Five Ways Lorcana Location Cards will Forever Change the Game

When Location cards were first revealed shortly after the release of Lorcana’s second set, everyone was excited, nervous, anxious and deeply curious. How would Location cards impact the game?

Fans of the game were so nervous about it, in fact, that the Disney Lorcana team actually held an open session on their official Discord where they went over what the ground rules were for Location cards and how they worked.

Still, knowing how things work in theory isn’t the same thing as seeing them with our own eyes. However, as time has passed, we’ve been able to slowly see many Into the Inklands spoilers revealed from Ravensburger, and several of those have been Locations.

Now with these Location cards revealed, one thing is quite clear: Location cards are going to forever change the way we play Disney Lorcana.

Here’s why.

Low cost Location are going to be a staple

One of the things I was most concerned about when I initially heard about Location cards was the cost involved with playing them. Would people actually be willing to spend precious resources on them?

As we’ve started to see more and more of these cards, however, it’s become quite clear just how advantageous they can be. Take, for example, the two location cards Ravensburger just released: Never Land and De Vil Manor.

For just the cost of one, you gain a card in play that gains you passive lore each turn, that also has a staggering will power of four.

Although four may not seem super high, take into consideration that if you get a location like this in play early enough and there isn’t likely to be another character capable of defeating it in battle for several turns.

I would much rather spend my first turn playing a card like Neverland that will gain me lore passively and that takes three damage to take out than a Lilo that gets me only two lore when she quests back can be taken out by songs, weak fighters and the like.

The impact that these sort of low cost, high lore gaining location cards are going to have on the existing Lorcana meta are going to be incredible, and will likely be a staple in many decks that look to gain lore early and reliably.

Challenging will become more common

Although quite likely new cards will come out that eliminate Locations in play, until those are announced we don’t right now know about many ways to get rid of locations other than to challenge them. And while strategic challenging has always been an important mechanic in Lorcana, it’s not been in the foreground. This is especially true of top tier Lorcana decks that have many other ways to take out characters without even having to challenge, say through dealing damage via songs, or just straight up banishing characters.

However, location cards are going to change all that. Their one weakness is that they cannot be readied, meaning they are prime targets to be challenged. Cards that otherwise have not seen much play, like Elsa – Gloves Off, will start to see considerable more play as Lorcana becomes more challenging focused in the wake of powerful meta busting Location cards.

Be Prepared will cease to be all powerful

You cannot fully take away the power of a card like Be Prepared. It’s likely going to be a powerhouse in its own right until it either gets banned or rotates out one day in the distant future. That being said, you can make it a little less omnipotent. Location cards are going to help with that simply because Be Prepared doesn’t get rid of them. Suddenly, it becomes a little less possible to totally turn the tables on your opponent just because you have more cards in your hand after a Be Prepared.

To counter Be Prepared, players need only ensure they have sufficient Location cards in play. Those cards will gain them lore passively each turn whether or not they have characters in play.

Some decks will focus entirely on location cards

Lorcana Location cards are so powerful that entire decks will undoubtedly focus on them, using characters and abilities that work in tandem with Location cards to totally dominate the game. It’s quite likely that decks that leverage character cards with effects targetted at Locations will even dominate the standings for a while as other decks struggle to keep up. Hopefully, overtime, Location focused decks and more character driven decks will coexist together in a healthy and balanced meta.

Jim Hakwins is one such card that is incredibly powerful with Location cards. Playing him enables you to play a location card for free, showing that Location cards and characters will undoubtedly coexist in a growingly complex Lorcana meta game.

Almost every deck will have Location cards

The ability to gain lore passively alone is too strong for many to pass up, and undoubtedly the majority of Lorcana players out there will opt to run at least one specific Location in their deck. Many will run more than that. The end result will be a much more varied and complex sort of gameplay than we have yet seen. And that’s a good thing, as Lorcana will only likely grow more satisfying from more decisions to be made each turn, and more compelling strategies to figure out in order to win the race to twenty lore first.