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The upcoming Disney Lorcana set, Shimmering Skies, is upon us with the early release on August 9 in hobby stores followed by the wide release on August 23. This is the fifth set since Lorcana launched almost one year ago. Alongside a new expansive set, two starter decks will be released: An Emerald/Steel deck featuring The Lion King’s Scar and The Emperor’s New Groove’s Kronk, and an Amethyst/Ruby deck featuring Frozen’s Elsa and Wreck-It Ralph. Starter decks are always a good jumping-off point when getting into a new card game; these two new decks are no exception.
Starter decks usually have a theme, and the hope is that the included cards have a unifying playstyle. Usually, starter decks will get you part of the way to an optimized deck before players begin to brew some ideas. The Emerald/Steel deck, for instance, focuses on keeping your opponent's characters damaged throughout the game and capitalizing on that board state. The featured Scar character has an ability that allows the player to draw a card whenever one of their characters challenges a damaged character. Another example includes Scar’s hyena minion Ed, who is protected from being challenged if the opponent’s character is damaged. There’s even a location card, Tropical Rainforest, that forces opposing damaged characters to challenge if able. All of this disrupts the opposing player from playing their cards how they want to.
And those are just some of the emerald cards in the deck. Regarding steel, there are some cards that can help with this overarching damaged character control strategy, like Tug-of-War, which gives the player a choice of dealing damage to all opposing characters with the Evasive ability or without, or Yzma, who can deal 1 damage to a character if any of the player’s characters banish another character through a challenge. This disruption deck is kind of interesting in the sense that you somewhat dictate how your opponent plays some of their cards if the setup is there. The only potential concern with this deck is that the player is leaving all of these opposing characters on the field. So if the player were to lose the ability to disrupt, all these surviving characters can now wreak havoc.
With the other available starter, the Amethyst/Ruby deck doesn’t synergize as much as its counterpart. The new Wreck-It Ralph characters Vanellope and Snowanna, for instance, have the rush ability to challenge opposing characters as soon as they are played, but don’t have a huge benefit like the current Amethyst/Ruby decks do when potentially trading characters in this way, such as drawing when banished. Sure, there are amethyst cards that exert characters to make them targets, but the rewards seem disappointing compared to what the new Emerald/Steel starter deck can pull off. With that said, there are just some good cards in the Amethyst/Ruby starter deck that players can most likely use in their own constructed decks. For example, The Sword Released is an item card that lets the player gain lore as well as force your opponent to lose lore if the player has the strongest character on the board. Another useful card is Finders Keepers, which lets the player draw three cards. Drawing and filtering the deck down is always useful when fishing for certain cards at pivotal moments in the match. Although the deck itself isn’t great on its own, the guaranteed cards can be useful in deck brewing if your options are limited.
...if the player were to lose the ability to disrupt, all these surviving characters can now wreak havoc.
Both Shimmering Skies starter decks, like other starters, continue to give players a pre-constructed taste of what their respective set will be like. We have new characters and abilities to mess around with, and that’s always exciting for any card game. Although one starter deck seemingly plays better, both work as a means to get into the game for those looking to try out the latest Disney Lorcana has to offer. For more Disney Lorcana, check out our interview with one of the game designers on how the card game came to be.
Each Shimmering Skies Starter Deck comes with:
Amethyst & Ruby
Emerald & Steel
Starter decks usually have a theme, and the hope is that the included cards have a unifying playstyle. Usually, starter decks will get you part of the way to an optimized deck before players begin to brew some ideas. The Emerald/Steel deck, for instance, focuses on keeping your opponent's characters damaged throughout the game and capitalizing on that board state. The featured Scar character has an ability that allows the player to draw a card whenever one of their characters challenges a damaged character. Another example includes Scar’s hyena minion Ed, who is protected from being challenged if the opponent’s character is damaged. There’s even a location card, Tropical Rainforest, that forces opposing damaged characters to challenge if able. All of this disrupts the opposing player from playing their cards how they want to.
And those are just some of the emerald cards in the deck. Regarding steel, there are some cards that can help with this overarching damaged character control strategy, like Tug-of-War, which gives the player a choice of dealing damage to all opposing characters with the Evasive ability or without, or Yzma, who can deal 1 damage to a character if any of the player’s characters banish another character through a challenge. This disruption deck is kind of interesting in the sense that you somewhat dictate how your opponent plays some of their cards if the setup is there. The only potential concern with this deck is that the player is leaving all of these opposing characters on the field. So if the player were to lose the ability to disrupt, all these surviving characters can now wreak havoc.
With the other available starter, the Amethyst/Ruby deck doesn’t synergize as much as its counterpart. The new Wreck-It Ralph characters Vanellope and Snowanna, for instance, have the rush ability to challenge opposing characters as soon as they are played, but don’t have a huge benefit like the current Amethyst/Ruby decks do when potentially trading characters in this way, such as drawing when banished. Sure, there are amethyst cards that exert characters to make them targets, but the rewards seem disappointing compared to what the new Emerald/Steel starter deck can pull off. With that said, there are just some good cards in the Amethyst/Ruby starter deck that players can most likely use in their own constructed decks. For example, The Sword Released is an item card that lets the player gain lore as well as force your opponent to lose lore if the player has the strongest character on the board. Another useful card is Finders Keepers, which lets the player draw three cards. Drawing and filtering the deck down is always useful when fishing for certain cards at pivotal moments in the match. Although the deck itself isn’t great on its own, the guaranteed cards can be useful in deck brewing if your options are limited.
...if the player were to lose the ability to disrupt, all these surviving characters can now wreak havoc.
Both Shimmering Skies starter decks, like other starters, continue to give players a pre-constructed taste of what their respective set will be like. We have new characters and abilities to mess around with, and that’s always exciting for any card game. Although one starter deck seemingly plays better, both work as a means to get into the game for those looking to try out the latest Disney Lorcana has to offer. For more Disney Lorcana, check out our interview with one of the game designers on how the card game came to be.
Each Shimmering Skies Starter Deck comes with:
- 60 cards
- 11 damage counters
- 1 paper playmat
- 1 paper tracker token
- Game Rules
Amethyst & Ruby
- 2x 36 - The Nokk – Mythical Spirit
- 2x 39 - Archimedes – Exasperated Owl
- 2x 40 - Bruni – Fire Salamander
- 2x 41 - Earth Giant – Living Mountain
- 2x 42 - Gale – Wind Spirit
- 1x 46 - Anna – Mystical Majesty
- 2x 47 - Archimedes – Electrified Owl
- 1x 48 - Elsa – The Fifth Spirit
- 1x 50 - Olaf – Happy Passenger
- 2x 54 - Maleficent – Vengeful Sorceress
- 3x 56 - Anna – Eager Acolyte
- 2x 57 - King of Hearts – Monarch of Wonderland
- 3x 59 - Hypnotic Strength
- 2x 60 - Finders Keepers
- 2x 64 - Retrosphere
- 2x 68 - The Library – A Gift for Belle
- 2x 103 - Taffyta Muttonfudge – Ruthless Rival
- 1x 104 - Wreck-It Ralph – Demolition Dude
- 2x 106 - Turbo – Royal Hack
- 2x 108 - Rancis Fluggerbutter – Chocolate Charger
- 2x 110 - Snowanna Rainbeau – Cool Competitor
- 2x 111 - Daisy Duck – Spotless Food-Fighter
- 2x 112 - Mickey Mouse – Enthusiastic Dancer
- 3x 114 - Taffyta Muttonfudge – Crowd Favorite
- 2x 117 - Taffyta Muttonfudge – Sour Speedster
- 2x 122 - Donald Duck – Daisy's Date
- 1x 124 - Vanellope von Schweetz – Random Roster Racer
- 3x 125 - Simba – Adventurous Successor
- 2x 126 - Minnie Mouse – Dazzling Dancer
- 2x 130 - Glimmer vs Glimmer
- 1x 133 - The Sword Released
Emerald & Steel
- 1x 69 - Robin Hood – Timely Contestant
- 2x 70 - Shenzi – Scar's Accomplice
- 3x 71 - Little John – Camp Cook
- 2x 72 - Zazu – Advisor to Mufasa
- 3x 73 - Ulf – Mime
- 2x 74 - Ed – Laughing Hyena
- 3x 77 - Robin Hood – Archery Contestant
- 1x 81 - Ed – Hysterical Partygoer
- 3x 87 - Banzai – Taunting Hyena
- 2x 88 - Robin Hood – Sneaky Sleuth
- 1x 91 - Shenzi – Head Hyena
- 1x 93 - Scar – Vengeful Lion
- 3x 94 - Hypnotic Deduction
- 2x 95 - Night Howler Rage
- 2x 102 - Tropical Rainforest – Jaguar Lair
- 3x 173 - Simba – Lost Prince
- 2x 174 - Rudy – Groove Disrupter
- 3x 175 - Royal Guard – Bovine Protector
- 2x 177 - Sleepy – Sluggish Knight
- 3x 178 - Kronk – Unlicensed Investigator
- 2x 179 - Heihei – Protective Rooster
- 1x 184 - Yzma – Unjustly Treated
- 1x 185 - Kronk – Head of Security
- 2x 190 - Arthur – Wart
- 2x 192 - Simba – Son of Mufasa
- 2x 195 - Pete – Games Referee
- 1x 196 - Tug-of-War
- 3x 197 - When Will My Life Begin?
- 2x 199 - Food Fight!
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