Disney Lorcana Shimmering Skies set analysis

Note: This article was written in the week of the release, so this is mainly theorycrafting. Let's get brewing!

Overall:

• First some nit-picking: why are the cards no longer number in alphabetical order? Now we have to build a "sort A-Z" feature to make set analysis easier... :-(
• There are no new rules or card types in this set, but several cards have a new type of effect:
  • Koda - Talkative Cub (Amber) is the first card that protects you from losing lore during your opponent's turn.
  • Revive and Pride Lands - Jungle Oasis (Amber) are the first cards that enable you to play any character card from your discard for free, i.e. to return any character card from your discard directly into play. So far, only Perdita - Devoted Mother could do this, but only with characters that cost 2 or less, which restricted her to cheap go-wide decks. The 2 new cards provide a new way to sneak an expensive character into play quicker than expected. You'll need to get that card in your discard first though, for example by self-discard or self-milling.
  • Magica De Spell - Cruel Sorceress (Amethyst) is the first card that protects you from discarding during your opponent's turn.
  • Mufasa - Rule of Pride Rock (Sapphire) is the first card that returns card from your inkwell back to your hand. Unfortunately, it's 2 cards at random (which is annoying with physical cards). It's also the first card that can ready all cards in your inkwell.
  • The first broad tutor cards are here! Alma Madrigal - Family Matriarch (of Ursula's Return) let you search your deck for a Madrigal character card and put it on top of your library, which is narrow, and it doesn't draw you the card. Now, Minnie Mouse - Drum Major lets you do the same but for any character card. Merlin - Intellectual Visionary takes it a step further by letting you search for any card in your deck AND put it in your hand.
  • Every color has an expensive character that gets a cost reduction. See below.
• The first (6) cards of Brother Bear have arrived, but they don't have a theme and are not really strong?
• The Strength - Willpower values for 2 cost characters has changed. In previous sets, 2/3 characters for 2 ink were very common, and now there's only 1 and he's not inkable. There's even none with Strength 3 or more. The 1 cost characters are also low in Strength. There are several 1 and 2 cost characters with a (very) good ability (see below), but this is a noteworthy break in the pattern. Your low-cost characters will likely survive a bit longer (or will be taken out easily by older cards).
• We have our first (base value) 5◊ character!
• We have a first location with move cost 0 (zero): Sugar Rush Speedway - Starting Line. Cubby - Mighty Lost Boy's ability doesn't have a "once per turn" restriction, so if you want to get a character with infinite Strength for some reason, get Cubby zipping between two Sugar Rush Speedways :-) (3 card combo). No need for Map of Treasure Planet anymore to do that (4 card combo).

Amber:

• More Song cards: 4 characters care about Songs, and 2 new Songs. Prince Naveen - Ukelele Player is an addition for Song decks as he lets you play a song with cost 6 or less for free & he's a Singer 6. Gazelle - Pop Star is a yet another Singer 5 for 3. Kristoff - Reindeer Keeper gets cheaper per song in your discard, but is "only" a 3/7, 3◊ Bodyguard. Does a Song deck need him? Alan-A-Dale - Rockin' Rooster gains 1 lore every time you sing a Song, but he's surprisingly not a Singer... Better than Sleepy's Flute?
• More healing cards, and a new type of effect: heal & ready (but they can't quest or challenge that turn anymore). Minnie Mouse - Compassionate Friend heals on questing, Try Everything is a Song and readies, Healing Touch heals 4 and draws a card. Healing Decanter heals 2 per turn. Amber Chromicon heals all your characters for 1. These 2 items make it easy to consistently heal every turn.
• Minor Princess theme for your Princess deck: 2 characters (Ralph and Vanellope) and 1 item.
• Daisy Duck - Donald's Date: 1 cost, 1/4, 2◊. That's 3 more Willpower than Lilo - Making A Wish. Is her ability that bad then? The possibility of making your opponents draw a card seems bad, but it must be a Character card, and they must reveal it, so you know what's coming. If it's not a Character, the card goes to their discard. A card like Daisy belongs in an Amber 1-2 cost go-wide deck that we can already build. Those decks usually worry about Actions that can take out multiple characters, not so much Characters as you'll be playing Characters more quickly. On top of that, Amber lacks answers against items. Taking out a Fishbone Quill before it gets played can cripple a Sapphire ramp deck.
• Mirabel Madrigal - Family Gatherer cost 5 for a 5/5, 5◊! Yes, there's a 5 in that lore icon. (Makes me wonder if we'd get a 6, 7 ... ◊ character one day). However, you can only play her when you have 5 or more characters. A new finisher for a go-wide deck?

Amethyst:

• New Merlin card for Merlin Madame Mim decks. Merlin - Turtle provides deck filtering. There's also a new Madame Mim - Elephant, which will likely make a bigger splash as she can move 2 damage counters per turn.
• Camilo Madrigal - Family Copycat copies the lore value of another character of yours, and then returns it to your hand. You could use it on a card with high ◊, but you could also use it on a Merlin or another card with a good "when you play" ability. Don't forget to quest or challenge with that character first though.
• Amethyst likes to exert and stun opposing characters in this set. 4 cards exert, 3 cards stun:
  • Genie - Main Attraction stuns (disables readying at start of turn) all opposing characters when he's exerted! He costs 7 and isn't inkable though, but most importantly can you exert him in the turn you play him somehow (quite easy in Amethyst by giving him Rush) AND keep him safe?
  • Olaf - Happy Passenger is the card that gets a cost reduction, and it's from your opponents exerted characters. Imagine playing him in the same turn as the new Anna - Mystical Majesty who exerts all opposing characters. In multiplayer, he could be a free 6/6, 3◊ with Evasive.
  • Elsa's Ice Palace - Place of Solitude stuns a character as long as it's in play. New type of "removal". Only 4 Willpower though...
• 2 Maleficents and 1 item have an effect that bounces a character, item or location with cost 3 or less. Pinocchio - On the Run of Rise of the Floodborn also had this ability (without locations as they didn't exist yet). Would this become a new effect for Amethyst?
• There's a lot of card draw in Amethyst: 1 character, 3 actions, 2 items, and 1 location draw cards.
• Just 1 Song, and please write it in your diary when you played a card for free with We Know The Way (don't make a Dalmatian Puppy - Tail Wagger deck just to do this).
• Only 1 card that moves damage counters around.

Emerald:

• 5 cards have a "when you play this card" ability that requires you to pay an additional ink cost. It's an interesting design as you can get a cheap vanilla character if you need it or pay the extra to get the ability affect.
• Robin Hood - Timely Contestant is the character that gets a cost reduction, 1 ink less per 1 damage on opposing characters (not per damaged opposing character). You could get a cheap 6/6, 4◊ Ward character.
• The ability of 12 (!) cards require a damaged opposing character in play. This concept already existed in previous sets, but not as pronounced. These call for a team-up with Steel and Robin Hood, or Amethyst move damage counters cards, because you want to get damage in before you use these cards. The stand-outs are Anna - Diplomatic Queen (banish), Banzai - Taunting Hyena (exert), Prince Philip - Swordsman of the Realm (self-ready), Robin Hood - Sneaky Sleuth (lore + Shift), Scar - Vengeful Lion (card draw), Tropical Rainforest - Jaguar Lair (prevents questing). Shenzi - Head Hyena enables a Hyena synergy. Are the 7 Hyenas so far good enough though?
• Robin Hood - Sneaky Sleuth has Shift, so if you Shift him during the turn you deal 1-2-... damage to all opposing characters (Steel has several options), he can get you a lot of lore in the turn you play him.
• Three cards that work on the condition that an opponent has more cards in hand than you. Obviously, these won't work well in an Emerald discard deck. Remember Who You Are is a 4 (not inkable) action that lets you draw cards until you have the same number of cards in hand as an opponent - which can be a lot. Clarabella - Light on Her Hooves does the same at the end of all your turns (as a 5/6, 2◊)! These two cards join Diablo - Devoted Herald and Prince John - Greediest of All as best cards draws in Emerald. They're all conditional though.
• Hypnotic Deduction looks very strong because it reminds me of an old card in Magic the Gathering called Brainstorm (which costs 1 for the same effect). That card is considered too strong to be printed in a new "standard" set. Most other cards let you look at the top 3 cards, add 1 of them and put the two remaining on the top or bottom of your library. This one lets you "draw" 3 cards (which may trigger abilities) and then return any 2 cards in your hand (not just the three you just drew) to the top of your deck. If you don't want to draw those 2 cards in your next turns, you could play an effect that shuffles your deck. Lorcana isn't MtG though, but I'd test it anyway.
• You're Welcome (a Song) can be played on yourself, so you draw 2 cards, but it's one of few ways in Emerald to get rid of any character, item, or location of your opponent. It gets sent to their deck, so you may face it again, but that may take long. Giving draw 2 cards to your opponent is very tough, so only use it when you don't have an alternative.
• Emerald Chromicon is the only item with a permanent effect, and it's a very strong one. Emerald already has a lot of characters that have a negative effect on your opponent when they get banished, and this item lets you bounce a character on top of that! It can even be one of your own (not the one that was just banished). There's a reason why this item isn't inkable.
• Prince John's Mirror is nasty, but in a discard focused deck, your opponent likely won't have a lot of cards in hand mid-game. On turn 3 though... Just image playing A Whole New World when you have Prince John - Greediest of All and Prince John's Mirror in play...

Ruby:

• Pete theme! Pete - Steamboat Rival cares about other Pete's in play, Steel's Pete - Wrestling Champ wants you to have a lot of Pete's in your deck. Steamboat Rival (banish a character) and Games Referee (prevent actions) have excellent abilities. Party Champion is a vanilla 4/3, 1◊ for 3, so not a bad deal when you need sufficient Pete cards for your Pete deck.
• Mickey Mouse - Enthusiastic Dancer and Minnie Mouse - Dazzling Dancer have a Minnie-Mickey synergy. This Mickey is however not good enough without a Minnie. This Minnie looks nice, but there aren't many Mickey cards that want to challenge... I don't see a Mickey-Minnie deck for the time being.
• 4 characters care about damaged characters:
  • Gaston - Pure Paragon is the card that gets a cost reduction, 2 ink per damaged character you have. You may get a cheap 10(!)/6, 2◊ Rush character. Only the second character with 10 Strength by the way.
  • Wreck-It Ralph - Demolition Dude doesn't have a "can't quest anymore" restriction on his ability Refreshing Break. Can we find a combo for him? Plenty of ways to get him some damage safely, including with the new Break Free.
  • Ratigan - Party Crasher is the first card that boosts your damaged characters (+2 Strength) - will more follow? - but he is most of all a 5/5, 3◊ Evasive Character, for Shift 4.
• Only 2 "ready, can't quest" cards: Evil Comes Prepared effects 1 of your characters (for 2 ink). Don't Let The Frostbite Bite is a 7 cost Song that readies all your characters. Unfortunately, it's not a Sing Together as your singers would ready anyway.
• Only 1 Reckless character and it's a 1 cost 2/3. Who's With Me? is a 3-cost action that provides another way of gaining lore with Reckless characters, in addition to Cogsworth - Talking Clock. Cogsworth gives them something to do when your opponent is out of characters or when you don't want them to challenge, while the new action boosts their Strength by 2 and gains 2 lore per challenging Reckless character.
• Maximus - Team Champion's ability triggers at the end of your turn - Maximus and the high strength character can stay readied and rather safe from challenges. Getting a character with 5 Strength for 2 lore in Ruby should be quite easy. Having a 10 Strength character would get a whopping 5 lore. Only the new Gaston - Pure Paragon and Goofy - Knight for a Day (Steel) have 10 Strength inherently, but you can also get to high strength temporarily through abilities like Support.
• Robin Hood - Sharpshooter could get you 10 ink value for 4, as you get to look for an action card with cost 6 or less in the top 4 cards of your deck and play it for free.
• Taffyta Muttonfudge - Crowd Favorite (opponents lose 1 lore) and Taffyta Muttonfudge - Sour Speedster (gain 2 lore) care about locations and are (very) cheap to play (1 and Shift 2). Sugar Rush Speedway - Starting Line likes to see a lot of traffic as its move cost is 0 (first time), and its ability lets you move a character for free to another location. The Speedway doesn't get you lore, so your opponents may ignore it. Likely good additions to a Ruby (Steel) move deck.
• Turbo - Royal Hack is a major story spoiler. Don't look at the card if you haven't seen Wreck-it Ralph yet ;-)
• The Sword Released could have a big impact in multiplayer.

Sapphire:

• Only 3 characters that care about items, 1 Action, and only 4 items. That's less than usual. The most notable cards are:
  • Prince John - Gold Lover is another card that lets you play an item for free. The nice thing is that it can be from your hand or discard, but it has to cost 5 or less and comes in play exerted. But you don't have to exert Magic Golden Flower, Pawpsicle or Fortisphere to banish it. Tamatoa - So Shiny! has a new friend :-). Merlin's Carpetbag also lets you bring any item back from discard to hand.
  • Sheriff of Nottingham - Bushel Britches is the character that gets a cost reduction - 1 per item you have in play. Just what Tamatoa - So Shiny! wants so this could be a cheap 5/9, 4◊ Support character. Nice!
  • Royal Tantrum lets you banish items and draw that many cards. Emergency button?
• Ramp gets new toys! Most notably Chicha - Dedicator Mother as she provides card draw and only costs 2. Ramp needs card draw to replace the additional cards you're adding from your hand to your inkwell. Tipo - Growing Sun also costs just 2 ink, and after you played him, you can use All Funned Out to put him into your Inkwell. Kuzco - Selfish Emperor's ability and Hide Away can be used on yourself but is likely better used to get rid of an opponent's item or location quickly.
• Mufasa - Ruler of Pride Rock isn't a ramp card per se, but he fits best in ramp decks and when he quests, you'll get a lot of ink!
• Not a lot of heal cards: only 1 character and 1 Song.
• As mentioned above, Merlin - Intellectual Visionary lets you tutor/look for any card in your deck and put it in your hand, but only when you shift him in. The Sapphire Merlins aren't that spectacular, so you may want to team up with Amethyst.
• The Queen only wants to team up with other The Queens? The Queen - Crown of the Council lets you dig for another The Queen and The Queen - Fairest of All gains 1◊ per The Queen you have in play. Do we have other The Queen cards? The Queen - Cruelest of All is a Shift target. The Queen - Diviner is good with items so question mark. The Queen - Mirror Seeker filters the top 3 of your deck and therefore more of a filler card. In Amethyst you have a vanilla The Queen and The Queen - Wicked and Vain (exert to draw a card). Amber on the other hand has a very good one in The Queen - Commanding Presence and a very cheap Shift target in The Queen - Regal Monarch. Amber also supports go wide, so is that the way to go for a The Queen deck?
• Vision Of The Future is an excellent dig card: look at 5 and put 1 in hand. Nice!
• Medal of Heroes used in its most simple way is 4 ink for 2◊, which is not good enough. Can we pair it with Ariel - Whoseit Collector and play it several times per turn somehow? And you know Wreck-It Ralph - Demolition Dude wants one too.
• Sapphire Chromicon can also banish itself, but because it enters play exerted, it makes it more difficult to combo with it.
• The Great Illuminary - Radiant Ballroom gives a nice boost to Support characters (+1◊ and +2Willpower), but it's costly. Good that it has 9 Willpower and no Lore Value so it could survive several turns. Support is in Sapphire and Amber by the way. Prince Phillip - Gallant Defender surely wants to visit the Ballroom.

Steel:

• Steel has a Knight theme centered around Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. They benefit from the synergy of the Amber Seven Dwarfs of Rise of the Floodborn, but only provide Knight synergy. There aren’t many other Knight cards yet, with Anna – True-Hearted (Sapphire) and Cinderella – Stouthearted as shining examples. Standout cards:
  • Grumpy – Skeptical Knight as he gives your Knights at a location Resist+2.
  • Doc – Bold Knight as you can use him to discard your hand if you want to for some reason (like Chernabog – Evildoer, or Sheriff of Nottingham – Corrupt Official), but you can also play him when your hand is empty and draw 2 cards for 2 ink, and get a 1/3, 1◊ Knight Seven Dwarfs.
  • Snow White – Fair Hearted is also a Knight and could get a high Resist value in a Knight deck (1 per other Knight). Only 3 Strength though, so you'll likely want to quest with her. Steel doesn't have a lot of 3◊ characters.
  • Seven Dwarfs’ Mine – Secure Fortress has a nice ability but comes with a 2-move cost. Pair up with the new Sugar Rush Speedway?
• Jafar – Tyrannical Hypnotist takes “can’t challenge” to another level: all opposing characters with cost 4 or less can’t challenge! That would be paralyzing for fast decks and as he doesn’t have to exert to make his ability work, your opponent will have a tough time to banish him.
• 4 characters care about banishing a character in a challenge:
  • Kronk – Head of Security should let you play at least one 5 or less Ink cost character for free. There's even a decent Shift target for him now, with Kronk - Unlicensed Investigator.
  • Namaari – Resolute Fighter is the character that can get a cost reduction, 2 ink less per character banished in a challenge. It may be difficult to get a high reduction as that’s rather narrow. A 5/5, 3 Lore Value, Resist+3 is strong though, but as from which cost? 5 would be good, 3 or less bonkers.
  • Yzma – Unjustly Treated will like to team up with the new Emerald cards that care about damaged opposing characters. You'll want to them to have a damaged character in play, but still take out the threats. With Yzma, they'll get another character damaged when you take out that threat.
• Both Pete characters are strong. Pete – Wrestling Champion wants you to have a lot of Petes in your deck and a way to know what card is on top, so he's difficult to pull off. Pete – Games Referee on the other hand will see more play, possibly in all Steel decks. Is he that good? Preventing Actions for 1 turn is very strong on its own. As a “when you play” ability, you may even get to play him multiple times, for example with Madame Mim.