Spoiler season is now in full swing as Disney Lorcana reveals more of what’s to come with the upcoming expansion, Archazia’s Island.
A Dragon Makes His Debut
Making his debut in Disney Lorcana, we have Mushu - Majestic Dragon. A Ruby-Steel dual ink ally with a cost of 4 ink. With a matching set value of 4 in both Strength and Willpower, Mushu's stat block is rounded out with a humble 1 in Lore. While not powerful in gaining lore himself, Mushu more than makes up for it with his two powerful abilities.
First, we have Intimidating and Awe-Inspiring, an ability that grants the other characters of Mushu’s controlling player -including Mushu himself- to get +2 Resist whenever they challenge an opposing character. Resist by itself makes any character on the field generally difficult to get rid of in a direct confrontation as it is a flat reduction in damage received. Mushu’s blanket protection, while only being activated when the controlling player is the one actively making the challenges, may end up forcing players to run other forms of removal that don’t involve challenging characters head-on.
Mushu’s second ability, Guardian of Lost Souls, further incentivizes the game plan of challenging the opposing player’s characters. Whenever Mushu’s controlling player banishes an opponent’s character card via a character challenge, an extra two lore will be gained. This makes any character with the Rush ability -an ability that will allow characters to start a challenge the very same turn they are played- a viable threat. It makes questing for lore an even bigger risk for the opponent as it leaves his characters open for a reprisal.
It was the Happiest of Times, It was the Shinniest of Times
Not all powerful cards need to be of dual ink. One of the legendary cards revealed in the upcoming Archazia’s Island is Tamatoa - Happy as a Clam. While not as strong as his So Shiny counterpart (released back in the First Chapter set), with a lower Strength and Willpower of 4 & 5 respectively, Happy as a Clam comes with a cheaper ink cost of 6 against So Shiny’s 8 ink cost. This is both good and bad as that means Happy as a Clam can be played a lot earlier but lacks the staying power his alter ego enjoys.
That said, both versions of Tamatoa still have their own form of recursion, as they can easily fish out item cards from their controlling player’s discard pile. But what is eyebrow raising is Happy as a Clam’s ability to play any item card for absolutely free whenever Tamatoa makes a quest. This provides any Sapphire player the ability to cheat out high costing item cards for nothing and leaving their inkwell available for other plays.
A Shift in the Future
Archazia’s Island continues enamoring players as it also reveals a new take on an existing mechanic. The Shift mechanic allows players to play a character on top of an already existing version for a discounted cost. On paper, it’s a very good mechanic - as you are essentially paying less for what is usually a more powerful card, but it does come with its own downside(s). Foremost is the fact that shift requires the player to have a legal target -a same-named character- on the field.
Enter Baymax - Giant Robot and the new Universal Shift mechanic. While sharing similarities with its predecessor, Universal Shift allows any character the controlling player has on the field to become a viable shift target for Baymax or for anyone else who uses Universal Shift. This sidesteps the biggest issue of Shift. Universal shift will allow players to take advantage of the shift mechanic on characters who generally see a one-time use effect such as Tipo - Growing Son.
Specifically for Baymax, his second ability -Functionality Improved- allows Baymax to take care of another of Shift’s main drawbacks, which is the inheritance of the previous character’s card state-like damage.
More and more of the mystery surrounding Archaizia’s Island is being revealed. Stay tuned as we continue onward to March 7th and its release.
Archazia's Island Demystified as New Information is Released