After a Magical Championship at Disneyland, Lorcana Faces Challenges Ahead
A lack of newness in core gameplay mechanics, less than optimal collecting experience, uncertainty about competitive tournaments, and mounting competition from other TCGs loom over the future of Lorcana despite an astounding introductory year.
For anyone who attended or closely followed the Lorcana North American Championship that took place at the Disneyland Hotel, it can feel like Lorcana has only reached impossible new heights as a trading card game. The venue felt bigger than anything we’ve seen before, and the magic was in full force just outside of the Mouse Kingdom itself as Lorcana enthusiasts and competitors converged for a chance to be the very best, or at least to win a few prizes and promos.
Amidst all of this excitement, buzz and magic, however, looms something of an uncertainty around Lorcana. Indeed, the game is not without its fair share of challenges now that it’s been out for more than a year, and those issues very well may come to a head this year now that much of the initial hype for the game has somewhat subsided.
Lorcana faces a “newness” problem from a gameplay standpoint
One of the core strengths of Lorcana from a deck building standpoint also is one of its weaknesses. The game is all about Ink, after all, and as such strategies and meta decks are defined more by the Ink types included in their decks than any individual card or combo. Indeed, decks built around one card or combo rarely work out on the competitive field.
While that may not seem like a huge deal, this heavy focus on Ink types has actually led to a very unusual and perhaps unexpected problem: Lorcana lacks newness.
It’s not that the game lacks innovation entirely. Indeed, with each set that comes so too do new cards to include in existing decks. Overtime, these cards add up to create decks that feel significantly different to previous versions. But as of late, decks have not changed drastically, and new sets that come out more or less alter existing archetypes rather than bring entirely new and novel mechanics into the game.
And it’s not for lack of trying. In fact, highly interesting cards and mechanics are written into the game each and every set. And yet each and every set those same cards fail to make an impact. Instead, the game gets faster, decks become more aggressive, and already dominant decks like the tier-zero Ruby/Sapphire grow so powerful – gorged on extra Ink and Maui Sharks – that they cause entire tournaments to become lopsided with strong players teching against them.
The North America Championship winning deck is basically from four sets ago
To further support this argument of a lack of newness, look at the deck that won first place in the tournament, piloted by the insanely skillful Ed Chiu. While sure plenty of these cards come from more recent sets than Rise of the Floodborn, the core engine running this deck that makes it possible to be competitive is the Madam Mim/Merlin bounce package that came out in Rise of the Floodborn. Sure it’s gotten some new tools that are better than the ones available to it back then, but for the most part it’s the same deck.
The latest set, Azurite Sea, added almost no cards to this strategy other than the Diablo card you see. While it’s not unusual for particularly strong decks to stick around this long in other TCGs, in Lorcana almost every deck is the same as it was several sets ago except for a handful of cards added in to bolster their strategies. Really novel new decks that leverage recently released core draw engines are largely missing on the competitive scene.
Why is lack of “newness” a problem?
TCG player and enthusiasts crave newness. It’s the reason that the majority of boxes and products from a set sold are sold within the first few weeks of a product launching. It’s the thing that keeps players coming back for more over and over again. However, in other games outside of Lorcana, newness doesn’t mean a new card added to a deck from a set: it means brand new decks with entirely different engines entering the fray in a meaningful way almost each set.
This not only helps shake things up and prevent the meta from getting dry, it fuels TCG players who want a new challenge to master, and a strong new deck to try.
It’s hard for decks to be new when they are based on established Ink combos
Back when Lorcana came out it felt like every Ink combo was playable. Now, however, that’s not the case and some are so much better than others that the meta doesn’t really change so much as it shifts. One Ink Combo gains a few percentage points in playshare after one set comes out, and loses a few points later (unless we’re talking about Ruby/Sapphire in which case that’s pretty much just an upwards spiral of overwhelming power).
There’s a huge challenge in this way of building a deck and a game that I wouldn’t have thought of back in the early days of the game, but there you have it: for whatever reason in Lorcana new decks just don’t really get introduced into the game. And while existing decks do change, because of how the Inks work, that change is largely minimal
This would be different if deck building were focused more on key cards rather than Ink
I – like probably most Lorcana enthusiasts – have tried time and time again to build decks that focus more on a key strategy or combo or even a key character and less on the prevailing strongest mechanic in a particular Ink with nominal success. Decks like my Robin Hood Shift deck which did focus primarily on new characters introduced into the game, or the Basil Detective deck I put plenty of work into both felt strong and interesting to play. However, ultimately they lose out to the established engines in the game because those engines just can’t really be overcome.
For some this might not be an issue, and there are undoubtedly many who enjoy the slow roll and changes that come to the Lorcana meta. However, from my experience TCG players really, really enjoy playing brand new decks and strategies and seeing them win, and my fear is that eventually this lack of newness will come back to bite Lorcana once the gleam and shimmer of its magical, Disney allure wears off.
Indeed I’ve talked to several dedicated Lorcana players who don’t invest nearly as much into new sets as they used to because there just isn’t a high enough ratio of meta relevant cards to justify doing so. That might not matter if the collectors could offset that loss on the player side. However, collecting Lorcana doesn’t give us much to hope for.
Collecting Lorcana isn’t as much fun as it could be
Moving on from that, there’s another issue with Lorcana which has baffled me from the start: it’s not nearly as collectible as you would think it would be given it is a Disney card game. Indeed, outside of the Enchanted cards, most cards aren’t worth anything unless they are incredibly hot on the competitive scene, or included in some insanely hard to get D23 park exclusive box.
I feel like that’s a huge miss that should be remedied one way or another. One easy thing Ravensburger could do to make boxes and products more fun to open is include multiple rarities of popular cards. This way you would feel a bit more like you hit the jackpot more often, while incentivizing collectors to get more products. Not only would that help Lorcana sell more products, it would also make it more fun to collect.
As is, Enchanted cards are just a little too rare to enable people to get that gambler’s high that they get when they pull something good. Additionally, while Lorcana did add onto the types of cards to get Enchanted treatments following Into the Inklands, realistically most players despise any Enchanted that isn’t a character. Non character Enchanted cards tend not to do super well in value anyways so that combined with an Enchanted’s rarity causes Lorcana fans to feel almost like it was a missed opportunity.
Uncertainty around competitive events
Lastly, many players have been frustrated by the lack of information about competitive events. Despite having a Lorcana National Championship for the sake of qualifying for the World Championship, a World Championship date has yet to be announced. Many on X are pointing out how hard it is to plan for these events already and not knowing dates makes things like finding childcare, airfare and the like very difficult.
From my own experience, I had to scramble last minute to make sure I could attend the NAC event at Disneyland because it was so hard to get in I didn’t get my ticket until a few days before.
Logistical issues like these should probably be addressed if Lorcana wants to be taken seriously as one of the top TCGs.
Lorcana faces mounting competition
This might sound a little funny to say, but in many ways 2023 was a much easier world for Lorcana to come out in than the one it faces now. Comparatively, there wasn’t much to stand in its way from being the hottest new TCG on the block. The near future could change that. On all fronts new and popular TCGs are popping up, like the phenomenally successful Starwars Unlimited, and even the UNION ARENA TCG which is rivaling Lorcana just after its initial release in terms of sales recorded on TCGPlayer.
It’s not that Lorcana can’t still thrive in this new world of TCGs – it’s just that it can’t afford to lose momentum. And without a strong pull from collectors, or enough innovations in gameplay, well themed sets and admittedly a painstaking attention to artwork beauty won’t be enough to win the day for them – Disney allure or not.
I have enjoyed Lorcana as a TCG since it came out. Yet I do miss the earlier days when the game felt relatively wide open – when just about any deck and combo could be mashed together to win a tournament. I’d like to see some newness and decks that nobody thought of doing a little better competitively even if only here and there.
Lorcana has the fanbase, the player base, and the intellectual property to still be a great game with even more growth in 2025 than before. But it needs to play its cards right to stay relevant in a world with plenty of options.
