Some concrete rules for Disney Lorcana were revealed on April 10, and the upcoming trading card game looks a lot like Magic: The Gathering – with all mention of violence stripped out. Leaked images from the latest issue of Game Trade Magazine appearing online show we can still expect a one-on-one deck-battling game, but players are questing for pieces of lore rather than trying to crush each other in combat.
Images shared on Twitter give a snapshot of how the Disney Lorcana TCG will play. Each player constructs their own deck, filled with ‘glimmers’ – characters, items, and actions they can play to impact the game. While reaching zero life is a loss condition in many MTG formats, Disney Lorcana games are won when a player gains 20 or more ‘lore’.
The similarities between Lorcana and MTG are evident in the game’s details. Like Magic, Lorcana games start with an opening hand of seven cards, drawn from 60-card decks, with mulligans available as an option. Gameplay focuses on ‘exerting’ cards (turning them on their side) to activate abilities, send them ‘questing’ to generate lore, or challenge an opponent’s quest.
Cards cost inks of varying colours (and we’ve already seen how similar inks are to the MTG colour pie). Each card also includes symbols showing how much damage they deal during challenges and how much damage they can take before being ‘banished’.
This damage is the only mention of combat in the Lorcana rules. It seems players can challenge their opponent to interfere with lore-gathering activities, but these are tests of strength and will, using character abilities that have no description of causing harm. The mechanics themselves may resemble existing trading card games, but Disney Lorcana seems to be avoiding the battle flavour commonly seen in games like the Pokémon TCG or YuGiOh.
Plenty of the best Disney movies choose to attack us emotionally (looking at you, The Fox and the Hound). However, it’s not surprising a trading card game from the House of Mouse would choose family-friendly themes. Publisher Ravensburger also seems to be going for family-friendly difficulty levels: according to Game Trade Magazine’s leaked cover story (as reported by Polygon), the TCG aims to be “accessible and welcoming for newcomers to TCGs while still offering strategic depth and challenges for experienced players”.
With the Disney Lorcana release date coming up this summer, we’ll be keeping an eye out for more updates. We’ve also got our ears close to the ground for any news regarding the MTG 2023 release schedule or new MTG Arena codes.