Every Disney Lorcana Term You Need to Know
Disney Lorcana is the newest strategy trading card game and it shares a lot of similarities to games like Magic the Gathering. But Disney’s take on a TCG still has its own backstory and gameplay, including some new lingo you’ll have to learn if you want to understand various aspects of the competitive side of Disney Lorcana.
Here are some terms you’ll encounter when you start playing Disney Lorcana online or at local shops.
Banished
To be banished in Disney Lorcana is the equivalent of being put into a discard pile. Character cards are placed in the banished pile when they are KO’d in a challenge or from other incoming damage. You may also have to put cards in your banished pile if another card tells you to.
Challenge
Disney Lorcana character cards have two possible actions: Challenge and quest. If you choose to challenge, you are essentially attacking your opponent’s character cards. The amount of damage you do is indicated on the bottom right of your card next to the amount of willpower you have.
Exert
Character and item cards can either be ready or exerted. An exerted card must be turned to the side, indicating that it can’t be used again until it’s ready. Certain card effects will ready a card or you can wait until your next turn. At this point, turn the card upright again.
Hand
In competitive card games, your hand is the collection of cards you have in your, well, hand. At the start of every turn, you should draw a card to put in your hand. You never want to have a small hand — or no cards at all — so you should add cards to your deck that help you have more draw power.
Inkwell
In Disney Lorcana, you use ink to activate cards and use their effects. You’ll see that cards have a cost in the lefthand corner — this is how much ink it costs to use the card. To gain ink, you have to put a card into your inkwell every turn or whenever possible. Your inkwell will sit on the side of the board with all the cards face down.
Not all cards can be put into your inkwell. You have to look for cards that have the inkwell icon around its cost. The cards placed into your inkwell will remain there until the end of the game.
Lore
Lore is what you need to win a game of Disney Lorcana. You will need 20 total lore to win. You get lore by questing with your characters. They will get a certain amount of lore that can be increased depending on the other cards you have in play or the types of items or actions you play.
Songs
Disney Lorcana has three types of cards: Characters, items, and actions. There are also special types of action cards called Songs. These cards are played like your basic action card — paying its cost to activate its effect — but you can also have one of your character’s of a certain cost sing the song to avoid paying the ink out of your inkwell. This will exert your character, however, meaning you won’t be able to challenge or quest.
Quest
Characters have two actions in Disney Lorcana: Quest and challenge. If you choose to quest, that means you are using your character to get lore that turn. That card will become exerted, meaning you can’t do anything else with that character until your next turn.
Rarity Symbol
If you are a card collector, you’ll definitely want to pay attention to a card’s rarity symbol. The rarity of a card is an indication of how common it is to come across it when opening packs. The harder to come across, the more the card is worth. Here are the rarity symbols you’ll see in order of least to most rare:
- Common
- Uncommon
- Rare
- Super Rare
- Legendary
Willpower
Your character’s willpower is basically the amount of HP or defense it has. Once another character or action card damages your character that amount or higher, they are banished.
