The metagame of Disney Lorcana was shaken recently when Ravensburger announced the banning of Hiram Flaversham - Toymaker and Fortishpere. While Sapphire has access to other tools to replace Flaversham, Steel isn’t as fortunate when it comes to Fortisphere.
So, today, we’ll look at alternatives Steel has when it comes to replacing this now-forbidden card.
As a side note, we’re limiting all of our picks to 1-2 ink cost Steel cards to mimic the part of Fortisphere’s original design as much as possible; cheap, early game draw for Steel decks.
The One Cost Alternatives
One of the reasons why Fortisphere was used -outside of its synergy with Hiram Flaversham- was that it was an easy first-turn drop.
Fortisphere also set the bar pretty high as it would replace itself when played; this would allow the controlling player to keep card tempo even after putting another card into the inkwell.
As far as ink cost goes, Steel is very limited in the one cost department with the likes of Simba - Future King, Mulan - Disguised Soldier, and The Bayou - Mysterious Swamp.
Simba and Mulan, are two sides of the same coin. Each one boasts 2 in either Strength or Willpower, with a 1 in the remaining stat, are both have the same capability of cycling by drawing and then discarding a card.
In fact, a lot of Steel’s low ink cost cards are more focused on cycling through the controlling player’s deck than actually drawing cards outright.
As for The Bayou, it’s also a cycling card, but this cycling is predicated on the fact that characters need to move to this location first and then quest.
Mulan - Disguised Soldier and Simba - Future King are the closest to a Fortisphere alternative. Their ability to cycle cards activates as soon as they’re played, mimicking the 1 ink cost item closely in this regard.
The Bayou - Mysterious Swamp, on the other hand, is a little slower to use. Even though it costs relatively the same to Fortisphere, Mulan, and Simba, the fact that it requires characters to move to The Bayou first shoots up its barrier to entry.
Adding to the condition is that characters still need to quest while on The Bayou to get this ability to activate, and you may have a lot of players turning away from this particular card.
On the other hand, by virtue of being a location, The Bayou does offer some form of lore gain by just existing more than a single turn. Its willpower may be low, making its longevity suspect, but players interested in playing a longer game may find The Bayou to be an excellent sword and shield.
The former, because if left alone, 1 lore a turn can stack pretty fast alongside other sources. The latter, because the opponent would have to invest something to get rid of it.
As far as the meta is concerned, not a lot of players run non-character-sourced location hate outside of And Then Along Came Zeus.
Depending on how you look at it, spending a 4 ink cost card for 5 damage on The Bayou can be a pretty questionable trade.
The two cost alternatives
Steel’s options for early game “draw” -outside of Fortisphere- opens up a little with its 2 ink cost cards.
Starting off this segment, we have Steel Coil, Beast’s Mirror, and Ransack. Steel Coil offers players a chance to draw by just playing the game and putting a card into your ink well.
It does little to offset the actual loss of cards for the inkwell ramp, but you do get to cycle through your deck faster.
Beast’s Mirror is probably one of the few true, early-game draw cards for Steel, but it comes with a lot of strings attached.
Requiring its controlling player to have no cards in hand to be able to draw, on top of a 3 ink cost while exerting the card itself, Beast’s Mirror feels more like a catch-up mechanic than an actual advantage, so players may not be too keen on running it.
Ransack is just plain cycling. You’re spending a card just to dig through your deck faster. Depending on the stratagem, this can be a good thing, but this action card is wholly dependent on the overall design of the deck it’s used in.
Finally, we have the 2 ink cost characters of Bolt - Headstrong Dog, The Huntsman - Reluctant Enforcer, Cinderella - Knight in Training, and Doc - Bold Knight.
For Bolt and The Huntsman, a lot of players may be turned away by their slower nature in activating their abilities. Cinderella mimics her 1 ink cost allies so she can make for a good early game drop on turn 2.
Out of all 2 ink cost cards, Doc - Bold Knight is probably the best alternative to Fortisphere. Doc’s downside of discarding your hand first before drawing can easily be played around by expending all your other cards first.
This would essentially have the player drawing 2 cards outright if Doc is the last card in the hand to be played.
Doc’s real drawback, though, is that he’s an uninkable card. It would be ideal to only have one copy in hand at a time. Otherwise, there’s always a chance to draw into multiple copies, and it always stings when you’re forced to use a copy of Doc without activating his draw.
That’s our list for Steel’s alternatives to Fortisphere. The 1 ink cost item card will sorely be missed as it offered a lot of consistency for Steel players. But with the closing of one door, another opens. And we are excited to see what the community will cook up for Steel in the weeks to come.