Disney will launch a new card game to go up against Magic: The Gathering and Pokémon called Disney Lorcana

Disney Lorcana is a new Disney Trading Card Game (TCG) poised to challenge a TCG market that has been dominated by Pokémon and Magic: The Gathering for over 25 years.

Disney Lorcana TCG will feature iconic Disney characters including Mickey Mouse, Elsa, Captain Hook, Robin Hook, Simba and Maleficent.

What makes Lorcana stand out from other TCG challengers that have come and gone over the past couple of decades?

Aside from its classic Disney branding, Lorcana impresses due to its lead designers and publisher. Designers Ryan Miller and Steve Warner have a background of successful design at Wizards of the Coast (publisher of Magic: The Gathering). While for publication Disney has collaborated with Ravensburger, a board games publisher with a 130+ year history. Ravensburger previously partnered with Disney on the popular Villainous series of games and expansions.

The collaboration between Lorcana, Disney and Ravensburger seems like a match that’s destined to work well, and establishes Ravensburger as a major player in the TCG market.

Influencers in the TCG space are impressed by Lorcana too. “Everyone should be very ready for a big TCG shift when it lands,” said CJ Eggett, editor of Tabletop Gaming magazine. Eggett added that Lorcana was the “best thing” at the 2023 London Toy Fair.

Trading card games are a multi-billion dollar market - so it makes sense that Disney wants a piece of the pie. And who knows, with Disney on board the TCG pie could become even bigger with new players enticed by the familiarity of playing a Disney card game.

There’s a lot to get excited about here. So, let’s take a look at how Lorcana works and what we know so far.

What is Disney Lorcana?

Lorcana is a Disney trading card game where players take on the role of “illumineers”, powerful sorcerers who can summon Disney characters from “The Great Illuminary”, a treasury of all Disney films and songs. In other words, you get to build and play a deck of cards that are your favourite Disney heroes or villains.

The goal in Lorcana is to collect “Lore”, which you do by banding together “glimmers” to gather the Lore and challenge other players’ glimmers. “Glimmers” is Lorcana’s term for the Disney characters displayed on the cards.

Glimmers are paid for using Lorcana’s main resource: ink. There are six colours of ink in Lorcana: Amber (yellow), Emerald (green), Sapphire (blue), Amethyst (purple), Ruby (red), and Steel (grey). All glimmers spoiled so far have a single colour.

A Lorcana deck contains sixty cards with two colours of cards in the deck. The publisher Ravensburger has confirmed that two colour decks are a restriction in the game.

Lorcana clearly draws inspiration from Magic: The Gathering, with each card having stats akin to power and toughness, as well as special abilities such as “evasive” and “ward”. Meanwhile the Challenge mechanic in Lorcana looks set to be 1v1 duels, a mechanic that’s similar to Pokémon TCG.

Lorcana’s card art that has been spoiled so far has been stunning, with each card featuring all new art that reimagines classic Disney characters.

We’ll find out exactly how to play Lorcana when Ravensburger releases the rules sometime in spring 2023.

What Will Disney Lorcana TCG Kick Off With on Release?

Disney Lorcana’s release date is September 2023 - though there are some opportunities to pick up product early, which I’ll come to in a moment. The initial set to be released in September is called Lorcana: The First Chapter and will feature 204 cards. Lorcana are planning quarterly releases following launch.

The publishers Ravensburger have already announced the launch products for The First Chapter, and these include:

• Ready-to-play Starter Decks of 60 cards (each starter deck also includes a booster pack)
• Booster packs, with 12 randomised cards per pack
• A Gift Set, with 4 booster packs, game tokens, and foil cards
• The Illumineer’s Trove, with a storage box, two deck boxes, 8 booster packs, game tokens, and a player’s guide.

New players will likely want to begin their collection with a Starter Deck, then customise the deck with booster packs, or by buying singles. There will also be official Lorcana deck boxes, card sleeves and playmats available for purchase.

Collectors are more likely to be interested in the Gift Box and Illumineer’s Trove as a way to kickstart their collection and start picking up the more difficult to find cards. Official Lorcana portfolios will be the ideal way for collectors to display their cards while keeping them safe.

Ravensburger have confirmed that each Lorcana booster pack will contain six common cards, three uncommon cards, two rare/super rare/legendary cards, and one foil card.

How to Get Lorcana Early

The official Disney Lorcana release date is September 1st, 2023, when the game will have a full international retail launch in the UK, the USA and several other countries around the world.

But what if you want to get your hands on Lorcana early? There are a few ways you can do that.

• D23 cards. There were seven Lorcana cards released in September 2022 at Disney’s fan event, the D23 expo. These are Mickey Mouse, Elsa, Captain Hook, Cruella de Vil, Robin Hood, Lilo and Maleficent. These are available to buy from re-sellers online, however there has already been big demand, and each card is fetching hundreds if not thousands of dollars. As a collector, I’ve personally invested in a Mickey Mouse Lorcana card from D23 because I want to be part of the very start of the game.
• Gen Con 2023. Lorcana is hosting an early launch at Gen Con in Indianapolis, August 3rd-6th 2023. Attendees will be able to buy Lorcana products during the event.
• Local game stores in the US. While the official international release is September 1st, local game stores in the US will be able to sell Lorcana from August 18th.

It’s looking to be a game with a lot of buzz, so we recommend getting your pre-orders in early!

David McCloud is co-host of We Don’t Talk About Uno, a Lorcana podcast.