Disney Lorcana – Archazia’s Island Review
In releasing Archazia’s Island, its seventh wave of content a mere 18 months after launch, Ravensburger and Disney’s Lorcana TCG shows no sign of slowing down any time soon – not with two more product launches still lined up for 2025. With new characters and new mechanics – the first since Ursula’s Return in May 2024 – Archazia’s Island kicks off the next few months of meta madness with two Single Player pre-constructed decks (Ruby/Sapphire and Amethyst/Steel) that show hallmarks of a game trying to mature whilst still somewhat finding itself.
Long rumoured and very much expected from previous entries in the genre, Archazia’s Island has been hotly anticipated for the introduction of Dual Ink cards, which (if the title didn’t give it away) feature not one but two Ink colours. However, this doesn’t mean for example that a Dual Ruby/Sapphire card can be included in any deck that has either Ruby or Sapphire Ink in it, but instead can only be used in decks which contain both Ink types, severely limiting their versatility. Each of the new Single Player Decks contain just a handful of Dual Ink cards, respectively:
Ruby/Sapphire – Belle and Beast
- Beast – Frustrated Designer
- Belle – Mechanic Extraordinaire
- Beagle Boys x 2
- Maurice’s Machine x 3
Amethyst/Steel – Jafar and Iago
- Jafar – Newly Crowned
- Iago – Giant Spectral Parrot
- Restoring the Crown
- Giant Cobra x 3
Despite being few in number, these cards can pack a punch and I would hazard a guess are one way for the designers to tinker with the meta while giving players more of an incentive to build specific Ink combinations around. Both decks contain roughly 25% previous wave cards (14 from Waves 5/6 in each) which are slightly lighter in colour tone on their face, although the cardbacks seem mercifully indistinguishable. Of note is neither deck including any Location cards, which seem to be taking a backseat this time around.
Echoing the design ethos behind switching from ‘Starter’ decks to ‘Single Player’ decks, the Ruby/Sapphire and Amethyst/Steel combinations focus on more complex synergies than pre-cons from waves 1-5. The Ruby/Sapphire deck, built around Beauty and the Beast themselves, encourages banishing of Item cards for a variety of effects including returning cards from the discard to hand, drawing cards, paying less Ink for the next card played and even playing the cost 3 Belle – Apprentice Inventor card for free. It also provides ways to put extra cards into your Inkwell and then benefit from such an action, although sometimes, as with the 8 Ink cost Lyle Tiberius Rourke card, players might get more than they bargained for. This extra Ink is important in the early game due to the makeup of the deck which favours 3+ cost cards and the purging of items which would otherwise hamper the tempo. I’m not the greatest Lorcana player by any stretch of the imagination, but it doesn’t take a genius to see just how much a decks speed factors in, which makes sense given that Lorcana is as much a race game as it is a card battler.
Switching over to the Amethyst/Steel deck, built around Aladdin’s Jafar and Iago, a new Keyword enters the ring – Vanish, which banishes an Illusion classified Character card anytime it’s the target of an Action card. The wording here, although quite precise, felt slightly off and I can see some players confusing which card is being banished if they aren’t paying careful attention. Only on a few cards in the deck, Vanish nevertheless becomes a core conceit with the ‘Jafar – Newly Crowned’ card working overtime to ensure ‘Iago – Giant Spectral Parrot’ stays in hand, while other cards leverage moving damage to other cards or helping to exert opposing characters. The Dual Ink ‘Restoring the Crown’ Action card feels like a real Hail Mary play, exerting all opposing Characters and providing two Lore for each defeated, something I haven’t managed to pull off just yet. While the Amethyst side of this deck has plenty going on, the Steel side is far more basic with a few caveats; ‘Fa Zhou’, who can gain an extra 3 Lore when you Challenge for a second time during you turn, ‘Razoul’, which synergises with any ‘Jafar’ card to banish an Item and ‘Helga Sinclair’, which gains 3 attack to their standard 0 and the Evasive keyword when challenging. I tend to favour Amethyst as an Ink colour as it’s the sort of playstyle I enjoy, while Steel is perhaps the Ink I’ve most avoided, so having the two of them in a deck with some Dual Ink cards helped me gain slightly more appreciation for Steel.
As a pair, each Deck is an interesting puzzle to work through and swap over a few times with a playing partner but, much like the other Single Player decks to this point, are clearly geared towards further tweaking and refinement by experienced players. Those looking for their very first deck might be advised to pickup the Lorcana Gateway box or revisit earlier sets like First Chapter, Floodborn and Inklands instead. The value proposition of Single Player Decks in Lorcana remains strong however, thanks to the included Booster in the Retail release which means a sub-$30AU spend for a functioning deck and a 12 card booster for some fine tuning. The unique Lorcana artwork remains as vibrant as ever, with Aladdin and Beauty and the Beast the obvious draws given the cover art for each deck, although there is not as strong a through-line between the pieces as there was with Azurite Sea’s swashbuckling theme. During pre-release promotion, much was made of Archazia’s Island introducing Pets, which I mistakenly thought might be a new Classification instead a character type and is sadly not the case. The card list does feature a number of ‘pet’ characters like Thomas O’Malley, Bolt, Pascal, Lady, Pongo and many more, but I can see how it would be troublesome implementing such a synergy rather than the slight theme focus present in the wave overall. With a few mechanical tweaks, it remains to be seen how much Archazia’s Island will shake up the competitive scene of Lorcana, but for those like myself who are mostly playing at work or on their kitchen table, I’ll always recommend grabbing every pair of Starter Decks if only for another handful of beloved characters to get excited over.
Archazia’s Island kicks off with a number of products including these Single Player Decks from March 7th in dedicated gaming and hobby stores, with a wider release on the 21st. An Illumineer’s Trove and Lilo Gift set will round out the product line initially, while deck boxes and portfolios have seen some delays.
The Archazia’s Island Starter Decks were reviewed using product kindly supplied by PR.
