The most Notable cards of Lorcana's First Chapter

Amber

Amber has the most cards that are worth talking about. Listed in serial number order

Ariel Spectacular singer

She has decent stats for her cost, she generally wont be challenging, but 3 health is good enough to be challenged in the early stages of the game. She also can net you a song on entry replacing herself in a well built deck. Laslty she has singer 5. 5 seems to be the biggest break point for songs. LEt it go, grab your sword and whole new world are cards you want to sing and Ariel can enable the, on turn 4.

Hades King of Olympus

Hades has a lot of potential. +1 lore for each other villan. His high health gives him resilience against smaller threats, but is most likely going to be banished with an effect. He is a strong finisher, but it is going to be while before you can build a deck that can do that. As it stands there aren't enough villains to support this archetype, but this effect isn't hard to support. You can shift onto a smaller Hades and the quest for a big payoff, making this is on par with the legendary Belle (which we will talk about more later).

Hades Lord of the underworld

I strongly believe that this is one of the most underrated cards. A character from your discard pile can turn into ink, or it can be your top end, or it can fill your curve. The flexibilty of Hades in a limited pool cannot be understated. He can be as impactful as the blue Mickey/One jump ahead, but can also match aggresive strategies by acting as a 5 or 6 drop. He supports the previosu hades as a shift target. There is a lot to be said about this Hades. The only bad thing to say about hades is that he is uninkable. Yet, that feels niche to me, It;s often better to play him than to ink him.

Rapunzel Gifted with Healing

Amber has a lot of damage removal effects. Most of them are below the pwer curve for waht you want to be doing. Rapunzel is not only the exceptionm but she blows virtually every other effect out of the water. She rewards you for making effective trades. There aren't very many draw effects outside of Amethyst. Rapunzel has the capabilty of drawing 3 cards, which is stronger than any Amethyst card. This card is truly worthy of the legendary rarity. The only downside to Rapunzel is that you must be in a position to control the board, which isn't difficult, but if you need to catch up on the board, you might need a different card.

Stitch Rock star

Stitch supports low cost aggresive strategies. He is a late game bomb which can blow out the opponent when left unchecked. Honestly, this card feels like a legendary. As long as aggresive strategies are pervasive so will stitch.

Amethyst

Dr.Facilier Agent Provacateur

The doctor is in with a value engine unlike any other. While the shift is nice, it doesn't facilitate quicker or cheaper strategies. HE allows you to turn board presence into a board wipe and if your opponent doesn't also have a hand full of cards, you will have the resources to outlast them.

Elsa Snow Queen

Elsa has one of the strongest abilities in the game. Repeatable exertion allows for powerful board control, combined with rush cards Elsa has the ability to take over the game. She might as well have a sign that says "banish me"

Elsa Spirit of winter

Elsa is one of the strongest tempo plays in the game. SHe can shut down your opponent's board for teo of your turns. It's not likely that you will want to shift her onto a different elsa, but it's a good thing to have when you need to do it. She has the ability to turn the tide from losing to winning in one swift play. The lack on inkability is not to be ignored. IF she is drawn early there isn't much you can do but wait. If too many are drawn too early you can fall behind on board and then her inpact could mean anothing.

Maleficent Sorceress

for 3 ink you get a draw and 2 /2 character. THats really nothing special. She really shines that it enables the sonf Friends on the other side. IN conjuction you draw 3 cards across turn 3 and 4.

Friends on the other side

Much like Maleficent before, this effect isn't strong on it's own. While it can be strong later in the game the ability to sing it makes it strong with only a minimal loss in tempo.

White Rabbit's Pocekt watch

3 up front and then 1 each other turn to give something rush. It isn't good enough on it;s own, but in conjuction with elsa snow queen you can setup dominant boards.

Emerald

Beast Wolfsbane

This is the only card that i want to highlight how underwhelming it is. With a stat line of 4/4 he comes in at an expensive version of zeus. He may quest for 2 but after that he doesn't have any upsides. Being uninkable means that he sists in your hand early. His effect needs to be read multiple times. The first time i read it it seemed like a good effect. Upon reading it a second time i read one small caveat the characters must be damaged. This means that for this effect to do anything the opponent has to have some characters that were damaged and then they didn't challenge or quest and then beast can exert them. To top it off Beast is alegendary card. Your best pull in the trove or packs can be this the most underwhelming legend in the game.

Chesire CAt NOt all there
Cruella de Vil Miserable as usual
Flynn rider Charming Rogue
Mad HAtter Gracious Host

While each othese cards do smoehting different, they all support an aggresive archetype. They create boards that punish your opponent for tryning to interact with them. INdividually they are good, but together they make a strong agression package,

Genie on the job

Genie's is all about tempo. He is a powerful tempo swing he is comparable to else spirit of winter. With evasive and two lore, Genie is a solid card in Emerald's toolbox.

John silver Alien Pirate

John silver is the only decent control tool that Emerald has. While it's not particularly relevant now, i hope we see more control strategies from emerald in the future.

Kuzco

Kuzco is one of the strongest characters in the game. The aformentioned cards punish interactions, Kuzco simply does not interact. Kuzco guarantees 3 lore. There are no good strategies to deal with Kuzco before he quests. YOu can use be prepared, and you can can play grab your swords twice, but those are not reliable strategies. His only down side is that he is uninkable, but this isn't a card that you want ot ink to begin with.

Mother Knows best

THis card has a similar impact to genie on the job. While it doesn't have 3/2 character attached to it, at half the cost and the ability to be sung, it can't be ignored.



Ruby

Alladin Heroic Outlaw

This is one of the best Anti - aggro cards in the game. With shift he can come out as early as turn 5. Aggresive decks can;t ignore him as he's one of the few cards that remove your opponent's lore and can do it repeatedly. I only wish that they had more alladins in the other elemets so he could be played more.

MAleficent MOnsterous dragon

ON entry she banishes a characetr, she lores for 2 and she inks. She has bad stats, butshe's not played for her stats. She has a high cost but she's worth it. Overall she's great.

Maui Hero to all

Maui has rush and he has above rate stats. He impacts the board in such a way that makes your opponent not want to exert their characters and then when they don't you sing with him. He can never quest, but works very well in every other situation.

Mickey Mouse Brave little Tailor

One of the first legendary cards. He has the highest lore count and has evasive. This card is a solid win condition. If you aren't behind you can win within a few turns (or take a lead that they can't come back from). His medium stats only matter to damage based removal, but few other characters will have the evasive to challenge him. Much like maleficent, he's expenisve but hes worth it.

Be prepared

The one true board wipe. It isn't inkable and it resets the board. Unintuitively, it's only ok against anti- aggro. Often times if you are in a position to reach 7 ink against aggresive decks you may have already won. It being a song is often overlooked. It's hard to sing, but you will be grateful that it's there when you need it.

Dragon fire

It's a solid form of removal. for 5 ink you point at something and erase it. It's perdectly acceptable. Not overcost, not too strong. It's uninkable so it can be clunky. The only thing i would ask of it would be for it to be song. IT seems like a card that will see play for a long time.

Shield of virtue

it costs 1 up front and for the rest of the game you can ready a character for the cost of 3 ink. I fo back and forth on this one. This effect is truly one of the strongest in the game. You can let a character attack a second time, or you can use it to protect a character, or you can quest then attack. The downsife is that it costs 3 to use, so it's unlikely that you can use it effectovely in the early stages of the game.

Saphire

Ariel Whoseit Collector

When people saw the potentisal of Hades they overlooked the potential of Ariel. witha bit of early aggression you can pop off as soon as turn 6. You can combine the ramp of blue and the flexibilty of yellow to turn items in your hand into lore with ariels. This potential grows with more and more low cost blue items.

Aurora Dreaming Guardian

I had to read this card several times. you give ALL other characters ward. You can lock your opponent out of the game with two auroras, and with the abilit to shift as early as turn 3 you can create some nasty boards.

Belle strange but special

I intially overlooked this card. INking extra cards evey turn is a fast way to run out of cards. being at 8 ink while your opponent is at 4 can feel great, but if you only have belle and a mickey your opponent will quickly catch up and then over take you. It may seem like a good idea to rush to 10 ink, but without a followup it's only worth the 5 lore you will recieve from belle. This card might be one of the most difficult cards to use. When used correctly you may be able to speed to 20 lore. when used incorrectly you speed to your own demise. IT would be irresponsible to ignore that belle is the heart and soul of the saphire steel deck that ramps quickly and then refills with part of your world. but that is a great example of what excess ramp can enable

Hades

Hades is an excellent source of removal. He often acts as like the legendary maleficent, but is cheaper. The biggest downside is that hades is not inkabl, so he is dead in the early portions of the game. The remmoval is also not a banish but rather inking. This can be a double edged sword. As it gives your opponent an extra resource for their turn, it also denies them effects that work when banished. While we don't have many now, as sets are released so will the potential of Hades.

Belle

Maurice

Tamatoa

I'm listing all three as an item package. While Items don't have a great impact we might be 2 or 3 good items away from this being a worthwhile archetype. As of now they pair well with the Arielle and that's about it.

Develop your brain

THis card is highly underrated. look at two cards, draw one bottom the other. For the low cost of 1 you get two options keep one. Somethimes this card is a get out of jail free card, sometimes it's just a cycle, sometimes it's ink. This card might be one of the best skill check cards in the game. Knowing when to use it and knowing when not to use it tells a lot of the player.

Let it go

Much like hades acts as a discount Maleficent, LEt it go acts a discount dragon fire. My only complaint about dragon fire was that it wasn't inkable, and this is inkable, but this card also grants a resource. Overall you can see the way they are trying to balance removal mechanics.

Eye of the fates
I don't have too much to say about this one. "haste" is something that people have been asking about. In general, the amount of lore that is availbale at the start of your turn is the most you can quest for. Shifting is an exception to this, and eye of fate is the only other way to gain extra lore in one turn. It's the closest thing we have to haste at the momment. While not significant, it's also not insignificant.

Steel


Captain hook Captain of the jolly Roger
Fire the cannons

Fire the cannons deals 2 damage which is a solid anti aggro card. Captain hook double downs on this tech as he returns it to hand giving oou a decent body and a bit of followup tempo. The only downside is that this entire package is 4-8 non inkable cards whihc is too many in certain decks.

Hans

Hans is an amazing control tool. He costs 1 more than plasma balster but each of his pings cost 0, I don't want to think of his ability as a questing but rather an exert ability that also grants lore. this is due to the fact that the damage is the appeal and the lore is simply incidental. The ability to deal damage to unexerted characters is very important as it allows you to keep up with your opponent even while playing behind.

Tinker Bell Giant FAiry

This is the premier anti aggro card. when she challenegs and baniushes you can deal damage to others, when she eneters the field she will deal damage to your opponent's board. She shifts on turn 4 off of a turn 3 play. all arrows poin to this card. 10/10 she could be uninkable and i wouldn't have ever noticed.

A whole new World

This card is one of the most unique cards in the game, being a song makes this abusable. As of writing this card has single-handedly inspired two seperate archetypes. The first archetype is a stompy ramp with sapphire and a mill game with emerald. I cannot emphasize that neither of these decks would exist without this card. As a hand atavantage reset you can equalize the board which is useful when behind, but less useful when ahead. This leads to archetypes that dump their hand for ramp and then reload. This is good in aggresive decks, in ramp decks, and the symmetrical draw allows your opponent to take cards out of the deck for mill. I strongly belive that this deck limits a lot of future designs, but i'm not sure that it is in a bad way. this card can warp elements but i look forward to seeing what the devs will do with it.


Grab your sword