Disney Lorcana Whispers in the Well: Spectacular Specters 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 at all. 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”, “The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad” and the series “Gargoyles”. Moreover, the set adds a new chapter to the Disney Lorcana story with the discovery of a cavern behind the Great Illuminary and a new type of Glimmers; the Whispers.
From what we 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 gameplay. 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 combos. 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 Character 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 appeared 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 both the Sapphire-Steel deck “On the Case” and the Amber-Emerald Deck “Spectacular Specters” and see what they have in store for us.
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 sets. However, it is important to remember 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.
Single players decks – Deck strategy and card list overview
As any new Disney Lorcana set, Whispers in the Well comes with two Single Player Starter Decks: On the Case (Sapphire-Steel) and Spectacular Specters (Amber-Emerald). In both cases, they come with a 60-card deck featuring 2 foil cards, a paper playmat, 12 cardboard tokens (11 for damage and 1 lore tracker) and a small booklet with the game rules and some strategic guidance. Considering the new set introduced new mechanics and new keywords, these Single Player Starter Decks are pretty handy to have as they can help Players to get used to the changes and to prepare them to build their own new decks. All the cards included in these decks are also from set 10, meaning these are all new cards you would likely want for your set collection. However, the two decks have a very different build and focus.
The first one, “On the Case” is a Sapphire-Steel deck strongly focused on the new Detective cards. 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 previously placed a card beneath him using his Boost 1 ability.
The second Single Player Deck is an Amber-Emerald Deck called “Spectacular Specters” and it includes more Whispers Characters and a few cards that can enhance their abilities. The main star of the show is “Simba, King in the Making” that allows the players to play a Character from the top of their deck at the cost of placing a card underneath Simba for a cost of 3. “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 boosted with a card underneath it.
Together with these very nice cards, it is also important to remember that all foil cards from the Starter Decks have a Rainbow foil pattern that is unique to these products, and thus is not the same of the one used on the foil version of these cards you can pull from the Booster packs.
In terms of Gameplay, the two decks play very differently. “On the Case” Starter deck includes almost all the new Detective cards released in Whispers in the Well, together with a few of the newer Whispers cards and their efficient Boost abilities. 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 a challenge. The new items “Ink Amplifier” and “Ink Runner” can provide a good help in this direction as well as the new action “Putting it together” or “Helping hand” from set six.
“Spectacular Specters“, on the other hand, features a larger number of the new Whispers and therefore is designed to exploit their Boost mechanics to the fullest. This makes this deck quite good for any Players looking to test the new mechanics and even more interesting for new players as it offers a straightforward way to experience everything Disney Lorcana can offer.
Basing on the card list, the Deck engine is strongly aimed to get your Whispers cards on the board and to place a card under them in order to activate their full potential. With this in mind, Spectacular Specters includes a few ways to discount the cost to boost your Whispers like Emily Quackfaster, “Blessed Bagpipes” and “Recovered Page”. All the effects of these cards, however, trigger only on play, thus the corner stone of your strategy should actually be the Floodborn ”Scrooge McDuck, Cavern Prospector” that has a passive ability which allows the Player to put a card under every Character with Boost right after they are played.
I think both Starter decks are quite interesting for two different reasons. “On the Case” is a thematic deck that can be a very good starting point for anyone new to the game. It also offers a ready-made and super-fun deck to use for a casual thematic game night. “Spectacular Specters”, on the other hand, is designed to introduce the new mechanics and keywords to any player. The engine of this deck requires a bit more learning, but it also provides a good way for Players with a bit more experience to enjoy everything Lorcana can offer. If you are interested in learning more about these Decks, a more detailed review of each deck strategy and content is provided at the links above. Also note that Zatu offers the possibility to order both Starter Decks at the same time to save time.
