Disney Lorcana - Fabled Review
Lorcana’s ninth wave, Fabled, hits wider distribution today via channels like Amazon and EB Games, having launched last Friday with a pre-release week for dedicated hobby stores. Approaching double digit waves and entering its third year, Lorcana keeps pushing ahead with many more characters from the Disney/Pixar roster still to join. As a release composed of many reprinted cards, it was heartening to see the outpouring of love Fabled has shown not just for the previous eight waves of no-longer-tournament-legal cards but also for the way it champions 1995’s A Goofy Movie, celebrating its 30th anniversary and cresting a wave of nostalgia for younger millennials. Nowhere is this more prevalent than in the Ruby/Emerald Single Player Deck which features Max, Goofy and Powerline himself on the cover. Few companies are as adept at weaponizing nostalgia, and it’s safe to say Lorcana was right on target – I rushed out this past weekend to pick up this specific deck when our generously provided press kit was revealed to contain the Sapphire/Amber Mulan and Ariel deck – no shade to them, but A Goofy Movie they ain’t.
What’s so fascinating about this deck is to me, it represents just how far the mechanics in Lorcana can support not only theme, but very specific iterations of it. Amongst the 60 included cards, 20 of them are A Goofy Movie specific with multiple iterations of Max and Powerline alongside Goofy, Roxanne, PJ and Song cards for Stand Out and I2I of course. It’s a product that also promotes the more playful side of deck construction that can come from a wider cardpool, letting me play out key moments from the film, like a big Song finisher between Powerline, Max and Goofy while Roxanne gets a Boost by being in the presence of characters with the Sing action. It’s a gentle reminder to people like me who rarely if ever engage in deck construction that maybe the secret is it should be fun before it’s competitive. With one of the strongest IP stables in modern media and 100 years of cinema and television history behind it, Lorcana is more suited than almost any competing CCG to give players deeply thematic options around specific stories and characters; this deck just puts it on front street.
Mechanically, it relies heavily on some synergistic interplay between key characters and building up a Lore Questing line-up that can also belt out the hits when needed – and you will need a few of them to get the 9 Ink cost I2I played before a match ends. Off-theme cards like LeFou will re-ready already exhausted characters while Mother Knows Best and Be King Undisputed are Songs that will banish and return opposing characters, handy as this deck doesn’t have many heavy hitters. Kuzco is my favourite off-theme card in the whole deck, if only for his hilarious ‘No Touchy’ effect that banishes any card that would banish him. There’s also the inclusion of Agrabah as the sole Location, handy for its two passive Lore gain per turn but a missed opportunity to design a more thematically integrated card, especially when the Max – Rockin’ Teen card can’t be moved to Locations, an great in-joke if there ever was one. While a fun deck to play thematically, it does feel a bit slow without a great starting hand, something that even a mulligan won’t always fix. I get a sense this deck might be better suited to a wider player count game where swinging focus between players might give it that little bit more breathing room it needs to tempo up.
From my experiences, the more mechanically robust of the two is the Mulan/Ariel Deck which uses items, card abilities and Princess synergies to give the player a lot of control over which cards they will draw next; almost every card allows some sort of deck manipulation to take place. There’s a definite engine feel to it, moreso than in its companion deck for this wave – when almost every action you take lets you rearrange the top cards of the deck or shove them to the bottom, it’s a huge amount of control a few rounds in when Lorcana can sometimes become ‘top deck, the game’ if things are particularly tight between two players. Aurora – Holding Court is a must-have round one, reducing the cost of all Princess cards played, while Beast – Gracious Prince will power them up. Damage Removal and Quest Triggers also abound, allowing deck rearranging and swift recovery for characters who are challenged after Questing while the Aurelian Gyrosensor item can fire off every time a controlled character Quests. Like any engine deck though, if it misfires it can misfire badly – the right cards in the wrong order won’t allow that deck control aspect to kick in and it becomes a chore to get anything done. In skilled hands though and with a tactical mulligan, it feels fairly reliable and while nowhere near as thematic as the Ruby/Emerald deck, it’s still a heck of a lot of fun play.
This approach – a mechanic focused deck and a theme focused deck in tandem – is one I’d honestly like to see explored a bit more going forward in future waves, perhaps even in a return to the three pre-con run of First Chapter, although that seems incredibly unlikely. Still, thematic decks are a solid way to entice newcomers or push very casual players to pick up some more product. It also provides some interesting ways that the solo and co-op modes of Illumineer’s Quest could be expanded, as neither Deep Trouble nor Palace Heist had pre-cons that felt as focused on their respective IP as they could have been. It’s great to see a new idea explored with such a beloved and underexposed Disney film like A Goofy Movie and while it might make for an uneven match-up between the Single Player decks in this wave, it achieves what Fabled is aiming to do – reduce FOMO for those who missed First Chapter and Floodborn, both of which are nigh impossible to get product for nowadays, and revel in where Lorcana has been. Pushing forward with the overarching metanarrative can wait for Whispers in the Well this November.
The Amber/Sapphire Ariel/Mulan Single Player Deck used in this review was kindly provided by Disney AUNZ.
