Disney Lorcana | Rules & Gameplay

So you want to play Lorcana? Come on, let’s go and play…

If you’re new to trading card games, the rules and gameplay for Lorcana may initially seem complicated. However, after a few rounds, you’ll see it’s quite simple and easy to get the hang of.

Note: for new players, we recommend going with one of the many pre-built starter decks, which feature 60 cards. They’re well-balanced and feature a good mix of cards to give you experience with most game mechanics.

How to Win

Unlike many trading card games, you won’t “win” by defeating your opponent. In Lorcana, your goal is to gather up 20 Lore – a magical resource containing Disney stories. The first player to get to 20 wins the game!

As the Illumineer, you will use magical Ink to cast Glimmers of Disney characters, items, songs, and actions that will help you (or hinder your opponent) in the quest for Lore. You gather lore with your characters, who each have a Lore value. When they quest, you gain Lore. However, questing stops them from taking other actions during your turn and leaves them vulnerable to being targeted by your opponent.

How to Lose

Here’s a fun one: if you must draw a card and you don’t have any cards remaining in your deck – you lose! This could happen at the start of your turn or when an ability makes you draw. Now, just because you don’t have any cards in your deck, you don’t have an automatic loss… It’s only when you go to draw a card, but you can’t. So, if you draw the last card in your deck at the start of your turn, you still have a tiny window through which you can win. 

Card Rules > Game Rules

Before we get into setting up and gameplay, one thing to understand about Disney Lorcana is that if a card’s ability or rules text goes against what you understand about the rules – do what the card says. 

Read your cards carefully! Powerful card abilities let you do things you normally wouldn’t be able to! 

Here's Where it Gets Good...

Most games are played as best of three – though you don’t have to do this for casual play. The latest “official” timer is 50 minutes for three games.

Here’s how to start your game:

  1. Shuffle your deck of at least 60 cards and place it facedown.
  2. Whatever you’re using to track Lore, set it to zero. Some popular choices are the Lorcana app, a token on a numbered playmat, a 20-sided die, or pen and paper.
  3. Determine the first player by flipping a coin, rolling a die, etc. The winner of the flip gets to choose who goes first. If you so choose, the loser may choose who goes first without a coin flip for subsequent games between the same players. 
  4. Draw 7 cards for your starting hand. You can only look at the cards in your hand.
  5. If you don’t like the cards you draw in your starting hand, one time only, you may mulligan whichever cards you choose. Just be sure to draw back up to a total of 7 cards. 

The Mulligan

After drawing the 7 cards to their hand, each player in Lorcana gets one chance to alter them. This is called a “mulligan” in most card games. 

You can put as many of the seven cards as you want from your hand to the bottom of your deck without showing them. Remember, you don’t have to mulligan. You could just put one back or all seven cards. There’s no right or wrong here. 

Some things to consider…

The first player mulligans first, then the next player – going clockwise if you are playing with more than two players. Most people just mulligan simultaneously, but… just in case… those are the official rules. 

Remember: You decide who goes first before drawing and before doing a mulligan. Additionally, you must decide on all the cards you want to mulligan before performing it. You don’t get to decide on making another mulligan after you’ve added the new cards to your deck, so proceed with caution!

Once you’ve put the cards at the bottom of the deck, draw the same number of new cards as you put down from the top of your deck, returning your hand to seven cards. For example, if you put two cards from your hand to the bottom of your deck, you draw two new ones from the top. 

After this, reshuffle your deck – including the cards you put back. 

Reasons to Mulligan

Most players will mulligan simply to get more inkable cards or put high-cost cards back to try and pull more low-cost cards to play on the first few turns. 

You can skip this step for your first EVER game. You probably won’t know what to mulligan for when you first learn to play Disney Lorcana, particularly if you’re new to TCGs. Play a full game first to see how it goes.

The Layout

If this is your first time playing Lorcana, you may find it helpful to use the playmat from the starter decks to understand better where to place your cards. Your side of the table should look like the image below… you are sitting at the bottom.

That said, the setup is similar to setups for many TCGs. 

The play area at the top is where Characters and Items go. The Inkwell at the bottom is where you will place Ink. The Discard pile should be under or next to the Deck in a way that makes it clear that discarded cards are not in the play area. 

A Word on Gear

While not required to play the game, several additional items, including card sleeves, playmats, dice, markers, and more, may be useful if you get into playing this or other TCGs. 

Playmats are available in stores and online retailers, including official Disney Lorcana products. These products feature beautiful art from Disney animated classics and the awesome re-imaginings shown on many Lorcana cards. Mats may come with various markings to help you organize your game; others are left nice and clean so you can enjoy your unsullied artwork. Mats are a good investment for any level of TCG player, as they help protect the investment you’ve made in your card collection. 

Dice and tokens are popular for tracking lore, damage, or other effects.

Close up shot of dice

Phases

Beginning Phase

In this stage, you Ready, Set, and Draw. Do it in this order. 

  • READY – Ready your exerted cards by turning them upright
  • SET – Check for effects at the start of your turn and follow their instructions
  • DRAW – Draw a card from the top of your deck. 

On the first turn, the first player skips this step. This is important to balance the game: going first gives an advantage, so not drawing a card on the first turn evens things out. 

Main Phase

In the main phase, you can take as many actions from the list below, in any order you want, as long as you can pay for the ink cost. Finally, unless a card specifies otherwise, you can only do these items on your turn.

  • Add a card to your inkwell.
    • You can only add one per turn unless a card allows additional ink to be added during your turn. 
  • Play a card. 
    • Characters, actions, songs, or items.
  • Use a character’s ability that doesn’t require them to exert.
  • Use an item’s ability.
  • Take an action with a character that’s been in play since the start of your turn. 
    • Questing, challenging an opponent’s exerted character, or using an ability that requires the card to exert.

Unless noted, every type of card and action can only be played once per card. If you have multiple of the same card, they count as different cards. Therefore, different characters can do the same thing; you can play multiple of the same card; and you can do all of this in the order of your choosing. 

Note: You don’t have to do anything in your main phase if you choose.

Taking Turns

Once you’re finished taking any actions you want in the Main Phase, pass the turn to the next player, letting them know it’s their turn. While most hands you play will follow a regular pattern, it’s a good idea to be clear to avoid any confusion or missteps with other players. With multiplayer games, players take turns going clockwise (to the left). 

Exerting & Readying

Exerting Cards (Tap)

To exert a card, you turn it sideways. When a card is exerted, it can’t be used again this turn. Many character and item abilities have an exert symbol, meaning their cards should be exerted as a part of the ability cost.

In Disney Lorcana, exert is used in several ways: 

  • Exert when questing, challenging, or singing
  • Ink is exerted when paying a card’s ink cost to play or for an action
  • Some items are exerted as a cost when they are used
  • Characters and other cards may have abilities that require the card to be exerted to use them
  • Certain abilities and actions can exert other player’s cards

Remember, only exerted characters can be chosen for a challenge. Knowing when (and when not) to exert your character (or someone else’s) is a key skill in Lorcana.

Readying Cards (Untap)

The first step in the beginning phase at the start of your turn is Ready. This is when you turn all your cards right side up. Some abilities also let you prepare your or other players’ cards to take more actions or prevent them from being challenged.

Basic TCG Etiquette

When you play a card, read any abilities it has and allow the opponent to view the card. Declare aloud what you are doing when using the abilities and actions. Not only is it good sportsmanship, reading abilities out loud ensures clarity and can help avoid time-consuming re-checks on card abilities later in the game. 

For example: 

“Dinglehopper removes on damage from Tiana.”

“The Queen will remove your Pinnochio, gaining three lore.”

“Rabbit is questing for 2.”

If you don’t understand the effect or want to recheck a card, ask to check the card. If unsure or in doubt, double-check the rules or your understanding by asking a nearby player or calling a judge. 

Take care when handling another player’s cards. First, it’s polite to ask before touching. Second, show your care for their valuable collection by handling cards gently, regardless of whether they’re sleeved or unsleeved. 

While this is often a part of official TCG rules, these are general best practices within trading card games so you and your opponent can spot mistakes–even experienced players make mistakes! If you’ve accidentally done something wrong, set it right by pointing it out and figure out how to roll it back or fix it. 

Ink + The Inkwell

Ink is the resource you will use to pay the cost of cards or actions. The ink cost is noted inside the hexagon ink symbol at the top left of the cards. In a card’s abilities, the same ink symbol shows how much ink must be spent to use it.

Once per turn, you can ink a card by adding a card from your hand to the inkwell. Cards with the inkwell symbol around the ink icon can be put into your inkwell to be used as ink. You can ink any card type with that symbol. If you have no cards with the inkwell symbol in your hand, you won’t be able to add ink to your inkwell. 

Note: You may have “uninkable” cards in your inkwell through specific card abilities, but not because of the regular inking process. 

Most players will try to ink one card every turn for their first five or six rounds. Inking early is essential to playing higher-cost cards later. Take caution when deciding which cards to ink, as you cannot get them back!

The mechanic of having some cards inkable and others not is a way of giving certain powerful cards some drawback and balance. It also means that inkable cards have more use than their action, as you can gain one ink by placing them into your inkwell. 

Recommendation: Keep the number of uninkable cards in your deck to fewer than 15.

Putting Cards Into Your Inkwell

First, show the card to your opponent so they can see it has the inkwell symbol. Then, put it facedown into the inkwell at the bottom of your playmat or right before you. It’s best to say the full card name, but you can say the main part of the name at a minimum. Once the card is in your inkwell facedown, it stays in the inkwell and can’t be used in any other way later in the game.

Inkwell FAQ: 

  • Each card in the inkwell counts as one ink, and one ink only
  • Once the card is in the inkwell, the color is irrelevant and ink can be used to cast any card from any ink color
  • Card costs and abilities are not a factor in the game going forward
  • The ink stays in your inkwell unless specifically moved by an effect or a card
  • Once cards are in the inkwell, neither player can look at them to check what they were (so pay attention!)

Fun Fact: 

Take a look at the back of your Disney: Lorcana card. There, you’ll see six magical inks swirling toward the center, and in the middle, we see a Lore being created with the magical ink. 

The back of every Lorcana card shows the six magical inks swirling toward the center. In the middle, we see a piece of Lore created using magical ink. Can you spot the hidden mickey?

Using Ink

[Image of Inkwell with Tapped & Untapped Ink]

To use ink to pay for cards, you exert it by turning it sideways. You can only exert each ink once per turn, so turning it sideways to exert it shows it has been used. You ready your ink and other cards at the start of your next turn in the Ready step of the beginning phase.

Card Types

Lorcana has four different card types: characters, items, actions, songs, and locations. They all have different rules and uses – but a similar, easy-to-read layout. 

Card Limits

Before we get into the nitty gritty on card types, you can only have a maximum of four of each card (unless otherwise stated… Card Rules > Game Rules!). This isn’t to be confused to mean a max of four of each character. There are different types of the same characters available as Character Cards that you could put into your deck. In Disney Lorcana, it’s possible that you could have three or four (five or six?!) versions of your favorite character in your deck or out on the playing field at any time. 

Additionally, there’s no limitation against having the same cards or characters as an opponent. Theoretically, you could both play from identical decks! Many custom-built decks focus on themes such as Villains, Princesses, Puppies, a Movie, etc. The possibilities are quite endless. 

Note that while you might have a character in a standard, foil, or enchanted version, they still all count as the same version of a card with the same full name. So you can’t have more than four because some of your cards are so shiny.

If you wanted, you could have four Elsa Ice Surfer, four Elsa Queen Regent, four Elsa Spirit Of Winter, and four Elsa Snow Queen. All sixteen of them could be out on the field at the same time. If you can pay for the ink (and find the table space), go for it!

Characters

Most Disney: Lorcana cards are character cards. There are many different types of characters with different classifications, abilities, ink costs, stats, and more. Each character card features a well-known and beloved character from Disney’s expansive animation history. You may see the same character on a different card, with different abilities, stats, etc. There are also versions of classic characters that are re-imagined and incredibly powerful. 

To play a character card, you must pay its ink cost. The ink icon at the top left of the card has a number showing how much ink must be exerted to put it into play. Once you’ve paid up, you place the character card ready and face up, above your inkwell cards. You may play as many character cards as you want, so long as you can pay the ink. 

Generally speaking, the higher the ink cost of a character card, the more powerful it is. In most games, you’ll likely be playing weaker characters with lower costs a the start with more powerful, high-cost cards coming out later in the game as your inkwell grows and the action ramps up.

 

Classifications

Each card has a list of classifications under its name and version. If it’s a character card, this classification tells us what group of characters it belongs to. Classifications include information about a character, such as whether they’re a Hero or a Villain, a Prince or a Princess, a Dragon or a Tigger, and so on. 

Three classifications tell us where the character comes from: 

Storyborn are classic characters from an original Disney animation. They’re just as they were in the original movie or TV show. 

Dreamborn are alternate versions of characters that were dreamed up. They may be different than their original presentation, typically drawing on some aspect of them that is key to their personality but not necessarily the storyline of the original animation. 

Floodborn are powerfully reimagined characters affected by a “mysterious ink flood.” They’re almost a mash-up of two stories featuring one classic Disney character. Also, the name bar on the card is “flooded” with ink.

Note: some abilities only work on characters with certain classifications. If the card says “Princess characters” it means all cards with the Princess classification.

Characters | Ink Drying

With rare exceptions, the ink isn’t dry when most characters are first played, and the character can’t use their abilities until the next turn. 

Some things to keep in mind: 

  • If a card’s ability or effect doesn’t have an exert cost, it’s effective as soon as it is put into play, whether wet or dry. 
  • When using Shift to place a character onto another, the shifted character gains the card’s status underneath it. Therefore, if the ink is dry on the original character, it is dry for the shifted character, and they can take any action immediately. 
  • If your character has the Rush keyword ability, they may challenge on the turn they are played. 
  • Similarly, if your character has the Bodyguard keyword ability, they enter play exerted and are effective as a bodyguard immediately. 

Note: A ruling has confirmed that you may not exert a still-drying character as a cost for an effect when the cost has the exert symbol. This is the case with Binding Contract.

Ink Drying Exceptions Detailed

  • Stitch – Rock Star. This character card has two interesting abilities.
    • Ability #1: Shift. Rock Star Stitch may take actions on the first turn (if the card underneath is already dry).
    • Ability #2: Adoring Fans. The second ability is a rock star move, breaking the rules of ink drying by allowing you to exert a character with a cost of two or less to draw a card, even if it’s still wet. This can go on and on and on… if your deck is built with a ton of low-cost characters. 
  • Rafiki – Mysterious Sage.  This character card has Rush, which means he may challenge on his first turn. He can’t do anything else until the next turn, but… he can fight while wet. 
  • Joshua Sweet – The Doctor. This character card has Bodyguard, meaning that if you enter him into play as exerted, your opponent’s character must challenge and defeat him before challenging any other character card. 

Characters | Questing & Challenging

Questing

Once a character’s ink has dried, you may take many potential actions. The main one is questing, which is how you gain lore and win the game. 

To quest: declare that the character is questing and state how much lore they get. Exert the character card by turning it sideways. For clarity, we recommend stating the previous Lore total, adding it up, and then stating the new total. 

As always, once exerted, your character can’t question again, challenge, sing, or take any actions that require exerting them… unless they become ready by another effect. 

Some things to consider while Questing:

Some characters, such as Mickey Mouse – Brave Little Tailor, have a massive four Lore. To win a game, you’d only need to quest with a character like that five times. But… that puts a target on his back, too. Your opponent won’t want you racking up lore that quickly, so you’ll want to have a mix of characters with different Lore and abilities to win the game. 

Conversely, a popular tactic is to have many lower-cost, lower-lore characters out at once. While that can make clearing characters via challenging a… challenge… (ahem)…your low-cost characters are in constant danger of being wiped by certain action cards that deal damage across the board to opponents. 

That’s the key to Disney: Lorcana, everything has a tradeoff, and there’s balance throughout the game. It’s a game that’s as much about the luck of what cards you draw as it is the skill by which you combine your characters and actions to form your custom deck. 

Challenging

Challenging is another popular action players take with characters once their ink has dried. Characters can challenge locations and exerted character cards in an effort to banish them into the discard pile. To challenge an opposing card, exert your character and target the opponent’s location or exerted character card. You then do damage using your card’s strength vs. the opponent’s card’s willpower. 

Strength – The character’s strength score represents how much damage the character deals. Note: locations don’t deal damage. 

Willpower – The willpower represents how much damage the card can take before it is banished. 

In challenges, both characters may damage each other according to the strength icon.

Most people keep track of damage to cards by using dice or some kind of damage counter. Some are included in starter decks, so there’s no need to go out and buy anything else if you’re new to the game. 

Once defeated, the card is banished into the Discard pile. 

Questing-Challenging Consideration – only exerted characters may be challenged, so think carefully about whether it’s better to quest now and risk losing the character or whether it’s better to wait for the final blow to add lore into your bucket. Pay attention to what kinds of cards/deck your opponent is playing. If they likely have a card that will wipe out your low willpower cards regardless of exertion, maybe it’s better to get your Lore and run.

A few quick clarifications: –

Clarifying Challenging

  • Characters challenge one at a time or one-on-one. 
  • Challenging the same character with multiple characters of your own is might be what it takes to take down big opponents, preventing them from racking up tons of lore or some other devastating effect they may have later on in the game. 
  • If a character is defeated and banished, you keep the lore they earned. Lore is only lost through specific effects from cards. 
  • Item cards can’t be challenged. (However, they may be banished through other means.)

Banish

The Discard Pile is where you place any card that has been banished or discarded from the field of play or your hand unless otherwise noted through card effects or actions. The Discard Pile is kept near your deck, with the cards face up. Characters and Items may be banished into the Discard Pile, and Actions and songs are placed there once they are used. 

You or your opponent may look in either discard pile at any point during the game. This can help players better understand which cards have already been used and what may be left, as both a defensive and an offensive tactic. 

Characters and items can be banished. Some abilities require you to banish your cards. Even a card banishes all characters on both players’ fields! Banished cards can’t be played again unless brought back from the banish area by an effect. Many abilities can return cards from your discard to your deck or hand.

Characters | Abilities & Keywords

Abilities are what allow for a variety of strategies and uses and help keep play interesting. However, they can also be quite complicated. The best way to understand a card is to read it carefully and be very strict about the wording. 

Abilities include effects such as: 

  • Damage or heal a character or location
  • Draw cards from your deck, put them into your hand or your inkwell
  • Peek at a few cards at the top of your deck
  • Gain lore or steal lore
  • Exert or ready a character (theirs or yours!)
  • Banish or return a character or item from you discard pile. 

Unless specifically stated, you can only use abilities and keywords on your turn, not your opponent’s. Abilities can be activated in various ways: some are passive and always work, others happen when the card is played, and some are triggered by specific events. 

Paying for Abilities

A number of abilities have a cost associated with it. When a cost is indicated (right before a dash “-”), you must pay the full cost in order to use it. 

Exert – This symbol means you’ll need to exert this card (or another, if specified). 

Ink Symbol – This tells you how much ink must be exerted in order to use this card. If a card says to exert it + 2 ink, you need to exert the card and two ink cards from your inkwell in order to pay for the ability. 

Note: Characters can’t use abilities that require exertion if they’ve just been played (their ink is still drying). However, passive abilities are available immediately.

Some characters’ abilities happen immediately when they are played, like Snow White – Lost in the Forest. When you play her, you can choose to remove up to 2 damage from chosen character. 

If there isn’t a character you wish to remove damage from, the ability doesn’t trigger. It also doesn’t trigger if you wish to remove damage after Snow White – Lost in the Forest was played. It only happens when the card says it happens: “When you play this character.”

Some passive abilities occur every time a certain thing happens. For example, Christopher Robin – Adventurer gains 2 lore whenever he readies and there are 2 or more other characters in play. So long as the conditions are true when Christopher Robin readies, he will continue to gain lore each time he readies. 

“When challenged,” “when challenging,” and “in a challenge” are three different bits of rules text that apply to different situations. The first applies only when another character challenges yours, the second when your character challenges another, and the third any time they are in a challenge, regardless of who challenges them.

Abilities and keywords can be hard to read if you’re new to card games.

Reusing Abilities

Character abilities that require exertion can only be used once. Only cards that are ready can use abilities or take actions. However, if that character or card gets readied by another card effect, it can be exerted again.

That means cards could use the exert ability again – if you can pay any ink cost it might have. It also means characters can sing, challenge, or quest again.

Remember, characters played this turn still can’t use exert abilities or actions. Its ink still has to dry even if it gets exerted and readied on its first turn

Using an ability or action twice in one turn is very powerful. Cards that can ready other cards often have limits built in.

Fan The Flames can ready any character, but that character can’t quest for the rest of this turn (even if it gets exerted and readied again by a different ability).

Ariel, Whoseit Collector can be readied every time you play an item. She can do any action repeatedly with enough items and spare ink.

Scar Shameless Firebrand can ready an unlimited amount of your characters that cost 3 ink or less. With the right setup, that could be game-winning.

Keywords

Keyword abilities are common abilities seen on many different cards. They will be used on cards in later set releases too

They have the keyword’s name in bold and the rule (explained in italics between parentheses). Eventually, keyword abilities become so commonly used that the cards will only have the bold Keyword printed on them—you’ll have to remember or look up the effect.

Keywords are mostly straightforward to read and use. They work the same as a normal ability, and the rules text on the card should explain how to use them. These are from the first two sets, though there will be more:

  • Bodyguard
  • Challenger
  • Evasive
  • Reckless
  • Resist
  • Singer
  • Shift
  • Support
  • Rush
  • Ward

There is one keyword that is a key part of Disney Lorcana rules and gameplay and needs a little more explanation…

Shift

Characters with the Shift keyword can be played normally by paying for their ink ink cost. You can also choose to Shift them on top of another character for the Shift cost.

This allows you to play a powerful character cheaply. The card literally goes on top of the other card, and it becomes a single character in a stack.

You can only Shift onto the card named in the rules box, and you must pay the cost. Here is the Shift rule text from Aladdin Heroic Outlaw: Shift 5 (You may pay 5 ink to play this on top of one of your characters named Aladdin.)

That means he can be shifted onto any Aladdin character, regardless of their cost, ink, or version. You could even shift onto another Shift character.

Shift’s Benefits & Drawbacks, a.k.a. Shift Happens

The new Shifted character keeps all of the previous character’s status effects – like damage counters, buffs, and whether its ink has dried or not. You don’t get to keep the abilities or stats of the character underneath.

That means a newly Shifted character can take actions straight away if the card underneath was played in previous turns. It also means that if the first character is exerted or damaged, the Shifted card on top will also be.

The lower card in the stack is basically useless. It stays under the Shifted card and doesn’t count as a separate character for rules purposes. Only the rules, stats, and abilities of the top card matter.

When the new Shifted character is exiled, both cards go to the discard. If it is returned to your hard, both go to your hand as separate cards and can then be played again as individual cards. If they are turned into ink – both of the cards become separate inks!

Items

Items are played for their ink cost and put on the field above the inkwell. They come out ready and face up. They have unique abilities and can often be used turn after turn. If you can pay the ink, you can play multiple items a turn.

Item cards stay on the field until discarded or banished by their cost or another card’s ability. They can’t be targeted in challenges and don’t have Lore, strength, or willpower stats.

Unlike characters, items’ abilities can be used immediately. However, many items’ abilities require exertion or have a cost. Like characters, they can’t be used after exertion and get readied at the start of each player’s turn.

Dinglehopper sits on the field and can heal 1 damage just by being exerted. Musketeer Tabard only has to be paid for once, and its ability is always active. Beast’s Mirror is quite expensive to play at 2 ink and use at the cost of 3 more ink and being exerted – but really helps when your options are limited with no cards in hand.

Actions

Action cards are one-time-use cards that work instantly. You pay the cost, show the card to your opponent and let them read it, then you use its ability and put it into the discard pile. You can play as many action cards as you want if you can pay the ink.

Freeze has the same ability as Elsa Snow Queen. Dragon Fire is really powerful but costs a lot. Do It Again! could return another Do It Again! if you wanted to.

Songs

Song cards feature real songs and lyrics from Disney classics. Songs are also actions so can be paid for as normal – or sung by a character for free! They work like Actions so you must show your opponent, use the ability, then discard them.

Who Can Sing Songs?

If you choose to play a song as action, just pay its ink ink cost as normal. It works straight away, exactly like an action card. You can play or sing multiple different songs as long as you can pay the ink.

If you want to sing a song, choose any character on your board as long as they meet all three conditions: –

  • Their ink cost meets the cost noted on the song text OR they have the Singer keyword of the correct number
  • They are ready (not exerted)
  • Their ink has dried (must not have been played this turn)

Then, exert that character. Play the song just like a normal action, except you don’t have to pay the song’s cost.

Some cards have the Singer keyword with a number. Characters with this can sing songs as if their ink cost was higher. Sebastian Court Composer might only have a 2 ink ink cost, but he can sing songs as if he had 4.

On the other hand, Ariel On Human Legs can’t sing at all…

Characters singing songs don’t have to be the same ink color as the song. Any character of the right ink cost can sing the song – even if they’re from different films. You are strongly encouraged to also sing the song yourself!

Constructed Deck Building

This is the format for Core Constructed, what you will most commonly find in “league play”. Others, like Booster Draft and Sealed Deck, change the number of cards, inks, and copies of each card allowed.

A deck must have at least 60 cards in it – there isn’t an upper limit.

Your deck can only have four copies of any single card. However, you can have more than four cards of the same name but not more than four of the same version.

You can only have cards in up to two different ink colors, such as ruby and sapphire. You can also use one ink color; you don’t have to use two.

You don’t need an equal number of cards for each color for two ink decks.

Random FAQs

Quick Start Rules Download

https://cdn.ravensburger.com/lorcana/quickstart-en

Mulligans & Choosing Who Goes First – OOPS Quickstart Rules are Wrong.

The quickstart rules and videos unhelpfully state that players draw cards and mulligan before choosing who goes first. A Twitter Q&A session confirmed that this was incorrect.

Hand & Inkwell Size

There is no hand size limit in Lorcana, and there is also no limit to the number of cards in your inkwell or characters on the board.

Oversize = Not Tournament Legal

The oversize cards in the Gift Set aren’t tournament legal 🙁

Proxy Cards = Also Not Tournament Legal

Playing trading card games can be costly once you start adding up the costs of packs, gear, etc. But add rarity into the mix, and the cost to play TCGs becomes astronomical. Some cards are just hard to come by – and the hardest ones to get are the ones with the greatest in-game potency, regardless of which TCG you’re playing. 

For many, using self-printed “proxy” cards is a solution for this. But this is where it can get touchy. Printing your own high-value cards can put you on a higher level playing field than those who choose not to use proxies and can make some feel uncomfortable or that you’ve given yourself some sort of advantage. Best practice before using proxies in public: check with your fellow league-mates before starting to use them. 

Deck color reveal?

No, you don’t have to reveal your deck colors. 

Can I Look at My Opponent’s Cards?

No, you can’t look at cards in other players’ hands unless they play them or you play a card with an effect that allows you to look at their cards. It’s fine to look at your opponent’s cards when they’re played but ask first before you pick them up. Be gentle!

You can look at your opponent’s discard pile and your own. However, you can’t look at cards in any inkwell once they’ve been placed there. No peeking!

Cost Reduction

Cards that let you play cards for less ink say, “Pay # less ink. ” This means you pay less ink to play the card, but it doesn’t reduce the ink cost value of the card. So, their ink cost is still on the card for other effects.

You can use these effects to reduce the cost to Shift character cards. You could also use Just In Time to play or shift a character onto another, as long as their ink cost is 5 or under in both cases.

Do You Have To Do Things Listed In Abilities?

As a general rule, you must do exactly what a card says unless the rule text says “may.” It means you may choose not to. Card rules are very specific and should be played exactly as they are written.

https://lorcanaplayer.com/lorcana-card-rules-card-text/

Multiplayer Games!

You can play with more than two players! You start with one player and move to the left (clockwise). Whenever an ability requires more than one player to do something at the same time, start with the player whose turn it is, then proceed to the left until each affected player has done their action.

Organized Play

Lorcana is meant to be played with others. Ravensburger has an official Organized Play program available at local game stores where Lorcana is sold. Lorcana League is the official weekly event with seasons, promos, and lots of options for players.

It is set up to be more welcoming and friendly than other games. You get points for attending, bringing friends, teaching others how to play Lorcana, and more! You gain extra points from winning, but it’s set up to be more about having fun playing the game.

If you’ve found any mistakes, changed rulings, or spelling errors, or just want to ask a question, please leave us a comment below, and we’ll jump on top of it!