Disney Lorcana: Ursula's Return Starter Decks Review: Classifications Take Front Stage

Disney Lorcana's latest Starter Decks build on an emerging theme in the game – cards that synergize based on their classifications. Later this month, Ravensburger will release Ursula's Return, the fourth card set for Disney Lorcana. Like the previous two sets, Ursula's Return will add a handful of new mechanics, namely an alternative method to shifting Floodborn characters into play and the new Sing Together variant, which allows a player to use multiple character cards to activate certain Song cards without paying its ink cost. However, the two new starter decks focus instead on another area of the game that's slowly grown in usefulness over the past year – the ability to have cards synergize with other cards of the same classification. 

Every character card in Disney Lorcana has at least one classification, which have mostly served as fluff over the first year. While some cards provide benefits to specific classifications (Moana – Of Motunui was one such card that protected Princess cards and was found in one of the very first Starter Decks), the dominant metagame decks have largely eschewed away from that. However, there seem to be more and more cards that cater to classifications in Disney Lorcana, which hopefully should push the game towards having one or more decks that cater to "tribal" gameplay, to borrow the now defunct Magic: The Gathering term. 

The Amber/Amethyst Ursula's Return deck is built primarily around the Madrigal family of Encanto fame. While the deck utilizes many of the same core strengths as The First Chapter deck with the same card typing (with an emphasis on flooding the board with characters and keeping them alive through healing), the various Familia Madrigal characters all have subtle ways they support each other. Mirabel Madrigal – Gift of the Family adds a lore to all other Madrigal classified cards when it quests, while Pepa Madrigal – Weather Maker naturally syncs up with her daughter Dolores Madrigal to trigger a card draw effect. One perk to this deck is that it has several card draw abilities (including Look At This Family, which uses the aforementioned Sing Together keyword) that should help players push characters and maximize the foundations of what should be a pretty nifty Madrigal-themed deck, especially if players grow it with additional copies of the critical Mirable Madrigal – Gift of the Family card. 

Meanwhile, the Sapphire/Steel Ursula's Return deck leans heavily on the Hero classification, with several cards buffing up or taking advantage of Hero cards in play. Anna – True-Hearted, one of the signature cards of the deck, gives other Hero cards an additional Lore when she quests similar to Mirabel Madrigal – Gift of the Family. However, there are plenty of other cards that also use Hero cards in some fashion, including Anna – Braving the Storm (which gets an extra lore if another Hero is in play), Philoctetes – No-Nonsense Instructor (which gives all Heroes Challenger +1 and scores an additional Lore whenever a Hero enters play), Imperial Bow (adds Challenger +2 and Evasive to a Hero character) and One Last Hope (which gives a character Resist +2 and lets that character challenge ready characters if they're a Hero.) While Anna – True-Hearted is the featured card in this set, honestly, I feel that players should look at more copies of Philoctetes – No-Nonsense Instructor as a potential way to beef up this deck. 

What's really interesting about both decks is that they're both very different from the dominant decks in Disney Lorcana right now, which focus on control and quickly overwhelming opponents thanks to the use of cheap songs. Neither of these decks really touch on the dominant metagame, which is pretty normal for Starter Decks, but offers a rough awakening should players try to use one of these kind of decks at a Store Championship. Hopefully, the meta shifts towards these more synergetic decks because I think decks popping off is a lot more fun then choking an opponent's deck to death slowly. 

Ursula's Return will be released at hobby stores on May 17th and mass retailers on May 31st.