Disney Lorcana Shimmering Skies – Illumineer’s Trove review

As you likely know, the world of Lorcana is finally at peace after the long battle against Ursula and her army of glimmers. All the glimmers are celebrating the victory with old and new friends in the just-released new set “Shimmering Skies”, that holds plenty of amazing surprises for all Lorcana players and Disney fans in the set. The new Illumineer's Trove is one among them and likely the best one since the very first release of the set. I know you are very curious to know why, so let's unbox it together.

Anatomy of a trove – Contents

The llumineer's Trove is designed to be a very nice and cost effective storage solution for all your cards from a set. The Trove itself is a beautiful full-art storage box containing two cardboard inserts to hold all your cards vertically and organized in two separate rows. In addition, the Trove comes with six thick cardboard dividers themed around the Ink colours to better separate all your cards. These are similar to the ones found in the third set (“Into The Inklands”) as the card dividers of the previous one (“Ursula's Return”) were designed around card rarity.

The Trove also comes with 6 themed damage-counter dices and a Lore counter. Continuing the tradition of the previous Troves, the dice match the theme of the set. In this case, they are clear with some silver glitters in them which make them super sparkling. The Lore counter is instead pretty different from those included in previous products starting from the numbered wheel that is very light in colour and includes some sparkling art together with the usual numbers. This is a very pleasant change as it makes easier to see the numbers while also being much more aesthetically appealing. The artwork on the Lore counter itself has also been improved as it now shows the sparkles of three Ink colours on the front and the other three on the back.

Interestingly, the Trove box itself is also themed around the Ink colours. Previously, we had a full art of the characters featured in the set on every side of the Trove while today the artwork only covers half of each side. The rest is decorated with glimmers and sparkles of the featured character Ink colour that then culminate on the lid where all six Ink colours are showing. This is a nice celebration of Lorcana cards and it comes at the same time Ravensburger announced more details about the future of Disney Lorcana at the D23 Expo.

Illumineers hidden secrets – Booster Packs!

Of course, being Disney Lorcana a Trading Card Game the Illumineer's Trove also includes a few booster packs to open in order to start or boost your set collection. As usual there is a total of 8 packs in each Trove that is always quite nice as it is a third of a standard booster box. Each Booster pack includes a total of 12 cards of which 6 are common cards, 3 are Uncommons, and 2 are Rare or above. The last card of each pack is a foil version of a card of any rarity and there is also a bonus cards to advertise the new “Disney Lorcana: Gateway”, a product designed to allow new players to easily learn the game mechanics.

In terms of artwork, the packs of the new set features Vanellope von Schweetz from the movie “Wreck-it Ralph”, Maui from the movie “Moana” and Donald Duck, Pie-Slinger that are also three of the four characters featured on the box of the Trove.

Final thoughts – Find a Trove find a Treasure!

Personally, I love the Illumineer's Trove and I always manage to get one every time a new set mreleases. The latest one released along “Shimmering Skies” is the fifth one for Disney Lorcana and it marks the first year anniversary of the game. Interestingly, the Trove has improved a lot from the one released along the First Chapter to a point where it is almost a must-to get for all players. Looking back to August last year, the Trove still included the same amount of booster packs but no damage-counter dice, card dividers and Lore counter. Instead, we had cardboard damage tokens, a player's guide and a couple of deck boxes. Although I quite miss the player guide, I am not missing at all the cardboard deck boxes and the tokens as they were pretty unpractical in terms of gameplay and not of great quality. In terms of quality, the dice and the Lore counters are much better and they are actually very useful when playing Disney Lorcana making them a better option for the Trove.

In detail, the booster packs themselves account for almost 80% of the value of the Trove considering the currently discounted prices on Zatu. The remaining 20% (£9 considering current prices) should then cover the Lore counter, the 6 card dividers, the 6 Damage-counter dice and the box itself that is quite a good overall value. In addition, the Trove is a very good product for any players as it provides the damage-counter and the Lore trackers you need in order to play Disney Lorcana and a nice place to store all your cards. I usually recommend to use the Trove for your spares and to keep your main collection in a binder but I saw a few players using the Trove to store all the cards from a set in a very effective way. Disregarding how you usually store your cards, I think the Illumineer's Trove is a very good product to have in particular if you can get it at a lower price on Zatu!

That concludes our thoughts on Disney Lorcana Shimmering Skies – Illumineer's Trove. Do you agree? Let us know your thoughts and tag us on social media @zatugames. To buy Disney Lorcana Shimmering Skies – Illumineer's Trove today click here!