Disney Lorcana’s Fabled Expansion Takes A Tentative Step Forward While Still Looking Back

Freshly entering into its third year on the market, Disney Lorcana is in the unenviable position of having proved its chops as a burgeoning TCG, but now needing to show it can evolve to keep pace with the big players like Magic: The Gathering, Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh. Through its first eight expansions, the game has mostly met the expectations of players and honed its core formula while making bold attempts to bring storytelling to the fore, either directly or through genuinely fun gameplay asides.

With Fabled, its ninth release, Lorcana takes its inkpots and its brushes and goes back to the drawing board, in a way. It’s simultaneously the most incremental release the game has seen in a hot minute, while also representing an historic shake-up to core play. Here, we’re experiencing the first of Lorcana’s official card rotations – everything from the initial four expansions has been pushed out of legal play, with just a selection of those first-year cards being refreshed and reprinted, forming more than 3/4 of the catalogue in this new set. It represents a kind of meeting point for veteran players, newbies, traders and collectors where paths converge and divide. And for all of those folks, it’s mostly a good time.

A set rotation is typically an important and welcome thing for any TCG with a bit of longevity, and while I’m not an especially competitive player, I can see the community largely embracing it here. By ousting some of the gnarlier cards that have persisted in the meta while allowing other legacy entrants to shine anew, folks will have the opportunity to rethink their favourites or discover new ones. The 30-odd brand new cards are a good bunch, too. There’s some fantastic art on display for collectors, and hopefully a few new deckbuilding standouts.

Although it’s never really been something I’ve followed, the lack of any real story aspect to Fabled manages to still have a tangible effect on the set. The most cohesive subsection here is the addition of a number of cards based on arguably one of the greatest pieces of art of the modern era, A Goofy Movie – the true genius being a focus on Powerline, the Goof Troop Universe equivalent of Prince, and his infectious pop masterpiece, I2I.

Outside of this though, there’s not a lot to it, especially when the bulk of the reprint decisions have been made based on fan sentiment and viability more than theme. And while there’s nothing wrong with that, it’s noticeably less exciting than a completely new and authored run of cards. Those who’ve been actively playing and deckbuilding since day one, or perhaps jumped in too late for the early sets, will be glad to see cards like Robin Hood – Champion of Sherwood or Rafiki – Mystical Fighter kept in play, but with recycled art there’s less for collectors to be excited about when ripping new packs.

Naturally, the rarest pieces in the set are a collection of fantastic-looking cards. Enchanted-rarity cards like Powerline – World’s Greatest Rock Star, I2I and Max Goof – Chart Topper are dream pulls, personally, but with Fabled comes even more opportunity for hits. Two entirely new rarities have been added, with Epic cards sitting just below Enchanted in their elusiveness, but Iconic taking the mantle as the rarest and most sought-after rank. Only two cards exist in this treatment so far, Mickey Mouse – Brave Little Prince and Minnie Mouse – Sweetheart Princess, but both are already commanding obscene prices on the resale market. They truly are some gorgeous works, even if I’ll never hope to find one. Epic cards are a little more chill, but still quite attractive with their borderless design showing off a bit more of the bleed area of some new and existing artwork.

The retail product mix hasn’t changed a whole lot for Fabled, with fans able to pick up the standard gamut of booster packs, an Illumineer’s Trove, and two Starter Decks – an Emerald/Ruby deck themed on A Goofy Movie, and a Princess-packed Amber/Sapphire deck. The latter holds some powerful potential additions to your existing Princess or Queen decks with cards like Aurora – Holding Court and Beast – Gracious Prince to get those gals out and questing.

At the end of the day, Fabled is an important earmark in Lorcana’s journey as a serious TCG, but despite all the extra foiling it’s missing a bit of the typical shine. The new rarities are definitely a nice exchange for such a small cohort of new cards, and the shake-up to legal play should have the community busy for a good while. So if you’re deeply invested in core play or you’re prepared to drop serious dollars chasing those big hits, you might have some fun, but Lorcana dabblers are probably safe to hold out for Whispers in the Well.