Ravensburger has finally revealed the last of their new cards for Disney Lorcana’s Fabled expansion.
New Support for Princess Archetype
Aurora - Holding Court, The Queen - Conceited Ruler, and Beast - Gracious Prince
Looks like Ravansburger is trying to build a foundation for Amber players to build decks centered around the Princess archetype.
Aurora - Holding Court is a very subtle accelerator for a player to build up their field with. You either get a 3 ink cost Princess character out on the 2nd turn, or you’re able to immediately build wide with two other cards. Either way, Holding Court is not to be underestimated despite its rather frail stats.
The Queen - Conceited Ruler has some synergy with the Princess archetype, but is not wholly dependent on it. That said, the ability to switch out any of your Queen or Princess characters for any card in the discard can be pretty versatile. Unfortunately, Conceited Ruler’s ‘Royal Summons’ ability is a little restrictive and somewhat slow due to the precise conditions of its activation.
The Support ability Conceited Ruler has is a little surprising but not unwelcome. This gives players a chance to strengthen another character to challenge with while applying a small amount of pressure in the Lore race.
That said, it may be a little difficult for a player to fully leverage Conceited Ruler unless the competitive scene demands a tech option that requires reusing the odd card or two from the discard pile.
Beast - Gracious Prince rounds out the new Princess support by being pretty simple +1 to Strength and Willpower to all allied Princess characters. It’s a small thing, but the value of 1 is not to be underestimated.
Mulan - Disguised Soldier instantly becomes a 3 in Strength and 2 in Willpower, making her leagues better in trading with characters of a higher ink cost.
Amber usually plays host to a lot of Princess cards who are very powerful early to mid-game Singers; Aurora - Waking Beauty is one example, and Ravensburger has already confirmed that Ariel - Singing Mermaid (one of Amber’s premiere Singer cards) is confirmed for a reprint.
Gracious Prince provides some added staying power to these targets of opportunity. At worst, the opponent would need to expend more resources to get rid of the boosted Princesses outside of using direct banishment tools like Into the Unknown.
Beast himself is no slouch in the Strength department. He’s robust enough to trade with most characters at his ink cost level, and Beast has the benefit of Amber’s in-house access to healing and damage mitigation to help keep his bonus going.
Alice - Accidentally Adrift
As a 4 ink cost character, Accidentally Adrift is a little fragile despite her average Lore score (2). For her overall capabilities, the item removal is a little niche and will wholly depend on the meta once Fabled has been officially released.
Assuming that the tournament scene does evolve into he,vy item usage, then Accidentally Adrift’s double role as both board presence and item removal can become instant card advantage. The opponent getting some inkwell acceleration does sting a little.
A sly player could actually turn Alice’s ‘Making Waves’ ability on themselves in the future if we ever get a card like Pawpsicle -or it gets reprinted- that usually outlives its purpose after being played. In the meantime, Accidentally Adrift may, at best, be used as a tech choice.
Nala - Undaunted Lioness
Even though Nala - Undaunted Lioness lacks any form of offensive capability when challenging other characters, there’s no denying she’s a powerhouse in the Lore race. Nala’s uninkable nature is pretty much moot given how cheap she is to deploy. An opponent cannot allow Undaunted Lioness to stay undisturbed on the board for too long.
Overall, Undaunted Lioness’ design is simple and to the point. It promotes a very aggressive takeoff in the Lore race, and it will force a response from the opponent one way or another. With a bit of savvy, the early aggression may unbalance the opponent enough to create a window to take control of the match’s tempo come the mid-game.