Whispers in the Well Set Championship Season is almost upon us and I am very excited to see which decks will be more fun to play and more successful. The 10th set of Disney Lorcana brought a lot of new mechanics to the game and tons of very interesting and very playable cards. All these new additionS to Disney Lorcana have already proved to be quite impressive in the early competitive events in Late November and December, and they will be even more relevant as soon as the Set Championship kicks OFF on the 3rd of January. However, I had the fantastic opportunity to start earlier as Ravensburger invited me to a Content Creator events on the 10th of December where I was able to compete for the new “Daisy Duck, Paranormal Investigator” foil card and playmat.
This time, Ravensburger decided to move the Content Creator Set Championship to be closer to the community and we were very lucky to be hosted by Brotherhood Games Cafe in London. For those who may not know, Brotherhood Games is a very well known name in the competitive TCG scene as they are supporting a thriving community filled with extremely successful competitive player. The event took place at the cafe at 210-212 Southwark Park Rd. in London and I strongly recommend to pay them a visit if you are in the area. The shop is not only fully stocked with collectibles, Boardgames and TCG products (including a massive selection of singles from a wide range of games), but they also offer a wide selection of food and beverages. The team at Brotherhood Games was super nice with us and they kept our sugar level high by providing a great breakfast, an amazing lunch, and all the snacks and caffeinated drinks we needed.
Hosting a Set Champ at the Disney HQ adds obviously a lot of magic to the event obviously, but playing at Brotherhood provided a much more cozy feeling and a deep sense of community and camaraderie that made the day special in a different way. In addition, it offered a chance for all the content creators to be closer to a local community and I think Ravensburger had a really great idea from this point of view. I hope 2026 will bring more opportunities to explore local shops and groups but in the meantime, I strongly suggest to keep an eye on Brotherhood Games through Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and Discord.
Whispers in the Well meta – How hard picking a deck is?
As usual, I like to discuss a bit which deck I decided to bring to the Set Championship before going throught how it performed on the day. Considering Whispers in the Well released on the 14th of November, this time I had a bit more time to prepare and to fine-tune my deck before heading to the event. Of course, with so many interesting new cards released in set 10, there are now a significant number of new interesting strategies and decks combination that I wanted to try and this did not make my choice easier.
Last season I was very torn between playing Amethyst-Steel, Amber-Steel Aggro deck and Emerald-Sapphire and I ended up playing this last one. Whispers in the Well added tons of very good cards for all these three decks and also turned Amethyst-Ruby into a great contender too widening a lot the number of competitive decks to choose from. Considering I have been in love with Amethyst since the very first Set Championship, and I love the new “Hades, looking for a Deal” and “Demona, Scourge Of The Wyvern Clan” I decided to settle for either Amethyst-Steel or Amethyst-Ruby.
I tried both decks for a while but in the end I decided to settle for Amethyst-Steel, mostly because I want to have some direct removal to improve my chances against Amber-Steel (and similar Aggro decks). I also had the impression Amethyst-Steel may have a slight edge against Ruby-Steel at least basing on the games I played since set release. On the other hand, I knew I may be struggling a lot against Emerald-Sapphire (Prince Phillip board wipe combo) and Sapphire-Steel (too many big bodies). Obviously, Amethyst-Steel has also been one of most represented decks in recent Competitive events thus I also had to consider how to face mirror matches.
With these challenges in mind, I started working on my deck list to decide which type of deck I wanted to play. The three new cards from Whispers in the Well I liked the most for my deck are “Cheshire Cat, Inexplicable”, “ Demona, Scourge Of The Wyvern Clan” and “Olaf, Helping hand”. Cheshire is a very versatile card that took immediately the place of “Belle, Accomplished Mystic” in my deck. Cheshire is one of the new Whispers that can be “Boosted” for a cost of 2 in order to place a card underneath them and move damages to a target Character. Not only Cheshire can use its effect every turn (with respect of Belle on play effect) but, most important, can be bounced back to hand to draw all the cards he has underneath him. The new Olaf is the perfect partner in my deck to carry out this strategy considering I usually have also “Madam Mim, Elephant” to help with the mirror matches.
Demona is also an amazing card as it allows players to draw three cards but, most important she can exert all Opponent’s Characters on play. Before set 10, Amethyst relied a lot on “Elsa, the Fifth Spirit” to break the opponent’s strategy and in general all the stalemates that usually arise between decks. Demona is slightly more expansive than Elsa but it means my opponent’s Active Characters are less safer then before. Considering the type of decks I may face, I also decided last minute to add three copies of “Magical Maneuvers” a 2-cost action that exerts a Chosen opposing Character and bounce back one of the Player’s one. This action increases the chances I can take out one of my Opponent’s Characters for example with Calhoun much earlier than they can expect and it also increases the possibilities to bounce back key cards including Cheshire Cats.
Overall, the strategy that I started designing would focus on keeping pressure on my opponent early with Captain Hook and Calhoun, play Cheshire Cat as soon as possible to use him to sing, move damages and start stocking cards and then start collecting Lore as soon as possible. In order to make this plan work I added a few “Benja, Guardian of the Dragon Gem” considering he can remove any pesky item (Emerald Chromicon to name one…), sing Strength of the Raging Fire and he also can quest for two. “Hades, Looking for a Deal” is also a must-have for me as well as the new “He Hurled his Thunderbolt” to take care of some renown characters with a willpower of four.
Four rounds to go, will I make to the top cut? The very first Whispers in the Well Set Championship was played by 16 players across 4 best-of-three rounds. As per standard rules, the top eight players will get the Foil version of Daisy Duck, Paranormal Investigator while the best four players will play three more rounds with direct elimination in order to determine who will be crowned champion and receive the very special Playing Mat with the same artwork as the prize card. As mentioned previously, this set Champ and the future ones will reward all players with a participation card featuring the same no-border artwork as the one for the top eight player just not foil.
As usual, I put my luck in the round pairings and I was quite pleased when it turned out my first opponent was Ed Templer (@GameHogGames). I had the pleasure to play against Ed a few tournaments back and I was very pleased to have a chance to see which deck he cooked for today. Unfortunately (for me) he decided to bring a Emerald-Sapphire deck featuring the terrifying board-wipe combo centred around Prince Phillip. Interestingly, the cards were on my side in the first round as Ed missed both 1 and 2 costs card and then struggled to see his ramp. On the other hand, I was blessed with two good first turns culminating into playing “Cheshire Cat, Inexplicable”. My plan to use Cheshire creatively was unfortunately fooled very early when Ed sent it to the Inkwell quickly followed by a massive board wipe when Prince Phillip finally managed to show-up. Luckily, the high card draw of my Amethyst deck, Ed’s very slow start and two very timed “He Hurled his thunderbolt” allowed me to get to 20 lore first.
Second round played completely the opposite way around with Ed fully in control of the game. This time, he managed to found his early game cards and he ramped super quickly to 6 Ink. Knowing Prince Phillip may come to the board very soon, I start planning how to slow him down and prevent all my characters to be removed when Ed unexpectedly dropped “Bend to my Will” forcing me to discard my hand. Not surprisingly, I was not able to come back from this and Ed won the second round.
With the score tied, we realized there were only 8 minutes left and we decided to try our best to do the last round. To my pleasure, the third round in the best possible way for me as I played “Captain Hook, Forceful duellist”, “Calhoun, Marine Sergeant” and Cheshire Cat one after the other putting a lot of pressure on my opponent’s deck. The cherry on top was to draw “Magical Manoeuvrers” twice in just a couple of round taking full advantage of Calhoun to gain Lore and of Cheshire Cat to remove damage. Having added Magical Manoeuvrers proved to be a great choice in this round as it allowed me to bring back Genie in a round and, most important, to retrieve Cheshire the one after in order to exert and then challenge my opponent characters with Calhoun. Best part, drawing all the cards I put under Cheshire Cat across three rounds provided me a the cards I needed to win my round at the end of few additional overtime rounds.
Filled with a lot of excitement, I sat down for my second round against Harlan Sweete (@harlansweete). Harlan surely does not need any introduction being a great content creator and an incredibly creative player. Unfortunately for me, he decided to bring a Sapphire-Steel deck for this event and the second match suddenly looked very challenging for me… As expected, the first few rounds were quite balanced with Harlan working to increase his Inkwell and to avoid to get me any target for Calhoun and Captain Hook. The disaster hit on turn five when Harlan played “Vincenzo Santorini, The Explosives Expert”, quickly followed by “Hades, Looking for a Deal”. Not surprisingly, my lore counter stopped at ten while his went very quickly to twenty.
The second round played unfortunately very quickly as well and ended in a very similar way. The turning point of that match was seeing two “Tinker Bell, Giant Fairy” getting to the board one after the other.
I was quite impressed by how fast and efficient Harlan’s Deck proved to be and I had to ask for his deck list. Harlan drove the deck very efficiently of course, and the final result showed clearly that Sapphire-Steel has a lot of potential and I am sure it will prove to be a strong contender in Set championship. I will definitely keep this Deck in mind and perhaps give it a try in the net Set Champs in January.
Half the way through the tournament, I was 1:1. I was having a lot of fun and I was pretty optimistic as anything could still happen in particular as my opponent for the third round was Dan (@professordantcg). Dan is a very good player and, most important, a very nice person even if he chose to play a terrifying Amethyst-Ruby Deck. I knew “Diablo, Watchful Raven” and “The Headless Horseman – Terror of Sleepy Hollow” were the two cards I should feared the most in Dan’s Deck, but I was not aware I was going to play THE best game of the whole day.
Lucky for me, I went first on the first round and I was able to keep a good advantage by systematically removing all cards Dan played. Non surprisingly, Diablo and the Horseman made a few appearances during the first round but I was pretty lucky to have the right cards in hand to counter them. I must admit Dan was also quite unlucky with the draws thus I managed to quickly outrun him to twenty Lore.
The second round, however, played completely differently with Dan pulling one good card after the other and taking the lead straight after turn three when he already got to nine Lore. This time, Dan was able to pull a very good starting hand and kept playing the right cards at the right time. I tried my best to keep up with him but I was just overwhelmed by an explosive strategy. After two rounds I had the impression our decks were quite evenly matched and I was quite worried the last round would not turn in my favour.
My worries started to become a reality right after we started playing as Dan and I engaged in a pure war of attrition. Cards were played to the field and removed almost immediately with both me and Dan constantly working to prevent the opponent from taking advantage. At one point, we both realized we milled through a good third of our decks and we were still stuck at less than five lore each. Surprisingly, the balance of the game was ultimately shifted by my Cheshire Cat as I managed to bounce him repeatedly to hand using “Olaf, Helping hand”, “Madam Mim, Elephant” and “Magical Maneuvers”. Card advantage is one of the most important factors in a game of Lorcana and at one point I had so many cards in hand that my board just went wild and ultimately led me to victory. I have never been so happy Be Prepared was rotated out as in this game as otherwise the game could have taken a completely different turn. At the end of a very intense round, I was completely mentally drained but I was very lucky I had the chance to enjoy such an amazing game with Dan.
Kimberlyanne (@kimberlyanne_D) was my opponent in the forth and last match, and this was quite unfortunate as she was also using a Sapphire-Steel Deck. Previous experience today showed me how terrifying this type of deck can be against my build. However, playing against Kim is always very fun and I could not stop smiling after she told me her deck was named “Bum-Bum Chicken Noodle soup”. Unfortunately for me the “Bum-Bum” part proved to be true to its name right from turn one as my cards were systematically destroyed by songs and the song-triggered ability of “Ariel, Sonic Warrior”. Ariel is such an impressive card in this deck combination as she efficiently doubles the removing effect of any of the Steel Song cards. She can also come to the board as early as turn four thanks to the Sapphire ramp, triggering once more the new “Cinderella, Dream Come True” to get even more Ink and she is pretty hard to remove with her Willpower of 8.
Not surprisingly, round two was also dominated by Ariel although Kim and I agreed the MVP of the game was actually “Tipo, Growing Son”. Sapphire Players usually use Tipo only to get more cards in their Inkwell but in this game this little rascal managed to stay on the board for three whole turns generating tons of Lore for Kim and decided to prove his worth challenging my Captain Hook. Normally, this would have been a suicide move but Tipo was confident in his chances due to the Challenger +2 provided by “But I’m much faster” effect. Obviously, I needed that Hook to have a chance to banish an Ariel, Sonic Warrior that was on the board and I was instead impressed by seeing both my Hook and another card being taken out by Tipo and Ariel ability by just using a 1-cost song. After that, it was pretty obvious who was in control of the game….
After four rounds of intense gaming and fun, I was rewarded with a 2:2:0 score that was just enough to get me into the top8. There were two Content Creators with the same score but loosing against Harlan (1st place after the 4th round) and Kimberlyanne (4th place after the four round) definitely helped as I ended up with a 60% tie break score. Funnily enough, Harlan managed to win against
Kim in the semifinals to then lose to Backer (Lorcana Villain) that was able to drive his Amethyst-Ruby Deck to take the first place at the first Whispers in the Well Set Championship. What an intense day and what a great event!!!
Time to celebrate… and to wrap up a great 2025 with Disney Lorcana!
On my way back from the Set Championship event I only had a thought in mind: What a day!! Having a chance to meet a lot of other Lorcana content creators at once every few month is always amazing and, of course, the event was very well managed as usual, and the hosts at Brotherhood was incredibly welcoming. However, the best part for me was still to enjoy playing Disney Lorcana and to test my skill (and my luck) against other people that love this game as much as I do.
Finishing in eighth place and picking up the foil Daisy Duck prize card was definitely a great feeling. But honestly, the highlight was meeting new players and sharing some fun games together as we did all through 2025. This was likely the last competitive event of the year for me and it was amazing having the chance once again to attend the Set Championship organized by Ravensburger. I am always grateful for the opportunities this team shared with me all through the year and as 2025 comes to an end, I had one key thought: I genuinely love playing Lorcana even if I started playing it more than 2 years ago! Wrapping up the year with this event felt fantastic and I cannot look forward to start 2026 with more Whispers in the Well set Championship.
On that note, I would like to remind everyone that the Official Set Championships will run from the 3rd to the 25th of January. Ravensburger Play Hub will be as usual the best place to find events close to you and I want to remind that these events can also be a chance to visit new stores and meet new people. Zatu, for example, will run its own event of the 17th of January if you are interested and may want to visit the store and the gaming centre.
Overall, there will be plenty of time for all of us to finalize our Decks and to refine our strategy ahead of the Set Champ events. I am quite happy of how my Deck performed so far but I will definitely consider giving a different deck a try just to have fun and to try something different. Do not also forget that the next set, Winterspell, releases on the 13th of February and I cannot wait to see which interesting cards will be revealed in the new year. Wish you all a Merry Christmas and I great start of the New Year with Disney Lorcana!
