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Disney Lorcanais at a crux point right now. After a year of regular sets, the hype has settled into a healthy level of enthusiasm, and with the regional and world championships coming up over the next few months, the meta has to be healthier and more fun than ever to keep people competing.
With the next set, we’re headed out into the Azurite Sea with the likes of Chip and Dale and the Big Hero 6 team for a swashbuckling adventure. While she may not be leaping from a gangplank or swinging from rigging, one of the big cards you’ll likely want to keep an eye out for in this set is Tiana, Restaurant Owner.
Tiana, Restaurant Owner
The star of The Princess And The Frog, Tiana is a StorybornHero Princessthat costs three ink to play. Though she can’t be inked, her 1/4 stat line and lore value makes her an impressive way to build up lore early which could be tricky for your opponents to deal with.
It’s her Special Reservation ability that’s the most interesting part, though. If she’s exerted, anything challenging one of your characters will need your opponent to pay an extra three ink. If they don’t, it loses a whopping three strength.
This is per character, too. Three characters challenging would require your opponent to pay a total of nine ink for them all to hit at full strength.
Using Tiana
You could just use Tiana the good ol’ fashioned way and exert her for lore each turn, and it wouldn’t be the worst option. After all, exerting for lore then activates her ability and could prevent your opponents from taking her down through challenges, as they’ll likely be more keen to improve their own board state than pay your taxes.
But that’s boring, and there’s a deck that’s currently top of the Lorcana metagame that could make great use of Tiana: Steelsong. Steelsong is a Steel/Amber deck that useslots of songsto build up an advantage, and Tiana’s cost of three allows her to sing some of the best.
The Bare Necessities, Strength of a Raging Fire, and Let The Storm Rage On all see regular play in Steelsong decks, and Tiana can be exerted to sing them for free. She could provide vital protection to your squishier characters, like Ursula, Ariel, and Prince Naveen, while also tanking a few hits herself.
Tiana’s ability is only when a character is being challenged, rather than when they do the challenging. If Tiana herself initiates the challenge, the tax won’t be applied.
Azurite Sea looks like it may have a theme in Amber of nerfing your opponents’ characters’ power. Take Rescue Rangers Away! for example, which can reduce a character’s power by the number of characters you have in play. Combine that with Tiana and even a big challenger like Cinderella, Stouthearted will be left struggling.
The big difficulty Tiana is going to face is from the ever-present boogeyman of Lorcana, Bounce Control. Amethyst has a huge package of abilities to return cards to your hand, and seeing as this isn’t a challenge, Tiana is powerless to stop it. She’ll also be a lightning rod for removal inRuby/Sapphire decks, but that could buy you the time needed to push towards a win?
It’ll be interesting to see where Tiana falls, because she has a few very clear niches in the meta she can fill, but also falls prey to some of the top players in the game right now. We’ll know for sure when Azurita Sea launches on November 15 for local game stores, and November 25 everywhere else.
Disney Lorcana
Lorcana is a trading card game developed by Disney and published by Ravensburger, featuring iconic characters, settings, and more from the studio’s long history. As an Illumineer, you must build your deck and help protect Lorcana.
