Hello and welcome back to Illumination, the Disney Lorcanah podcast. My name is Max. And I'm Sam. And Sam is back after leaving me hanging for an entire episode. It's okay, I can get through them on my own pretty easily. This time we are back and I'm going to move quickly because we are doing two parts to our year end wrap up.
We are going to do 2024 in review for this episode and then we will talk about things that have yet to pass and our hopes for what's coming in predictions maybe in Disney Lorcanah for 2025 in the next episode. So a two-parter to close out the year. If you've been listening, thank you so much. We really, really do appreciate you being here. If this is your first time, welcome on in. We appreciate you finding us and hope you enjoy what you are about to hear.
Let's talk about 2024 from the perspective of Disney Lorcanah. So allow me to take you back in time to the first quarter. We just had gotten through Rise of the Floodborne and we were managing to struggle our way through Hiram Flavisham's Popsicles and the dominance of a Minnie Mouse surfer in the Ruby Amethyst decks. What we were looking forward to is a little set, the third set. This is Into the Ink Lands is going to be the first set and it also marks the triumphant debut of this very podcast.
January 31st of 2024, we did our first episode. A whole new podcast was episode one. We went over our favorite things about the game, where we were coming from, from an experience standpoint and what our game preferences and styles were. So that's an episode you certainly can go back and listen to. I wouldn't consider it a pivotal episode if you're here with us, you kind of know who we are and what we're all about.
So Into the Ink Lands came out February 23rd of 2024 to introduce locations, something we get every single subsequent set since. That was very alliterative. I'm impressed I made it through that one. Sam, let's talk about our favorite cards in each color for Into the Ink Lands real quick. Amber, what you got? I got Perdita. Perdita is a fun card. I've played that one quite a bit. Super powerful. Yeah. My favorite is also a legendary card. It is Keeta, the cool one.
I like the little one too, because I like to shift it. And the biggest get we think at this point for Lurkana on the whole from Amber from Into the Ink Lands is? Piglet. The Pooh Pirate Captain. Amethyst, Sam, what you got? I got Turnabout's Followers. Yeah, that's a good one drop. I have Jafar, Striking Illusionist, a little card that everybody was afraid was going to break the game. Spoiler alert, it didn't. It is a cool card though.
And I think the biggest get for the game and one of the very few really powerful locations we've gotten, I think there's probably like maybe three to five regularly played locations at this point at the end of 2024 for Disney Lurkana. And I would say this one is one of the most, if not the most powerful to date. And it is the Queen's Castle. Yeah, I agree with that. The card is very, very powerful. Emerald, Sam, what's your favorite Emerald card?
Kit Cloudkicker. Tough Guy. I'm glad you get to say his name because sometimes it's screwed up and it's inappropriate. I like the Cursed Merfolk. I do too. That was a tough choice. Yeah, that card's messed up. It always just gets multiple cards for one. So good. And for the game, little two drop called Ursula, Deceiver. Card's very, very powerful and is in fact meta-defining to this day. Next is Ruby. My favorite card I picked was Prince Eric, Expert Helmsman.
Yes, if he is banished, he takes something with him. Just runs a whole boat into it. I picked Jim Hawkins for mine, put a location into play as something I've tried many times, even off of a just-in-time, which sounds way cooler than it actually is. It doesn't work most of the time. Don't do it. But I like the card a lot. And for the game, the biggest get of course is gotta be Madame Medusa.
Just being able to hit anything with three or less strength has been pivotal for many strategies playing Ruby cards still to this day. Sapphire, Sam. How far I'll go. It's quite a song. My favorite is Wendy, who is the authority on Peter Pan. If you're not familiar, she's a 3-1-2 with Warden support for three inkable. I think she is a cool stat line. Sometimes you see her pop up in the Amber Sapphire Heroes deck that's been running around from this particular set.
So I was happy to see her making some appearances here. And for the game, it's just this little item called Lucky Dime. Don't worry about it. It's not that important. Steel, Sam, what do you got? I chose Simba, Fighting Pring. You do like you a sexy Simba. I selected Robin Hood, the champion of Sherwood, who has been on the decline a little bit lately, but comes and goes. I think it's always a presence you should be aware of. Comes and goes in popularity.
And I think the game's biggest get is either along came Zeus or Mr. Smee, Bumbling Pirate, I believe, or Bumbling Mate, perhaps. I think they're both very, very good. Also in Q1 of 2024, we had set champs for the first time ever. It was Rockstar Stitch. And I was playing at the time one of my favorite decks to this day, Amber Steel Song, and in a room full of Ruby Sapphire decks, I found myself struggling quite a bit.
And then I switched to the Green Steel list that was popularized by Ryan Miles at the Star City Games event during that time. And I managed to get me a stitch from playing that particular list. Sam, I bet you it's no surprise what you played. Red Purple. Red Purple. And the deck to beat was the Ruby Sapphire deck at the time. Obviously, the Green Steel deck fell into favor within the middle of the set champs.
It's cool to see the meta evolve in such an interesting way over the course of the set champs. This set champs was just two weekends, which will end up changing in the future. But at that time, it was just two weekends. A little bit of a mess, in my opinion, just because it was supposed to be Saturday, Sunday or the following Saturday, Sunday, but stores were having them Friday. So you could find out about secret events that I had no idea was a thing. And it was just difficult.
They were very overcrowded and people were being very competitive. This was really one of the first big competitive events we had for Disney, Lurkana, outside of like your local leagues. Yeah. And I think it being a really good card was also part of that. Yes. Rockstar Stitch is a fine card and the artwork on that card is still probably the strongest for a set champs promo. I would say to this point, I like it a lot. I think it's very fun. Card looks great. Matt looks great. Very cool.
So in quarter two of 2024, we had the release of Ursula's Return that was on May 17th of 2024. We also got the Illumineers Quest Deep Trouble, which was a cool way to play with a person instead of against a person and play against Ursula. It's just fun. We play it from time to time. I think we had a good time playing it when we do. We also had the alternate shift cost from Ursula's Return. So you could discard a card of some stripe in order to shift a card.
I bet you that won't have any negative repercussions when we go over the list. And we also had Sing Together, which let you use multiple characters to sing a song, which is very cool. A lot of fun. I like that they went back to revisit existing abilities and game mechanics without having to just reinvent the wheel from scratch. I think that was a really cool concept and I'm glad that they got back to basics as it were and didn't just keep adding and adding and adding and adding new things.
So it gets confusing and overwhelming the new players. I like that they went in and refined what is its shift. You pay the cost and you get to put a character on top of another character with the same name. That didn't change. Just simply the cost you pay changed. Which is really cool. Jumping into Amber, Sam, what was your favorite card? For Amber, I chose Donald Duck, Musketeer Soldier.
Donald Duck is very popular in the Amber Amethyst Hyper Agro style decks, giving that goat-like effect which is really a cool card and being a bodyguard on top of it with a decent enough stat line. My favorite is Juliet to Madrigal because you play it in the Mufasa decks, which if you're not a frequent listener is one of my favorite archetypes to play in Disney Lurkana. It's not always good, but I always like to play it.
I think the biggest get for the game, not a lot coming out of Amber in this particular set for gets, but I think the two drop Ursula Vanessa is one we see very, very frequently through different styles of Amber decks. Toss it over to Amethyst. What was your favorite? For Amethyst, it was Belle Accomplished Mystic. Played this card a few times over the last few sets and I'm playing it right now and I really like the card. She is probably better than she's ever been at time of recording.
I also selected this card as my favorite. I think the artwork is top notch. I'm excited to see this one as a playmat. I think the flavor of her being a Mystic is really cool and I think the way they've handled her from an in-game and game design perspective work really effectively.
I think the game got quite a one drop by way of Magic Broom, a Luminary Keeper, I believe, and this is often, you'll see it paired with Chernobog's followers as one drop pairings of choice for a lot of Amethyst builds. Right now, Sam and I are playing the same deck and we are both playing copies of Chernobog's followers and Magic Broom. So not a lot changes even though cards keep coming out. Emerald. Maybe Pegasus, but I will give a mention to the big Pegasus. I also like that one.
Both quite good, both quite scary. I chose this little sing together card called Under the Sea. I got to play this deck a lot. It's one of my favorite decks to play in Lurkana. It is just difficult. It's fun. It helps really typify what Lurkana needs you to do and that's think multiple turns ahead and play around as much as possible. It's a good card and the biggest gift for the game, whether you're whatever side of the argument you're on on this card, was definitely Diablo, Devoted Herald.
Diablo is a really good card and leads to one of the strongest opening lines in Disney Lurkana. So yeah. Ruby. Ruby is Be King Undisputed. Love this card. It's a Lion King card. It's a Lion King card and it always catches my opponent off guard. I similarly like a card that is sort of Lion King adjacent as it's played in the Mufasa deck. My favorite from this in Ruby is Mulan Injured Soldier.
From a game perspective, this was a toughie between Brawl and Sisu Empowered Sibling, which is the big Sisu that shifts. Both see a lot of play. Both are very, very good cards. Sapphire. Sapphire, I chose Great Stone Dragon. Excellent. I chose Queen Diviner, which is the one that lets you look at items. And for the game, we got Ice Block, which is paired up with that big Sisu a lot. Steel. Steel, I chose Aerial Sonic Warrior. Very cool card.
I chose Phil, who gets you lore for free, which you can see is thematic when I pick cards a lot of the time. And for the game, we selected Fortesphere and a minor note to Chenpo. Big boy Chenpo. We also had in Q2 the first ever Disney Lorcan Challenge event. And that was taking place in North America in Atlanta and in Europe in Lille. Really, really cool to see those come out.
The winning decks from Lille was Amber Steel's song, Atlanta was Amber Amethyst, which was like a purple-yellow Mufasa-style mid-range deck. Right, forgot about that. Yes. One of the very, the only deck that has that color combination that wins a DLC. Spoiler alert. Then we had DLC Chicago, where Emerald Steel won the event. And then we had Bokum in Germany, which Ruby Amethyst won that event. We also had our set champs. The deck to beat for sure was Bucky. That was the Green Steel discard deck.
I played that deck and then switched to Red Purple once I figured out how to beat the Bucky decks. Sam, what did you play for set champs? Red Purple. Yes, that's what Sam plays. She plays Ruby Amethyst a lot. Spoiler alert, it hasn't changed. No, no, a little bit, but not a whole lot. It may in the future though. We'll see. And yeah, definitely the deck to beat was the Bucky decks. Obviously that changed when Bucky got some errata.
Quarter three, we had some more DLCs, Fort Worth, Bologna, and Toronto. Fort Worth, Ruby Amethyst took it down. That was the first time we saw a big Sisu and Ruby Amethyst lists. Then in Bologna, we had Ruby Sapphire take down a challenge event. And then in Toronto, we had one of my all time favorite decks take it down, which is the old under the sea deck, Emerald Amber. Love to see it. Then we had of course the D23 convention.
We had a special set of cards come out again for Disney Lorcona that came out in a box set that was available in more than just the convention location, which was really cool to see. And I hope that the rollouts of those continue to get smoother and smoother. Of course we had our release of Shimmering Skies, which was on August 9th of 2024. What was your favorite Amber card from this particular set? Gotta be Daisy Duck. Donald's Date was very popular.
One is Wreck-It Ralph Admiral Underpants because it's a Mufasa card and because it's Freelore in Amber, which I do tend to appreciate. The games get obviously still Daisy Duck. What about Amethyst? Amethyst might be my favorite card just full stop. Elsa, the fifth spirit. Yes. Elsa is a very, very good, very playable card. I chose Madam Mim Elephant because I think it's a really cool card. It is a harder card to use than the other Madam Mims, but it's really good.
And I think the game, like Sam, got that Elsa fifth spirit. And then for Emerald, Sam, what did you select? For Emerald, I chose Ana, Diplomatic Queen. I chose her just because I think it's really cool how many options she has. She is flexible. I thought you were going to say I chose her just because I selected Elsa in Amethyst. My favorite card from Emerald also played in the Emerald Amber decks, the song You're Welcome.
And I think the biggest get for the game is probably Clarabelle, Light on Her Hooves, just because it transcends the most archetypes, though I could see some argument in there for that. For Ruby, I chose Vanellope Von Sweets. The one with Evasive and Rush. Okay. That gets some fringe play in the Mufasa decks. So I'm a fan. My favorite is Robin Hood Sharpshooter. I think that card is awesome. It just hasn't found a good home yet. It's a very vulnerable card that has to do a lot of heavy lifting.
And I think the game didn't get a lot for Ruby, but I think Vanellope is probably the most playable card that it got. Sapphire. Sam, what was your favorite? Mufasa, Ruler of Pride Rock. Yep. I think that's a good one there. It's a Lion King card. My favorite is Scrooge McDuck because he is big and has above rate stats. Very big and heavy hitting. And I think the biggest get for the game is a little boy named Tipo. Steel, what do you got?
Seven Dwarves Mine. Yeah. That's a good location, proving to be quite good right now. Something you might want to put on that particular location is my favorite card, Doc, who is a knight. And I think the biggest get is a little games referee called Pete. Now we're moving into quarter four, much closer to time of recording here. We're talking about DLC Vegas, Birmingham, and Seattle. You're going to hear some pages flutter as I look back at that. Las Vegas was won by Emerald Steel.
Birmingham was won by Ruby Sapphire again. And Seattle was won by Emerald Steel. So quite a few of the same decks there at the very end, which makes sense. They're very, very powerful decks that can do their thing well and consistently. Set champs for this particular set. I played Red Purple and then I switched off Red Purple after actually having done well pretty quickly into set champs. This time I could take it easy and play one of my favorite decks.
The aforementioned Mufasa's. And Sam, what did you play? I played Ruby Amethyst. You did Red Purple again. And the deck to beat during this time in North America was probably the Emerald Steel decks, though of course your Ruby Sapphire decks still quite scary. Then we had the release of the newest set here. That is Azurite Sea and it is at time of recording the newest Disney Lurkana set, set six. It came out on November 15th of 2024.
Sam, what is your favorite card thus far in Amber from the set? It's the Simba Pride Protector. My favorite is Sugar Rush Speedway Finish Line. I've been tweaking and fiddling with a way to make that deck work, not just because it's in the Mufasa colors, but because I think it's really neat that you can create a way to not play Lurkana. It's the closest to a combo deck that we've seen so far.
You can definitely run the speedway enough to just ignore your opponent and just speedway at them, which is kind of cool. And for the game, I believe the Two Drop Lilo that just consistently keeps coming back is probably the best get. Amethyst, Sam, you, me, and the game all selected the best card. It's a pretty easy one. It costs four. It's uninkable. What is it? Genie Wish Fulfilled. Yes, this card has become meta-defining.
And if you're not prepared at this point to deal with this particular card, I would definitely urge you to take time to plan out what you do when your opponent plays this four drop. It's being played in tandem with Rabbit. It's replacing cards like Friends on the Other Side in some builds. It's replacing cards like the Queen's Castle in other builds. It's just such a powerful four drop that it's hard to ignore. Next we have Emerald. We're all in the same boat.
You, me, and the game all agree that the best get for this one, the reason we're playing the deck we're playing today is because of? Go-Go Tamago. Yeah. This card is so very, very powerful. This card leads to some very explosive games and some quick wins. There's nothing more I can say about this card that I haven't already said on the podcast. Before, Ruby, what's your favorite? Maui Half Shark.
This is a card that has a lot of hype and I think ended up not being nearly as powerful as a lot of people predicted. But I still think it needs to find a home. But I think that people are starting to figure it out. My favorite is Minnie Mouse Pirate Lookout. Plays really well with the Sugar Rush Speedway finish line. And I think the biggest get for the game is probably the Half Shark. It's just so darn strong. Sapphire, what was your favorite? This one is Baymax Armored Companion.
My favorite is Gadget Creative Tinker. She's the one that can quest for an additional lure for every item you play in a turn. I think she is a cool potential combo card. So that's very exciting to me. And she's a Rescue Ranger. I think the biggest get for the game though is a two drop action that is inkable called Sail the Azurite Seen. If you don't know what that does, have you been playing Lurkana very long? Strong for the decks that want that kind of ramp. Finally we have Steel.
Sam, what is your favorite here? Pluto Guard Dog. Yeah, Pluto is good. I've been playing a lot of Pluto. I think it's insanely strong. My favorite is Gantu. I think Gantu finally got a good card and it's quite a good card. Four three four for four inkable. Card is powerful and just can close a game very quickly. I think the biggest get for the game is either Pluto or Calhoun. It's one of the two.
We're still pretty early into the meta as time of recording, so it's hard to say what the best gets for the game are going to be early on if they're not called Genie. That is for sure. And of course we just had our European Continentals. We haven't yet had North American Continentals because it's happened right at the beginning of 2025. But we did get a winning deck and that was Sam. What colors were the winning deck? Ruby Amethyst.
Yes, a good old red purple doing it again, taking down a very large tournament, which is really cool. Getting somebody coming in, really taking a powerful set of choices, removing Queen's Castle, putting in Genie, ended up really helping push the issue of how good the Genie is in Lurkana. So I think that this is going to be an exciting year to come in 2025. I hope that you keep listening to the podcast as we continue.
We will be here for you and Sam, there's something else we're going to keep doing. What is that? Keep questing.