Disney Lorcana Fabled set analysis

[This article was written in the week of the release, so this is mainly theorycrafting]

Overall

• Fabled is the first real reprint set in Disney Lorcana. We had the first two reprints (with new art) in Reign of Jafar with Dalmatian Puppy - Tail Wagger and Captain Hook – Forceful Duelist. Fabled brings a staggering 171 reprints out of the 204 cards in the set. Only 33 new cards! This implies that our set analysis will be different from our previous articles as repeating ourselves isn’t fun, especially when Ravensburger has chosen to mostly reprint weaker alternatives of cards that dominated tournament play. Therefore, in the breakdown by color below we focus on new cards and card synergies, not so much on cards you are likely already familiar with.
• Two new card rarities: 18 Epic cards (3 per color) bringing alternative art and 2 Iconic cards (1 in Amber, 1 in Ruby). See our card rarity guide for more information on the Epic and Iconic rarities.
• Actions:
  • Amber gets the most Actions: 7 Actions, 6 of them are Songs, 2 Sing Together).
  • Amethyst: 4 Actions (2 songs, 1 Sing Together).
  • Emerald: 6 Actions (4 Songs, 1 Sing Together),
  • Ruby: 4 Actions which are all Songs (2 Sing Together),
  • Sapphire: 4 Actions (3 Songs, 1 Sing Together),
  • Steel: 6 Actions (4 Songs, 1 Sing Together).
• Steel only gets 1 item (and it’s not a good one). Amber, Emerald and Ruby get 2 items, Sapphire gets only 3, and nothing espically good for Item decks (no Pawpsicle reprint). Surprisingly, Amethyst gets a whopping 4 items.
• Each color gets 1 location.

Amber

• Amber gets 5 new cards:
  • Amber gets more “Princess or Queen” synergy in Beast – Gracious Prince (stats boost) and Aurora – Holding Court (cost reduction) and The Queen – Conceited Ruler (character recursion from discard to hand).
  • Circle of Life lets you play a character of any cost from your discard. Looking at you Mickey Mouse - Giant Mouse and Mufasa, Ruler of Pride Rock! It costs 8, but it’s inkable and it’s a Sing Together Song, so it’s definitely worth a try.
  • World’s Greatest Criminal (a Song) and the new Minnie Mouse – Sweetheart Princess can banish characters with 5 Strength or more. Minnie grants your Mickey Mouse characters Support. Don’t forget that Support can be used on characters of your opponent, hopefully bumping them to 5 Strength so they can be banished.
• Notable reprints: Pongo – Determined Leader and Stitch - Rock Star (both 2 cost or less character synergy).
• (Reprint) 7 cards remove damage counters. We don’t get a Rapunzel – Gifted with Healing reprint, but we get Julieta Madrigal – Excellent Cook and Heal What Has Been Hurt reprints, providing both healing and drawing a card.
• (Reprint) 3 Singer Characters return, along with 6 songs and 1 item and a location with song synergy.
• (Reprint + 1 new) Character card cost reduction comes in 2 characters and 1 item.

Amethyst

• Amethyst gets 5 new cards:
  • Dumbo and Timothy Q. Mouse bring the circus to Disney Lorcana. Dumbo – The Flying Elephant is a fine Evasive character and Timothy Q. Mouse - Flight Instructor has nice stats for a low ink cost, but Dumbo – Ninth Wonder of the Universe steals the show. Being Evasive, he grants 1 card drawn and 1 lore per turn for 1 ink, and Making History provides your other Evasive Characters the same ability. The Magic Feather grants a character of yours Evasive while it is in play, which you can use in defense and offense + you can return with its Grounded ability and replay it to grant it to another character (which is expensive). Nice and all, but when you add Monstro – Infamous Whale to your deck, you get 1 card drawn + 1 lore per ink. When you ramp with Sapphire to 8, play Monstro, followed by playing Dumbo and The Magic Feather in the next turn and let Monstro make infamous history with the remaining ink. Greedy: yes. Fun to pull off: of course!
  • Ursula – Voice Stealer could let you play a Song for free, but it depends on your opponent’s ready Characters in play.
• Notable reprints:
  • Belle - Accomplished Mystic remains strong due to her low shift cost, stats and the likelihood to take out an opposing character.
  • Elsa – Spirit of Winter, although she mostly got her status of being an expensive hard- to-get Legendary card of the First Chapter and hasn’t seen a lot of competitive play in a long time. Now that she’s more easily available, she might find a spot in an Elsa-Anna deck in Core Constructed.
  • Peter Pan’s Shadow – Not Sewn On should remain strong. Perhaps even more so with Dumbo.
• (Reprint) Several cards with Challenger, Rush, exert-a-character and move-damage-counters.

Emerald

• Emerald’s new cards are Genie – Of the Lamp (a solid Evasive Character) and 6 cards of A Goofy Movie (the others are in Ruby).
  • Goofy – Set for Adventure is great for a location-move deck (move a character for free + card draw), oddly a Emerald theme of set 3 Into the Inklands that just rotated out of Core Constructed...
  • Bobby Zimuruski – Spray Cheese Kid is a cheaper (-1 ink, -1 strength) Yzma – Exasperated Schemer and could replace her if you’re looking for the discard rather than strength.
  • Max Goof – Rebellious Teen brings a cheap Song back from discard to hand, and Max Goof – Chart Topper lets you play cheap songs from your discard for free. Is there potential for a song deck where you want to play cheap songs often, a Ruby theme in previous sets? The other A Goofie Movie cards are in Ruby by the way.
• Notable reprints: Cursed Merfolk – Ursula’s Handiwork, Ursula – Deceiver, Hidden Cove – Tranquil Haven, Wildcat – Mechanic, Prince Phillip – Vanquisher of Foes, Under the Sea.
• (reprints) Several “when this character is challenged and banished” Characters return.

Ruby

• Ruby gets the most new cards of all colors: 8. Ruby welcomes the Legendary / Iconic Mickey Mouse – Brave Little Prince (a versatile Evasive Character) and 7 chards of A Goofy Movie, all relating to playing Songs. This is the first time that Ruby has solid Song synergy Characters. Will we see Ruby-X song decks?
  • Powerline – World’s Greatest Rock Star would be the reason to play Ruby in a Songs deck. Playing expensive Songs for free can be devastating, especially if that song is the now 121, which lets each player draw 2 cards, gain 2 lore and if Powerline sang it together with another character, they ready and can sing another song (that you may have just drawn). Nothing We Won’t Do, We’ve Got Company!, Don’t Let The Frostbite Bite also ready your Singers.
  • Powerline – Taking the Stage and Max Goof – Rockin’ Teen bring filler Singer cards. Roxanne – Powerline Fan (cheap, nice stats) and P.J. Pete - Caught Up in the Music (big body, hits hard) get benefits from Singers or playing songs. Powerline – Musical Superstar has a conditional Rush.
• Notable reprints: Shere Khan – Menacing Predator, Sisu – Emboldened Warrior, Be King Undisputed, Queen of Hearts - Sensing Weakness, Mulan – Elite Archer, Sisu – Daring Visitor, A Pirate’s Life, Maleficent – Monstrous Dragon.
• (Reprints) Ariel – Adventurous Collector could find a spot in a Ruby Song deck, protecting Powerline?
• (Reprints) Queen of Hearts damaged characters matters card return to keep her Emerald Ruby theme of set 7 and 8 alive in Core Constructed.

Sapphire

• Only 3 new cards in Sapphire?!
  • Cruella De Vil – Style Icon seems built as a card to deal with go-wide decks that pump out characters with 2 cost or less, but do consider that her first ability also works with your own characters. Odd that she isn’t inkable, as she could be an uninkable vanilla 2/3, 1 lore character in many matchups, and that’s bad for a Legendary card.
  • Alice – Accidentally Adrift brings item removal by putting the item into the player’s inkwell. Don’t forget you can choose your own items as well to ramp. Her Making Waves ability isn’t special either.
  • Mulan – Considerate Diplomat has decent stats and should draw another Princess. Not that fancy though
• Notable reprints: Hades – Infernal Schemer, Develop Your Brain, Aurora – Dream Guardian, Alice – Growing Girl, Anna – True-Hearted, Heart of Te-Fiti (not Fishbone Quill or Great Stone Dragon)
• (Reprint) Hero decks in Core Constructed keep key enablers like Anna – True-Hearted, Anna – Braving the Storm and (in Steel) Philoctetes – No-Nonsense Instructor.
• (Reprint) the 3 cousins Louie, Dewey and Huey return, rejoining their Amber counterparts of set 8 for a continued adventure in Core Constructed.

Steel

• As usual, Steel’s 5 new cards don’t have a theme, yet bring solid cards that can fit into several decks:
  • Scar – Finally King fits in an Ally deck (see previous sets themed on Aladdin and Jasmine) and brings card draw – a signpost for great cards. Make sure your Allies have plenty of Strength when you feed them to Scar, something Scar helps with by giving them +1 Strength.
  • Lilo – Best Explorer Ever provides Challenger +2 to all your characters when you play her, and when you quest, she does the same to an Alien Character (like Stitch) with the ability to challenge ready characters to boot. There are many Alien characters, but Lilo may need a few more to shine.
  • Nala – Undaunted Lioness is a stats queen, in the style of Calhoun – Marine Sergeant and the reprinted Lawrence – Jealous Manservant. With her 3 lore 1 resist, 0 Strength she will want to quest while the others take out threats.
  • Jasmine – Fearless Princess should be good at taking out Characters in a challenge, given she can challenge evasive characters and can gets Challenger +3 per card you discard. Don’t disregard her “discard at will” ability as you can use that to your advantage by for example discarding Mickey Mouse – Giant Mouse and playing him from discard with the new Circle of Life. In Infinite Constructed, Sheriff of Nottingham – Corrupt Official would like to team up with Jasmine too.
  • Little John - Sir Reginald find a place in a Hero or Ally deck.
• Notable reprints: Steel: Strength of a Raging Fire, Robin Hood – Champion of Sherwood, Lawrence – Jealous Manservant, Mickey Mouse – Trumpeter, John Silver – Greedy Treasure Seeker, Philoctetes – No-Nonsense Instructor, Ariel – Sonic Warrior, Tinker Bell – Giant Fairy, Smash.
  • (reprints) Song decks get Ariel - Sonic Warrior and Ariel – Determined Mermaid. We don’t get a A Whole New World reprint though, one of the reasons to play steel song, but the alternatives brought in Set 8 should be strong enough to keep Steel song alive.
  • (reprints) John Silver – Greedy Treasure Seeker keeps the rare go-wide with locations decks alive in Core Constructed.
  • Steel gets to keep several targeted removal Actions in Core Constructed due to the reprints of Fire the Cannons!, Smash, and Strength of a Raging Fire (no reprint of And Then Along Came Zeus, Let the Storm Rage On or Grab Your Sword).