Disney Lorcana – Archazia’s Accessories
Lorcana fans have made their way ashore on Archazia’s Island, revelling in Dual Ink cards and plenty of pets. There’s a storm brewing on the horizon however, with the Reign of Jafar a mere eight weeks away and still plenty of collecting and protecting to be done. Thanks to the ever-generous Lorcana PR team, Player2 has been gifted some Archazia’s Island themed accessories and items to share our experience with.
Archazia’s Island Illumineer’s Trove
Sporting a lighter look than previous releases, the latest Illumineer’s Trove stands out thanks to its cream and emerald features contrasting nicely, the looming menace of Jafar front and centre for the upcoming Reign of Jafar wave. Lorcana Trove’s are a good product for themed bulk-ish storage of cards intended for play, compared to binders which I tend to find more suited to collecting cards. The emphasis on play is apparent with the included set of dice, a Lore countdown marker and of course, eight Booster packs to start filling the dual wells, separating each Ink colour with the included Dividers. Rather than make Dual Ink cards an ordeal to organise, Ravensburger elected to include them in the main set of each Ink colour rather than separate them out, defaulting to their ‘primary’ Ink (or more obviously, the Ink on the left-hand side of the card). Obviously the Boosters go a long way towards the value proposition of an Illumineer’s Trove, and an extra 112 cards will easily fill a quarter to half of a Trove box, sleeves depending. My only criticism of the Trove boxes themselves is they don’t feel particularly sturdy when it comes to frequent transport, so dragging them back and forth from a FLGS or game meet could see some significant wear in a short amount of time – perhaps a result of domestic USA manufacturing on many Lorcana products. On a shelf though, each Illumineer’s Trove is a great themed storage method for dedicated Lorcana players who aren’t speculating but want somewhere to store each Wave separately.
Lilo Gift Set
A slightly more basic set of items compared to the Illumineer’s Trove, the Lilo Gift Set is nevertheless a gorgeous slimline storage box with sparkling ‘Glimmer Foil’ artwork and an assortment of random Booster packs that can come from any wave – this copy included Boosters from Floodborn, Inkborn, Ursula, and Shimmering Skies waves, even netting an Enchanted Sisu – Empowered Sibling card from the Urusla Booster in an incredible stroke of luck. With the live action Lilo & Stitch out shortly, it’s no surprise Ravensburger and Disney are moving to capitalise on the renewed interest in the characters with such an item. The box itself is quite sturdy and begs to be displayed outwards, although this does result in cards being stored horizontally to achieve. Also included is a unique Lilo – Escape Artist ‘Glimmer Foil’ promo card which enters play exerted if it is in the players discard pile at the start of their turn. I can see the logic in such a product – a Disney/Lorcana fan is likely a Lilo & Stitch fan as well, and this really would make a great gift in that case, especially as it can be found around the $50 price mark, well under the cost of an Illumineer’s Trove.
Sleeves & Deck Boxes
I’ve said it before, but I quite like the official sleeves Ravensburger have put together for Lorcana. They’re easy to shuffle, have a good hand-feel and have just enough texture that a deck won’t go sliding all over the table. If your game room or FLGS has poor lighting, it can be difficult to read card text or admire the incredible art due to the matte texture on the face but that is an issue found in any matte sleeve regardless of manufacturer. There’s enough space for inner sleeves to protect those valuable cards that are also simply too good to leave out of a deck, while the matching sleeve/deckbox artwork keeps things cohesive for Amber and Emerald players this wave with Cinderella and Scar respectively. One thing I would like to see going forward is more ways to customise the deck boxes to suit the two Ink combinations inside – whether this would require stickers, vinyl decals or something similar remains to be seen, but further customisation of a box to more accurately reflect the deck inside would be a nice option to have officially. Sleeves provided from earlier release Waves in my collection are still holding up, with no splits or other issues showing up, while I have had to replace some of my non-Lorcana branded sleeves.
The deck boxes haven’t changed since earlier reviews, but as Gamegenic continues to innovate in the soft box space, I’d love to see what Ravensburger can come up with in terms of making some of the accessories found in an Illumineer’s Trove workable in an official Lorcana deck box – whether than requires a larger box or secondary storage item inside, it would still help to make what is already a fairly portable game slightly more so.
Playmats
My favourite card game accessory, this gorgeous Tigger – In The Crow’s Nest playmat does a wonderful job of converting any table into a play surface, more notably for anybody foregoing sleeving their cards. I still wish we could at least get a Lore tracker slapped on to these, if not a full blown Play Area design, but due to their look and price the official Lorcana playmat is an item no player should be without. The alternate Big Hero 6 design for the Archazia’s Island wave does look incredibly cool but is a bit busy for my tastes. Tigger on the high seas, especially anything that hearkens back to the sublime Azurite Sea artwork, is a win in my books.
It seems that each new Lorcana wave is set to provide the same accessory types for the foreseeable future, a comfort for those who have already built up their stack of Troves and Binders – the latter of which didn’t quite make it this time around. On a more political note, with uncertainty around tariffs going forward, the fact that much of Lorcana is manufactured in the USA should bode well for consumers to a degree, although it may become unfeasible for Binders, Sleeves and Deckboxes to continue being produced at a price level consumers would be willing to pay.
