Disney Lorcana

1 What Is Disney Lorcana?

Disney Lorcana is a trading card game published by Ravensburger (of Puzzle fame) in partnership with Disney, launched in August 2023. It became an instant phenomenon - the first sets sold out within days and secondary market prices spiked dramatically. Demand has since stabilized, and it's now widely available.

The game's concept: Disney characters exist in a magical realm called Lorcana as "glimmers" - mystical versions of themselves. Players are "Illumineers" (arcane scholars) who call these glimmers into play and send them on quests to uncover ancient Lore. The first Illumineer to collect 20 Lore wins.

Lorcana fills a gap in the TCG market: it's more accessible than Magic: The Gathering, more strategic than Pokemon, and the Disney IP appeals to adults who grew up with these characters. It's also one of the best collectibles on the market - some rare cards feature stunning full-art Disney illustrations.

2 The Six Ink Colors

Like Magic's five colors, Lorcana has six Ink colors, each with a distinct playstyle:

Decks are built from exactly 2 Ink colors (60 cards total). Choosing your color combination defines your strategy.

3 Card Types

• Characters - The heart of your deck. Disney characters with Strength (challenge power), Willpower (health), and Lore value (how much Lore they generate when questing). Most have keywords and abilities.
• Actions - One-time spell effects. Play from hand, resolve, discard.
• Items - Stay in play and provide ongoing effects. Many have activated abilities you can use each turn.
• Songs - Special actions. Characters can "sing" songs (bypass the ink cost if the character's cost is equal or greater than the song's cost).
• Locations - (Added in later sets) Place on the field. Characters can move to locations for bonuses.

Key Keywords

• Evasive - Can only be challenged by characters with Evasive.
• Rush - Can challenge the turn it enters play (normally characters must wait one turn).
• Bodyguard - Opponents must challenge this character first before others.
• Ward - Cannot be chosen by opponents' actions or abilities.
• Reckless - Must challenge if able. A drawback keyword.
• Challenger +X - Gets +X Strength when challenging.

4 Setting Up

1. Shuffle your 60-card deck and place it face-down.
2. Draw 7 cards as your starting hand.
3. You may mulligan: put any number of cards from your hand on the bottom of your deck (in any order), then draw that many cards back. You can only mulligan once.
4. Decide who goes first (youngest, coin flip, etc.). The first player does not draw on their first turn.
5. Place your Lore tracker at 0. First to 20 wins.

4 How a Turn Works

1. Ready Step - Unexert (ready) all your cards. Gain 1 Lore for each of your characters at a Location.
2. Set Step - Draw a card (skip on the very first turn of the game for the first player).
3. Main Phase - In any order and as many times as you can afford:
   • Play cards by paying their Ink cost (exert Ink cards in your Inkwell)
   • Put an inkable card into your Inkwell (one per turn)
   • Quest with a ready character
   • Challenge an exerted opponent's character
   • Use item or character abilities
   • Move characters to Locations

The Inkwell

Cards with the Ink symbol in the top-left corner can be placed into your Inkwell (face-down) as a resource. Each Inkwell card can be exerted (tapped) to pay 1 Ink cost. You build your Inkwell one card per turn, so early-game resource management is crucial.

6 Questing and Challenging

Questing (How You Win)

Exert a ready character to Quest. You gain Lore equal to that character's Lore value (the number next to the diamond symbol). Questing characters are vulnerable - they're exerted, so they can be challenged. This creates the core tension: quest aggressively for Lore, or hold back to protect your characters?

Challenging (How You Fight)

To challenge, exert one of your ready characters to challenge one of your opponent's exerted characters. Both characters deal damage equal to their Strength. If a character takes damage equal to or exceeding its Willpower, it's banished to the discard pile. You can't challenge ready characters - only exerted ones.

This creates a crucial strategic layer: questing exerts your characters, making them vulnerable to challenges. Your opponent wants to banish your high-Lore characters before they quest again.

7 How to Win

The first player to accumulate 20 Lore wins immediately. You earn Lore by questing with characters. There's no other win condition - it's a pure race. This means aggressive Lore generation is always important, but so is disrupting your opponent's quest attempts.

Unlike most TCGs, you cannot win by depleting your opponent's resources or running them out of cards. The only path to victory is 20 Lore.

8 What to Buy First

❓ Frequently Asked Questions