Disney Lorcana TCG

• Rise of the Floodborn expansion failed to dethrone Ruby/Amethyst decks in Lorcana's meta, still dominating top finishes.

• Into the Inklands introduced new locations and discard tools, balancing out Ruby/Amethyst's dominance in the tournament scene.

• While Steel-dominated meta limits aggro decks, the expansion brings diversity and balance with multiple viable color combinations.

Disney Lorcana Enchanted cards are the rarest and most sought after artifacts in the entire Disney trading card game. Identified by their rainbow symbol, Enchanted cards have the same name and rules text as other cards from their set, but they feature unique borderless artwork that makes them valuable masterpieces.

In this guide we’ll take a look at every single Lorcana Enchanted card in the Into the Inklands set, all 18 of them.

I pulled this from a box I bought today at my LGS.

It's a $90 card on TCGPlayer!

• Combine characters strategically for powerful synergies and creative tactics to utilize in Disney Lorcana's new locations.
• Match locations with specific characters like Pua, Tinker Bell, or Jafar to unlock unique abilities and gain an advantage in the game.
• Create powerful combinations, like Maleficent at The Queen's Castle or Sheriff of Nottingham in The Bayou for near-infinite loops and maximum damage.

There’s also a new semi-infinite combo that uses Beast, Relentless; Sheriff of Nottingham, Corrupt Official; and The Bayou to clear the opponent's board and build a giant lore total in a single turn, so expect to see a lot of Emerald/Steel ping decks being played, at least early in the season.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/8108209

EXCLUSIVE: Disney & Sony Ink Deal for Sony to Take Over Disney's Physical Media Production, Disney Movie Club to Shut Down as a Result

by Bill Hunt

There are some significant developments happening within the home video industry of late, developments that I've been spending a lot of time investigating and really digging into these past few weeks here at The Digital Bits.

And I can now confidently report that one of them is this:

Disney and Sony have just inked a major deal for Sony Pictures Home Entertainment to take over all of Disney's physical media production going forward.

This means that Sony will handle and oversee the actual authoring and compression of discs, that they'll work with the replicators and packaging vendors, and that they'll oversee the titles as they go out to the distributors and on to retailers.

I first received word of this deal about two weeks ago, apparently within twenty-four hours of the ink drying, and I've now confirmed it with multiple independent sources within the industry---people that I trust and have known and worked with for many years.

This deal makes sense for Disney for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that Sony is far more efficient and cost effective at producing their discs, whereas Disney's physical media operation has been subject to no small amount of internal/organizational turmoil recently.

First, they were trimmed down in late 2019 and early 2020, after Disney's infamous and year-long 4K Ultra HD catalog title blow-out, then they were subject to many of the cost-cutting pressures and personnel losses that all the majors suffered during the COVID-19 pandemic.

It hasn't helped that the studio's physical media operation---which is now almost an afterthought in the shadow of its Disney+ business and activities---has been organizationally tied to Disney's digital and streaming operation ever since.

Based on reporting from multiple sources, what this has meant in recent months is that virtually every decision about which catalog titles to release on disc, and which features to include on them, not to mention every technical decision that naturally arises during the course of the production of those titles, requires scores of people to be involved at Disney. And the people who are actually working on the discs don't have decision-making power about anything---they have to kick decisions upstairs to their bosses, who have to kick it upstairs to their bosses, and so on. Multiple levels of management are involved, which means that decisions that should take two people five minutes instead take thirty people a week or more.

It would be pretty tough for anyone to make money on physical media doing it like that.

What's more, with Disney's constant cost-cutting measures, and the fact that the studio has wildly overspent on its streaming operation, everyone involved is naturally afraid for their jobs. So few people at Disney are willing to stick their necks out to make a decision, for fear of getting fired. Unfortunately, that includes the very people who know how to do physical media best.

Ironically, Disney turning over their physical media operation to Sony means that a lot of these people now probably are likely to lose their jobs, which is regrettable. (We hope at least that the studio is wise enough to keep the people who actually know what they're doing, as opposed to the middle-managers who aren't adding value to the process.)

But the hope for physical media consumers going forward is that---if Disney does get more efficient and profitable at releasing discs via this arrangement---they might actually start releasing more of them.

As cinephiles are well aware, Disney is currently sitting on a vault that's chock full of great live action film titles from the classic Disney, 20th Century (Fox), Hollywood Pictures, and Touchstone libraries. In fact, there are at least twenty classic Fox catalog titles that we've confirmed have recent 4K remasters, that Disney is doing absolutely nothing with---they aren't going to streaming or digital, they aren't appearing on Disney+, and they certainly aren't being released on Blu-ray or physical 4K Ultra HD.

This at a time when many other major studios are not only digging deep into their film libraries for Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD releases, they're also licensing many very deep catalog titles to boutique labels like Shout! Factory, Arrow, Kino Lorber Studio Classics, Indicator, Powerhouse, and more---an arrangement that is generating good profits for those other studios, even as production costs increase and vendor and retailer options shrink.

One way that indie studios in particular are working to adjust to this new climate is by creating their own online stores and thereby selling discs to their fans and consumers directly.

Unfortunately, as part of the Disney and Sony arrangement, we've learned that Disney plans to shutter their Disney Movie Club, which for several years now has been doing exactly that.

This is sadly also confirmed: We've now learned from Bits readers that DMC is beginning to inform their customers of this fact. Here's an example of the message DMC is currently sending out via email:

We think this is actually a terrible idea. It would be much better for Disney to let Sony take over DMC, and to ramp it up in order to more effectively communicate with the diehard cinephiles who are now the core of the physical media business.

Speaking directly to your best consumers, making them feel heard, and giving them what they want in terms of titles, A/V quality, and features is exactly how you build a thriving physical media business in 2024.

In any case, we've contacted Disney and asked for an official comment and clarification about this new physical media production deal, in particular what it means for Disney catalog physical releases going forward, and we'll share that with all of you here if and when the studio responds.

Rest assured, we'll continue investigating and reporting on this news in the days and weeks ahead.

Stay tuned...

There are two new Disney Lorcana Into The Inklands Starter Decks hitting shelves soon: Amber & Emerald and Ruby & Sapphire. Each Starter Deck contains the following:

• (1) Prebuilt deck of 60 cards, including 2 foil cards
• (11) Damage counters
• (1) Paper playmat
• (1) Paper tracker token
• (1) Quick-Start rules sheet
• (1) Bonus booster pack of 12 randomized cards

Each deck is completely built out and ready to play, with everything a single player needs. So all you and a friend need to do to get into Lorcana is each purchase one of the decks, shuffle up, punch out your cardboard damage counters, and play!

The demand for Enchanted cards among Disney Lorcana collectors is becoming astonishing, and while several cards haven't seen big spikes yet, a lot of them fit into that category of cards that may be undervalued, especially some of the more playable ones like Maui and Lady Tremaine. Most of the Rise Enchanteds haven't seen big jumps yet, but as we move Into the Inklands and supply of Rise packs starts to fall off, those cards may be next.

It's a wild time for Lorcana, and while Enchanted cards may not be in every Illumineer's budget, a surge of demand is always a good indicator for the future of a new game. For collectors there are still some big opportunities in store, and it's not too late to find some deals!

The inclusion of Atlantis: The Lost Empire is another sign that Disney Lorcana is willing to delve into any Disney movie franchise. The 2001 film struggled at the box office but became a cult favorite, in part due its distinctive visual design developed by acclaimed comics artist Mike Mignola. The new Disney Lorcana set also features characters from Treasure Planet, another underappreciated Disney film.

Much like each set before it, Into the Inklands has two release dates: one for general worldwide release at all your mass retailers like Walmart and Target, and an earlier one for local hobby stores - this is because Ravensburger's passionate about encouraging players to purchase product from the same stores and tournament organisers they play the game with.

Hobby Store Release Date: February 23, 2024

Mass Retailer Release Date: March 8, 2024

So far I'm finding these types of cards pretty useless with my home decks. Maybe these have more viability in competitive decks where people have 4 each of the high end cards. What do you think?

Disney Lorcana TCG fans! We have some exciting updates to share. First of all, the October booster pack restock will begin to roll out at local game stores in North America starting next week.

The reprint of The First Chapter boosters and starters is moved up, and will begin shipping mid November in North America. We hope that this reprint quantity will make the game more readily available. Our goal is for fans to have no difficulty finding product to get started.

Next, we want to announce that starting in Q2 2024, we will have both official fan events and an official competitive circuit. Fan events will be a way for Disney fans to come together to share their love of Disney Lorcana even if they may not necessarily play the game.

Competitive events will be the premiere place for Disney Lorcana TCG players to prove themselves. You can also expect exclusives for each of these types of events, and we will share more details in January 2024.

While we have tournament guidelines and other policies live on the official Disney Lorcana site, we will provide regular updates as we align globally and take in feedback from our players to make competitive play the best experience we can.

Lastly, we’ve recently announced a change to convention promos. Going forward, convention promos will no longer have the logo of the convention on them, but there will be three new cards available for each set with a promo icon in the rarity spot.

These cards have slight differences to the foil pattern compared to the cards found in the booster packs. When we are attending conventions in any region, we will announce how you can obtain promo cards, you might even be able to get all three at one event!

Thank you for all of your feedback and excitement surrounding Disney Lorcana TCG! We want this to be a thriving community for years to come, and can’t wait to kick off more official events soon!