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The last set of Disney Lorcana the Trading Card Game released in 2024 focuses on the exploration of a new region of this whimsical world, the “Azurite Sea”. Considering the nautical theme of the set, it does not surprise that many of the characters featured in this set are either pirates (Jim Hawkins, John Silver etc) or re-imagined as pirates. Moreover, the latest set also features two new Disney movies with an adventurous and daring side: Rescue Rangers and Big Hero 6. To celebrate the introduction of these two new movies, we also get a new card keyword and Archetype with a lot of potential: “Inventor”,
As usual, the set comes with two different Starter Decks. The first one, “A Seaworthy Crew” is an Amber-Ruby featuring “Jim Hawkins, Honorable Pirate” and “Tigger, In the Crow’s Nest”. As you can imagine, this deck is filled with some of the new pirates cards and offers a few alternative ways to gain lore including exploiting some of the new locations.
The second one is instead a Emerald-Sapphire Deck built around the new Inventors and Robot cards, hence the name “Genius Reinvented”. The two key foil-cards in his set are “Go Go Tomago, Darting Dynamo” and “Gadget Hackwrench, Brilliant Bosun”. Go Go in particular is a very effective card that has been consistently added into competitive decks since the set released and this deck has high potential for improvement as you will read in the detailed review of the starter deck.
Before we start, I would like to thank again Ravensburger that kindly provided a copy of the two new Starter Decks for a review ahead of the set release in November. I am always super eager to check all the Starter Decks for a new set and I had a blast testing them out and finding out the best way to use them.
Azurite Sea Emerald-Sapphire Starter Deck: contents
As usual, “Genius Reinvented” Starter Deck comes with a ready made 60-cards deck that also includes a foil copy of the two Characters depicted on the starter deck box itself. As done for all previous Starter Decks, all of the cards included are also available in the main set and therefore there are no exclusive cards . However, it is worth noting that this deck also includes 5 cards from the previous set, “Shimmering Skies” and these cannot be pulled from the Booster Packs of the newer set for obvious reasons .
Together with the ready-made deck, the Starter Deck also comes with a standard Azurite Sea booster pack that can be used to boost your starter deck, a player’s guide with all the game rules, a small cardboard playmat with a lore tracker, a few cardboard damage tokens and one Lore tracker token. If you would like more information on which cards you can pull from the booster pack, you can read a full detailed review here.
The overall quality of the products is really good as usual and the artwork on the Starter Deck is really great. I love in particular the teal colour theme used for the box and the Playmat that has also been used to match the trove box and its accessories.
Nothing can stand in your way: Outsmart your opponent and Win!
With respect to the Amber-Ruby deck, Genius Reinvented is heavily Characters-focused but it also includes a few key Items to support the overall deck engine. I concede that this was quite expected in a deck featuring inventors, however I would have expected a lot more of them to support the “creativity” of your Inventors. The general impression is that the deck list is very thematic although perhaps a bit unbalanced so that it may take some time to learn how to use it efficiently. In particular, new and experience players will need to learn the main deck mechanics and the key cards that can become vital winning conditions.
Among these cards, the first two to explore are “Aunt Cass, Biggest Fan” and “Institute of Technology, Prestigious University”. Cass is absolutely essential to your deck engine as it can buff-up another of your inventor characters to quest for 1 additional lore that can stack-up if you have more copies on the board. Even if her Strength is not remarkable, her willpower of 3 will likely make sure that our beloved aunt stays on the board for a while getting the best out of her 2 Ink cost. Cass is also a great character to move at the Institute of Technology Location to enable the location to generate 1 lore per turn. In fact, this 1-cost Location is a great addition to the deck as it offer protection to your Inventors while also generating two lore. I personally love having “Fred, Mascot By Day” at the location as the player will get 2 lore if the opponent chooses to banish him or if they will let him quest while at the location.
Among the items included in this deck, “Emerald Chromicon” and “Megabot” as the ones that can support better your main strategy. The Chromicon in particular provides protection to your Characters by returning a Character to the player hand every time any of the player Characters is banished. Megabot, on the other hand, can be banished to either banish an opponent item or a damaged Character. The Deck also includes the new “Baymax’s Healthcase Chip” that can be used to remove some damages by your character every turn. “Baymax, Personal Healthcare Companion” can also help in keeping damage tokens away just by paying Ink and without the need of exerting its card.
To make sure players can find the right item when needed, the Deck also includes a few copies of “Hiro Hamada, Robotics Prodigy” that let you fish out any Item directly from the deck for a cost of 2. Having a few items on the board is key to trigger the ability of “Gadget Hackwrench, Brilliant Bosun” that allows the players to spend less Ink to play Inventor characters.
Finally, the Emerald side of this Starter Deck also provides the players with a few very interesting tricks to catch the opponents off guard. The most effective one is surely “Go Go Tomago, Darting Dynamo” due to her ability to gain lore equal to the damage on chosen opponent Character. This effect may not be super easy to use and it can be very situational but it can turn the table of any game if used at the right moment. Imagine for example the face of your opponent will make when you play Go Go after their Tamatoa removed your Maui so that you can gain 6 lore… Another easy way to get Lore is to play “Alistair Krei, Ambitious Entrepreneur” but it only works if your opponent has a item in play.
Among the other cards in the deck, there are two new Emerald songs that are worth of note. The first one, “You came back” not only features my favourite Disney Character Stitch but it can also ready a chosen character (with no limitations!). The other song, “Heffalumps and Woozles” will instead prevent a Character from questing and allow the player to draw a card. Not bad for a common card with a cost of 2 and definitely a potential great addition to any Emerald deck.
Azurite Sea Starter Deck – Final thoughts
Overall, I think the Genius Reinvented Starter Deck is a very interesting Starter Deck with a lot of strategic aspects and solid cards. While the Amber-Ruby Starter deck of this set is easier to use and does not favour player interactions, “Genius Reinvented” is a bit more complex to use but much more interactive and reactive. In this sense, this deck is potentially more efficient against different type of decks. Most important, being based on two very effective Ink colours, this Starter Deck has a lot of options for improving its consistency.
A first upgrading opportunity for Genius Reinvented can, for example, aim to improve its consistency by maximizing the Item/Inventor synergy. Adding “Pawpsicle” and “Hiram Flaversham, Toymaker” is an obvious choice considering this is one of the best draw engines in the game at the moment. It has ro be said that Hiram has the Inventor classification which helps with the overall approach of the Deck. Another good card to have in this deck is “Donald Duck, Strutting His Stuff”, considering he is also an Inventor but he has Ward. The new action card “Sail the Azurite Sea” is also a must have in any Sapphire deck as it supports your Inkwell curve and the possibility to play more characters faster than your opponent.
Depending on your budget/luck with the draws, you can also consider a few heavy hitters for this deck. “Ariel, Treasure Collector” fits perfectly in an Item-heavy deck as she can fully exploit your board to gain a lot of lore in a turn. “Oswald, The Lucky Rabbit” can also provide the extra support you need by getting free items on the board every time you place a card in the inkwell a card. This ability can be extremely effective particularly in the early game to get multiple items on the board when used in combination with Sail the Azurite Sea.
Last but not least, no inventor deck should be completed without “Baymax, Armored Companion”. Its powerful healing ability will not only keep all your Characters alive longer but considering the average good Willpower stats of your Inventors, can also get you some very valuable additional Lore.
That concludes our thoughts on Disney Lorcana Azurite Sea – Emerald and Sapphire Starter Deck. Do you agree? Let us know your thoughts and tag us on social media @zatugames. To buy Disney Lorcana Azurite Sea – Genius Reinvented Starter Deck today click here!