Disney and princesses go together like white on rice and ever since Lorcana cards first made their way into the hands of illumineers, a princess deck has always been what they’d love to see as a viable deck to play competitively.
Set rotation and the introduction of set 9 ‘Fabled’ have completely shaken up the format – removing cards such as Brawl, Madam Mim – Fox, Sisu – Empowered Warrior, Let the Storm Rage On – has the door now opened for forgotten royalty to rise into meta relevance?
Core Princess
Tiana – Restaurant Owner
The backbone of the deck. For 3 ink, she’s a sturdy quester with a 1/4 body and devilishly irritating to remove. A legendary from Azurite Sea, her true strength comes from her taxing effect; when exerted she makes your opponent pay 3 ink to challenge at full strength or else sacrifice 3 strength. With removal at unprecedented levels of scarcity, Tiana offers lore and protection for your board.
Aurora – Holding Court
New card to Lorcana in Fabled, Aurora is the perfect opener. A 1-cost inkable princess that when questing using her ability ‘Royal Welcome’ reduces the cost of the next princess or queen character you play that turn by one.
Combo Spotlight
Aurora turn one into a Tiana turn 2 is a play line that you will not get tired of but may leave your opponents ripping their hair out.
The Queen’s Court
The deck’s win condition is designed around aggressive questers, and flooding the board with The Queen, leveraging their abilities.
The Queen – Fairest of All, a warded floodborn character that can shift for 3 ink and has with the ability, Reflections of Vanity – for every other character you have in play named The Queen, she quests for another lore. At 6 willpower, she’s pretty sturdy too,
The Queen – Crown of the Council, another warded character that adds into our Queen lines. On play look at the top 3 cards of your deck and put a character named The Queen in your hand. Card advantage and consistency.
The Queen – Conceited Ruler, her ability Royal Summons allows you at the start of your turn to discard a princess or Queen character to return a character from your discard to your hand. Helps keep the pressure on and the fire cooking.
The Queen – Cruellest of All, donning her iconic peddler disguise she is warded 0/4 body used mainly as a target for our floodborn to shift onto or to boost up those lore stats. She can pad out the board nicely.
Supporting Cast
Minnie Mouse – Sweetheart Princess
Firstly, the artwork on this is absolute flames and nostalgia rolled into one (huge props to Ellie Horie for the art.) Minnie is a 2-questing 2/4 body that when quests, banishes an exerted character with 5 strength or more. Maui – Half Sharks, Powerline – World’s Greatest Rockstar and more get waved goodbye by this innocent looking princess.
Combo Spotlight
Alice – Growing Girl is a card in my previous article I said had a chance of getting a reprint and low and behold, here we are.
Pair Minnie with Alice, who gives all your other characters support. When your characters quest, apply that support strength to the opponent’s characters, taking them past that 5-strength threshold, allowing Minnie to wave them bon voyage and snipe them easily. Add the song World’s Greatest Criminal Mind, you have royal suite of removal.
Moana – Determined Explore
Another sticky princess. 3 ink for a reliable character that quests for 2 with a solid 3 strength and 4 willpower statline. She pressures for lore and stands her ground.
Basil – Practiced Detective
Cheap support piece at 1 ink that comes in handy with his support ability allowing you to boost up others and make favourable trades. Pulls more weight than he’s expected too.
Aurora – Dreaming Guardian
There to give that little bit of extra protection should we not have our queen line out but is something that can definitely be toyed with and replaced as is the Aurora in the 2 ink spot, depending on the meta. Princess tag is useful though.
Ludwig Von Drake – All-Around Expert
Our little bit of ramp to get us cooking but also a clutch sniper to remove pesky actions (Strength of the Raging Fires, Fire The Cannons) Definitely not a card to be sniffed at and don’t be surprised if your opponent is unsure whether or not to remove him, leaving you to gain some easy lore. He’s a win-win card.
Royal Tools
Queen’s Sensor Core
One of our strongest enablers. This 2 cost item generates you passive lore so long as you have a princess or queen in play – which is nearly always. Did I mention these stack as well? Get multiple down and lore snowballs quickly. To help matters, you can pay 2 ink to look at the top card of the deck and go digging for royalty – if it’s a princess or queen you can put it in your hand.
Rapunzel’s Tower
Our defensive stronghold. The tower is a non-lore gaining location, but characters relaxing in the tower get 3 extra willpower making our Queens and Princess almost immovable. Use to help see out games or get Tiana in there early.
Utility and Tech
Restoring the Heart
May seem like an odd inclusion, but as a 1-ink cantrip (a card that it replaces itself) it gives value and if you play this on an opposing illusion character (Iago, Palace Guard, Raja etc), they are banished due to the vanish ability and you are a card up. Sneaky, eh?
Final Thoughts
This may not dominate the meta but it is definitely something you can take to league and set champs and take people by surprise. The deck thrives on board presence, resilience and lore acceleration. The key is balancing pressure – use Tiana and Moana early, scale into Queens midgame, and close the storybook with overwhelming lore generation.
