Disney Lorcana will feature robust organized play support, with organized play kits featuring promotional cards and exclusive pins available to players who participate in organized play at local game stores. ComicBook.com can exclusively provide new details about Disney Lorcana’s organized play, which will launch alongside the new Disney-themed collectible card game when the game comes out later this year. The league play emphasizes fun and community over competition and winning, with players earning points by playing at league events, bringing friends to game night, and teaching other players the rules. Participating stores will give out prizes, taking point totals into considerations. The organized play kit (which can be seen below and features a pair of never seen before cards) features a mix of promo cards, pins, and other prizes for players.
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ComicBook.com also spoke to Disney Lorcana brand manager and co-designer Ryan Miller about the importance of organized play. Miller is a Wizards of the Coast veteran and actually started in the game industry as a judge at Magic events. “You know, it’s hard to overstate the importance, right?” Miller told ComicBook.com when asked about the importance of organized play to Disney Lorcana’s success. “It is arguably one of the most important. Because without organized play, if I can’t find somebody to play against, it doesn’t matter how good the game is, right? If I can’t find a community to trade and to talk decks, if I can’t find my people, then I’m not going to get into the game.” Miller added that organized play helped build up the community surrounding the game, which he saw as “critical” especially when a game has depth and strategy that allows for multiple types of decks.
Miller noted that it was a “top down” decision to focus on building a community and introducing new players to that community. “We realize that people are going to want to do competitive tournaments, and you can absolutely do that under our system if you want,” Miller said. “But our goal is to create this league environment where your participation is it matters a lot. You earn points towards various organized play prizes by showing up, by playing games, by doing various activities. It’s not just about winning. You do earn points for winning, but you also earn points for losing. We just want you to come play and meet other players. And then those points, as you get higher and higher, you’ll earn various rewards, mostly in the form of organized play promotional cards.”
It was important for Miller and the other makers of Disney Lorcana to create a system that not only supports competitive players, but also folks who just want to come and enjoy Lorcana. “We want to make sure that the organized play system isn’t intimidating,” Miller said, pointing out that the game could attract a lot of non-typical gamers due to the “Disney magic” surrounding the game. By creating a system that encourages a welcoming format and allows players to win amazing prizes even if they struggle with the game, Miller believes that the organized play system can support both veteran gamers and folks trying out a competitive card game for the first time.
While organized play will initially focus on core hobby stores, Miller said that that there are plans for larger events that have a competitive format, although he couldn’t provide any additional details. Miller also noted that the Lorcana team would be paying attention to the “environment” surrounding competitive play, looking at different formats and making sure that one or two decks weren’t dominating the game. Miller mentioned both the draft format and multiplayer as potential competitive formats – Ravensburger is actively playtesting the draft format and cards are specifically worded so as not to assume that there’s only one opponent.
“One of the things I’d love about this game when it comes to multiplayer is the fact that since we’re racing to a total, there’s no player elimination, Miller said of multiplayer organized play. “And so you’re in the game the whole time until the game is over, all the players get to play. That’s a really fun aspect of multiplayer Lorcana, and so we absolutely want that to be a component of organized play at some point.” Initially, organized play will be “unified” around one kind of experience, but branching out is definitely a possibility down the line.
When asked about the potential of adopting fan-made formats down the line similar to how Commander has become one of Magic: The Gathering’s most popular formats, Miller seemed particularly excited to see what the community comes up with. “Community design formats are amazing,” Miller said. “We’ve seen them in other games, and I absolutely expect to see them in Lorcana. And we also want to have our fingers on the pulse of the community in that vein as well. One of my favorite parts of trading card games is this conversation, this never-ending conversation that you have with your players. It’s always going back and forth, and it’s wonderful. When done correctly, it makes for a really amazing experience, and we absolutely want to make sure that we’re a part of that conversation.”
As for the prizes themselves, Miller said that the promo cards will be alternate treatments of existing cards, not “mechanically unique” promo cards as that doesn’t fit within the ethos of Disney Lorcana being an accessible card game. However, the foil promo card selected for organized play will be chosen based on two factors – their playability and theme. “I think we’ve got an exciting stable of cards that we’re looking at for organized play,” Miller said. “Of course, everyone wants their deck to be as shiny as possible, and I’m no exception to that. And so if people want to [add bling to their deck], this is one of the ways that they can do that.”
Additionally, the promo cards will come with exclusive pins that will be new for each season of play. “We know that Disney fans love their pins, and this is one of the ways that they’ll be able to earn it. So it’s very exciting. It’s very exciting.”
