Lorcana Reveals The Next Chapter
The Lorcana fan base is about to face the biggest shake-up the game has seen, just in time for the second anniversary of it’s release. This past week, Ravensburger announced an absolute mountain of upcoming content waves for Lorcana which will see players through until 2026, alongside seismic shifts in the competitive scene and new card rarities.
Just around the corner – May 30th to be exact – the 8th wave of Lorcana content will hit hobby stores with Reign of Jafar, which comprises Amber/Amethyst and Ruby/Steel Single-Player Pre-con decks alongside Illumineer’s Quest: Palace Heist, the second solo/co-op story expansion thus far. While this has been anticipated for a while, what we didn’t know until now was that Reign of Jafar will also ‘close’ the current Chapter of Lorcana, making way for the ‘Next Chapter’ which will be ushered in by the ninth wave of content, Fabled, which is expected by September this year.
Fabled has a lot resting on its shoulders going forward, in part due to the many changes it’s bringing to Lorcana for collectors and competitive and casual players alike. Perhaps the most impactful is the first competitive set rotation which will see the first four waves – Next Chapter, Floodborn, Inklands and Ursula’s Return – barred from competitive play. Rotation is an important aspect for all TCG’s but to wipe the first year of a game in one fell swoop is a bold move and will have huge ramifications for game meta, collectibility and secondary market prices for those waves. “To keep the competitive game thriving, rotating out older cards to encourage new strategies and fresh deck designs is a really important part of the next chapter,” said Ryan Miller, Brand Manager and Co-Designer of Disney Lorcana TCG at Ravensburger.
Fabled adds two new card rarity types to boosters, Iconic and Epic, alongside reprints of favourite cards from the early waves. Iconic cards are extremely rare with only two appearing in each set, while Epic cards will appear more often than Enchanted cards and feature special artwork and foil treatments. On reprinting cards from earlier waves, something that would seem to handily sidestep rotation meta ramifications depending on the cards that make the cut, Ryan Miller stated “…because we know there are cards in those early sets that are important to a lot of fans’ deck-building strategies, and we know not everybody got the cards they wanted the first year, we’re re-printing some cards from those first sets in Fabled. Including Enchanted versions of some fan favorites!”. It has been confirmed that as long as a card is from Set 9, regardless of whether it is identical to a wave 1-4 card, it will be legal for tournament play.
Which brings us to the last major announcement – The inaugural Disney Lorcana World Championship will take place across June 28th and 29th and will be livestreamed on twitch.tv/DisneyLorcana
Rather than an open event, Ravensburger have opted to organise this first outing as invite-only, with 28 competitors hand picked to duke it out over two days. This is no doubt disappointing for many Lorcana fans hoping to make the pilgrimage to such an event, but that’s not to say the 2026 World Championship will run the same way.
It’s both a trepidatious and exciting time to be a Lorcana fan, with Wave 10, Whispers in the Well, also teased for Q4 of this year. “It is an honor to usher Disney Lorcana TCG into this exciting next chapter,” said Elaine Chase, Chief Marketing Officer for TCGs at Ravensburger. “I’m excited to bring my three decades of experience working on trading card games to Disney Lorcana TCG, and I’ve learned how to move from a super-hot launch to supporting a trading card game for the long haul. I can’t wait for fans to see everything we are planning!”
For more Lorcana news and reviews, make sure to check out Player2 in the coming weeks and months.
