I kinda want to try to get into it with my son but from a first glance it looks like it's just been taken over by hardcore MTG types and there's no place to play online even on webcam. The stuff I have seen looks really fast paced and confusing. Like way too intense for something based on cartoon princesses.
Does anyone play? What has your experience been and what's the best way to try it out for someone with zero tcg experience?
If you want a cute and low energy fun time type TCG you should probably get into the new MTG Bloomburrow set and do casual kitchen table with your kid
The art on Bloomburrow is fire. I love my murderous trash pandas.
Hell yeah it is. Mtg rarely disappoints in the art department.
Thanks for the rec i am checking it out now
So if you go to a store commander night or whatever are people only playing bloomburrow or do the different deck types get mixed up?
Commander is usually a mix of different cards across the game's entire history. You can build decks around specific themes you like and want to play though. Though commander is super obtuse tbh, so I recommend starting with draft (drafting cards from one set, eg Bloomburrow) or pauper. Draft is annoying because it's 15 bucks to play it (for the packs you need to draft) which then goes to Wizards but it's probably the best format overall. I would recommend building a cube (collection of cards to draft with so you don't have to pay for packs) but that requires at least 4 people you know to draft that cube and a commitment of a bunch of synergistic and fun cards to put into it. Altogether 15 bucks to draft some cards in a good set and meet new people is probably worth it, though it would be 30 if both you and your kid were playing.
A cube is a great thing to work torwards down the line with the cards you get from drafting, too. Get a good cube going and you'll never need to pay for Magic products again except occasionally to see if there are cool new cards you want to put into it.
Edit: I guess drafts are 18 bucks per person now because of "play boosters". Fucking Wizards
It's being marketed like the MtG and already has the most predatory aspects of MtG. If you want some for the kid, stay away. It's also the fugly disney shit so it's even worse than MtG.
Basically card games are predatory by nature and are the model on which computer gacha games with all the infamous tricks are modelled. Hell basically entire game is a lootbox, each booster is a lootbox. Also expect breakneck pace at publishing new expansions and dozens of special editions and so on and on. If you plan to participate in events like tourneys and so on, the deck formats come in play, standard format require to basically get a new deck every time new expansion come out (usually around every 3 months), and in open format, theoretically for casuals but in reality for whales, prepare to get utterly crushed (idk if Lorcana have those but MtG had like 100 type of deck in open format that can win in a single round, i witnessed games that were resolved with just the coin toss who starts).
And i would be even more wary with Lorcana than MtG because it's clearly aimed at children and with all unilmited hate i have for WotC, it's even worse, it's Disney, the company who just recently tried to slid off from death of a woman by invoking her husband free trial at slop TV as something in kind of devil's contract for soul.
Geez. It's pretty amazing how well they've engineered this thing to suck your pockets dry over the years... Probably best to avoid the whole thing!
Haven't played, but from what I hear, they solved the mana screwing problem by making it so any of your cards can be used as mana (ink) instead of as the playable creature. Which is interesting, but fuck Disney. Fuck Hasbro too, while we're at it.
Mana screw is a feature, not a bug >:)
Edit: I didn't know Lorcana went that direction. I really, really hate the TCGs have all become "What if we made Magic, but better?" instead of figuring out new mechanics. They all reinvent MtG and then discover the same problems Magic figured out 20 years ago.
Can't really comment. I am smoll bean, only been playing magic since Midnight Hunt. It's the only TCG I play and only with my small pod.😅
I started in Portal/Mirage, so longer than some players have been alive 🙃.
Mana screw/flood exist on a spectrum. You can completely eliminate mana screw with decks like Lands. Others, like Oops! All Spells and Belcher, will never flood. The same is true with mulligans. Some decks mulligan really well (Dredge, Tron) while others never want to mulligan but they rarely need to (Burn). In younger formats (Standard, Pioneer), eliminating mana screw/flood or mulligans is less viable because of the smaller card pool. As you venture into older formats, those options become available.
A lot of TCGs forget they're card games and instead copy what MtG has already done. They're basically "You want to reduce your opponent's life total which is done by paying resources to play stronger cards most of which are creatures that attack." This doesn't actually eliminate mana screw/flood, it just shifts where the randomness occurs. Except now you don't have the spectrum and you've eliminated decks that prey on greedy mana bases (MUD, Death & Taxes) or ignore mana disruption (Oath, Dredge).
Eventually designers in those games figure this out. But they would have known this if they were more familiar with Magic's history and competitive scene. It's a giant red flag when they haven't played Legacy, Vintage, or Cube and are jumping into card game design from kitchen table Magic or Standard.
Mtg has taken over all the brain space I have reserved for tcgs so I have not really synthesized any lorcana info. It just looks like an alternative mtg owned by Disney. Like what eel said, just get some bloomburrow. No one has room in their lives for two tcgs so just do the one that will still be around in 10 years. Your kid will thank you later (or curse you for giving them a lifelong disease lol).
The MtG audience is massive and has a huge variety of types of people who play. The commander format scene has a lot more casual players who are just playing to have a good time. Although commander decks are a little more involved when building than the other formats, which is unfortunate.
