One of the most exciting aspects of any trading card game (TCG), including Disney Lorcana, is the anticipation of new mechanics introduced through expansions. While we're still early in the spoiler season for Shimmering Skies, I can't help but daydream about the possibilities. Here are some wishlist items I'd love to see added to Lorcana in the future.

Innovating the Inkwell

Besides acting as a resource, the Inkwell leaves much to be desired and is ripe for innovation. As of right now once a card is in the inkwell, it's there for the entire game. What if we shook that up a bit and allowed a bit more interaction with it? Here are some ideas:

Playable face-up Inkwell cards

One of my earliest TCGs I've played before was Vs. System, and their resource system is very similar to Disney Lorcana. Each turn you would place any card down and then you were able to use the total of all of your cards in your resource pool to play characters. However, one thing that's different between Vs. System and Lorcana is that there were two card types that were able to be played from the resource row; Plot Twists and Locations. You can compare Plot Twists to Actions in Lorcana, while Locations don't really have a similar card type in Lorcana. What I would like to see is some kind of on-going effects or benefits offered by face up cards in the inkwell. Think of it as an Enchantment from Magic: The Gathering that can be used as a resource as well. With a lot more refinement and balancing, I truly think this could be a mechanic to consider.

Inkwell destruction

If we're to have stronger inkwell cards in play, we would need ways to deal with them as well. Resource destruction can really affect gameplay of a curve-focused deck. There would need to be a way to balance it. Another thought comes to mind from my history with Vs. System. There was a card called Ka-Boom that could only be played from the resource row and it was able to remove a location from an opponent's resource row while banishing itself. This reduces both player's resources by one which seems more balanced. What if Disney Lorcana had an action that stated "If an opponent has more ink in their inkwell than you, that player banishes one of their ink". This could help slow down Sapphire ramp-based decks.

Board wipe to Inkwell

If you're not running Ruby, Steel, or sometimes even Amber/Emerald combined, you're lacking sufficient board wipes to help you stabilize. This usually means you have to focus a lot more resources on single target removal or rushing to win before your opponent reacts with a board wipe of their own. What if Sapphire were to receive their own board wipe that sends all characters to their owner's inkwell? It follows the flavor of Sapphire since they have Let It Go.

Revisiting the Ink colors

Disney Lorcana has done a wonderful job at creating identities for each ink color. When building decks, pairing certain inks merges these identities into something even more unique. What if we took some inspiration from Magic: The Gathering and supported Mono-color decks with a Devotion-style mechanic. Something along the lines of benefiting characters of a specific ink, or only if that specific ink is present on the player's board? What if we expanded the ink types and added a 7th one? What if we had some kind of neutral ink usable in all deck types. Granted these would be more generic effects while keeping ink color specific abilities specific to those ink types.

Changes for Characters

One of my favorite mechanics in Disney Lorcana is actually from way back during the First Chapter, which is the ability to shift characters. This allows you to play a character, utilize that character for some time, and then "shift" another character on top of the original character for a reduced cost. The benefit here is that the shifted character is not affected by waiting for the ink to dry, meaning it can be used for challenges, questing for lore, and activated effects as soon as it's played. Here are some ideas I had for making changes to character mechanics:

Ability to "unshift" characters

What if we were able to unshift characters as a disruption mechanic? Or, unshift our own characters and replay them if they have on-play effects? Unshifting a character allows for some flexibility if you're suffering from not having enough ink in hand, or the ability to shift it on another character.

Empowering characters

It's extremely common to see characters in other games made stronger by the effects of tokens. Another approach would be similar to how Star Wars: Unlimited does this, which is through experience token cards. These cards increase the strength and willpower equivalents by one for each experience token card attached to the character. This would be a really neat way to avoid some of the traditional Ruby removal, such as Brawl or Madame Medusa - The Boss.

Conclusion

Disney Lorcana, while in its infancy, has tons of opportunities to add mechanics as new sets are released. I feel like it's inevitable, but as these mechanics are added, the complexity continues to increase. Given that the target demographic seems to be pretty wide, Ravensburger might try to hedge their bets on making the game overly complicated. Whatever the approach may be, I am here for it, as Lorcana seems to be fairly balanced and respectable when it comes to the flow in which new mechanics are added.

What do you think about any of the suggestions above? Share your thoughts with me on Twitter/X@_EmeraldWeapon_.

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