Disney Lorcana The First Chapter set analysis

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

Overall

As this is the review of the first set, we’ll try to identify trends per color and through each color’s play style.

• The ink cost distribution is quite normal for this type of game. There are several 1 drops, but most cards cost 2, 3, or 4 ink. As of 5 ink cost, there are fewer and fewer cards. The bomb characters come as of 7 ink cost. Each color has an 8-ink cost character (often Floodborn with a cheaper shift cost). Amber, Amethyst, Emerald, and Sapphire each have 1, but Ruby and Diamond have two. There’s currently only 1 card that costs 9 ink: Ruby’s Maleficent – Monstrous Dragon: direct removal and great stats.
• Maui – Demigod is the stat king of the set: 8 ink cost, 8 Strength, 8 Willpower, and 3 Lore Value, but without an ability.
• Most cards have 1 or 2 Lore Value, so watch out for cards with Lore Value 3. There’s just 1 card with Lore Value 4: Mickey Mouse – Brave Little Tailor (with Evasive!), but keep an eye out for cards that under the right conditions can get an even higher Lore Value, like Tamatoa – So Shiny! and Belle – Strange but Special. Those high Lore Value cards will likely be win conditions.
• Actions are most prominent in Amber and Emerald who both have 7 Actions. Ruby and Steel have 6, Sapphire has 5, and Amethyst just 4. Amber’s 7 Actions range from 1 to 4 ink cost and include 3 Songs. Emerald’s 7 Actions are 1 to 5 ink cost and include only 2 Songs. Ruby has 4 cheap actions. Dragon Fire is unconditional removal and costs 5. Be Prepared is the only mass removal action at 7 ink cost. Steel’s 6 Actions range from 1 to 5 ink cost, with 2 Songs. Same for Sapphire’s 5 actions. Amethyst’s 4 Actions range from 1 to 3 ink cost but still has 2 Songs.
• Item distribution isn’t the same for each color. Sapphire is the outlier with 5 Items, while Emerald only has 2 Items. Sapphire is also the only color with cards that synergize with Items.

Amber

• Amber likes to play a lot of characters, and likes to keep them in play or get them back into play. You’ll find character healing, character graveyard recursion (1 character, 1 action), and character cost reduction (1 action, 1 item) in Amber.
• Amber however does not have a lot of cards with a high lore value: only 2 have 3 Lore Value, with Stitch - Rock Star as the … star. Another thing that stands out is that the ink cost of most Amber characters is rather low. Only 6 characters have an ink cost of +5. Peering at the two big Stitch cards, Amber seems to like to go wide by playing many small characters that go on small quests, getting ahead of your opponent who hopefully won’t be able to take them out as quickly as you play them. For example, Lilo – Making a Wish will likely gain you 4 lore before your opponent can take her out. In these decks, you’ll likely want to avoid challenging.
• Healing (removing damage counters) is also clearly part of Amber’s identity: 4 characters, 2 actions, and 1 action can heal your characters. Rapunzel – Gifted with Healing (heal 3 & card draw) and Hakuna Matata (heal all your characters for 3 and it’s a Song) stand out. The healing theme may however not play well with the go-wide theme as in go-wide your characters will likely not survive a challenge unless you add Bodyguards (Amber has 3). Amber’s healing (and Bodyguards) may team up well with Emerald, Sapphire or Steel whose characters have higher Willpower?
• Amber has a Song synergy with 3 Singer characters (Ariel – Spectacular Singer also searches for a Song), 3 Songs, and an item that lets you draw a card when you play a Song. While those songs are quite good, they won’t win you a game. Look for a win condition elsewhere, or songs in other colors (Ruby and Steel have good ones).
• Amber’s items indicate Amber's identity: healing, reducing the ink cost of your next character, and Songs.
• There’s a minor Princess theme in Cinderella – Gentle and Kind, and Moana – Of Motonui. There are 6 Princesses in Amber, 3 in Ruby, and 8 (!) in Sapphire, but the others don’t have a Princess synergy. Only Belle – Strange but Special (win con in ramp) and Jasmine - Queen of Agrabah (heal) look strong, so Princesses is likely not something to build around just yet but don't let that hold you back from building an Amber Sapphire heal ramp deck.
• Hades – King of Olympus could get a very high Lore Value in a go-wide Villain deck, but Amber only has 2 Villains. Amethyst has 10, Emerald and Ruby have 6, Sapphire and Steel have 5, but they don’t seem to fit into a go-wide strategy? Keep in mind for later, but it’s a bit strange that the ability of Amber’s highest ink cost character seems to be a dud for the time being.
• Maximus – Palace Horse has both Bodyguard and Support. As a 4/5 he’s a strong bodyguard, who will likely take down 2 characters. His Support ability enables him to quest and give another character 4 Strength to challenge and likely take down another threat. Solid!
• Why is You Have Forgotten Me (discard) in Amber?

Amethyst

• Amethyst puzzles me. What does it want to do? Is Amethyst a splash color for the moment? It has control cards (with Sapphire?) and cards that synergize with challenging (with Emerald, Ruby, or Steel?).
• There’s a control theme where you can exert/freeze opposing characters (3 characters, 1 action), return characters or items back to hand (1 action) and card draw/deck manipulation (5 characters, 2 actions, 2 items).
• Amethyst likes returning your characters that are banished in a challenge back to your hand: 3 characters do this, with Dr. Facilier – Agent Provocateur bringing the smoothest deal (he’ll be annoying with Emerald – see below). There are also several characters with Challenger or Rush.
• Micky Mouse – Wayward Sorcerer introduces Broom synergy, but there’s just 1 broom? More Broom cards will likely come in upcoming sets.
• Amethyst’s items follow the characters’ style: an expensive draw (slow control?), "the top cards of your deck" manipulation, and giving a character Rush.
• Elsa – Spirit of Winter exerts up to 2 characters who are then “frozen” (they won’t ready). This stops them from questing or challenging and may give you the time you need in a control deck to get the lore you need to win. In a deck that likes challenging, you can also use your other characters to challenge your opponent’s win conditions.
• Ursula – Power Hungry would be very strong in multiplayer.

Emerald

• Emerald has a clear theme:
  • characters with 2-3 ◊ with good triggered abilities when they are challenged and banished, and
  • cards that prevent your opponent’s characters from questing.
• On the first theme: Cheshire Cat – Not All There (2◊), Flynn Rider - Charming Rogue (2◊), Kuzco – Temperamental Emperor (3◊) and Mad Hatter – Gracious Host (3◊) will be very annoying for your opponent. Due to their lore value, they can’t be ignored, but because of their abilities they will at least trade 1for1, often better. To compare: Hans - Scheming Prince has 3◊ but will be a 1for1 at best - an indicator of the importance of abilities. => Does Emerald just want to quests and set your opponents on a clock?
• On the second theme: Mother Gothel – Selfish Manipulator stops your opponent’s quests when she’s exerted. That could win you the game if you keep her protected. Iago- Loud-Mouthed Parrot, Jasper – Common Crook, John Silver – Alien Pirate, Micky Mouse – Artful Rogue and The Beast is Mine! also prevent a character from questing, often through granting a character Reckless, so you could build a deck around this.
• 3 (high ink cost) characters, 1 action, and 1 item have a synergy with actions: recursion or cost reduction. Emerald has 7 actions, so plenty to choose from.
• Emerald’s 2 items are straightforward: reduce the cost of the next action you play (Emerald has 7, but none are expensive) and boost a character’s Strength. Not overwhelming – likely not in-color-build-arounds.

Ruby

• Ruby has several cards that like to challenge: 3 characters with Reckless, 3 characters with Rush, and 1 action), and there's Mulan – Imperial Soldier who provides a lore value boost to all your other characters. Maui – Hero to All is the best of the crop as he should be able to take out 1 big character in the turn he’s played (Rush), and hopefully another one in the next turn.
• Ruby has 3 characters, 1 action, and 1 item that ready other characters. Could this become a part of Ruby’s identity?
• There’s a soft theme of making your opponent lose lore: 3 characters, 1 action. Aladdin – Heroic Outlaw could turn a game, especially when you can ready him (Ruby) and heal him (Amber) or grant him Resist (Steel).
• Ruby has 3 Evasive characters with 2◊ with Micky Mouse - Brave Little Tailor at the top of the curve and 4◊. Should they be the win condition in a Ruby deck while your other cards take care of your opponent’s characters?
• Be prepared for Be Prepared: the only board wipe in the game. Control decks could play Ruby for its removal (Maleficent – Monstrous Dragon, Maui – Hero to All, Dragon Fire) with Be Prepared as the emergency button.
• Ruby’s 3 items are quite aggressive, like Ruby’s characters. However, two of them are very conditional and it's interesting to see that both these items require that you banish them. Meaning they’re a one-time effect like actions – unless you play item recursion, which Ruby doesn't do. The one that stands out is Shield of Virtue as its ability readies a chosen character. That can be very powerful as you can use that character again to challenge or keep them readied and (hopefully) safe.

Sapphire

• Sapphire comes out the gate as the item loving color. Tamatoa – So Shiny! makes that very clear. Sapphire gets 5 items, more than any other color. There are 4 characters and 1 action that care about items. Belle – Inventive Engineer and Maurice – World-Famous Inventor reduces item ink cost. Maurice even lets you draw a card when you play an item. Tamatoa would be the win condition and could get a cycle started with Magic Golden Flower: quest with Maurice for 2 lore, play the flower for free (draw a card from Maurice), banish the flower to heal Tamatoa or Maurice, quest with Tamatoa for x◊, return the flower to your hand. Neat!
• Tamatoa and Maurice cost a lot of ink though, and that’s where Sapphire’s second theme helps out: ramp (put more than 1 card in your inkwell per turn). There are 3 characters, 2 actions, and 1 item that help you ramp. Belle – Strange but Special could act as win condition in such a ramp deck as she gets 5 Lore Value when you have 10 cards in your inkwell.
• Looking at the 5 items, only Magic Golden Flower could be used as a combo piece. The other items can be used to support your deck strategy, especially Fishbone Quill which allows you to ramp as of turn 3 – note that the cards don’t come exerted in your inkwell, so on turn 3, you can play Fishbone Quill, exert it to add another card to your inkwell, exert that card to pay for a 1 drop (like Magic Golden Flower), followed by a turn 4 where you can add your 5th and 6th card to your inkwell. This drains your hand considerably, so think about card draw. Coconut Basket (heal), Eye of the Fates (+1◊, expensive though) and Scepter of Arendelle (cheap + grants Support) want you to play (strong) characters.
• The other cards in Sapphire don’t have a clear identity. Several are vanilla characters (with no abilities) but with decent stats and especially nice Lore Values. There are also 3 Support characters (with Strength 3) which help another character to hit hard while gaining lore. Don't underestimate Support characters!

Steel

• The first thing that stood out to me was that Steel only has 1 character with Lore Value 3, and it’s Maui – Demigod, a vanilla 8 ink cost 8/8. Steel also doesn’t have characters that can get their Lore Value boosted (like Tamatoa – So Shiny!). So Steel will want to team up with a color that is good at gaining lore.
• Since Steel is not good at gaining lore quickly, what is it good at? The answer is (I think) by having characters that can outlast others in challenges and by dealing direct damage. Your characters will survive and be the last ones standing, and then they’ll steadily gain lore. The 5 vanilla characters have decent stats and even your cheaper characters should be able to take out 1 or more characters, often due to Challenger. Tinker Bell – Giant Fairy is a good example of Steel’s identity: good stats, deal direct damage and a triggered ability on banishing a character in a challenge. She’ll likely be the star of the show as she can hit readied characters with her abilities.
• Another part of Steel’s identity seems to be “looting” (draw a card, discard a card): 2 characters and 2 actions do this. A Whole New World is a very, very strong card. You can play it when your hand is empty and draw 7 cards. Your opponents have to do the same but may have to discard the (strong) cards they’ve been holding on to. On top of that, it’s a song so you could play it for “free” by exerting a character, and using your ink to cast some cards you just drew.
• Steel doesn’t have a lot of tricks up their sleeves however. Steel is good at dealing direct damage (Fire The Cannons is cheap, Smash is ok, Grab Your Sword hits each opposing character for 2). Apart from that, Steel can prevent opposing characters from challenging your characters (to protect your win condition from another color?, combined with the 3 bodyguards?)… You may want to combine Steel with a color that can surprise your opponent.
• Steel’s items don’t give me a clear indication of where you’d want to take a Steel deck… Plasma Blaster is straightforward (but slow) and fits Steel’s "deal direct damage" theme, but the other items? Beast’s Mirror only works if your hand is empty – Steel is not good at drawing cards, but having no cards at all is not where you want to be nor is it easy to get to, especially considering A Whole New World is in Steel and you’ll likely look for card draw in the other color. Frying Pan has to be banished to prevent challenging once (to protect your win condition?), but Steel could just as well shoot that character down or use a Bodyguard? Perhaps Tamatoa wants to add it to his collection (although it looks a bit dull).
• Musketeer Tabard would be great in a Bodyguard deck, although the 4 ink cost is quite high. There are only 6 Bodyguard cards for the time being – in Amber and Steel, but as it is a keyword ability, we can expect more in each set. Don’t write off the tabard just yet.