Summary
This is going to be a big year forDisney Lorcana, as there will be three major expansions spread throughout 2025. The first new set for the game is Archazia’s Island, which is already shaking up the gameplay quite a bit withLorcana’s first multicolored cards, called dual-Ink. These come with an inherent restriction to deckbuilding, as players can normally only makeLorcanadecks with two Ink colors at the same time, so dual-Ink cards automatically set in stone which colors will be allowed in a given deck. Another noteworthy factor is that dual-Ink cards follow one ofMagic: The Gathering’s principles when it comes to color identity.
Magic: The GatheringandLorcanaare very different games, and the former has much more experience under its belt thanks to its 32-year presence on the market.MTGhad a lot of time to grow in terms of both audience and gameplay, and multicolored cards played a big part in this growth. Be it for mono-colored cards or multicolored ones,Magic: The Gatheringis all about color identity; some colors are more attuned to specific actions or mechanics than others, and this changes accordingly when a card has more colors.Lorcana’s dual-Ink cards follow a similar tenet, for better or worse.
Magic: The Gathering has 26 color combinations that go by different lore-related names, and they take elements from the main five colors and fuse them together to create new identities.
Lorcana is Expanding on Color Identity Like Magic: The Gathering Did
Much like inMTG,Lorcanacards do have their own color identity. For example, Sapphire has multiple options for placing more than one card into the Inkwell each turn, Amethyst has many ways to draw extra cards, Amber has Singer characters that can be exerted to play songs that cost more Ink, and so on. With each color combination,Lorcanadeckshave gradually developed their own identity, and dual-Ink cards seem to hone in on this more than try to break the mold. This can be good or bad depending on color combinations, but it is exactly whatMTGhas done over the years.
Lorcana’s new101 Dalmatianscardsbuild into the already tried identity of Amber/Sapphire aggro decks themed around Hero characters, only this time it’s more about Puppy characters given the focus on pets of Archazia’s Island. Likewise, several new Emerald/Steel cards revolve around Pirates, which is something that Azurite Sea favored thanks to a plethora of new Pirate characters. Ruby/Amber has multiple new cards that have effects tied to Racers, which also makes sense after this color combination saw a lot of Racer characters and Locations in the last couple of sets, particularly Shimmering Skies.
Why Lorcana’s Dual-Ink Cards Could Be a Double-Edged Sword
As such, it makes sense forLorcana’s new Archazia’s Island setto focus on existing deck archetypes with dual-Ink cards, which are supposed to be the epitome of color identity for two different Ink types. At the same time, not all of the existing color combinations are strong in the same way. Ruby/Amber is often considered a rogue deck, be it in its Mufasa version or the Locations and Racers deck. Ruby/Steel is another combo that doesn’t see a lot of play outside of a recent Pirate version that saw mild success. The new Ruby/Steel cards are seemingly all about challenging opposing characters, which is arguably a weak gameplay niche for colors with little to no healing.
As much asLorcanafollowing inMagic: The Gathering’s footstepscan be a good thing, the game is still in its infancy. This is but the second full year of releases forLorcana, and before committing to specific color identities, it may be better to flesh out what the various color combinations can do. Ruby and Steel both have a lot of removals, for example, so making new dual-Ink cards that use this to the color combination’s advantage could be a better and more satisfying niche than just challenging characters. This doesn’t mean the game won’t expand on each color combination’s identity in future sets, asMTGhas done in over 30 years, but Archazia’s Island may not move the needle in terms of meta decks if it doesn’t create new color identities.
