As the Set Championship season for Winterspell is well underway, Ravensburger are already setting the scene for the 12th set of Disney Lorcana, “Wilds Unknown”. This set is definitely expected to be an amazing addition to our beloved game for a number of reasons, including the new franchises it will feature and the new products that will be released!
In addition to what we already knew, the Special Lorecast held on the 14th of April by Ravensburger showcased some of the new glimmers we will be able to get in this new set, as well as digging deeper into the lore and the setting for Wilds Unknown. Honestly, the lorecast was quite exciting and one of the longest we had in a while considering how many “first times” we will see in this set. As usual, here at Zatu we were blown away by what is coming up on Disney Lorcana, and we wanted to summarise some of the most important information we learnt.
Wilds Unknown – How vast are the Inklands?
In terms of lore, Wilds Unknown is shaping up to be another strongly lore-driven set, continuing the trend Ravensburger started with Whispers in the Well. After showing there are more secrets hidden underneath the great Illuminary, the story will continue to expand the Inklands, pushing both Glimmers and players into the mysterious wilderness beyond the familiar locations we discovered so far. The Realm of Lorcana is definitely getting bigger in this set as we learn that the Inklands are actually composed by large territories called “Domains”. Some of these domains are introduced in the Pre-release kit (see later) but it is not clear (yet) how many there are in total. Thematically the idea of Locations being apart of Domain makes absolutely sense and there is plenty of opportunities here to create some sort of “Location Archetype” with in-game effects. Would this be the case in future sets?
Another big narrative questions lingering around since Winterspell is what is happening to the vine? We know that the vine started to spread in Whispers in the Well and that was threatening the Realm and the Great Illuminary itself. We still don't know what caused the vine and what is its purpose (or role in the plot of a major villain) but we can now see that the vine is spreading far and wide across the lands. In Wilds Unknown Glimmers are scattered throughout the Inklands and they need to find their way home.
Together with helping in showcasing the different Domains, this event also creates the opportunity for a few stories within the main one as we have seen so many times in Disney Lorcana. For example, during the Lorecast we learned that the three Madrigal sisters Luisa, Mirabel and Isabela are travelling to reunite after being separated. The new Floodborn Amethyst “Luisa Madrigal, Confident Climber”, for example, is climbing a mountain in the Torchlight Peaks that is interestingly also the area where we saw the first card extended artwork of the set with the battle between Mr. Incredible and an Omni-droid.
To help all these Glimmers getting back, Ravensburger introduced in this set twelve very thematic “Travelers” Glimmers. These are spread across all Ink colours but they have in common an ability that triggers when they quest but only if the Player played another character in the same turn. For example, “Ariel, Curious Travel”, force an opponent Character to Quest on their next turn instead of challenge while “Maleficent, Imperious Traveler” will exert an opposing character. Interestingly, Traveler is not a new ability or Character Classification but it will be interesting to see if this idea will evolve in the next sets as the world of Lorcana gets bigger and bigger.
Key set and Product highlights
In essence, Wilds Unknown continues to look into how much the vine is spreading and how the Glimmers are trying to deal with the magical anomalies across the Inklands. In order to fight back this threat Ravensburger enrolled three new powerful franchises: Toy Story, The Incredibles and Brave. The addition of Pixar movies to Disney Lorcana is a very exciting moment, in particular now that we are celebrating the 40th Anniversary of Pixar and the 30th of Toy Story. Toy Story will celebrate this anniversary by releasing the next chapter in their story, Toy Story 5, in June and I really hope this will call for a celebratory Promo card the same way we had for Moana and Zootropia second movies.
Not surprisingly, both Toy Story and The Incredibles will be featured in the new 2-players Starter deck as previously revealed. This product will include everything you need in order to start playing Lorcana: decks, deck boxes, and lore counter. The best part is that every item will be double giving the opportunity to two players to start playing the game right away. As a reminder, Ravensburger will not release Single Player Starter Decks going forward and the two players one will be the main entry-level product for Disney Lorcana. The team mentioned in the Lorecast they are aiming to release new Starter decks every 6 months with a potential to create also thematic decks in the long run. I have been looking forward to see this new product and I cannot wait to open one and see how these starter decks have been designed.
The other new product for this set I am very excited for is the Pre-release kit. In my view, Disney Lorcana was definitely missing something that turns the release events for new sets into a great experience and I am quite glad Ravensburger listened to the community and came up with this great kit. The idea is that the kit will provide Player with six Booster packs to play on the release day plus a few accessories and collectibles. The six packs will be suitable to play in any format being this the more classic Sealed, or Draft or Pack rush with no issues. I quite like that the kit will include a themed Deck box and 4 dice but my eyes are fixed on the collectible promo cards (1 out of 6) and postcards (1 out of 3). My guess is that the postcards will feature some of the new Domains or some cool artworks that will stack together into an extended panorama but we will need to wait as none of them has been revealed yet.
The promo cards, on the other side, were fully revealed and they are gorgeous. As mentioned above, these cards feature the new Travellers Glimmers and they are all foil versions of cards you can find within the set. Most important, these promo cards will be stamped with the logo/name of the set for the first time ever in Disney Lorcana. I will try my best to not collect them all but I know it will be very very hard.....
Notable cards and Glimmers
The line-up of the new cards to be expected in Wilds Unknown has to start from the two rarest of them all, the iconic “Buzz” and “Merida”. I know a lot of Illumineers would have expected Buzz and Woody the same way we had Minnie and Mickey but I actually like the Iconic are from different Franchises. It seems the team at Ravensburger decided to try a design inspired by the Art Nouveau style using “organic lines and shapes ”. I quite like the style for the Iconic and I cannot wait to see how this artistic choice applies to the Enchanted for this set. Also shout out to Anna, the art creative lead for the set for identify this style as “Lore Nouveau”: so fun!
Among the two Iconic, Merida is definitely my favourite both in terms of artwork and gameplay. Thematically, her ability “Steady Aim” that increases damage deal by any action by 2 is the perfect to show off the new action card from the movie, “Three Arrows”, that deals 2 damage to a Character and 1 to another. With Merida in Play, Three arrow will therefore deal 4 and 3 damages to a Characters but it can also be taken back from the discard when Merida is played using her second ability “Full Quiver”.
The other Iconic, “Buzz Lightyear, Jungle Ranger”, also interacts with actions cards although in this case it allows the player to take back an action card with a cost of 7 or less. Interestingly, Buzz's second ability increases the Lore of any Character by 1 every time an action is played during the turn. This ability seems quite interesting and I am wondering if we will see a new version of the Emerald-Ruby Action deck based on a new Buzz-Maui Half-Shark synergy.
Buzz Lightyear, Jungle Ranger is not obviously the only character from Toy Story joining Disney Lorcana as we have a full line-up of new Characters. We also have a new classification, “Toy” that connects all these characters allowing for some interesting mechanics and abilities. For example, playing the Amber 4 cost Character “Woody, Leader of the Toys” allows the Player to look for a Toy Character or a location named “Andy's Room” among the top four cards of the Player deck. The interaction with the “Toy” characters is pushed further when Woody is shifted into “Woody, Jungle Guide” as its passable ability will increase the Willpower of all Toy Characters by one. This Floodborn version of Woody also allows the Player to draw a card AND play a Character with a cost of 2 of less for free every time Woody Quests. Not bad for a 5 cost Character!
“Jessie, Lively Cowgirl” should also be a good addition to your Toy Story themed Deck considering its ability to draw when questing if there are at least two other Toy Characters in play. Jessie can also offer some protection to your other cards by lowering the Strength of opposing Characters every time a cards with a cost of 2 or less is played.
Of course, Wilds Unknown will include tons of other familiar faces and places from the Toy Story movie including the “Pizza Planet” Location and villains like “Sid Phillips, Toy Surgeon”. The same wide range of iconic characters can be expected for The Incredibles and we saw quite a few of them previously when the 2-Player starter set was introduced. Among the new ones showed today, the Amethyst “Dash Parr, Lava Runner” is particularly interesting as he does not only have Rush but he is so fast that can also quest the turn he is played. Not only this ability is quite thematic and matches his Super-Speed powers, but it also has strong impact on the game considering Dash can quest for 2 Lore potentially becoming a key card to close your games. Most important, Dash is one of the promo cards you can get by attending the weekly events at your local stores: set pre-release cannot come quickly enough!
