Ursula’s Return Debuts Two Brand-New Disney Lorcana Mechanics

As with any Lorcana set, Ursula’s Return has a lot of new content to excite players. Between the new franchises joining the fray and exciting new abilities, there’s undeniably a lot to love. Unfortunately, one important feature has been missing from Ursula’s Return; a new mechanic.

Thankfully, Ravensburger isn’t one to disappoint Disney Lorcana players. As the release date for Ursula’s Return draws ever closer, not just one, but two brand new mechanics have been revealed. Both focused around Song cards, these new mechanics both offer incredibly interesting and powerful possibilities!

A New Twist to Shift

Credit: Disney/Ravensburger

Debuted by ComicBook.com, the existing Shift mechanic is getting a brand-new twist in Ursula’s Return. Rather than having to pay boring ol’ Ink to Shift a character, Ursula’s Return introduces cards with other means to pay. In the case of Ursula - Eric’s Bride, as you can see above, this Shift cost is Discarding a Song card.

Thankfully for Lorcana players who are vehemently against singing, Discarding a Song isn’t the only way to Shift for free. On the six cards that ComicBook.com revealed, the nonstandard Shift costs include discarding a character, item, location, or action card. This should hopefully give the mechanic a fair bit of utility, with a lot of design possibilities going forward.

For the mechanic itself, Steve Warner, Disney Lorcana TCG Co-Designer claims it should add “another layer of surprise and strategy.” Considering this discard-based mechanic allows you to keep your Ink open for other spells, it certainly feels Warner is right in their assessment. Ultimately, while this spin on Shift is interesting, it’ll only see play if the cards featuring it are any good.

From the looks of things at the moment, a fair few of the new Shift cards have potential. Diablo - Devoted Herald, for instance, allows you to profit off your opponent’s card draw, which is potentially fantastic. Alternatively, Ursula - Eric’s Bride could be an incredibly frustrating removal engine, provided you set them up enough.

Literally Singing Together

Credit: Disney/Ravensburger

As if one new mechanic wasn’t good enough, Ursula’s Return has two of them! Revealed by The Gamer, the second new mechanic is aptly named Sing Together. In case the name doesn’t give it away, this mechanic allows you to Exert multiple characters to pay for a Song’s cost. Considering the price of some of the newly spoiled Song cards, this new mechanic is very welcome indeed!

When utilizing Sing Together, you’ll need to Exert characters with a total Ink Cost that matches or exceeds the listed number. On the spoilers we’ve seen so far, the Sing Together number has always matched the Song’s Ink cost, but that trend may not continue. Speaking of trends, all the new Sing Together cards are relatively expensive, with the cheapest costing six Ink.

While Sing Together is a very interesting mechanic, unfortunately, it may not be the most playable. Currently, the spoiled cards are simply too expensive to be viable, even if multiple characters can help sing them. The one exception to this rule appears to be A Pirate’s Life, as stealing Lore can be invaluable.

Thankfully, while the initial round of spoilers may be duds, Sing Together has some great possibilities going forward. Ideally, this will allow Ravensburger to fine-tune the design of these cards to create some real bombs. For now, Sing Together is fun and flavorful, but without the insanely powerful Ursula - Deceiver of All, they’re ultimately somewhat lacking.