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“Archazia's Island” is the latest set released for Disney Lorcana, the Trading Card Game and the first one published in 2025. Archazia's Island comes right after “Azurite Sea” and follows the journey of our Illumineers looking for the mysterious owner of the hidden Ink caster. In this set, our heroes finally land on a Island where they meet Archazia, one of the first Illumineers. While Archazia does not reveal much about her past and the reasons she has been stranded on the Island for a while, she does reveal an important piece of lore to our travellers: the Island they reached was known as the Hexwell Island, the place where the homonymous Crown and many other powerful items have been forged. She is also the last keeper of all the knowledge from a lost era, including the ability to harness even more powerful inkcasting magic.
These abilities will not only change the story of the Realm of Lorcana but will bring a lot of new mechanics and strategic choices to the game. Are you ready for the new challenges this set will bring to you?
Right out of the Booster Pack – Set overview
Archazia's Island Booster pack and Boxes feature the artwork of The Mad Hatter, Bolt and Mirabel Madrigal on a very light sand background. Each Booster pack includes 6 common, 3 uncommon, 2 Rare or Super Rare or Legendary and 1 foil card of random rarity. The foil treatment of the cards in this set has been applied to the whole card, not just the main artwork. thus the first cards you pull will likely feel different if you collected Disney Lorcana before.
In addition to the 12 cards, each Booster pack will include 1 out of 20 different Lore cards. These cards are different from the previous puzzle cards as they feature a piece of 2 different puzzle arts on one side and a small portion of a longer story on the back. Once read all together, these cards will tell a nice piece of the story behind this set adding some depth to the Lorcana world lore. The two puzzle arts featured on the back of the cards are also well designed and very different from the ones we had previously in this game.
Archazia's Island Booster Box comes as usual with 24 Booster Packs for a total of 288 cards of which 3 to 6 will likely be Legendary cards. The chances of getting an Enchanted card are one every 4 boxes as usual although there are no guarantees you will find one if you buy four boxes. The Enchanted cards of the 7th set are very colourful and they are inspired by the legendary Disney Illustrator Eyvind Earle and its art that “mixes geometrical shapes and nature”.
New powers and new mechanics – Gameplay impact Archazia's Island includes 204 cards, as usual, although some of the cards of the set shows two Ink colours on them. This type of cards is a new addition to the game and it will help the developers to better balance the decks in future expansions. In terms of Gameplay, the dual Ink cards can only be used in Deck featuring both colours but other than this they do not have any special rule or requirements.
The second new mechanics introduced in Archazia's Island is the new “Illusion” Characters and their keywords “Vanish”. All Illusion Characters are automatically banished if an opponent chooses them as target for an action (including songs). The Vanish effect always triggers after the action effect resolves therefore it is important to follow the correct order when using these cards. For example, if an Illusion is targeted by the effect of “We don't talk about Bruno” and is sent back to their player's hand they will be banish after the player discard a card at random. This means that that player may lose a random card and the Illusion Character at the same time. On the other hand, the Illusion Characters are better on average compared to other Characters with similar Ink cost to balance their Vanish ability.
Last but not least, the new set also introduces the very first alternative winning condition in Disney Lorcana. “Donald Duck, Flustered Sorcerer”, in fact, has a passive non-stackable ability to change the amount of Lore needed in order to win from 20 to 25 for all your opponents. This effect does not apply to the Player and it is only active if Donald is on the field.
Card list review – What are the most expensive cards to look for
As largely anticipated, Archazia's Island adds a lot of powerful and entertaining cards to the game, in particular to the Sapphire-based decks. Sapphire has been among the most consistent Ink Colours in Disney Lorcana metagame with Sapphire-Ruby Decks topping often local and international events in the last two sets. The new set adds two very interesting cards to boost any item-based strategy. The first one is “Tamatoa, Happy as a Clam” and it is also THE most expensive Legendary card with an average value of £55 at the time of writing. Tamatoa synergizes perfectly with the main Sapphire-Ruby strategy due to its ability to retrieve 2 items from the discard pile on play to then play any item for free every time Tamatoa quests. The first ability allows players to retrieve the items eventually consumed by Hiram for card draw while the second ability can setup a Lucky Dime for free saving some Ink to trigger its ability right away. The meta is still settling on how many Tamatoa a Deck should include but the most common opinion is that you should have 3 each of the new and old Tamatoa.
The second outstanding card for any Sapphire Deck is the new 4-cost “Scrooge McDuck, Resourceful Miser”. This version of Scrooge McDuck allows a player to check the first four cards of their deck on play and retrieve one item card among them. Scrooge can be a great way to quickly find the items you need with Lucky Dime being in general the most valuable target for its ability. Another great item to look for in this set is “Sapphire Coil” due to its ability to reduce the Strength of any character by 2 every time a card is placed in the Inkwell. This effect is stackable and can be triggered multiple times in a turn by playing cards like “Sail to the Azurite Site”, to largely extend the removal effects of cards like “Sisu , Daring Visitor”, “Brawl” or “Sisu, Empowered Sibling”. Sapphire Coil is somehow a better version of Ice Block, a card used a lot in previous sets to boost the Control aspects of Ruby-Sapphire decks.
And if your deck is heavy on Items, you should look for the new Common card “Belle, Apprentice Inventor” that can be played for free by banishing any of the Player Items. In an average Sapphire deck, this means a Player can play a Pawpsicle on turn one to draw a card, and then banish it in order to gain a 3-Cost, 3 Strength, 3 Willpower Character on the field. This addition can play a major role in keeping pressure on Aggro Decks that have always had an edge against Sapphire-Ruby decks.
The first non-Sapphire card among the most expensive cards in this set is “Bagheera, Guardian Jaguar”. Disregarding the fact that Bagheera is not a jaguar, this card can be an interesting addition to any Steel deck considering its passive ability to deal two damages to every opponent Character if it is banished during the opponent's turn. Combined to its Bodyguard ability and a good Lore value of 2, Bagheera can find a good spot in a few decks, including Sapphire-Steel to protect your Alice cards from been banished in challenges.
The last card you need to keep an eye for in this set is “Mushu, Majestic Dragon”. The community has been asking for a card featuring Mushu from the very beginning and I must say Majestic
Dragon does not disappoint at all. Mushu is in fact a great Ruby-Steel card with 4 Strength, 4 Willpower and a cost of 5. Its ability not only grants Resist +2 to any of the Player Characters while challenging but it also allows the player to gain 2 Lore every time a Character banishes an opponent one in a challenge. Cards like "Li Shang - Newly Promoted” that can challenge ready-characters and other strong Challengers like “Maui, Hero for all” can make the best our of Mushu Ability making Ruby-Steel and interesting type of Deck we have not seen previously in competitive events.
Final thoughts
Archazia's Island is probably the most exciting set we've had in Disney Lorcana in a while. I love the theme, how the story is developing and, of course, finally having a card featuring Mushu. In terms of gameplay, the new mechanics adds flavour and depth to the game and they will help a lot to balance the overall game experience in the long term.
In terms of variability, I think this set introduces a lot of interesting cards that can easily find their space in existing decks. There are also some cards that can seriously boost some colour combinations we rarely have seen in competitive events like Ruby-Steel and even Emerald-Sapphire. I know a lot of players have already sided with Ruby-Sapphire or Sapphire-Steel Decks considering how interesting are the new cards when used together with those released in the previous set, Azurite Sea.
Disregarding which Ink colours peak your interest, Archazia's Island is definitely a set worth collecting as we will definitely see the cards from this set being meta-relevant for a while. Buying a Booster box is always a great way to quickly collect all the cards in this set and to ensure you can pull a few copies of cards with higher rarity. However, considering how variable the pulls rates for Disney Lorcana have been, buying some random Booster packs can also be a great approach as it offers an opportunity to get some very good cards for just a few pounds. Personally, I always go for a couple of boxes to get most of the Common and Uncommon cards from a set but then I love buying a couple of Booster Packs every time I place an order at Zatu or visit my locals for a game night. Whatever approach you prefer for collecting Lorcana, make sure you also remember that playing this game with some friends is the most amazing aspect of this beautiful Trading Card Game. Have fun!
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