The Disney Lorcana Trading Card Game gives opportunities for local card game stores to host competitive tournaments for it’s players for each set that releases. These tournaments are called ‘Set Championships’ and reward players with Disney Lorcana official prizes depending on their placement. Everyone participating receives a ‘Hiro Hamada – Armour Designer’ promotional card, which is an alternate art to the one found in Achazia’s Island. This participation prize is new to the set championships and great motivation to try your luck at winning if you get a prize regardless! The top 8 of the tournament receive a Full-Art enchanted version of the card which looks spectacular and again, is an alternate art to the enchanted version found in Archazia’s island. And finally, the winner of the tournament, on top of the previous rewards, receives an exclusive playmat with the alternate art enchanted ‘Hiro Hamada – Armour Designer’ as the design. To all Big Hero 6 fans out there, this playmat is a must have!
The Disney Lorcana Meta was shaken up due to the ban of ‘Hiram Flaversham – Toymaker’ and ‘Fortisphere’ on the 8th April 2025, and the top colour combos are yet to be established. With the Archazia’s Island Set Championships now under way, and decks needing to be finalised as soon as possible to get much needed practice in before this semi-competitive event, here are the top decks I think could lead you to victory!
Amber-Emerald: Chernadogs
A super-fun ‘Lady and the Tramp’ themed deck which can be very quick to gain lore, over-run the board with low-cost characters, and finish out the game with a powerful ‘Chernabog – Evildoer’. Quick lore-gaining decks are called ‘Aggro’ decks, as they force your opponent to have to deal with a lot of characters to stay in the game, whilst you quest away! However, it doesn’t rely solely on quick wins like other aggro decks; ‘Tramp – Enterprising Dog’ allows you to buff up characters to deal with opposing threats, high Willpower characters can survive challenges from opponents, and ‘Rapunzel’ can replenish your hand when you start to run out of cards by healing your damaged characters! And the final piece of the puzzle is ‘Tramp – Street Smart Dog’ who can often be played for quite cheap and help you search for certain cards and discard characters to let ‘Chernabog’ be played for cheaper!
Amber- Steel: Song
Amber-Steel song: the colour combination and deck archetype that is consistently competitive. The idea of the deck is to sing lots of songs early, due to the singer abilities of ‘Cinderella – Ballroom Sensation’ and ‘The Troubadour – Musical Narrator’ (Singer allows you to sing higher cost songs), allowing for early board control and removal. The deck utilises songs like ‘Strength of a raging fire’ and ‘Let the storm rage on’, as well as ‘A whole new world’ to disrupt opponents hands, draw 7 new cards, flood the board with characters and hopefully find songs to clear your opponent’s board too. Archazia’s Island cards new to the deck are ‘The Troubador’ (who is an alternative Singer 4) and ‘Bianca – Unwavering Agent’ who is a high stated 6 cost, who can be played for 4 ink with an ally on the field (which Daisy Duck & The Troubador are) and give greater board presence, with the ability to sing ‘A whole new world. Rapunzel is again essential for added card draw, and with lots of 4 willpower characters like ‘Lawrence’ and ‘Daisy’ she can get full value.
Amythyst Steel: Bounce
Amythyst Steel Bounce is continuing to prove strong with the new set, with a few changes and card additions. The deck relies on constantly drawing cards with the use of the 12 1 cost characters (Chernabogs Followers, Diablo – Obedient Raven, & Magic Broom – Illuminary Keeper) who can replace themselves when banished by drawing a card; and gaining lore upon entry with ‘Merlin – Goat’, ‘White rose’, and new card ‘Giant Cobra’ by bouncing them to and from your hand with ‘Madam Mim – Snake’ and ‘Madam Mim – Fox’. By constantly refreshing your hand with cards, and using your attacking songs wisely, the lack of board presence doesn’t leave you falling behind.
Amythyst-Ruby: Evasive
Ruby Amythyst has returned with a new look, utilising evasive characters, with ‘Peter Pan – Shadow Finder’ having a comeback! The deck has the 12 Amythyst 1 drops for constant card replenishment, and the Peter Pan gives other Evasive characters rush, turning ‘Genie – Wish Fulfilled’ into a 4 cost character who draws a card, quests for 2 and has rush: a lethal combo! Another card benefitting from Peter Pans ability is ‘Iago – ’ who becomes a very powerful rush character with Evasive, which makes his Vanish ability somewhat null-and-void if he is able to interact with the board immediately. And finally, it features the usual suspects of Ruby: Lady Tremaine, Madame Medusa and Be Prepared if your opponent is overrunning the board.
Emerald-Steel: Discard
Everyone’s (least) favourite deck has risen in popularity since the ban announcement and Diablo has soared into the limelight. The deck as you may have guessed is all about discarding your opponent’s cards to control the options they have, whilst also bouncing cards back to their hand to stop their momentum. “Morph – Space Goo” is an essential character as it gives you an option for multiple cards to shift onto and use immediately, like Beast or Diablo. Actions like Sudden Chill and Hypnotise force opponents to discard cards, and ‘Kit Cloudkicker – Tough Guy’ and ‘Mother knows best’ will return cards to their hand. And the final piece of the puzzle is ‘Pete – Games Referee’ who prevents all opponents actions the following turn, and his new Floodborn character ‘Pete – Space Pirate’, who can shift for 4, gives pirate characters resist (including itself to make it hard to banish) and quests for 2. All-in-all this is a tricky deck to face and forces lots of other decks to run counters specifically for combatting Diablo!
These decks are just my ideas so feel free to give them a tinker to fit the cards you own, add in your favourite Lorcana cards, or make a completely new deck! Set championships should be a fun way to play Lorcana in a more competitive environment, but competitive should not mean scary. From my experience of playing in set championships as a new player, competitors are happy to help explain card effects and give advice especially if it means a new player joining the Lorcana community. And if you are unsure of anything, there will be a judge who will also help you with any queries or questions regarding the tournament, card explanations or issues with anything. Most importantly, have fun, and I wish you the best of luck; hopefully you head home with the enchanted Hiro Hamada in your deck box, and a new playmat tucked in your bag!
