It’s hard to believe it’s been two years since Disney Lorcana shut down Gen Con. As someone that’s been involved with games quite literally since I was six years old and I picked up a copy of TSR’s Dungeon! on one of those free timeshare sales pitch vacations I was on with my parents, I’m always excited to see these kinds of flashpoint moments in the hobby and in the industry when a product really takes off and takes hold. I’ve seen so many games- some really good ones- come and go over the years and I’m glad that this one has stuck around.
All pics Ravensburger
Ravensburger is probably pretty glad too because it’s not only made buck, it’s also made them a player in the TCG product category. And mostly, they’ve done a good but not great job of what all that entails. As year 3 dawns, they’ve returned to Gen Con with a host of new announcements and reveals and I almost – but not quite- want to take back all that stuff I said about how they weren’t really generating excitement. There are some really neat things in store for the game throughout the last two quarters of 2025 and into 2026. In addition to supporting the game with plenty of events and activities, they also did a livestream info dump to let us know what they are cooking up.
Fabled is of course the big news and I’ve already written at length about it in this column because I think it’s pretty darn important. Set rotation is coming, and with it Fabled has emerged as almost a “greatest hits” compilation of the first four sets that will be eligible for the game’s standard format. There are some interesting things afoot- some cards will be effectively downgrading rarity so although only six Legendaries are slated to be reprinted, some will likely show up as Super Rares. And some Super Rares look to be downgraded to Rares, such as Ariel, Sonic Warrior.
Fabled is also going to include a whole new rarity level above Enchanted and, well, as someone who’s never pulled an Enchanted out of hundreds of packs I’m excited for everyone else to enjoy these new cards, which will include a stunning Mickey and Minnie pair. The more exciting thing as far as I’m concerned is the debut of The Goofy Movie and the fact that they bowed down to my demands to make “I2I” a song card- and with an Iconic version at that. The cards shown so far look awesome. I was also surprised to see that Dumbo is appearing in the new set because you kind of forget about Dumbo, you know? Dumbo is a classic and all but with some pretty nasty racial stereotyping going on it and I’m not sure it’s really as timeless as some of the other Disney masterpieces. But hey, I’m glad to see the elephant swooping in and he’s got a beautiful Enchanted to show for it.
Beyond Fabled, Ravensburger is also showing previews of the sets to follow. The mystery-themed Whispers in the Well will drop in November (which seems late as it is billed as an and I quote “spoooooooky” set). According to the press release Zootopia’s Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde are the featured characters which makes since as Zootopia 2 is on the way but it doesn’t make since that one of the starter decks has Judy Hoops with…Robin Hood. I mean, I think that’s an upgrade but Nick Wilde fans might take umbrage that Officer Hopps has partnered up with our beloved outlaw. This will also be the set that introduce Gargoyles, which is just all kinds of rad in the most 1990s way possible.
2026’s premiere release will be Winterspell, which as the name suggests will have a wintery, snowy theme. I like this! It’s kind of what I’ve been on about in regard to stronger set themes and concepts. This also paves the way for a beach set too, which could also be a lot of fun. Hey, these could be the hat sets I was writing about a couple of weeks ago!
The bigger news for next year though is still that Pixar is coming to the game, and a single image of our boys Buzz and Woody was shown. The set will be after Winterspell, so Q2 2026 I really feel like this could be a galvanizing moment for the game, and it will be coming at a time when even the hardiest Disney Lorcana players will likely be feeling some fatigue. Pixar will open up a lot of opportunities for new characters and possibly even new interactions. And god knows we’ll have 35 Lightning McQueen cards and all the Inside Out stuff. I hate this! But I’ll take that in trade for the Toy Story gang, anything to do with Up!, Mike and Sully, and The Incredibles. The big question- will A Bug’s Life be there or has it been forgotten?
I’m one of those “Gen Can’t” people (more accurately a “Gen Won’t one), so I didn’t get my mitts on any of the three promo cards they were handing out but man alive, that Goofy Emerald Champion is a delight I am going to need when my meta-crushing Goofy deck goes online. It’s also an interesting piece because I believe it is the first card to specifically affect an ink color- it grants other Emerald characters Ward. This is actually a Whispers in the Well card, so I think that’s a pretty good preview of what the new mechanic will be for the set. The Pluto is interesting because the ability text and Lore icons are printed in red- not sure what that means! Anna – Ice Breaker has art I really, really don’t care for but it speaks to the seasonal vibe they are aiming for.
And they showed a bunch of new support products, the usual sorts of fare. But the most and least interesting one is puzzles. A line of puzzles with card art is in the works, which will surely delight jigsaw aficionados including some who have no idea what Disney Lorcana is. I could not possibly be less interested in this, but Ravensburger is really primarily a puzzle company. So you can almost imagine someone (with a heavy German accent) demanding that Disney Lorcana get puzzles.
So lots of fun in store from the German Puzzlemeisters- and yes, maybe a little of that elusive excitement I was looking for.
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