Everything We Know About Lorcana So Far

It’s been a busy year for the trading card scene so far, with countless releases from big franchises and plenty of indie card games to keep tabs on, too. If you’ve been keeping up to date with upcoming TCG launches, you may have noticed that Disney is releasing a card game of their own called Lorcana.

The announcement that Disney would be getting involved with trading cards was met with a mixed reception in the community but, generally speaking, the cards that have been shown off for this game so far look incredibly high quality and worthwhile for collectors.

To help get you up to speed, here’s a quick round-up of everything that we know about Lorcana so far- including the release date, the types of cards on offer, and other important facts. 

Lorcana Cards Release in August

The release date for the first ever Lorcana drop (named Disney Lorcana: The First Chapter) is the 18th of August. This was announced as a date for the United States, but it has been reported that this will be the same date for every location that the cards will be dropping in.

Disney Lorcana: The First Chapter will be available in the US, Canada, the UK, Germany, France, Austria, Belgium, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. 

Interestingly, it’s been reported that August 18th is the date that local game stores will be launching Lorcana and September 1st is when a mass retail launch will take place. It’s great to see larger companies supporting indie card stores and game shops. 

The second launch should be coming on the 17th of November and the 1st of December, according to GamesRadar, with the same local store priority release. 

Some Cards Are in the Wild Already

There are some Lorcana cards out in the wild already, which is part of the reason why there’s so much information about the cards online before they’re technically out.

Disney previewed a selection of Lorcana cards at their D23 event months ago. The cards were met with an incredibly positive reception from fans, drumming up even more hype about the upcoming launch.

Some cards will be available at Gen Con 2023 too, which starts today (August 3rd) which will be great for any Disney fans in attendance. It’s not currently clear which card types or sets could be at this event, but they’ll likely be shown off on social media today.

Measures have been put in place to avoid scalping, which is amazing.

The Playstyle Looks Engaging

Lorcana has been compared to MTG cards so far, with a similar card structure to the Color types in the Magic franchise. Lorcana cards have Ink types, which appear to have different meanings and playstyles. There are different card types alongside the Ink types, like Items (including Rapunzel’s Frying Pan) and Characters, but the Ink types are quite important. 

For example, Amethyst Ink seems to rely on enchantments and Amber focuses on defense. These hints have been found on Disney Lorcana’s social media profiles, so make sure to follow them on Twitter for further pieces of information and card reveals.

The cards that have been revealed so far look incredible. The game play style focuses on Lore and quests, with the winning player being the first to reach 20 Lore by completing quests.  

Multiple Product Types Will Be Available

There will be a whopping 200 cards available at launch, with a wide variety of products on offer. The items that we can expect to see include:

• Starter decks
• Regular booster packs
• A gift set with 2 oversized foil cards (featuringMulan and Hades), 2 foil game cards, some game tokens, and 4 booster packs
• The Illumineer’s Trove, which includes:
  • 8 booster packs
  • 2 deck boxes
  • A unique storage box
  • A player’s guide
• Card portfolios
• Themed card sleeves
• Playmats
• Deck boxes

There’s the potential to build a huge collection with this card game, especially considering that the target is for there to be 4 launches per year. As mentioned earlier, the next chapter of Lorcana should be in late November/December, which makes it an ideal gift for any TCG fans. 

There will be 3 starter decks, each of which containing a unique 60 card list that focuses on 2 of the Ink types. Starter decks also come with a booster pack, which adds plenty of value. The starter decks include a foil card and 2 cards ranging from rare to super rare or even legendary rarity.

The cards themselves look incredible, with some truly unique artwork featuring fan favorite characters that Disney enthusiasts are sure to be delighted with. The additional game elements, like tokens and playmats, also look like they’ve been made to a very high standard.

While there is some controversy surrounding the Lorcana launch with the ongoing Upper Deck lawsuit, it’s fair to say that this is one of the most anxiously awaited new trading card games of the year. It’s set to be a lot of fun and could be many people’s first introduction to collecting trading cards or even investing in them.