Disney Lorcana has been out in the wild for nearly a year. This may seem like time is flying by, but that’s because it is still in its first few weeks here in Australia and Aotearoa. After checking out The First Chapter, I was eager to see what else could be on the horizon for this TCG. I initially felt it was fun but lacked some depth and complexity. So with the second set, Rise of the Floodborn, dropping here, I was keen to see if it added what I was waiting for.
So far, so good.
What is the Floodborn, and why is it rising?
Where the story was far too light in The First Chapter, Rise of the Floodborn has started stepping up. In short, an investigation into artifacts and lore is still going on when a mysterious flood of ink rushes into the hall. This results in characters going from their storyborne selves to floodborne. The team is left to find the artifacts that have been lost in the flood.
Looking forward, we know that someone goes into the Inklands and Ursula returns. This leaves me hoping the story is going to step up a bit. But for now, this seems to be the set-up for the longer plot, so it gets a [ass.
What is new in Rise of the Floodborn?
As far as mechanics go, Resist is the fancy new one. This basically gives additional defense when being challenged. This is actually quite impactful in the way that Lorcana plays, as each challenge kicks off effects. So your character with four willpower, and two resist essentially has six willpower in a one-on-one challenge. But the first two don’t stack any damage counters. So if you are trying to take someone out with four willpower and two resist with two of your own characters, then you would essentially need to hit it with eight power. If you had to use three, then you would need to hit it with 10 power.
This adds some solid strategy to the game. When you send a strong character questing, you may need to protect it. Thanks to some characters having effects to add resist to others and some items doing the same, you can stack them up to protect your exposed quester. Even better, I got some great synergy with a character with a bodyguard. Bodyguard means challengers have to challenge him first. I loaded him up with resist so I could send the rest on their quests.
How about the characters?
There is plenty of variety here with Mickey, Beast, Hercules, and co. The major additions are heaps of cards from Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, Merlin, and The Princess and the Frog. Given that the TCG is new, all of it is new to us at the moment, but I did like the variety that was achieved by adding a few franchises.
How do I play, and is it worth it?
In Aotearoa and Australia, we are getting the Starter Decks and booster packs. Starter decks, as with the first series, come with a 60-card deck that is ready to play and a booster pack. This means you you get to tweak it right away. There are only two decks to choose from this time, with one being Amber/Sapphire and the other being Amethyst/Steel. With the decks costing around $32, this is a pretty damn good value way to start playing.
Best of all, the Starter Decks have pretty balanced power levels against each other, and The First Chapter starter decks. After many matches between them, the results were consistently mixed. The new ones have been built with some clever synergies as well, like the Dwarves having effects on other Dwarves in the Amber/Sapphire deck.
Booster packs tend to be around $11 and come with 15 cards in them. One pattern I finally spotted is that these seem to have a commonality in each colour, and then randomness in the rarer cards. This is going to potentially make for some fun drafting, which I am looking forward to.
Should you check out Disney Lorcana: Rise of the Floodborn?
There is a lot to like about the changes in Rise of the Floodborn. The Starter Decks are a great way to start playing and offer solid value. Best of all, the game seems to be finding its feet with some interesting synergies developing. I am thoroughly looking forward to the next four weeks as the other two sets get released. Here we will get to see how it shapes up before we join the rest of the world for the fifth set release.
So far, I have heaps of reasons to be optimistic.
The game is certainly developing. Right now it is fun, and I can't wait to see what the next sets offer!
