March 7th is right around the corner and with it is Archazia’s Island release for hobby stores. Deck testing and theory crafting are already in full swing since the closing of Disney Lorcana’s spoiler season. Here are our takes on the most anticipated card for each ink color.
As a quick disclaimer, we know that Dual Ink cards were introduced in this set but we feel that’s deserving of its own spotlight down the road. So for now, this article will limit the selection to single ink color cards.
Amber: Aurora - Waiting Beauty
Starting with Amber, Aurora - Waiting Beauty had quite a lot of tough competition for this title. Compared to the likes of Pepa and Isabela Madrigal, her position was threatened by her low stat line, cost comparison, and general vanilla-esque card design compared to her contemporaries.
Pepa easily manages to outmuscle Aurora with the ability to supply lore whenever an allied character sings by just existing. Isabella may cost more than Aurora, but she makes up for it with hardier stats to ignore the cheaper form of board removals like Brawl, can protect herself from being challenged whenever an allied character sings and can quest for a huge sum of lore in just a single quest opportunity.
What separated Aurora from the Madrigals, however, is her general versatility. The amber ink color is quite well-known for its ability to mend wounds, and Aurora takes advantage of this in spades; her ability triggering ‘whenever’ healing occurs.
Coupled with her Singer 5, a sly Amber player can easily set up a chain of actions whereby Aurora can challenge or quest first before dropping a heal in the form of Rapunzel – Gifted with Healing and readying Aurora again to sing a song.
Or the player could straight up forego the questing or challenging altogether and just sing two songs outright by using Aurora to sing a healing song herself and once the song has done its job, Aurora readies herself to sing again.
Sapphire: Belle - Apprentice Inventor
Sapphire has gotten a reputation for being able to ramp ink rapidly with cards like Tipo - Growing Son, Sail the Azurite Sea, and One Jump Ahead. Now, Belle joins that roster but in her own way.
With her ability to forego her ink cost by just banishing an item, Belle - Apprentice Inventor may as well be just a 1 ink cost glimmer with how prevalent cards like Pawpsicle and Ice Block are.
Then, having access to 3 cost songs like Friends on the Other Side or Let the Storm Rage On by the second turn will have the opponent thinking twice when they realize that almost any early-game character is ripe for being taken out.
Ruby: Cogsworth - Climbing Clock
Cogsworth - Climbing Clock wears its ability plainly but proudly. Being able to gain a flat +2 strength by just spotting an item in the discard pile makes him a challenging threat for his low cost.
His base 3s for both strength and willpower means the opponent would need to commit to an unfavorable trade using higher cost cards as staple early game action cards like Brawl, Fire the Cannons, and Let the Storm Rage On won’t be able to deal with the martially adept timepiece.
Emerald: The Return of Hercules
It looks like Emerald is getting a lot of interesting tools to play with in this set. With Ink Geyser already creating havoc on both players’ inkwell, The Return of Hercules seeks to amplify the general chaos by letting players just play any character card they have in their hand.
This effect is good for the player using the Return of Hercules as no character is off-limits from being played. The same can be said for the opponent as well, however, especially since they didn’t need to use any resources to play that free character.
What’s probably the most interesting aspect of The Return of Hercules is how the controlling player will get the priority in activating any abilities from characters that will hit the table after the action’s resolution.
The opponent will be thinking twice about playing their own character if The Return of Hercules heralds the summoning of Maleficent - Monstrous Dragon.
Amethyst: The Queen - Jealous Beauty
Amethyst and Amber shared the same issue when choosing between their finalists; it was tough to pick between them all.
With Show Me More being a straight up more powerful card draw -albeit for both players- and Iago - Giant Spectral Parrot forcing a response from the opponent, The Queen - Jealous Beauty looks a little tame compared to her bombastic rivals.
In the end, what helped make our decision was the fact that she was basically a ‘lore bomb’ to help bridge the gap for the Amethyst player when at 17 lore.
If the opposing player cannot remove The Queen by the next turn, then the controlling character is more than likely assured victory by just using her ability. The lore gain is even increased to 4 if a princess card is targeted.
Even when not used as a game closer, the capability to just remove recursion like Lilo - Escape Artist makes The Queen an even more versatile addition to Amethyst’s bag of tricks.
Steel: Bagheera - Guardian Jaguar
5 ink cost? Deal 2 damage to every opposing character? As familiar as it looks, Ravensburger decided to take the action card, Grab Your Sword, and make it a character. Bagheera - Guardian Jaguar can be viewed as an upgrade to the action card, albeit a slower one.
Despite being slower, Bagheera makes up for its slower startup by being an inkable card. At the very least, if you draw into a copy of Bagheera too early, you can use him in your inkwell to fuel your early game plays.
Once the panther does hit the field, it’ll be a card that the opponent has to deal with. That bodyguard ability of Bagheera’s will ensure that will happen eventually.
Even if they use cards that directly remove the feline, Bagheera still gets the last laugh with that 2 damage should he be banished and the enemy is still remaining on the field.
Depending on how things shake out, we may see the rise of cards that distinctly return characters to their owner's hand like Mother Knows Best just to not deal with Bagheera’s prickly reprisal.
That’s our list. Archazia’s Island is already hitting store shelves this week on March 7th with the rest of the world waiting for the 21st. Come the due date(s), we are eagerly awaiting how Archazia and her teachings will shape the competitive scene to come.