Disney Lorcana Whispers in the Well: On The Case Starter deck
After the reprints in Fabled and the Set Rotation, there was a great appetite in the Disney Lorcana community for something new, and Ravensburger did not disappoint. The 10th set of Disney Lorcana, Whispers in the Well, is in fact filled with new cards, new mechanics and new themes including the movies “The Black Cauldron” and “The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad” and the series “Gargoyles”. Moreover, the set adds a new chapter to the story of Disney Lorcana with the discovery of a cavern behind the Great Illuminary and a new type of Glimmers, the Whispers.
From what we have learnt so far, the Whispers are half-formed Glimmers from pages that have been torn from a lorebook, but we do not know who was responsible for this and what role they will play in the story. In order to find more clues to solve this mystery, a team of Detective Glimmers was sent investigate. As you may have already imagined, both Whispers and Detectives are new card classifications in Disney Lorcana and they both have their own rules and impact on the game play. Whispers in particular have the new ability “Boost x” that can be used once per turn, to place a card from the top of the Player deck beneath the Whisper character for a cost of 1 to 3 Ink. Each Whisper also has a different active or passive ability that only works if they have have a card beneath them making them very interesting from a gameplay point of view.
In order to learn these new mechanics, Ravensburger has designed two new Single Player Decks. The first one, “On the Case” is a Detective-focused Sapphire-Steel deck centred on cards that can interact with each other in order to create some nice game play. This Deck features the new “Judy Hopps, Uncovering Clues” that allows the player to take a Detective Characters from the top three cards of their Deck on play and upon questing. The Whisper “Robin Hood, Ephemeral Archer” is also featured in this deck together with its ability to deal one damage to up to two Characters once he quests, and assuming the player placed a card beneath him using his Boost 1 ability.
The second Single Player Deck is an Amber-Emerald Deck called “Spectacular Specters”. This deck is built around Whispers and cards that can accelerate their abilities. The main star of the show is “Simba, King in the Making” that allows the players to play a Characters from the top of their deck at the cost of placing a card underneath Simba for a cost of 3. This ability comes at a price as Simba costs a whopping 7 Ink to play, but he can also quest for three Lore and he has a good strength and willpower of five. “Megara, Secret Keeper”, on the other hand, is an early game card with a cost of three that gains the ability to force the opponent to discard a card when she is challenged once a card is placed underneath it. Boosting Megara only costs one Ink, which is pretty cheap considering she also gains one more Lore when questing after being boosted.
Both these Single Player decks appear to be very interesting when I first looked to the product line pictured revealed during the summer. Thanks to the Ravensburger team, I managed to open and play both of them well ahead of the release of the set on the 7th of November and I wanted to share my first impressions on the decks and the new cards. Let’s look into the new Sapphire-Steel deck “On the Case” and let’s try to find all the clues we need in order to solve the mystery of the torn pages.
Whispers in the Well Single player Decks: contents
As usual, a Single Player Deck comes with a ready made 60-card deck that also includes a foil copy of the two Characters depicted on the starter deck box itself. As seen in Fabled, a Rainbow Foil Pattern has been used on the two main cards featured in each Deck. This type of foiling is different from the standard foil version that can be pulled from a Booster pack, making the ones from the Single Player Starter Decks more collectible.
All the cards included in the Starter deck are labelled as set 10 and therefore they do not include cards from previous set. However, it is important to remind that Whispers in the Well includes also a couple of cards from the first four sets that have been re-printed with a different artwork.
Together with the 60-card deck, this Starter Deck comes with a standard Whispers in the Well Booster Pack with 12 additional cards of different rarity, a summary of the game rules with some strategic guidelines, a small paper playmat with a Lore tracker and a few cardboard tokens to keep track of damage and Lore. While this content is very standard for all Starter decks, I love that each cardboard playmat is themed as the rest of the set so that they are actually all different.
The Truth is hidden beyond the surface – On the case Strategic Guide
The very first thing that I noticed in the On the Case Single Player Deck is that there are only 3 Vanilla cards! As you may know, a Vanilla card is a card with no special abilities and as such they are usually less interesting/effective in a game. Due to its nature, Starter Decks are usually filled with Vanilla cards to make them easy to learn and to play, as they are designed to be entry level.
Having only three of such cards in this deck is pretty peculiar, and also very fun, as it means that all the other cards in this Deck have some sort of effect.
In case you are wondering, these three cards are “Black Heron, Real bad Egg”, “Genie, Investigative Mind” and “Nick Wilde, Sly Fox Sleuth”. This last one is pretty nice as it can evolve being shifted for 3 into “Nick Wilde, Persistent Investigator”, a Detective that allows the Player to draw a card every time one Detective Character banishes a Character in a challenge. Drawing is a very important ability in Lorcana and a Steel card with this ability is pretty good to have.
Nick’s partner in this adventure (and in a movie coming out on 28th of November) is Judy Hopps, the brave and cute little bunny we came to love in Zootropia. “Judy Hopps, On the Case” is true to its Sapphire nature and allows the Player to put an Item into their Inkwell. This ability can be used either on your own items, for example “The Robot Queen” to increase your Ink or on your opponent’s one to stop their strategy. Alternatively, your Deck also include “Judy Hopps, Uncovering Clues” that we mentioned early and that will help fishing out more Detective cards from the Deck. Last but not least, a Floodborn “Judy Hopps, Lead Detective” can be then shifted then on top of any of your Judy cards granting all the Detective the Player has in play Resit +2 and Alert. Although this ability applies only on their turn increasing your card resistance to damage and giving them the ability to challenge Evasive Characters it can have a massive impact on your game.
Together with Judy and Nick, On the Case includes a total of nine different Detective cards. I must say I loved seeing the reprinted “Mickey Mouse, Detective” among them as I have been playing this card a lot in my decks and it is nice to see it back. “Clawhauser, Donut Detective” and “Francine, Eyeing the Evidence” are the other two Detective with a passive ability (Challenger +2 and Resit +1 respectively) while the other four Detective cards have ability that improve another Detective when they quest or are played. The variety of Detective cards and the synergy among them is pretty much at the basis of this Deck’s strategy that essentially uses Judy and Nick as draw engine and relies then on an army of Detective that can team-up to win the game.
Together with the Detective cards, this Deck includes three different Whispers. “Kristoff, Mining the Ruins” is a card you will likely want to come out as early as possible as it can quest for two and add the top card of the Player deck into the Inkwell when questing (as far as it has been boosted for 1). “Zeus, Missing his Spark” and “Robin Hood, Ephemeral Archer” are instead good control cards considering they can either deal indirect damage to an opponent or Challenge and banish another thanks to their increased stats. In both cases, Players will need to budget the cost of their Boost ability as otherwise these cards will not last for long on the playing field.
“David Xanatos, Steel Clan Leader” can also be played early in the game to deal indirect damages to a Character while “The Headless Horseman” can protect your other cards if played as a bodyguard. Last but not least I found hilarious to have “Pluto, Clever Cluefinder” in this deck as it has the ability to retrieve an Item card from the discard pile and put it back to the Player’s hand or the top of the Deck (depending if you have or not a Detective in play). The best target for this ability is the Item card “The Robot Queen” that costs only one Ink to play and can deal 2 damages to an opponent Character by paying one and banishing it. Essentially, Pluto and The Robot Queen can work in tandem to deal multiple damages to your opponent every turn. This strategy is not only pretty fun but it is also a good example of a simple combo that new players can learn pretty quickly.
Last but not least, I think it is worth pointing out that Sapphire-Steel Single Player Deck includes two locations. “Castle Wyvern, Above the Clouds” seems a better version of “Maui, Place of Exile” as it grants Resit+1 and Challenger +1 to any card at the location while also generating one Lore per turn. “Zootropia, Police Headquarters” is a spectacular one cost location that allows the Player to draw one card to discard one card when a Character moves to the location. Not a bad card indeed considering it also generates one Lore per turn!
Final thoughts – Could this deck be competitive?
In general, a Sapphire-Steel Deck is always interesting as this Ink colour combination showed a lot of potential recently considering the wide range of great cards that can be combined to create effective strategies. “On the Case” Starter deck also has the great advantage to include almost all the Detective cards released in Whispers in the Well together with a few of the newer Whispers card and their efficient Boost abilities.
Looking to the Deck composition, it is pretty clear that this deck is filled with recurrent cards that can provide a lot of consistency. The new Detective cards are the core of the strategy considering almost all their abilities target or require another Detective card in play. As such, bringing new Characters to the playing field every turn and keeping a wide board is mandatory in order to chain all the Detectives’ special abilities. Obviously, Players will need a steady card draw and to control the opponent’s board in order to make this strategy successful. Nick Wild is likely the best card you can have in play as it allows the player to draw a card every time one of their Characters banishes another Character in challenge.
The new items “Ink Amplifier” and “Ink Runner” can also provide a good help in this direction as well as the new action “Putting it together” or “Helping hand” from set six. Interestingly, adding a few more items to your deck can also offer the chance to add the reprinted “Judy Hopps, Optimistic Officer”. Unfortunately, she is not a Detective but it is a great card and another shift target for the new Floodborn Judy. This is obviously just an option but it shows how many different directions this deck can take to fit your playing style.
Obviously, if you are considering improving this deck to make it more fun to play, you should strongly consider its consistency and increase the number of copies of some key cards like the Floodborn Nick etc. As usual, Starter Decks do not have a lot of copies of strong cards thus it will be up to you to fill the gaps. However, this is also what makes building and upgrading your deck so exciting and one of the best aspect of opening packs and playing Lorcana. I don’t think a Detective-based deck may become super competitive in particular considering the amount of very effective cards that will be released in Whispers in the Well but we recently saw a Pirate Action deck worth less than £70 topping a Set Championship thus there is no reason a deck based on “On the Case” Starter Deck cannot be enjoyable also in a competitive setting. The official Disney Lorcana website at http://www.disneylorcana.com/ can be a good source of idea to improve your deck as well as the contents on Zatu blog. Make also sure to check the Ravensburger Play Hub (Ravensburger Play Hub) to find local communities and events to join in order to enjoy your deck.
