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The European Disney Lorcana Challenge last weekend packed a lot for all the fans of the trading Card Game published by Ravensburger. Everyone was expecting to catch a glimpse of the new meta featuring the cards from the latest set released, “Azurite sea” and to have a chance to see how the continental final events will be managed. For both those attending in person or watching the competition on livestream, there was a palpable tension in the hall culminating in a tense battle between an Emerald/Amethyst and a Ruby/Amethyst deck.
BUT, just before the Finals, Ravensburger, caught the opportunity of the livestream to reveal the names of the next two sets planned for 2025 sending the comment section of the event into total chaos. To be fair, there were a few hints that this might have happened including a few Owl symbols spread around the hall and on the tables of the events. For those who have not followed the story arc in the last two sets, “Shimmering Skies” and “Azurite sea”, the symbol of the Owl is expected to play a key part in the story of Disney Lorcana as it was spotted on the Secret Inkcaster and on maps that lead the Illumineers in their journey through the Azurite sea. It is not clear yet if the “Owl” is a character, or a place and if this will be part of the known Disney lore or something created specifically for Disney Lorcana. No-one really knows at the moment but everyone is massively speculating on the topic.
However, what we know now is that the name of the next set will be “Archazia’s Island” and that will be released in March 2025. The Island is described as the place “where friendly pets abound, beyond the cast of cuddly critters, lies an ancient secret just waiting to be discovered. We’re excited to new learn tricks”. In theme with the description, the main star of the new set will be the super-pup from the movie “Bolt” and everyone believes that the set would be filled with dogs and animals. Coincidentally (or not), Archazia's Island will be the third set of the second arc of Disney Lorcana story while the Dalmatians puppy characters were all released in the third set of the first arc that culminated with the battle against Ursula. TCG players do not usually believe in coincidences of course and we obviously tend to overthink these type of details.
The other aspect that caught everyone's attention is the mention about “learning new tricks” as everyone expects this to be a hint to some major change in the gameplay. The last major change of the game, in fact, happened interestingly in the third set with the release of the Locations card and it seems very possible that set 7 will see some major changes to the game. Some players expect this changes to be linked to the “Ally” keyword or to be some kind of “equipment” card but at this time everything seems possible. We don't even know if “Archazia” would be the name of the Owl or something entirely unrelated...
Together with the name of the seventh set, Ravensburger revealed also that the eighth set will be “The Reign of Jafar”.
In this set, Jafar is sitting on a throne wearing the now completed Hexwell Crown so we can finally close the discussion on who was really after this powerful artefact. I had my money on Hades but I have a feeling that the story will still hold a few surprises for us. Most important, we can expect the 8th set will also see the release of another cooperative adventure similar to “Deep Trouble”. Ravensburger mentioned previously they wanted the Illumineer Quest to be a series and it was a great hit among the fans, thus I really hope we will soon have a chance to team-up against the new big villain. Unfortunately we will need to wait till Q2 2025 to see the new set and related products.
Finally, the news shared over the weekend disclosed also the accessories that will release together with the seventh set. Archazia’s Island will have two new playmats featuring “Tigger, in the crow's nest” and “We will be immortals” and two new set of sleeves (Cinderella and Ursula). Most important, the gift set has been completely re-invented again to be very unique as previously seen for the Stitch collector Gift set. This time, the Gift set will be based on “Lilo, escape artist” from the Azurite sea set and will include a unique alternative art card, some card separators, a storage box featuring the same artwork of the card and 5 booster packs. Interestingly, the booster packs will be randomly chosen among the sets from 2 to 6 and there can be any amount of each of them in the gift set. Although this choice may not please long term players and collectors, I think it will provide a chance to get some useful cards to any new players that may want to join Lorcana. The team at my locals also noticed the gift set is just right to play the “chaos draft” format thus you may want to save your boosters to enjoy with your friends. If you do so, you will also have a great excuse to get more copies of that beautiful Alternate art Lilo....