Disney Lorcana: Reign of Jafar Set List Revealed

Disney Lorcana is quickly approaching its second year anniversary in style with the World Championship event at the end of June culminating its first competitive season. The start of the new Year in Lorcana in August will also mark the beginning of the Set Rotation that will make illegal to use many of the cards released in the first four sets in any competitive official events. Players, however, will still be able to use some of their older cards as far as they are among those Ravensburger will reprint in the sets currently in rotation. For example, it is known that half of the cards in Fabled, the ninth set, will be reprints.

It also did not surprise that Disney Lorcana Reign of Jafar already included a couple of reprints. Most important, this set was expected to provide some replacements or substitutes for some of the cards that will cycle out in a few months or at least to provide some hints on the direction the meta game may take in the future. Considering the Reign of Jafar has been around for a good month now and it has been used in some major competitive events already, we think it is a good time to look at the set in details and see what the cards of this set can tell us.  

Reign of Jafar: the history so far

Once the Illumineers travelled through the Azurite sea, they landed on a mysterious Island where they met Archazia, one of the original Illumineers. On the Island, our heroes learnt how to summon new powerful glimmers using two Ink colours and they met new friends. They also learnt that in the past the Island was used to craft powerful items including the Hexwell Crown whose pieces were recently stolen by Jafar.

Unfortunately, Jafar also arrived on the Island using its ancient forge to repair the Crown and use its immense power to take over Archazia’s Island. Jafar not only turned the palace we saw in one of Archazia's Island card puzzle artworks into his own mega-fortress surrounded by an army of Illusion glimmers but he also twisted the environment of the Island to fit the new ruler. To support the culmination of this storyline, Ravensburger has released Palace Heist, a new and improved Illumineer’s Quest, that allows players to join forces in order to steal the Crown from Jafar and end his reign of terror. Assuming they succeed, will this be really the end of the evil schemes threatening the peaceful Reign of Lorcana?

What Cards Are in the Reign of Jafar Set?

As usual, Disney Lorcana Reign of Jafar features 204 cards including 12 Legendaries, 18 Super Rares and 48 Rares. All these cards are equally distributed among the six colours although 60 of them are Double Ink Colour cards. Two Legendaries of these set (“Pinocchio, Strings Attached” and “Goofy, Groundbreaking chef”) are available in the starter decks of Palace Heist in a different foil pattern and with additional artwork to fit the theme of the Illumineer's Quest. There is also a third card using this same artwork style in Palace Heist but we will not spoil it as it is hidden in the prize envelope. 18 Enchanted cards complete the set for a total of 225 cards excluding the season promos and the Set Championship prizes.  

The new set will feature Characters from pretty much every movie previously featured in Disney Lorcana and from Bambi that makes its debut in this set. Jafar and the characters from Aladdin are definitely well represented in this set, building up not only the range of Characters but also their Floodborn and Illusion version (in particular considering Palace Heist).

Not surprisingly, Reign of Jafar Set Championship will also be about Jafar with a foil enchanted prize card featuring the stunning artwork of John Loren and Christian Romero. The prize card, “Jafar, High Sultan of Lorcana” is also a good card to consider for future decks as it pairs well with a deck filled with Illusion Character due to its ability to bring one of them to the playfield for free every time he quests. The Illusion has to be discarded as part of Jafar's ability (draw a card and discard a card) that actually allows the players to gain a card AND play any of the Illusions already in hand.

New Mechanics and Card Features, Characters and Art Highlights

Being the last set before the Set Rotation, Reign of Jafar builds on top of the existing card types and archetypes without offering new mechanics. However, this does not mean this set is less interesting than previous ones as we have already seen a number of the cards from Reign of Jafar bringing new heights to some existing decks and shaping the meta game consistently. The raise of Amethyst-Sapphire (Blurple) and of Amber-Steel Aggro decks are likely two of the most notable changes in the competitive scene so far but more will come soon as the season unfolds.

In the first case, the two key cards from this set to look for are “Monstro, Infamous Whale” and “Royal Guard, Octopus Soldier”. The first is a Amethyst Rare card with a cost of 8 that can rush into play with its terrifying Strength of and Willpower of 8. Monstro can also ready multiple times during a turn by discarding a card each time meaning it can wipe the board of any exerted card easily once played. Royal Guard, on the other hand, is a common 1-cost card with a Strength of 1 and a Willpower of 2 that gains a stackable Challenger +1 every time a card is drawn during a player turn. In both cases, players will need a lot of card drawing to exploit these Characters fully.

“Lady, Family Dog” is likely the most important card released in this set for Amber-Steel, in particular for its ability to play a 2-cost Character for free once played. While this addition will strongly benefit the Aggro version of this deck, players will need to keep an eye on their card drawing to avoid to be outpaced in the long run. The New Desperate Plan can be considered as an option to avoid the risk as it allows to draw/swap up to three card. Unless similar cards will be released in future sets, Desperate Plans will likely take on the role of A Whole New World, in particular now that it has been confirmed it will not be reprinted.

Final thoughts and how to best buy Reign of Jafar Cards

Overall, I think Reign of Jafar is a very solid set and a good one to have as last set of the Disney Lorcana’s second year. It includes a few good cards that are already impacting the competitive scene and it offers a good range of cards that can likely become staples once Set Rotation will hit in September. As such, it would be important to not only look to the cards you need now to boost your decks but also to those that can be used in the long run.

I personally chose to buy a couple of Booster boxes to make sure I have four copies of all the Common and Uncommon cards and I then bought most of the single cards directly as my pull were not really great as usual. In both cases, Magic Madhouse came to my help with their very good prices and free shipment on any order of £30 and above. These offers apply to both sealed product and Single cards where you also strongly benefit from Magic Madhouse being a trusted vendor. In the case of Reign of Jafar, I would also recommend to keep an eye on the rest of the product line, in particular on Palace Heist as it is not only a great product but it provides a nice new take on how to play Lorcana with your friends.