With the upcoming Disney Lorcana set Archazia’s Island just a month away, Wargamer has been given the exclusive opportunity to show off some new cards to you: two of Jafar’s magical pals Rajah, Ghostly Tiger and Giant Cobra, Ghostly Serpent. This batch of Amethyst illusions include a deep dive into a new character classification and an associated ability, which lay the groundwork for a powerful new deck.
By now you’ll find Jafar, Newly Crowned elsewhere on the interwebs, but he’s going to be one of the best Disney Lorcana cards in an illusion deck, so it’s worth showing him off too. This dual-ink card has a powerful ability which lets you return illusion characters to your hand if they’re banished during an opponent’s turn.
The first of our exclusive cards is the perfect place to introduce illusions, because it’s the most basic possible version of the concept. A two-cost, inkable Lorcana card with three toughness and three willpower would probably have fans crying power creep, if it weren’t for the new ability Vanish. This is a drawback which states: When an opponent chooses this character for an action, banish them.
That means, of course, that a character with Vanish is much easier for your opponent to remove. You don’t need to wait for a five-cost Dragon Fire – anything from a two ink card like Freeze to ostensibly helpful actions like Healing Glow will do the trick.
According to Disney Lorcana co-designer Steve Warner, who told Wargamer a little more about the new cards, Vanishing has allowed the designers to push the boat out when it comes to what a Lorcana card can do, and how much it has to cost.
“Players can now gain access to some cool abilities and some strong glimmers much earlier than was previously possible. This may provide a sizable advantage early game,” he says.
Rajah is a good example of a strong glimmer, as he’d be an undercosted character if it weren’t for the downside of Vanishing. But now let’s check out a powerful ability…
Like Jafar, Giant Cobra can only be played in decks that are both Amethyst and Steel. A 4/4 for three ink, this character has similarly strong stats to Rajah, but it also has a neat ability, Mysterious Advantage. This lets you discard a card when you play it to gain two lore.
Already, the synergy is starting to crystallize. Jafar will be the vital leader of an Amethyst-Steel illusion deck, letting all your illusions return to hand when they’re banished. This will not only let you get multiple uses out of Giant Cobra, it will also keep your hand well-stocked, giving you lots of cards to discard to the Mysterious Advantage ability for tasty, tasty, game-winning lore.
Warner hints that there’ll be Steel cards that combo well with these illusion characters too.
the co-designer also says that illusions were invented for narrative reasons. “We wanted something really interesting with Jafar that wasn’t simply that he was controlling glimmers, because we had just done that with Ursula. We thought, wouldn’t it be cool if he created cool versions of the glimmers, but using sand?”
“Since Jafar isn’t an Illumineer himself, he’s unable to summon new glimmers, but his magic is very powerful.”
Archazia’s Island is set to launch in select stores on March 7, 2025, with the big retail release coming later, on March 21. For more Lorcana reads, check out our guide to the most expensive Disney Lorcana cards. You might also enjoy this ranking of every single Disney Lorcana starter deck.
Source: Wargamer
