ink dries – can be moved to a location immediately.
The effect during gameplay could be to split what was originally a monolithic frontline of battle into different lanes. If that’s the case, players playing against a deck with many locations shouldn’t decide alone as they will attack the other player, but Where they will conduct their attack based on the cards present in each location.
Please note that some of this analysis is speculative: we still don’t have finalized full rules for how characters and locations will interact. Expect more concrete details to be revealed later.
More location maps are expected Disney Lorcana‘s third set, including Motunui away Moana and the Jolly Roger from Peter Pan. To the Inklands will debut in local games stores starting February 23rd. Mass market retailers like Amazon and ShopDisney will start selling them on March 8.