Hey folks! Another week has passed by, which means we're exactly one week away from the hobby store release of Disney Lorcana's 6th set, Azurite Sea. I know the majority of us are deep into deck brewing at this point, so we'll just get right to it!

Disney Lorcana North American Continentals Details Coming Soon

PPG Events recently sent out an email teasing that details are coming very soon regarding the North American Continentals event held in a Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, CA. For those of you with an invite, you should be fine to attend for the main event. However, for those seeking a ticket for a Last Chance Qualifier (LCQ) event, keep your eyes peeled for updates. Tickets for the EU Continentals sold out immediately and we can only assume the same will happen for the North American Continentals. With a new set legal for tournament play, I know we're all hoping for some new spice or archetype to knock the back-to-back winning Emerald/Steel discard off the top. Good luck to those trying to get tickets!

Discussions about banning Diablo - Devoted Herald on X

In a recent tweet by RMB from Team Labyrinth, he's calling for Ravensburger to outright ban Diablo - Devoted Herald for its passive card gain engine that continues to exponentially become a problem without the right tools to answer it. I have to admit that being able to shift a 3 cost in as soon as turn one due to the alternative shift cost really opens a world of pain against the right opponent. Let's take a look at the ideal sequencing:

On the play, you'll need the following cards: Diablo - Maleficent's Spy, Diablo - Devoted Herald, Hidden Cove - Tranquil Haven, Let The Storm Rage On, and another action. Ideally, the rest of the cards would be your curve from turns 3 and on. Opening with 4 required cards plus an action/song is a big ask, but not impossible.

On turn one, you play Diablo - Maleficent's Spy and view your opponent's hand to see if they have answers for Diablo - Devoted Herald. Depending on the results, your turn two will involve shifting Diablo - Devoted Herald in regardless. If you need to keep him alive from a 2 damage action or effect, you can play Hidden Cove - Tranquil Haven and move Diablo there, effectively turning him into a 3 Strength and 3 Willpower character with Evasive that can quest for 1 or sing up to a 3-cost song. If an opponent has a character on board, you can sing Let The Storm Rage On and set Diablo - Devoted Herald to draw a card at the start of your opponent's turn. So, now you've established card advantage on an overstated character by turn two that can continue to apply pressure exponentially as the game goes on. This, added with discard effects, leave the opponent with little to no options to answer other than top decks, which just feels bad. Coming from a pre-errata Bucky era, where times were much darker, I feel that Diablo - Devoted Herald isn't as oppressive, but if you're playing an ink that typically doesn't have target removal, such as Steel or Ruby, you're going to have a tough time until you can start playing characters that can deal with Evasive, and that's if you even get that far with your hand being destroyed by Emerald's discard effects, or character removal by damage/bounce with Emerald and Steel effects.

Given that we've only had one change so far with Bucky in the form of an errata, I don't see Ravensburger banning Diablo - Devoted Herald, at least anytime soon. If anything, we could expect an errata if the card engine advantage remains too powerful into the Azurite Sea set. It's too early to tell, but I'm sure the developers are keeping an eye on it.

Azurite Sea League Kits Revealed

Inserts for the Azurite Sea League Kits have been revealed, and I'm pretty excited for the contents:

With Baymax as one of the introductory characters in this set, it's no surprise to see them as one of the promo pins. A pirate version of Tigger is fitting for the set's theme as well. The Amethyst logo pin finally makes it to the league kit, and I wonder if it will be the same or different from the promo pin provided last year. I am super excited for Tinkerbell - Giant Fairy to get its own lore counter. Moving on to the promos:

These are some really solid picks for the season and I look forward to trying to get as many as possible.

That's it for this week! Are you excited for the details about the upcoming NA Continentals? Will you be grabbing a ticket? What are your thoughts on Diablo? Should he receive a ban or errata? What were your thoughts on this season's league kits? Let me know on X.

I've been Stefen, and I look forward to sailing the Azurite Sea with the rest of your Illumineer's next week!