Ravensburger is really delivering in introducing the ‘A Goofy Movie’ franchise to Disney Lorcana. This time Ravensburger is giving spotlight to the supporting cast of the source material as well slipping in a new Legendary rarity song for its upcoming ninth expansion, Fabled.
New Legendary Song: Circle of Life
Starting off, we have a new Legendary song for Amber. Circle of Life does one thing, and it simply lets the controlling player bring back a character from the discard pile. The only caveat to this card is its whopping 8 ink cost.
But paying for such a high ink cost in Amber isn't a high bar to cross because of the plethora of Singers who can essentially cheat out Songs at a discount
Circle of Life may even be easier to cheat out once Fabled is released because it has been confirmed that Ariel - Singing Mermaid will be reprinted, making this card legal for organized tournaments.
A Singer 7 on the 4th turn plus another character can easily use Circle of Life on a subsequent turn to cheat out any character that has been purposefully sent to the discard pile previously.
For Steel in particular, an ink color that inherently uses card cycling (draw and then discard), Circle of Life could be a way to easily bring out Mickey Mouse - Giant Mouse in roughly half the time you would need to normally if you were to rely on just the standard inkwell curve.
More Cards from ‘A Goofy Movie’
Aside from Goofy, his son Max, and the Superstar singer, Powerline, Ravensburger has decided to include some of the supporting cast from the animated film to the Disney Lorcana card pool. So far, Ravensburger is doubling down on the Ruby-Emerald pairing if a player wants to centralize their deck around this particular franchise.
P.J. Pete – Caught Up in the Music and Roxanne – Powerline Fan both increase some of their stats under certain conditions. Their differences lie in their optimal applications.
P.J. Pete has the capability of repeatedly getting stronger if a player decides to use more than one song a turn. This may be a little unfeasible, but if the deck is playing low to the ground in terms of cost, P.J. has the potential to become a 7 Strength unit with just two cheap songs.
Roxanne’s value lies in her overall design if a player can activate her ability. A 3 in Strength and Willpower and 2 Lore is pretty strong for a 2 ink cost card.
Madam Mim - Snake and Mr. Smee - Bumbling Mate have almost similar stat lines, and they’ve seen a lot of competitive use.
Getting Roxanne’s ‘Concert Lover’ ability online is the only hurdle to face, but with Powerline - Taking the Stage and Max - Rockin’ Teen already revealed, it shouldn’t be difficult for Roxanne to be a pretty stable early game pressure tool.
Emerald, on the other hand, gets a familiar tool in the form of Bobby Zimurski – Spray Cheese Kid. If you were to look carefully, it’s just Emerald’s analogy to Mulan - Disguised Soldier. The only difference between the two is the reversed Strength and Willpower. Other than that, they’re the spitting image of each other.
Despite Ravensburger’s push for Ruby-Emerald when it comes to the ‘A Goofy Movie’ cards, Bobby Zimurski is generically a good consistency tool regardless of the partner ink color. Paired with Amethyst, a player could bring full sets of Bobby Zimurski, Diablo - Obedient Raven, and Improvise for cheap early game consistency.
As for Family Fishing Pole, it’s a little bit on the slow side, but there’s no denying that it can be a useful tool in skilled hands. Bouncing back an exerted character could protect a key piece from being discarded too early, or you can use the bounce to double-up on ‘on play’ ability like Bobby Zimurski’s draw.
The 2 Lore gain is also a nice little touch; it’s good compensation for investing into the item while minimizing the damage from any aggression in the Lore race.
A New Genie to Add to the List
Ravensburger has decided to add a new version of Genie to the card pool. This one is another of Ravensburger’s attempts at board-focused combat tool - pushing for players to build wide.
As for the overall card design, Genie - Of the Lamp is a little frail for a 4 cost character, at least on his own. Genie's ‘Let’s Make Some Magic’ ability makes up for this, being able to boost all allied characters on the field with +2 to Strength while exerted.
This means that Genie is intended to turn a lot of smaller creatures into serious value, but could just end up being a win-more card if his anthem proves relatively pointless. This is the type of card that's either incredible, or sees no play at all.
Ravensburger is seemingly pushing for a different competitive scene once the set rotation rolls in; one that focuses on a slower pace and the use of a wide board of characters.
If this happens to come to pass then Genie - Of the Lamp can be a very useful tool in facilitating that. But like anything in a Trading Card Game, it’ll be up to skilled hands of dedicated players and creative deck builders that pave the way to that new frontier.