Hard to believe, but the fourth Lorcana set is beating down our doors and look who’s knocking- why, it’s Ursula, who apparently went away and is now returning for set called “Ursula’s Return.” After as much damage as the sea witch did with two great cards and an awesome Enchanted in Into the Inklands, maybe it should have been called “Ursula’s Encore.” By the time you read this, your FLGS will have already received product ahead of the general release at the end of May and you might have even cracked a few packs. I’ve decided to go light on this set, only preordering one booster box and crossing my fingers that I can get ahold of the stand alone co-op game, Illumineer’s Quest: Deep Trouble. This is by far the most compelling release of what is, to be quite honest, a somewhat un-compelling cycle.
Yeah, you read that right. I’m not super excited for Ursula’s Return. I know three month turnarounds are de rigeur in the TCG world, but honestly I feel like we’ve barely gotten to know the last set and here comes a flood of new cards which so far don’t look tremendously impactful. I think this set is going to look a little lackluster after Into the Inklands shaking things up with the Locations, especially as I think the new Sing Together mechanism (whereby multiple characters can exert to sing a song) may not be effective in the current meta at all. There’s too much resource expenditure and time involved in an environment where hardcore control and removal rule the day.
I am however very interested in how the set is leaning into the Musketeer, Hero, and Villain keywords and I’m looking forward to cooking up some fun builds for all of the above (watch this space). I’ve felt like the game needed more of this kind of thing from day one to encourage more thematic builds and hopefully Ursula’s Return will bring “tribal” decks to fruition. But there again, from a mechanical standpoint, I’m not seeing a whole lot that I think will shift the meta dramatically. Fun builds, sadly, are not what the TCGbros are forcing this game toward.
One of the more subtle changes is that some cards now have a different shift cost, requiring a discard rather than spending ink. This is a pretty interesting development, but it is also one that feels like it should have been in the game all along. I feel like we are still at a stage in the game’s life where things that are “new” are really things that were built in from day one, just parceled out among multiple releases. Which is fine, but in some ways it feels like the game is only just now “complete”. If it can ever really be.
Granted, I am super stoked to see the entire Madrigal family from Encanto piling into the game, glad to see Ariel finally getting a bad ass Enchanted (Sonic Warrior, hell yeah), and I’m especially interested in how this set is really leaning into the Musketeer, Hero, and Villain keywords. As a Disney lover there’s plenty to be excited about as well, with the usual mix of all-time favorite and fun twists like a Donald Duck that is going right into my Pirate deck (and also FINALLY “A Pirate’s Life For Me”), lots more Hercules representation, Anna as a Knight, and Super Goof, the card of the set as far as I’m concerned.
But, also as a Disney lover, I must admit that I’m getting a little burned out on the same characters over and over again with some characters (such as Ursula) feeling somewhat over-represented. And as much as I like obscure characters, do we need all of Mulan’s incidental characters before we get the Three Caballeros or Merida? I’m not quite sure why the developers went so hard on Raya, seeing as the film was decent but not spectacular and regarded as an also-ran by most audiences. There are a few characters that I have to wonder if we’ve seen enough of for a while so that maybe, perhaps, some other characters such as Pocahontas, Quasimodo, Oswald, Clarabelle, Wreck-it-Ralph and others can have their time to shine. The variations on the characters are great and I’m happy to see the creativity but seriously, we’ve got enough Moana for now.
As for the Enchanted selection, I really couldn’t care less as I’ve opened several hundred packs at this point and have not seen a single one. But this set features some pretty bad ones, such as the pictured Sisu which is the ugliest card in the game to date. They are largely uninspiring instead of awe-inspiring, but there are a few corkers in there that are worthwhile. We Don’t Talk About Bruno is especially nice and although I’m not sure why Diablo has an enchanted over any number of other characters but his card is pretty rad. But another Cinderella, really? And the Sisu (in her second Enchanted outing) is possibly the worst looking card in the set.
There’s also some repetition in the accessories, which is a little disappointing. That said, I will absolutely buy the Tinkerbell, Giant Fairy playmat if I can manage to show up to wait outside my FLGS four hours before they open and grab one of the two they will get in stock. But the accessories this time out are using art from past sets rather than the current sets and I prefer that these showcase what’s new. A petty complaint perhaps, but I’ve noticed that I’m not alone in this criticism.
It may sound like I’m pretty down on the new set without digging into it yet, and well, that’s because I am. It may be unrealistic to expect more from set 4, but here we are- I’m feeling like this set is very much more of the same, and with experience from the past 3 sets it’s pretty easy to see what the high percentage of jank is, and which of the really cool/fun cards are actually going to be useless in competitive play. I’m very interested in the co-op game, but with it already sold out everywhere I’m worried that would could be an accessible and innovative product may be difficult to get. Ravensburger gonna Ravensburger, I suppose.
Next time- Some of the top cards from Ursula’s Return!
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