Disney Lorcana closes out the year with another set, Whispers in the Well, which has an early release on November 7 at your local games stores followed by a wide release on November 14. This new set will be the tenth for the popular Disney card game in a little over two years since it initially premiered. Alongside the full set release, Lorcana will again have accompanying starter decks: a Sapphire/Steel deck featuring characters from Robin Hood and Zootopia, and an Amber/Emerald deck featuring characters from the Lion King and Hercules. With every set, a new mechanic gets revealed, but we also get some pleasant surprises from the deep Disney library, like A Goofy Movie from the previous expansion. This time around I was ecstatic to see Gargoyles from the ‘90s animated TV series make an appearance. With new characters introduced into the card game and alongside a new mechanic, these new starter decks give a good sneak peek into what the new meta could be.

Right out of the box, both starter decks have a good mix of cards that dictate each deck’s playstyle, but one deck seems to have better synergy than its counterpart after playing some matches with both. The Sapphire/Steel deck is by far the most consistent of the two, which may also just be a product of the colors of the deck. With that said, the Detective classification of cards in that deck really puts in the work as well. Outside of Sapphire’s tendency to ramp ink or mana quickly, or the ability to filter through a deck, there are a handful of similar bonuses from just having Detective cards in your deck. For instance, there’s a Judy Hopps card that allows the player to look at the top three cards of their deck and reveal a Detective character to then put in their hand. That’s amazing for a card game that normally lets you draw only one card at the beginning of a turn. If Judy Hopps can stay on the field, that’s great value. Another Detective card is Basil, who gives himself Resist when another Detective is played. Resist is an attribute often seen in the Steel color, so it’s interesting seeing the Detective synergy work in that regard too. Overall, the toughness of the cards in this Detective deck alongside the ramping and filtering makes this deck the standout of the two. If players want a budget deck for the next set, this Sapphire/Steel deck might be a good foundation that could use just a bit of tweaking.

On the other side, we have the Amber/Emerald deck, which appears to be focused on the new boost mechanic the most. Boost is the new set mechanic that allows a player to put a card from the top of their deck under a character to give them powerful passive abilities. Whether it’s giving a character permanent buffs to health and attack or an ability that triggers when you do certain actions, the effects seem to be very strong. For instance, when the new Simba card boosts, the player reveals the top card of the deck. If it’s a character, the player can play the card for free no matter the cost, so it’s a big gamble. Cards like Blessed Bagpipes can assist these cards with Boost abilities by triggering their abilities again. So much of the deck features cards that can boost or benefit from cards being facedown under them. As a base starter deck, it’s a bit lacking in comparison to the Sapphire/Steel deck, but I can see a version of this deck being character heavy so that new Simba never misses his Boost ability trigger. It has some interesting ideas, but it felt slower to play.

New mechanics aside, the introduction of Gargoyles into Lorcana is an exciting sight to behold. I haven’t personally thought about them, well…since the ‘90s, it feels like. There is one Gargoyle related card in Sapphire/Steel deck in the form of David Xanatos, an antagonist from the animated series. When he’s played, the player may discard a card to deal 2 damage to a chosen character. Looking at other cards from the Gargoyle series, like Demona and Goliath, they appear to focus on hand manipulation. Goliath, for instance, forces both players to discard their hand until they have two cards left. If they have fewer than two, players draw up to two. He also has a secondary ability that doesn’t let him ready if the owner has three cards or more, but that shouldn’t be a problem because of his initial passive. Hand manipulation is an interesting layer for any card game meta because it forces players to make tough decisions. It also serves as another form of removal that may circumvent any protections like Ward. Both the Gargoyles characters and added hand manipulation effects are refreshing to see in this new set.

Both starter decks did what they set out to do in my first experience with them: introduce an easy entry point into the game while emphasizing the set’s new Boost mechanic. A nice touch was having the new Zootopia cards synergize with the Detective characteristic. It wasn’t relevant before, but now a Detective deck seems more viable going into the upcoming set and the new meta. And of course, it’ll be interesting to see how the new Gargoyles cards fare. For more on Disney Lorcana, check out our interview with one of the game designers on how the card game came to be.