The Ink Table Podcast Episode 11: "Heist of the Century
Taking back the Crown
From the moment we stepped foot into the Great Illuminary, our path was laid out. With the casting of our first glimmers we took on the mantle of Illumineers, and were set on a collision course to this very moment. With the help of our mentor, we have mastered our craft; and our training has prepared us for the battle ahead. Together…we will put an end to Jafar’s Reign, we will save Archazia’s Island, and we will…take back the crown.
Welcome back and thank you for pulling up a seat at The Ink Table. We have officially entered the Reign of Jafar as he has transformed the once beautiful Archazia’s Island into his own mighty palace. His army of Illusions protect the throne. But with the help of the Island’s friendly pets and woodland creatures, the Illumineers may stand a fighting chance. Join us as we discuss our first weekend with the new set, predict where the story goes next, and check out the products releasing alongside Fabled.
But first…
Not too long ago, the team received their first invitation to appear on a different podcast. Chris from LorcanaChats has a tremendous list of guests that have made appearances in the past, where he conducts interviews and gives Lorcana content creators and players the opportunity to tell their stories.
So thank you to Chris (questing4lore) for giving us a platform to share a little more about ourselves. We are grateful to have our name along side some of the biggest names in this community. We hope that if you are reading this, then you’ll take the opportunity to check him out
We would also like to give a huge thank you to our home LGS, their sister store, and all the amazing people who run them. We once again spent the launch weekend of a new set attending sealed events at both locations and had a blast. The Board Room in South Charleston, WV is where John, Dylan, and Preston first met and the place that our “Table Talk” began. This place is the origin story of our podcast and if it wasn’t for them, we wouldn’t be sharing that “Table Talk” with you.
They don’t sale much online, but if you are ever in the area make sure to check them out.
Sealed Events
One of our favorite ways to play Lorcana is the sealed format and have made it a ritual to play in these events every time a new set releases. The format is played by opening 6 booster packs and building a 40 card minimum deck with no restrictions in the number of copies of a card or number of ink types you run. This is an exciting way to play, as you never know what you may pull (it could even be an enchanted). There is no competitive advantage to stress about and you don’t have to worry about playing against a $200 dollar deck. Many players are seeing cards for the first time in this format and just learning how they play. It is also a great way to spotlight the art, lore, and mechanics of cards that will see little play outside of this format. Below is a list of some of our favorite cards that we played with this time.
Darling Dear - Beloved Wife is a 5 cost inkable Amber card with 4 strength and 4 willpower. The art depicts her petting and nurturing the family pet, Lady. Being a dog dad, this card is a favorite of our producer John. Maybe because sweetly, it reminds him of his wife. And rumor has it that he may be playing it in a puppy deck in the future. Her ability How Sweet gives chosen character +2 lore when she is played. This card may see some play as a finisher in aggro decks. Ultimately in the sealed format where its not uncommon for games to come down to a race to 20 lore, she helps get that job done quicker.
There are a few rare things in that can be extremely useful in sealed. One of which is removal. And the new 1 cost uninkable Light The Fuse, is probably the best piece of removal in the newest set. This dual ink Ruby/Steel action allows you to deal 1 damage to a chosen character for each exerted character you have in play. Therefore, the more exerted characters you have, the more damage you can deal. The closest card we have to this is another Mulan inspired action. The 3 cost Strength of a Raging Fire is popular in competitive play and deals damage to a chosen character equal to the number of characters you have in play, no exerting required. The latter card may be rotated out when the 9th set arrives. So Light the Fuse could make a good replacement; but its use would be constricted to Ruby/Steel decks.
The 2 cost inkable Jeweled Collar was crafted by the mysterious Owl Illumineer, Archazia. The Emerald/Sapphire item can be seen adorned by a Duchess glimmer. The Welcome Extravagance ability allows you to ramp without having to give up the opportunity to play characters, as you will get to put the top of your deck into your inkwell every time one of your characters is challenged. The downside is that the ramp is dependent on your opponent’s actions. If they choose not to challenge, then you miss out. Personally, I would like to see it combined with cards that give opposing characters reckless, so they have no choice but to challenge. It may not work its way into many decks, but in sealed it made for impressive inkwells. John was even able to play the new 10 cost Mickey Mouse - Giant Mouse that typically cannot be played in this format.
Just like removal, card draw is a rare commodity in sealed events. One card that I found of great use in this department was Everybody’s Got a Weakness. This card is a Swiss army knife that does a couple of different things and can solve multiple problems. The 4 cost inkable Amythest card allows you to move 1 damage counter from each of your characters onto a chosen opposing character; and you get to draw a card for each damage counter moved this way. This within itself acts as a form of removal. The biggest downside is that the moved damage counters can’t be split among multiple characters and must all be moved to a single chosen character. But the pros definitely outweigh the cons with this one. Moving damage counters don’t count as “damaging”, so it would get past the Resist keyword. The counters can be moved onto an Evasive character that may be hard to challenge. And the biggest plus is that the damage counters are moved simultaneously. This means that even if an opposing character only has 1 willpower remaining, you can move as many damage counters onto it as you have damaged characters. For this reason, at one point I used a character with 0 strength to challenge an opponent just to have another damaged character in play. Ultimately a move like that, lead to 1 extra damage counter moved and 1 extra card drawn.
Faline - Playful Fawn is a 4 cost uninkable Ruby character with 2 strength and 4 willpower. More importantly, she is Evasive and can only be challenged by other Evasive characters. Typically in sealed, Evasive characters are in low quantities. So that alone made her good. But her ability Precocious Friend was surprisingly useful. While you have a character in in play with more strength than any of your opponent’s characters, she gains an extra +2 lore. So she would have the opportunity to quest for 3. As previously mentioned, many games turn into a race; so any high questers that can give an advantage are great in sealed.
In a set with where most early game 1 drop and 2 drops had low strength, Thumper - Young Bunny became a menace. The 2 cost inkable Ruby card does not have the greatest stat line with 0 strength and 3 willpower. But his ability is where he really shines. You Can Do It! allows you to exert him in order to give +3 strength to a chosen character. This assisted boost in strength turns evens the weakest glimmers into threats. Characters with high willpower were pretty prevalent during this event, and Thumper was a great counter. He also played well with his Bambi counterpart Faline that we talked about above, as he was able to push characters into meeting the condition that allows her to quest for three.
our other top sealed picks
Fabled Products
Disney Lorcana’s 9th set, Fabled, will release at LGSs and the Disney Parks on August 29th. And Ravensburger seems ready for it to be here already. In a way, this next set seems to be overshadowing the current one. For example, the day before Reign of Jafar released, news dropped showing off the packaging of all the new products that will release for Fabled. Players hadn’t even gotten their hands on the most recent products, and the future set was already being highly advertised. Take a look below at everything shown off.
Playmats
Playmats based on the enchanted Mufasa - Ruler of Pride Rock and Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo
Deck Boxes & Sleeves
We will be receiving 2 new designs for deck boxes and sleeves. The first is a Ruby themed image of Goofy, Max, and Powerline on stage at a concert. We were aware that The Goofy Movie cards would be coming in Fabled, but this confirms that some will be Ruby. What’s more is the fact that this could be the art of a song such as I2I.
The second new piece of art is of a Sapphire inspired Mulan. We will talk more about her later.
Binders
A new 3x3 binder showcasing many Princess glimmers.
The Collection Starter Set will include a 2x2 Mickey Mouse - Brave Little Tailor binder, 4 packs of Fabled, and a promo Tinkerbell - Giant Fairy
Single-player Decks
The Goofy Movie gets more love as an Emerald/Ruby Single-Player Deck busts out some cool Max and Powerline cards. Max will be an Emerald card, and Powerline looks to be a Ruby Floodborn with the Singer ability. This will be the first time that the ability is used by a non-Amber glimmer. And the second Single-Player Deck looks to be an Amer/Sapphire princess deck. We get another look at that new Sapphire Mulan. We also see it will include Ariel - Singing Mermaid which originally came out in set 4; which means this card will be receiving a reprint.
Booster Box & single packs
On the packs we can see a new Cruella De Vil glimmer checking herself out in a mirror, a Steamboat Willie - Mickey Mouse whistling, and once again see The Goofy Movie art from the deck box and sleeves.
Illumineer’s Trove
The elegant Trove is adorned with glowing sparkles and brilliant highlights of purple, that have me excited to see the dice in this one. The full list of contents is yet to be revealed, but you can bet we will have you covered when they do.
Gift Set
Later after Fabled releases, a new gift set will come out on October 3rd featuring a promotional Elsa - The Fifth Spirit. The gift set will also include 5 undisclosed previously released packs. The only priror gift set we have recieved was an Amber themed one featuring Lilo - Escape Artist. We are already beginning to see some patterns, and believe the next gift set will feature an Emerald glimmer.
Where the story goes next
With the release of Fabled, a “New Chapter” begins. So outside of reprints and new rarities, what do we have in store? In this next section, we will go over some of the educated predictions that the team has put together based on hidden imagery, lore, and flavor text. We could be completely wrong; but this will act as proof, if we are right.
The Next Big Villain
Since set 4, Ursula’s Return, Hades has been up to…something. While Illumineers were busy battling Ursula, and now Jaffar, he has been quietly plotting. His card Hades - Meticulous Plotter alludes to this in his name and flavor text. “This neat little scheme has Ursula’s tentacles all over it. That sneaky sea witch…Wait! I can use this. She can keep those obnoxious Illumineers busy while I roll out my own plan.” He blatantly has spoken about about planning something; and the card art shows him in front of a board with miniatures determining how their locations will best serve this plan. Since this card was released, many other Hades cards have been revealed that could play into the story of how this plan unfolds. This includes one of the newest, Hades - Ruthless Tyrant, whose flavor text reads “Don’t forget - I’m the guy with the leverage here.”.
Archazia’s Secret Past
There is a mysterious character that we have recently met in Lorcana. Her name is Archazia, and she is an ancient Illumineer who owns the Hidden Inkcaster. After finding a map in The Great Illuminary, Illumineers traveled across the Azurite Sea to find her. She was eventually located on her Island, and took it upon herself to teach the Illumineers how to master dual-ink in preparation for the upcoming battle with Jaffar. But in the process of doing so, we start to see tiny glimpses of Archazia’s past. We learn that she has a history working with other Illumineers, but in the past something went terribly wrong. Maybe this is why Archazia has isolated herself. Either way, we believe that in Fabled some form of time manipulation will come into play. Something will go awry during the Palace Heist, and we will be sent into the stories of an ancient lorebook, that show us more of her past. After all, the tag line for Fabled is “Welcome to the Story”.
