Best Starter Decks in Disney Lorcana for Beginners and Experts

Disney Lorcana, the Trading Card Game published by Ravensburger and featuring characters and arts from the Disney's movies, is quickly approaching its second anniversary. As it usually happens in most TCGs, the game complexity has steadily grown as the number of available cards kept increasing with the release of each new set. On top of this, the upcoming new set, Archazia's Island, planned in March will bring even more new features to Disney Lorcana with Dual-Colour cards, Illusion Glimmers and a new Winning condition (you can read all the details in a separate content).

While all these changes bring fun to the game, they may also look scary to new player interested in trying out Disney Lorcana. This is quite true in particular if you want to familiarize with the game at your own pace before meeting other players. Luckily, Ravensburger has done a tremendous effort in making this game accessible to everyone by creating two separate lines of products dedicated to either players completely new to the TCG world and to players that have some experience in other card games. Disney Lorcana Gateway, for example, is an entry-level product that can ease any player into the game with a step-by-step learning curve. The Starter Decks (now renamed Single Player Decks) are then the best product for more experienced players and for those who play casually and want to keep-up with the new rules. However, with 13 different Starter Deck it is easy to start wondering which one is the best Disney Lorcana starter deck. With this in mind we thought of updating our previous list with the most recent sets in an effort to help all players picking the Deck most suitable for their level of experience.

Disney Lorcana: Anatomy of a Starter Deck

First thing first, let's review what a Starter Deck is and why they provide a great value for their cost. Each Disney Lorcana Starter Deck comes with a 60-cards pre-constructed deck, a small cardboard playing mat with a printed Lore tracker and some cardboard damage tokens. Each of them also includes a standard Booster Pack of the same set of the Starter Deck. The deck does not include any special card other than the Foil version of the two characters featured on the Starter Deck box and the card list of some of these deck includes also a few cards from previous sets. Overall, each Starter Deck provides everything you need to start playing for less than £20 plus a Booster Pack to get your collection started. And if you are looking for some good deals, Magic Madhouse has a few older Starter Decks at the even more interesting price of £15...

What are the main characteristics of a good Starter Deck?

Each starter deck is usually designed around a certain type or cards or a certain strategy and includes a balanced set of cards that can support said strategy effectively. However, all of these Decks cannot be considered competitive out of the box as they are mostly composed by low-rarity cards with the addition of some Rare and Super Rare cards. In addition, most of the best cards of these decks are represented in one or two copies to provide a smooth learning curve into the game and a relaxed gameplay. Finally, it is important to remind that any Starter Deck is balanced against the other one(s) from the same set but not necessarily against the Decks released with other sets.

Basing on the above, one of the most important aspect to consider when picking a Starter Deck is what play-style would suit you better. This may depend on the Ink Colours of the deck and on the card list and it is important to consider this when choosing a Deck. If you are new to Lorcana or to the TGCs in general, trying out different Starter Decks can be an efficient (and not so expensive) way to find our which type of style will be more fun for you to play.

The second main aspect to consider is how recent the Deck is as older ones may not include the latest mechanics and therefore can provide a very partial snapshot of the game. In addition, older Deck may have less competitive value and they may be more difficult or more expensive to turn into an average competitive deck. You should also remember that older Decks may also be more difficult to source due to their potential collectible value.

Best Starter Set Ranked

Considering the Starter Decks for the upcoming Archazia's Island have just been released, there are 15 different Starter Decks to chose from, 2 for each set other than the First Chapter that featured 3 Starter Decks. Basing on the characteristics discussed above, I would like to recommend three of them depending on your level of experience and on your potential playing style.

The Starter Deck with the highest competitive value is definitely “An Inventive Pair”, the Archazia's Island Ruby-Sapphire Deck. This deck has a very interesting strategy based on Items and it can create explosive plays right from turn one. In addition, this colour combination dominated the competitive scene in the last sets and it is expected to be performing very well in this set too. Piloting this Deck requires a bit of thinking and a lot of strategies thus it should be better suited for Players with some experience and a bit of patience.  

Players with a bit less experience and a bit less patience may found the Amethyst-Steel “Might and Magic” Starter Deck from Rise of the Floodborn a lot more fun to play. This deck includes most of the cards for the Amethyst Merlin-Madame Min combo that allows players to constantly bounce cards back to their hand to play other cards or to obtain Lore. This engine is not too comple to learn and very enjoyable to play but can be coupled with some good Ruby cards to obtain one of the most competitive decks in the format. Most of the Amethyst cards from this Deck have also been successfully used in combination with Steel, Amber and Emerald in recent tournaments therefore picking this deck can provide a flexible option to develop multiple decks.

Last but not least, I think the best option for new players would be the Amber-Ruby Starter Deck “A Seaworthy Crew” released recently for Azurite Sea. This deck features all the different card type of the game including the Locations but it does not involve many complex mechanics or combos. Most of the cards have a single straightforward effect and it should be easy to see how they can interact with other cards. The Deck guide provided with the Starter Deck is also quite good in pointing out all the possible interactions making quite easy to learn how to properly use it. In addition, this Deck is quite fast and very fun to play due to its strong swashbuckler theme.

Final thoughts – Which one would you pick?

In general, I love Starter Decks and I think they are great products to get a taste of the what Disney Lorcana has to offer and a good starting point to learn how to play. They are very well designed products and they come with everything needed to play including a small guide explaining how the Deck works and which combo can be more efficient. They are also very thematic and offer a glimpse of the set they belong too.

Most important, each Lorcana Starter deck has a very affordable price in particular considering the offers and the free shipment available on Magic Madhouse Website. Looking to the inventory today, players can not only pre-order the latest Starter Decks but they can also purchase older ones at a discounted price. I spotted a few of the very latest copies of the First Chapter Starter Deck that are not only quite nice to have but they are known to have a higher-than-average chance to include an Enchanted in their Booster Packs. While the stock last, why not give a try to your luck?