Disney Lorcana thrives on the constant evolution of strategies with each new set. While some tried-and-true deck archetypes remain strong, the introduction of new cards, mechanics, and synergies always spices things up. The recent Ursula's Return set is no exception. It has introduced a wave of game-changers that are shaping the current meta. In this article, we'll delve into these influential cards - both newcomers and familiar faces - and explore how they are redefining the game. Let's dive in and discover the powerhouses of Ursula's Return!

The Queen's Castle - Mirror Chamber is a Location card that continues to be a must include in pretty much any competitive Lorcana deck using Amethyst. At a 4-cost, you're placing a location with 7 Willpower and that generates 2 lore per turn. There's also an added benefit that you draw a card for each character at the location at the beginning of your turn. Chances are that if you're dealing with your opponent's board successfully and drop this afterwards, it's going to be a tough time to recover. Ruby Amethyst now has a strong line where they're playing Flynn Rider - Frenemy, Sisu - Emboldened Warrior, and then The Queen's Castle. This forces the opponent to have to split their focus on dealing with 3 different high value threats. To answer this card, I've seen some Ruby Sapphire decks even packing Hercules - Daring Demigod as a response since it can cleanly banish the location with one attack. Rush helps avoid dealing with removal before he can be used.

Bucky - Squirrel Squeak Tutor has caused so much disruption in the format that it's the first card in Lorcana to receive an errata. That's right, once Shimmering Skies becomes available in local hobby shops on August 9th, Bucky will be receiving some drastic changes to reduce the impact he's had. In the meantime, however, let's discuss his current stats and abilities. Bucky is a 2 cost inkable character with Ward and an ability that forces your opponent to discard a card from their hand whenever you play a Floodborn character. Thematically, this makes sense since Bucky is from Rise of the Floodborn, where Floodborn characters and effects were the focus on the set. The issue was that Ursula's Return also introduced an alternative cost to use Shift on specific characters. This gave Emerald/Steel a consistent curve of Floodborn characters as soon as turn two. This, paired with additional discard effects from the deck made it the bogey man of the format, forcing other decks to dramatically readapt their strategy just to keep a healthy hand of cards and make it to the mid-to-late game. This was your best chance at wide removal since Bucky cannot be targeted with single target removal thanks to Ward. Decks needed to include cards specifically for the matchup just to have a fighting chance. As an Emerald Steel player, I'm sad for these upcoming changes, but I understand for the sake of a healthy format, it needs to be done. Plus, we still don't know all of what's coming in Shimmering Skies. As we continue to see those reveals, I'm sure the errata will begin to make sense.

A Whole New World has been a solid choice since its release in The First Chapter. Being a must-include in decks, such as Amber/Steel Songs, its impact as both an offensive and defensive tool is something that cannot be ignored. It's a 5 cost, un-inkable Action - Song that forces both you and your opponent to discard your hands and draw 7 cards. The art of timing when playing this card is the absolute best, as you can disrupt pinnacle turns for your opponent. As an Amber/Steel or Sapphire/Steel player, you're playing your hand out immediately, knowing you're going to refill up to 7 cards once it's played. By this time, your opponent still might have a few cards in their hand as well, so they may not benefit as much as you did based on high value plays. You might even be in a great spot to where you can have one of your characters sing the song, costing you no ink and giving you a full hand of options right afterwards.

As with any TCG, having more cards to play than your opponent is highly advantageous. Hiram Flaversham provides an on play and questing effect that allows you to banish any of your items to draw two cards. This synergy alone has enabled both Ruby/Sapphire and Sapphire/Steel decks to lean heavily into ramp and late game effects since you have the resources to continue ramping and drawing for your pieces to close the game out. Cards like Tamatoa - So Shiny!, further enhance this strategy to continue to fetch items from the discard pile to your hand, replay them, and quest with Hiram to continue drawing cards. The cards usually paired with Hiram Flavorsham are Pawpsicle and Fortisphere which also draw a card when they're played, adding even more resources to your hand.

Diablo - Devoted Herald is a new card from Ursula's Return that allows you to draw cards while it's exerted on your opponent's turn. Even though it costs 3 ink to play, you can shift it on another Diablo for its alternate Shift cost which is discarding an action card. Currently, Diablo has a 1 cost Emerald card and a 1-cost Amethyst card. The Emerald one sees more play since it allows you to look at your opponent's hand and properly plan when to play this one. Since it's a Floodborn character, it synergizes well with our favorite squirrel mentioned previously.

Conclusion

The Ursula's Return meta is so dynamic that it's challenging to narrow down the most impactful cards to just five. Stay tuned for part two, where we'll reveal five more cards that are shaking up the meta. In the meantime, what are your thoughts on this list so far? What would be your other 5 most impactful cards? Let me know on Twitter/X @_EmeraldWeapon_.

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