Coming in as an innocuous newsletter titled, Update to Core Constructed Format, Ravensburger took the community by surprise as they have officially banned two cards from organized competitive play.
Denied Entry
The two cards in question that are now denied entry to any organized tournament are Sapphire’s Hiram Flaversham - Toymaker and Steel’s Fortisphere.
Steve Warner, lead co-designer of Disney Lorcana, stated in the newsletter that the decision to ban Hiram Flaversham - Toy Maker and Fortisphere was “to ensure the greatest diversity of successful strategies was available to competitive players.”
A quote in the newsletter by Elaine Chase, Chief Marketing Officer for TCGs at Ravensburger, also added, “We know that bans are the last line of defense and we will only pull that lever when it will increase excitement for competitive play.”
The rest of the newsletter goes on about some of the thoughts the Ravensburger’s design team had as they pondered what to do before they came to the decision to ban Hiram Flaversham and Fortisphere.
Finally, the message then closes out to the usual corporate humdrum of commitments to ensuring an accessible and enjoyable game.
Thoughts Behind the Decision
The call to ban Hiram Flaversham and Fortisphere took many by surprise as a previous problem cards have existed in the form of Bucky - Squirrel Squeak Tutor.
Back then, Ravensburger had errata’d the card, which immediately dropped Bucky’s viability -and capability- in terrorizing the opponent. Now, however, it evidently seems like Hiram and Fortisphere were too strong for even a revision to fix.
According to the newsletter, Ravensburger’s issue with the two cards was summed up in a few key points:
- First, Hiram Flaversham’s capability of banishing an item was unstoppable, as the opponent would not be able to react to the interaction between Flaversham and an item.
- Second, Ravensburger believed that Fortisphere did not align with the core strength of its ink color and derailed most steel decks into an item-focused line of play.
- Third, when used in tandem, Hiram Flaversham and Fortisphere often led to a predictable one-sided outcome.
Unfortunately for both cards, Ravensburger was pretty on point. A lot of tournament results collected by InkDecks since the start of the Archazia’s Island cycle showed that Sapphire-Steel decks were consistently being represented in the top cut.
Even without pairing up Hiram Flaversham with Fortisphere, the 4 ink cost toymaker was truly a menace in the midgame where card draw was becoming more and more important for decks in general. Turning any item into a +1 to card advantage by just questing was insanely powerful.
As if that wasn't enough, Hiram’s controlling player can do this every turn so long as Hiram is kept alive. This wasn’t necessarily an issue as Hiram’s 6 willpower ensured he could take a few damage trades.
Sure, instant board removal like Brawl and one of the Sisu variants -like Empowered Sibling- could work, but what about the other ink colors? It was a general consensus for most players that Hiram was a problem card. He just did too much for a small investment on his controlling player’s part.
If you were in the shoes of the opponent, then you’d have to invest more than your fair share of resources to get rid of a single copy.
Fortisphere, on the other hand, drew some raised eyebrows. Even without the threat of Hiram Flaversham, Sapphire had a similar card in the form of Pawpsicle. So there was some confusion as to why Fortisphere had to be given the axe as well.
Given Ravensburger’s point that Fortisphere didn’t align with its ink color’s nature, we can only guess that this was either because Steel would always take a backseat to Sapphire given that Belle - Apprentice Inventor exists or Ravensburger wants to emphasize the need for players to think about ink color combinations to suit the requirements of their stratagems.
The Meta Moving Forward
It’s safe to say that the strategy for the competitive scene will be changed with the official start of Disney Lorcana’s Forbidden List. Any deck reliant on Hiram Falversham - Toymaker’s monstrous draw power will now have to compensate for this gaping hole.
This is doubly so if said Sapphire decks ran Steel as a partner and were reliant on the combined efforts of Pawpsicle and Fortisphere to help deck consistency.
It looks like the experimentation phase will have to hit a hard restart as decks will have to be rebuilt, and new tools will have to be found.
Regardless of where you fall on Ravensburger’s decision to ban Hiram Flaversham and Fortisphere, the competitive scene will now become a more interesting place, as a power vacuum has officially been created.
Will Sapphire keep its dominance without one of its more powerful draw tools? Or perhaps a new ink color will take the throne as the most dominant?
We haven’t been given any details for any major organized tournament, but anyone who’s intrigued by what will transpire should keep a close eye on any local tournaments and see what’s being cooked up by the player base.
For those interested in reading the original newsletter for yourselves, you can find it on the official Disney Lorcana website, here.