Written by Citizens of Lorcana
I realize what an audacious statement the title of this article represents.
The game hasn’t even been released yet, how can I possibly prepare for it?
Excellent question!
As someone who is still new to playing trading card games (TCGs), there is a lot of ground I have to cover before I can be truly competitive in any game.
If you’re a veteran TCG player then maybe this article isn’t for you.
With the game still being a year out, here is what I’m doing to prepare for Disney Lorcana!
Playing Magic The Gathering Arena
Never in my life did I think I would play Magic the Gathering. I mean that game is for uber-nerds right?
Well I can’t say that I was happy to do it, but Lorcana appears to be heavily influenced by Magic.
I’ve even seen Lorcana called Mickey The Gathering…
I mean Ryan Miller, the lead designer of the game, has stated in multiple interviews how he is a product of magic.
He moved to Seattle to be closer to Wizards of the Coast.
He became a judge for competitive Magic tournaments and worked his way up through the company to the point where he was designing sets for Magic.
So it’s no surprise that the cards which have been released, have an uncanny resemblance to magic cards.
I was about to go into all the similarities of Lorcana cards to Magic cards, but you didn’t come here for that. If you want a breakdown then check out this video.
At a more basic level though, Magic is all about strategies and timing and tempo and bluffing, and building a viable deck, and testing, and competing and…whew, I think I ran out of breath there.
Magic has been around 30 years for a reason. There are things I’m gaining from my Magic experience that I will bring with me to Lorcana.
Plus playing on Arena is super easy and convenient. Arena is an app put out by Magic that queues you up to other players, any time of the day.
And…if I’m being honest…I’m actually enjoying it way more than I thought.
Playing At My Local Game Store
Can I tell you how terrified I was the first time I went to play a game at my local game store?
About three months ago I picked up the My Hero Academia card game to play with my daughter.
I enjoyed it so much, I decided I wanted to play at local competition (and since National competitions).
The game is so complex that I watched hours and hours of commentary and gameplay, played with my daughter, and I still didn’t 100% understand how to play.
Driving up to my store, I was scared.
When I got to the parking lot, I just wanted to turn around and go home.
So silly I know, but this was new and scary for me.
I’m happy to share that my fear of having a horrible experience did not come to pass.
In fact, with the kindness and patience of the other players, I was able to *finally* understand how to play the game!
And as a bonus, I’ve made friends along the way!
I understand how scary going to local competitions may be, but this one thing alone has elevated my gameplay more than anything else.
Join The Community
Immediately after Lorcana was announced I went to Reddit to see if there was a Lorcana sub.
There was, you can find it here.
But even more meaningful to me was finding the (fan-made) Lorcana discord which you can find here.
I’m not going to lie, things are a little slow here at the end of September 2022.
I mean we still have a full year at least, until the game launches.
But you are more than welcome to come, introduce yourself, ask questions, and make friends.
I’ve already made friends through this server and have even met some in real life!
As the game gets closer to release the server will get busier
Depending on gameplay, there should be options for playing webcam games with other members of the server.
It’s already an amazing community, and will continue to get better.
Another resource created by a member of the Lorcana community is Lorcania.com.
This is a website that lets you look at the cards, build decks, create collections, and much more.
Of course, you’ll want to follow all the official Lorcana social media accounts.
You can find them on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
And you can follow Lorcana YouTube creators and podcast creators.
There are too many to mention but they are all good!
Patience!
So this piece of advice is probably primarily for me.
I wanted to get my hands on this game like yesterday 😫, but we still have to wait a full year!
This next year will pass one way or the other, and soon we will be battling in the land of Lorcana!
If you’d like to join me on this journey to Lorcana you can follow my Twitter: Citizens of Lorcana.
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