Winterspell, the 11th set of Disney Lorcana the Trading Card game, just released on the 13th of February and it is rapidly becoming one of the best sets ever released for this game. Since the Set Rotation kicked in with Fabled, Ravensburger has done an amazing job of bringing new energy to Disney Lorcana first with “Whispers in the Well” and the new Whispers Characters, and now with the most thematic set ever released.
In fact, I think Winterspell is one of the sets where game mechanics, artwork and story lore are more interconnected, resulting in an overall great gaming experience. As a reminder, this set is all about a white Christmas season and the great fun our beloved Glimmers are having playing in the snow. However, there is also a looming threat in this weird weather as the Realm of Lorcana is actually facing an eternal winter, brought forward by the great vine foreseen in HenWen's vision. The growth of this vine started to threaten the flood of magical Ink that is the lifeblood of Lorcana, resulting in the Great Illuminary and all the Inklands falling under deep snow. Unsurprisingly, Elsa and Anna play key role in the story with other great Characters from tons of Disney Movies and series.
While the setting and the theme for this deck are quite exciting, the card mechanics and the artwork are even better. In particular, Winterspell is filled with tons of great cards and there is a high expectation that this season meta will be full of surprises. Obviously, with so many great cards to chase and good products to buy for Winterspell, my attention is drawn, as usual, to the Illumineer's Trove that is always THE most thematic and most cost-effective product to buy. This time, I think it is even better than before, as you can tell in the next few paragraphs...
Fun treasures frozen in the Trove - Contents
The Illumineer's Trove is designed to provide Players with all the accessories needed in order to start playing, including eight Booster packs to start or to add to your collection of Disney Lorcana cards. Each of these packs features 12 cards, of which 6 are commons, 3 are Uncommons, and 2 are Rare or above. The last card of each pack is a foil version of a card of any rarity including the new Iconic and Epic cards. Each pack also includes a special puzzle art card that takes the form of a 9 piece puzzle of the Snowball Fight Action. There are also nine transcripts of communications between the Illumineers to learn a bit more of the story behind this set.
Together with all the accessories and cards, it is important to remind you that the Trove box itself is a great accessory that can be used to store all your cards (as you can read in this dedicated feature). In order to help with this, each Trove also comes with six cardboard dividers, each featuring a notable character of the set for the different Ink colours. Winterspell ones includes Pocahontas, Stitch, Darkwing Duck, Goofy, Tod and Granmother Willow.
In terms of Accessories, the Trove also includes 6 Ink-themed damage-counter with a nice frosty finish and light blue numbers that clearly remind of small ice cubes. However, the Lore counter is a major highlight for me in this set as it features a few additional gimmicks. As usual, the counter uses a dial to track the lore acquired during the game. However, spinning the dial also moves the imagine in a small window on the counter showing a few snowballs. Due to its placement, this snowballs seems to flow from Stitch to Angel (and vice-versa) as they are engaged in a snowball fight. If you check the back, you would also notice another small window with a Stitch snowboarder playing tricks while you spin the dial. I love the additional interactive aspect of this counter!
How amazing is this set Trove? Final thoughts
As usual, I think the Illumineer's Trove is among the best product you can get in any Disney Lorcana set. Components, artwork and accessories are all very well made and designed and getting a Trove usually provides very good value with respect to its price. The one released for Winterspell is not different and I love the extra attention placed in this case on the artwork on the box and on the lore counter.
In addition, it is quite well known that the booster packs you can find in a trove have usually better pulls than those you get from a booster box. While this is obviously not a rule, the general perception is that there are very good chances to get good cards when you open a Trove. In my case, this was actually true as I found three Legendary and one Epic card in the eight Booster packs that came with my Trove. The Epic “Tigger, Bouncing all the way” was a big surprise for me as I completely forgot it was among the Epic cards for the set. Most important, the artwork for this card is not only gorgeous but it perfectly fits the Epic foil treatment.
The Legendaries I pulled from the trove were pretty good as they included “Moana, Curious Explorer” and “Donald Duck, Fred Honeywell”. Moana is a chase card for the set as it allows the Sapphire players to use the cards in the discard pile every time they want to perform the “place a card in the Inkwell” action. This ability is a huge game-changer and it is particularly valuable considering how limited is the card draw in Sapphire.
Donald Duck is also a pretty good card considering its great synergy with the Whisper Characters. Donald (or Fred if you prefer) can in fact add an additional card under a Character when you use their Boost ability. Most important, when a character is banished it allows the player to draw cards to match the number of cards underneath the banished character.
Overall, I cannot complain with the cards I pulled and I am pretty happy with the accessories I found in the Trove. As usual, thanks a lot to Ravensburger for designing such a great product!
That concludes our thoughts on Disney Lorcana Winterspell – Illumineer's Trove. Do you agree? Let us know your thoughts and tag us on social media @zatugames. To buy Disney Lorcana Whispers in the Well – Illumineer's Trove today click here!
