The Disney Lorcana World Championship event is looming large in the minds of many players. Come June 28th and 29th, all eyes will be on Walt Disney World Resort to see who among 28 world class players will emerge to be the first ever Disney Lorcana World Champion. It’s been something of a long road for the game to get this stage, with many large-scale organized events fumbling out of the gate, dealing with logistical problems and of course being plagued by cheating scandals. The actual event was just announced in early May after many months of everyone asking when it would actually be taking place. And there was controversy about that announcement as well because Ravensburger stated that it would be a participants only event with no public side events or spectators allowed.
All pics-Ravensburger
This was all determined that such a restricted event would be in the best interest of the competitors, who are literally coming from around the world. Ultimately, I have to agree with Ravensburger’s decision; this could have been an all-in celebration of Disney Lorcana’s success but given the problems that have surrounded some of the events, it’s best that it remain focused on figuring out who the best player in the world is. So I support their decision, and I’m excited to watch the official streams of the games. And it’s a great gesture to offer viewer a chance to win the very nice and almost certain to be extremely valuable A Whole New World promo card.
This week, Ravensburger announced the formats for the World Championship and I’m, again, very much on board with what has been announced. These are completely new formats to competitive Disney Lorcana play and I am very excited to see something more refined- and challenging- being offered to these top players. More than that, I hope to see these formats trickle down, way way down, to my level of casual Goofy deck play.
“Super Sealed” is going to see each player getting four packs each of Shimmering Skies, Azurite Sea, Archazia’s Island, and Reign of Jafar. Think about what card we won’t be seeing for a minute. No Madam Mim, no Be Prepared, no Pawpsicle, no A Whole New World…the list goes on. They are going to be allotted 60 minutes of deckbuilding to make allowing a 3 ink deck with 50 cards. I think that’s very exciting to see the kinds of decks these players cook up with these parameters. With 3 ink colors in play, this means we could see some never-before-combos and maybe even a breakout new archetype or two.
There’s also some funky rules around sideboarding- after the first match, you can swap out cards from your initial packs but you must stay within the 3 inks you’ve already committed to. I love that. It also gives the players some flexibility to tech against specific builds, which I think is really going to help to sort out who the “best” really is.
Triple Deck Constructed is likewise going to be a real test of skill for these players. Each will have to make 3 decks with all six inks represented among them. Before the first game of a match, each player gets to look over the opponent’s decks. Then- get this- each secretly selects a color pair token to “bench” the deck that they don’t want to play against in round one. So if I’m up, I’m putting your Amethyst Purple deck on the bench with the quickness. In subsequent rounds, the loser can keep the deck or switch. A player has to win with both non-benched decks to win, and in the Grand Finals, there’s no benching and they have to win with all three decks. Wow!
I’m super impressed with the design of these formats and how they will put these players to the ultimate test. This is so much more compelling and dynamic than getting these 28 folks in to play their netdecks against each other, and it is going to require a very deep, very complete understanding of all four of these sets and how the cards interact to win. And with wrinkles like the 3 ink decks, it opens up the game to unprecedented variables.
Although I am naturally disappointed that there isn’t a “make a deck using nothing but Hercules cards” format or “your deck must contain 50% Goofy”, these are exciting ways to play that I’m looking forward to trying out at home. This is exactly the kind of innovation I’ve been wanting to see with the game and although apparently some commenters and even participants have been less than enthusiastic about these formats, I think Ravensburger is doing this whole Worlds thing right.
Have any questions or feedback? Drop us a note in the comments below or email us at contact@goonhammer.com. Want articles like this linked in your inbox every Monday morning? Sign up for our newsletter. And don’t forget that you can support us on Patreon for backer rewards like early video content, Administratum access, an ad-free experience on our website and more.
