After months of speculation and rumors, a few big pieces of news have been announced. First: an official Disney Lorcana competitive circuit, as well as fan events, will be starting in 2024.
Disney Lorcana Competitive Circuit
Many of you will have been attending the regular Lorcana League events at your local game store. While these are a great way to play the game, many were hoping for a more competitive set of regional and national events.
Today, the Disney Lorcana twitter announced: “starting in Q2 2024, we will have both official fan events and an official competitive circuit“. While there aren’t further details on how these will work, it does seem like information will start to come in a little more regularly soon.
If you are new to TCGs, generally they have their own official competitive circuit or championships. These start as local events where you can qualify for larger regional events, which in turn can lead to major 500+ person events or event World series.
A circuit means players can travel to lots of events, racking up points. It takes a certain amount of points to then qualify for the big events. Some games pay top players to attend, and there can be cash prizes or exclusive cards and merch available to winners.
While we have had Tournament Rules and Play Correction Guidelines released on the official site in the last few weeks, the full rules are still not available. That means there are quite a few interactions and card effects where the only rulings come from a Facebook or Twitter thread.
The announcement did say: “While we have tournament guidelines and other policies live on the official Disney Lorcana site, we will provide regular updates as we align globally and take in feedback from our players to make competitive play the best experience we can.“
With the roaring success the game has seen, Ravensburger and the Lorcana team have obviously had a lot of extra work. Hopefully, they’ve been able to expand the team a little in order to grow the game long-term. It does seem like that’s the case here: –
“Thank you for all of your feedback and excitement surrounding Disney Lorcana TCG! We want this to be a thriving community for years to come, and can’t wait to kick off more official events soon!“
New Event Promo Cards
When announcing the events, two separate promo things were posted. First: “You can expect exclusives for each of these types of events, and we will share more details in January 2024“.
So the events will have some form of exclusive. Whether that is a card, a pin, or something else, we’ll have to wait until January. That’s fun news for collectors and a great incentive to attend events. However, don’t expect these events until Quarter 2 (April to June) 2024.
On top of that, the team reiterated the previous changes to event promos. Basically, event promos now all have the same promo logo as seen on Lorcana League cards, starting from Gaston – Arrogant Hunter.
The same cards will be available at different events around the world. However, a new announcement is that there “will be three new cards available for each set“, plus “these cards have slight differences to the foil pattern compared to the cards found in the booster packs“.
The six cards in the D23 Expo Collector’s Set did have different foiling, the Lorcana League promos have normal cold foiling. Until now, event promos didn’t have any foil, so this is a change.
We also got the three new promos for this set, which we assume to be promo versions of Rise of the Floodborn cards. The team has said promos will be versions of cards we already have, not exclusive new cards rules-wise.
We’ve seen the art for Rapunzel – Gifted Artist as she’s in one of the Lorcana League promo pins. Pinocchio – Talkative Puppet marks the first appearance of a character from the film of the same name. Also, an incredibly good card, as is Four Dozen Eggs.
More Missing Promos?
These are numbered 31, 32, and 33. They all have the P1 which we assume means promo set 1. So far, we’ve had 24 Disney Lorcana promo cards. We’ve already had four cards for the Lorcana League season 2, which should cover until set 3.
We’ve also got the latest promo card Gaston – Arrogant Hunter who is numbered 24, with all the promo numbers before that filled. That means we’re missing six promo cards. But, where could these six cards come from?
We do have six specially decorated cards in the Disney100 Collector’s Edition, but they’re all numbered. Are there going to be more Disney100 cards than we were told, maybe at Disney events, or in Disney products?
Could the cards be from a different type of event, another unannounced special collection, included in something like the new Trove, or be pulled from normal Rise of the Floodborn packs? We’ll report as soon as we find out. Comment below with what you think.
Disney Lorcana Fan Events
There will also be events not aimed at competitive players, but more at Disney lovers: “Fan events will be a way for Disney fans to come together to share their love of Disney Lorcana even if they may not necessarily play the game“.
Many people love the game casually or just love collecting the cards and seeing their favorite characters. Really, the sky is the limit with these events, as Disney can draw huge crowds for collectibles and special occasions.
We can definitely see Disney Parks events happening soon – just as long as it’s possible to get the cards…
Reprints Coming Soon(er)
Luckily, there is a reprint news too. We’ve written recently about reprints, but in summary, we were told: –
- A booster pack restock in October
- A booster pack and starter deck reprint coming “holiday season” this year
Now, the restock is confirmed and is going to be in local games stores from “next week“. That means the last week of October so just under the door to meet the original timeframe.
Plus, the holiday reprint has been moved up, and “will begin shipping mid-November in North America“.
That’s actually around where we expected it, meaning it will be ready for stores to sell as Rise of the Floodborn releases. So, if you’ve missed out on The First Chapter or need more cards to build decks, November is the perfect jumping on point.
Our Thoughts
This is all really great news and bodes well for Disney Lorcana in the long and short term. The most important probably is that everyone will be getting cards sooner than they thought – though it’s still not going to be perfect for a good while.
Serious players are getting events to practice for. Despite the game only having one set, many experienced card gamers are really happy with how the game plays, and the potential for depth. An official circuit is the premier way for card games to establish themselves as serious games.
Fan events are also a great way for Lorcana to appeal to the people who came to this as Disney fans first. It also can serve as a great way of bringing those fans into playing in a less competitive environment.
Some of the challenges in card games are getting new players in, and keeping them playing. Where Lorcana can both succeed and fail, is in this aspect.
We predicted there would be a mix of these two types of events a few months back, and it’s an excellent idea. It has the opportunity to bridge two fairly different communities who both want to buy Lorcana: Disney fans and competitive trading card game players.
Overall: We’re really happy that the game has a clear path forward. New players, fun events, and a circuit – along with more cards and a fairer way of distributing promos – are all excellent things. We hope the team can keep up the work and communication!
