Disney Lorcana’s First Banned Cards: What You Need to Know

It seems yesterday that Ravensburger announced the first ever Disney Lorcana banlist through their official socials but it is actually been just over 2 months now. At the time of the announcement (see here), there were mixed feelings among the community, in particular in relation to the impact the decision would have had on the meta and the competitive events. Now that the Set Championship events for Archazia's Island have been completed, and a new set have been released, we wanted to look back to the first banlist to find how it actually impacted the game on the long term. As usual, let's start from what happened first.

Which Cards Were Banned and Why?

As mentioned, on the 8th of April Ravensburger decided to ban two Disney Lorcana cards from any official competitive events. The first Card, “Hiram Flaversham, Toymaker” was a staple in any Sapphire decks due to its ability to draw two cards by discarding an item. While this ability alone was already pretty good, it was becoming rapidly overpowering in particular once combined with “Pawpsicle” (that allows to draw a card on play) and the newer “Tamatoa, Happy as a Clam” (that can bring back 2 Items from discard).  

The second card banned, “Fortisphere”, had the same ability of Pawpsicle allowing a player to draw a card on play. Adding both these items together in a Sapphire-Steel deck not only allowed Hiram to bring even more card drawing but it also increased the changes to play “Belle, Apprentice Inventor” on turn one. The 3-cost Belle was also a new card released in Archazia's Island set and playing her on turn one by banishing a 1-cost items allowed the players to have a stronger board presence early in the game filling one of the main weakness of Sapphire-Steel decks.

Overall it seems quite clear that the issue were not the abilities of the two banned cards themselves but the way they interacted with the latest cards released in Archazia's Island. Steve Warner, Game Design Manager and lead game designer for Disney Lorcana at Ravensburger, mentioned in his communication that Ravensburger reviews constantly the overall competitive scene also with the support of a group of players and influencers and that's how they realized the way these cards were strongly shaping the game. It was indeed pretty evident from the number that Sapphire-based decks were becoming increasingly present in the official events to a point where the meta-game felt almost dominated by just one colour Ink. Considering this, it is pretty obvious why Ravensburger had to step-in to fulfil their mission to “to create a fun and engaging experience for all players” as Steve mentioned in his communication.

How This Changes the Game Going Forward

Removing Hiram and Fortisphere from the card pull aimed mainly to slow down the Sapphire based decks by reducing the amount of card draw their engine was able to generate though recycling the Item cards. While a lot of players complained that the move would have killed Sapphire presence in the metagame, we actually saw a lot of Sapphire-Ruby lists topping not only the last Set Championships but also very large competitive events all over the globe. Although they were not as successful as before the ban, Sapphire-Steel and Amethyst-Sapphire decks also held their ground in these events proving that this Ink colour is still quite versatile.

Most important, all these decks also received new support in the recently released 8th set, Reign of Jafar. Although it is still pretty early, we have already seen a few large events this season and in all of them there was a strong presence of Sapphire-Ruby decks suggesting these will be main contenders for the upcoming Set Championship. Interestingly, these events showed an increase of Amethyst-Sapphire presence with even a few Amber-Sapphire listed in the mix. Overall, it seems the ban of Hiram has not marked the fall of the Blue Ink colour and the players found new ways around the missing cards to make their decks as efficient as they were before.

Keeping a flexible approach in designing a competitive list is not only an important aspect to be successful in every TCG but it will become even more important in Disney Lorcana once the announced set rotation come in effect. As you likely know, once the 9th set of this game, Fabled, releases at the end of August, the cards from the first four sets will become illegal in official events unless they have been reprinted. Basing on the cards released in the last sets, it is likely that Ravensburger is trying to progressively balance card draw effects limiting not only the number of cards that can be drawn but also the conditions to achieve that. The newer “Desperate plan” for example will take over from “A whole New World” that has been recently confirmed to not be on the list of cards to be reprinted. Considering this trend, it is likely that Hiram and Fortisphere were also going to be rotated out anyway thus the ban introduced during last set just came a few months early.

The upcoming set rotation is likely also to help the developers to avoid banning more cards in the future. In general, banlists are very common in TCGs and are used as a way to maintain the balance and the fun of a game when the number of cards become too large to identify every possible card interactions. It's actually a very important tool to ensure the longevity of these games and to make sure the players are having fun playing Disney Lorcana. In addition, the rotation will reduce the pull of available cards and therefore will effectively limit the cards that can interact with any newly released cards. Considering the developers at Ravensburger work on new cards largely in advance to when they actually release, it should be less likely we will need new banlists in the future. Of course, there is always a possibility some cards will tip the balance of the game too much or players will use them in unexpected ways thus it is always possible we may see other cards suddenly banned in the future.

Stay Updated with Lorcana News at Magic Madhouse

Overall, I think it is nice to see how lively the gaming scene of Disney Lorcana has been in the past two years. Banlist, Set Rotation, New rarities (Epic and Iconic), new Competitive formats etc are just a few examples of all the news that are now periodically coming from the Lore streams at Ravensburger. This is actually a very good change of pace and it shows a renewed effort from the team to bring this game to everyone and to make it as fun as possible.

Keeping up with all the changes and news is obviously not easy in particular if you do not have time to follow all the socials and the live stream and that's why Magic Madhouse is coming to your help by summarizing all the key information in their blog. The aim of our team is always to bring all the news in a timely manner and to review them to highlight not only the key aspects but also possible ripple effect that may impact you as a player. This content is an embodiment of this approach as it does not only aim to bring you the news but also to follow-up on them and review how Disney Lorcana is evolving and changing constantly. What cards will we pull next?