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When Disney Lorcana: The First Chapter arrived in August, I was not quite sure I wanted to get into (another) trading card game. In the end, I was captured by the hidden possibilities of a Disney animation-based game and I literally jumped two feet forward into the White rabbit's hole. I am quite happy with my choice as I had the chance to play a new TGC since the very beginning, meet a lot of new friends, spend more time with my son (who also loves the game) and experience Disney magic at a new level.
Most importantly, I cannot believe it has been just three months since the release of Disney Lorcana First Chapter! The journey so far has been a lot of fun thus I was really looking forward to see what the Second chapter, Rise of the Floodborn, would bring to the game. I know for sure I was not the only one considering the queue I saw at the London Disney store and at all other stores hosting the launch parties on Friday.
I attended a couple of events and a sealed tournament over the weekend, and I wanted to share my very first impression on this set. Spoiler alert: it is a great set for everyone loving some strategy and complexity in their game.
Why “Rise of the Floodborn”?
As we learned in the first chapter, the magical realm of Lorcana is made up of multiple regions called the Inklands. At its centre lies the Great Illuminary, a place created by the Curator to collect fragments and echoes of Disney stories. The Illumineers, Curator's apprentices, used the lore stored in the Great Illuminary to reimagine and summon Disney characters in the world as glimmers.
After ages of inactivity, a great power surged within the Great Illuminary and called upon a new generation of imaginative and creative people to become Illumineers and to carry on the legacy of the Curator and protect the realm from threats.
While exploring the halls of the Great Illuminary, an Illumineer named Martin found a mysterious lorebook in a secluded room. Once opened, the book unleashed a chaotic wave of all six Inks that changed Storyborn and Dreamborn glimmers in surprising ways. All glimmers exposed to the wave become known as Floodborn glimmers and the event is now now as the Rise of the Floodborn.
How do Floodborn glimmers differ from the other types? The Storyborn glimmers are the ones people are more familiar with and one closer to the original story of that character. The Dreamborn glimmers are reimagined versions of the original character that are still very close to original ones.
Floodborns are glimmers that have been changed in an unpredictable way. The seeds of this change may have been already present in the Storyborn or Dreamborn glimmer but the result is somehow unforeseeable. For example, Gaston – Intellectual Powerhouse is still a villain but his glimmer choose to strongly develop his brain instead of his physical abilities as the original character.
How do the new cards of this set impact the gameplay?
The new character variations are not only part of new chapter of the story of Lorcana but they are also the main focus of Rise of the Floodborn gameplay. As a result, each Ink colour has a card that triggers a benefit once a Floodborn character is played. Some of the new cards also have the new keyword “resist” that allows them to ignore one or two damages every time they take some. Interestingly, only Steel characters have the new keyword among their traits while some Sapphire characters or actions can grant this effect to other characters. All other four Inks do not have resist in their traits and this is likely part of the effort to better define strengths and weaknesses of all the different Inks making them unique. For example, the most notable new Amethyst cards are linked together by a bouncing strategy that allows cards to be taken back and played anew to gain consistent benefits.
This type of interaction, is quite new to Lorcana and a first glimpse of how the game can attain complexity going forward. In fact, the increased interactivity and synergy between cards is not limited to the Amethyst cards but it is a key characteristic of this new set. The impression you have just after playing a few games is that most of Rise of the Floodborn cards have many new ways to interact with each other. This is quite the opposite feeling I had when I was playing The First Chapter where players were either looking for the biggest guys of for those with some witty useful effects without really creating any real card interaction. It goes without saying that this is a great improvement to Lorcana and a nice change of pace to the game mechanics.
Last but not least, in Raise of the Floodborn there are many more cards that exploits the Shift mechanic introduced in the First Chapter. In this case, players can not only transform their characters into their Floodborn version but they may also be able to shift characters from one Ink into a character of another Ink colour creating many more potential synergies among the different Ink colours. For example, an Amber Cinderella you previously have mainly used as a good singer, can now also shift into a powerful Steel Cinderella – Stouthearted that can become a serious treat for all your opponent's characters. If you were playing an Amber-Steel Song deck you may love this twist.
Will the new set supersede completely the First Chapter cards?
As mentioned above, Rise of the Floodborn brings a more deeper level of card interaction to Lorcana TGC. This is of course great for all the players that started enjoying the game since the beginning as they can improve their skills as the game evolves one set at the time. On the other hand, the game still feels very approachable and everyone that missed out on The First Chapter can surely still jump into Lorcana without the worry of having to play catch-up.
Naturally, having cards from the First Chapter will offer a larger pool of cards to choose from when creating new decks. A lot of cards from the first set will still be staples for this game and other will offer new interactions and strategies. For example, Flynn Rider from the first set can still be a great card in a Sapphire deck and it can now Shift into the newer “Flynn Rider - His Own Biggest Fan”. Obviously, some cards from the first set will be probably replaced by better options from Rise of the Floodborn. Among them, “Pongo – Ol Rascal”, “Mad Hatter, Gracious Host”, “Hans, Scheming Prince” and “Tinker Bell, Giant Fairy” are those that we are likely to see less on the table. On a positive, the price for these and for other cards from the first set is bound to drop progressively making them more affordable for those who still need to complete the first set.
Final Thoughts
I must admit that when I first played Disney Lorcana in August, I fell in love for the card artwork and for the overall potential of this new trading card game. Right from the starter sets, players were able to see multiple ways to win a match and to build effective decks and I know I am not the only one that experimented a lot while having fun playing the game. Surely the community and the League model played a big part on the overall experience but The First Chapter was clearly a good start.
Obviously, after three months of playing with just over 200 cards, we needed something different and the new set has not disappointed. Rise of the Floodborn feels like the natural evolution of The First Chapter, with cards that complement and improve the original set. We have new keywords and abilities, we have more card interaction options, we have new characters and returning ones. All of this will improve the experience of creating new decks in terms of both fun and challenge. At the same time, this TGC is still not as complex of other similar games and new players can easily embark on this journey and have a lot of fun.
Together with playing the game, you can read a bigger story connecting all the Lorcana sets together. If you read carefully the lore behind Rise of the Floodborn, it is unclear if something or someone also escaped from the spellbook once the chaotic wave of all six Inks was released. In fact, the set is called Rise of THE Floodborn, not of the floodborns. Hints and clues about the story can be found in the cards of the second set. For example the text on Judy Hopps - Optimistic Officer reads “I’ll get to the bottom of what happened with the locked lorebook. You can count on me!” and if you look at “Pinocchio – On the Run” you can see him running from the chaotic flood of magical ink. This additional storytelling side is amazing for everyone interested in not just playing with the cards and I am sure there are more details to be found on the new cards. Aren't you curious of how the story of Lorcana will develop in the next chapter?