Bucky Errata Changes the Lorcana Meta Forever
A new errata has caused a massive stir in the Disney Lorcana community, especially among competitive players. In a scene that has become increasingly dominated by one deck and one card combo particularly, Ravensburger has made the smart but somewhat controversial decision to absolutely nerf one card that has made the infamous Emerald/Steel deck combo too deadly to handle. That card is none other than the unassuming Bucky – Squirrel Squeak Tutor.
In this article, we’re going to get into some of the background of where Bucky came from, what made him so strong to begin with, and what new mechanics caused the ban to be necessary.
Bucky – Squirrel Squeak Tutor: a history
Where did Bucky come from and what was its significance in the game?
Well, at first, Bucky flew pretty much under the radar. It came out in the Rise of the Floodborn set which was Lorcana’s second set to see release. Despite an inarguably cool name and theme, Rise of the Floodborn wasn’t as focused on Floodborn characters as you might think, and included just the standard range of them.
However, what was unique about that set was the supporting characters that had abilities that interacted with Floodborn characters, usually when they were played.
Two of the most popular of these Floodborn characters were Bucky – Squirrel Squeak Tutor and the Blue Fairy.
That being said, Bucky didn’t actually see a ton of use at first, with most decks preferring to use the more direct discard strategies available to Emerald. I, however, was an early Bucky mover and included it in my Emerald/Amethyst discard deck which was pretty strong at the time of its creation. I would combo Bucky with Flynn Rider – His Own Biggest Fan to do a lot of damage to my opponent’s hand. That also worked really well with Prince John who also came out in Rise of the Floodborn, letting you draw a lot of cards.
Into the Inklands – Bucky gains noteriety
It wasn’t until Into the Inklands, Lorcana’s third set, that Bucky started to gain some street cred. Getting paired with the Emerald Steel engine, Bucky could be used as a discard engine in and of itself, without any other cards. All you had to do was run a ton of Floodborn characters in your deck (I ran between 16 and 20) and you could take advantage of the powerful Emerald/Steel combo while simultaneously decimating your opponent’s hand. It was an effective strategy especially early in the season when people weren’t expecting it.
However, Bucky wasn’t so absolutely deadly even then that every Emerald/Steel deck ran him. Indeed, the more popular decks often didn’t bother with Bucky.
Lorcana Set Four and the Bucky dominance
What really caused Bucky to get out of hand was the new alternate shift mechanic introduced in Lorcana’s fourth set, Ursula’s Return. Whereas previously you had to always pay an Ink cost to Shift Floodborn characters onto characters of the same name, suddenly the new way to Shift meant you didn’t need to wait until you had enough Ink to play cards that would interact with Bucky: you could start chaining hand devastating combos as early as turn two.
How this works is as follows:
Play a one-cost Diablo on turn one.
Turn two play Bucky
Use Floodborn Diablo’s alternate shift mechanic to devastating your opponent’s hand while bolstering your own.
This combo quickly became the most devastating and frustrating early game play in the game, leaving players with little recourse from the start if it got off as they literally wouldn’t have enough cards in their hand to counter. Diablo’s alternate shift is so effective that it can even be used multiple times in a turn if you want it to, meaning you can quickly dismantle your opponent’s hand before they can get anything on their board built up.
Bucky’s power doesn’t stop at Diablo, however. After that play, each and every turn Emerald/Steel players have options to Shift or play additional Floodborn characters, continuing the reign of terror that virtually shuts their opponent off from being able to play the game.
What was the fallout over Bucky’s rise in set four?
Is this combo invulnerable? No. It’s not impossible to overcome, otherwise other decks wouldn’t ever be able to win at tournaments. However, it’s easy enough to get off that the actual experience of playing Lorcana greatly diminished as a result, forcing other meta decks to have an answer to it while pushing a broad swath of decks that couldn’t answer it out of the game.
The result was a previously rich and healthy meta getting smaller and narrower to the point where only about four decks are regularly played in the game.
In the Into the Inklands format, it felt like just about any deck combo barring a few were playable, with new and interesting strategies winning tournaments regularly.
Old Bucky vs New Bucky – a side-by-side comparison
Besides the ability to chain Bucky with seemingly endless Floodborn characters to decimate your opponent’s hand along with the alternate shift mechanic, Bucky was also strong because of its Ward ability. Indeed, Ward is a very, very difficult ability to get around early game for any deck, as powerful songs and abilities that can wipe Ward characters out aren’t really possible until several turns in. This basically means that if you manage to field a Bucky turn two, its going to be safe for the forseable future.
As the game goes on, you can even play additional Bucky characters, and if your opponent doesn’t have what they need to get rid of them (a select number of cards can actually deal with Bucky and some Ink types have no answer to it), you can quickly make it impossible for your opponent to ever even have a hand.
The other thing that made Bucky so strong was its two-cost. Being a cost of only two made it very handy to play Bucky on your second turn when there weren’t many other options to play him. Of course, this combined with the ward ability made it really easy to start chaining his Squeak ability before your opponent had any answer to it.
What’s changing?
In a powerful statement from Ravensburger, it was revelaed that just about everything that made Bucky dominate in the game is being taken away from it. First and most importantly, Bucky loses the powerful Ward keyword ability, making it vulnerable to a much broader number of counters. This means that suddenly any Ink type has a chance of countering it.
Additionally, Bucky will be having a cost of three, meaning players will have to wait until the third turn before they can start decimating their opponent’s hand. That may not sound like a huge difference but in the world of competitive Lorcana that’s a huge deal, and vastly interrupts the flow that is required to get the otherwise deadly Bucky Squeak machine going.
Lastly, Bucky’s Squeak ability will no longer fire unless a Floodborn Character is Shifted. This may sound like a subtle difference but in reality it’s a huge one, meaning that Squeak will no longer be the passive discard power it once was but will instead be relegated to specific and relatively fringe scenarios where decks want to be shifting all the time.
What impact will these changes to Bucky have on the card’s playability?
Realistically, these changes have just about removed Bucky’s bite, and the card will see next to no play in the near future. This also means that for the Emerald/Steel discard strategy to be viable, the deck will have to “shift” (pardon the pun) back to its previous renditions that relied on actual discard cards like Sudden Chill, Hypnotize and the like to be a viable strategy. It also means giving more decks the chance to set up before being virtually knocked out of the game.
Is this the first errata in Lorcana?
Many players are calling this the first errata in Lorcana history. While this is the biggest one, technically there have been otehr erratta’s in the past. Namely, Yzma received an errata because supposedly the card had an error on it. While that eratta was much less impactful, what makes the Bucky errata different and unique in the game historically is that it is the first errata to be made to dull a competitively viable powerhouse.
Why the errata vs. a ban?
Lastly, many Lorcana players and fans are expressing consternation over the decision Ravensburger made to change the Bucky card versus just banning it altogether. Personally, I think they might as well have just banned it because their changes cull it from the meta.
That being said, I can see why they made the decision to change the card instead. Bucky’s ability still has some usefulness in less competitive decks and could see play there if players want to build a specifically Shift focused discard deck.
Ravensburger has been very focused on all aspects of the game, not just the competitive side from the start. So I see the errata as being more beneficial to more casual players looking to build an interesting Floodborn themed deck down the line than having huge significance for competitive players.
As per the statement from Ravensburger, the changes to Bucky come into effect when Shimmering Skies becomes tournament legal after its release in August. So for now, players can still Squeak their opponent’s hand away to their hearts content.
