The Inklands have always been a mysterious place since we learned about the existence of amazing areas and Locations when the third set of Disney Lorcana released. board games and bring the Illumineers into the uncharted wilderness of this Magical Realm. Unfortunately, we are not the only ones looking to explore these regions as the Vine also is also creeping around to take over all the borders of Lorcana.
As you can imagine, Wilds Unknown is filled with amazing areas to explore, from tangled Jungles to forgotten ruins, and any possible amazing and strange corners in between. And just like the set’s theme, the excitement couldn't be contained with tons of pre-release and release events sprouting up everywhere. The community gatherings have been buzzing no stop while the Players and Collectors discovered a new set filled with new exciting Pixar cards, Enchanted with amazing artwork and a very welcomed increase of the pull rates from sealed products.
I was lucky enough to get my hands on Wilds Unknown a little early (bless the Ravensburger team), but nothing compares to the thrill of finally sharing this set with fellow Players and Illumineers. Every event I attended was packed with such excitement, and laughter, that I kept thinking “Alright… I need to go to one more of these.”
Honestly, the release of new Set for Disney Lorcana is always the highlight of the month, but this one felt very special and the pre-release kit Ravensburger put together played a huge part in that hype. To be honest, Wilds Unknown is one of the set I have enjoyed the most since the First Chapter came out and I really wanted to go through what made its release such an amazing experience. Let’s break down it a few starting from the beginning.
Wilds Unknown: A set filled with adventure
As you may have already read in a previous content on Zatu, the Great Illuminary and the whole Realm of Disney Lorcana was in deep deep snow in a sort of eternal Winter caused by an evil vine. The vine is not only starting to drain the flood ink, the unique resource used to bring the Glimmers to life, but it is spreading far and wide through the Inklands. The Realm is now in serious danger and both Illumineers and Glimmers are scattering through the Inklands in an effort to stop the vine and save Lorcana.
Wilds Unknown set features a total of 204 card as usual plus 18 Enchanted, 18 Epic and 2 Iconic cards. The two iconic cards for the set are “Merida, Formidable Archer” and “Buzz Lightyear, Jungle Ranger” while the artwork of the products features Buzz Lightyear and Woody from the Pixar movies “Toy Story”. Together with the usual Booster Boxes, Booster packs, and Illumineer's Trove the set includes 2 different playing mats (“Merida, Gifted Archer” and “Goofy, Super Goof”). In addition, this set features the new 2-Player Starting set and the first Pre-release kit designed by Ravensburger. This last product is not commercially available but can be used by the local shops to run their Release events and you can learn more about it in this feature on Zatu.
In addition, Ravensburger also released a special foil Playmat for this set that features the same artwork depicted on the booster box and that's where my set Release adventure actually started.
Exploring the wilderness of public transportation: trip at the Disney Store
Considering I am lucky enough to live reasonably close to London, I decided I had to try to secure a copy of the second official foil Playmat. Surprisingly, my own journey into the Wilds using public transportation went quite smoothly, which felt like the most magical part of the whole set.
Most important, this time I managed to arrive as planned a good hour before the store opened and this was quite handy as the queue this time was much longer than the one I did on the 13th of February when Winterspell released. While, in general, spending an hour queuing is not too bad, this time it was even better as a few friends from my locals also managed to come earlier turning the time we spent outside the shop in a fun group gathering.
To be fair, the store in London had tons of stock and I am pretty sure no-one in the queue or that arrived later in the day missed out even if this time the limit was 3 mats per customer.
How is the new Iconic foil Playmat and how it compares to the previous one? In general, I think the artwork of this Woody&Buzz playmat is quite nice and really makes justice to these two super loved Pixar Characters. As seen previous, the foil is limited to the Lorcana logos and to a few small details in the centre of the mat. I personally feel perhaps this playmat would have deserved a bit more foiling but I think the result is still pretty good. You can just consider the foiling as a nice addition which makes an already spectacular artwork popping even more.
First test run(s) for the Wilds Unknown Pre-release Kits
My trip to London included also a couple more stops in the area around the Disney Store and a very well deserved cappuccino. The small snack break was the perfect timing to open a few packs I bought at the Disney Store and I was pleasantly rewarded with a couple of nice Legendaries. I am usually pretty unlucky when I open Disney Lorcana packs and such good pulls from a pack have always been quite rare in the past. However, it is pretty clear now that the pull rates of this Set have been substantially increased so that getting a Legendary (or more) from a few packs is getting quite common.
Next stop on my travel plan was at my locals to take part in our Friday Pre-release event. This time, the event was boosted by the possibility to use the Pre-relase kit. As discussed in a different content, this amazing kit includes six booster packs from the Wilds Unknown set, 4 dice, one stamped foil promo card and one collectible postcards. The contents of the kit are perfect for a classic sealed format and the opportunity to get an exclusive Promo stamped with the set name was just too good to miss out.
The Sealed tournament I joined on release day was especially fun, mostly because my very first pack blessed me with an enchanted “Frozone, Super Cool”. I really hope the set and the Pre-release kit pulls will forever remain this generous! My six packs also delivered three Legendaries and a handful of strong Super Rares that went straight into my deck without hesitation. Sadly, my gameplay didn’t quite match the quality of my pulls and I wrapped up the event in 10th place out of 15 players. However, the results didn’t matter to be honest as the room was full of smiles, and laughter. Everyone seemed genuinely happy with their pulls, and the general consensus was clear: having a dedicated pre-release kit added a lot to the experience, especially when the general pull rates of the set felt so good.
Moreover, after the event we realised our local shop ordered quite a few pre-release kits. It would really have been a shame to have them sitting on a shelf too long thus we agreed to use them for a Pack Rush event we planned on our league night right after the release. The event went also pretty well with more good pulls including a gorgeous “Alien, True Believer” Enchanted pulled by one of my friends. Weirdly, all our kits other then one included the Wilderknot postcard.
Disregarding the pulls, the kit design proved perfect also for pack rush. The six packs included in the kit allowed for the event to run quickly through three full rounds leaving some time to open more packs and to discuss new strategies and idea for the upcoming CCQ at the UK Games Expo. I was also quite happy as the promo card I pulled from this pre-release kit was the last one I was missing to complete my set collection. As I mentioned previously, I decided I would try to collect all the promo cards and the postcards in order to make a dedicated page in my binder. As you can see below, I made it and it looks stunning! In case you are also looking to add your postcards to the binders, you can easily try to slot them directly in one of the pockets (do not try to use two of them as the Postcard will bend too much). I went from a slightly more complex approach using a large card sleeve and sticking a spare Lorcana card on the back to exploit the binder pocket.
Disregarding the storage approach (and even if you are not collecting the promos at all), it feels really nice to finally have a few additional collectible elements that are designed to be specific for a Disney Lorcana set. I love playing and collecting Disney Lorcana I cannot resist to new shiny things to add to my binders!!!!!
