Trying to Casually Buy Lorcana in New York City
by Richard Stein
In case you haven’t heard, there’s a new hot collectible card game in town and its called Lorcana. It’s the creation of Ravensburger, best known for the Villainous board games and their extensive line of puzzles and matching games for children. Playing Lorcana looks like it would be a bit like playing a cross between Portal-era Magic and Hearthstone. There’s no interaction with your opponent; no instants; no blocking even; just you do your thing and then I’ll do mine and we’ll see how it goes.
Oh, and it’s based on the intellectual properties of The Walt Disney Company. So unlike say some random generic wizards, or whatever Hearthstone has going on, you’re sending Mickey Mouse out to beat up on Sleeping Beauty or something like that. I don’t know, I haven’t actually played it yet. But I’d like to.
So I called up my local game store (just kidding, I’m a millennial, I messaged the store owner on their Discord server) and I asked them if they were getting any Lorcana product. This was about six weeks ago just before the set was supposed to release at game stores (Ravensburger released product to game stores a few weeks ahead of big box stores to give them a boost). “No, we’re not getting any, there isn’t enough to go around.”
Well that was disappointing. What do you mean there isn’t enough? “Their distributors have limited product and they’re reserving it for stores that run tournaments, which we don’t have the space for.”
Let me talk for a moment about my local store. It’s not actually a gaming store. It’s an arts and crafts store. They have everything you’d ever want or dream of for knitting, sewing, crafting, and all kinds of other projects. It’s a family store. The owners live in the building above the store. And they love to play games. So they love to stock games as well. And there’s a great crossover between the arts and crafts product and the game product, especially for this store’s primary game: Warhammer.
But they also carry Magic, and Pokemon, and Yu-Gi-Oh, because their small but dedicated customer base wants to buy those products and wants to buy them from a store that they want to support financially. It’s a wonderful store run by wonderful people who do everything they can to work with the limited space they have to create an environment for their players to get in games of Warhammer and the occasional card game.
So back to Lorcana. They’re not getting any. Alright, I can wait. Other stores have product, but it’s not like I’m looking to play competitively. It just looks like it’ll be fun. You know what, I’ll grab some packs next time I’m at Target (which, for those of you who, like me, have kids, and a wife who loves Target, is like three times a week). So a few minutes pass (just kidding, it was like a week later) and we make a Target run, and I check the card area.
No Lorcana. Weird. I thought it was in stock at big box stores now. I ask an employee. They’re all out. They don’t know when they’ll get more. Some people bought all of it on the first day. Do I want some Pokemon cards? No, I do not. Do I want some Magic cards? Absolutely not. What do I look like? Someone who plays Magic? Someone who writes about Magic? Someone who runs a content site dedicated to Magic the Gathering?!
I stopped in at Gamestop in Long Island City. No Lorcana. Walgreens/CVS/Duane Reade in (every 10 feet, you can’t spit in New York without hitting a Starbucks and a Drug Store at the same time). No Lorcana.
And then Ravensburger announced there would be more! More cards! They’re coming in October! And then we’re printing even more for the holidays! Hooray!
So I called my store. “Can I get some of the new wave of Lorcana product,” I asked, over the phone, like a normal human being (just kidding, it was Discord again). “We’re only getting four boxes.” Uh… what? So no, I could not have one because I didn’t ask quick enough.
Maybe I can get one on Amazon? Oh they’re $300 when the MSRP is like $144. Maybe TCGPlayer? Oh, they’re almost $400 there. I could check one of the bigger game stores in the city, in Manhattan. Oh, they’re also $300, and they don’t have any for sale anyways because they need all their product to run the draft and sealed events they scheduled. Cool. Cool, cool, cool.
You know what, this can wait until Christmas.
Lorcana in Siouxland
by Jacob Torbeck
When I first heard about Lorcana, I was eager to learn to play and share this game. The simple rules and the thematic use of Disney characters promised to grab my children in ways that Magic had not, and the idea of gaming with my family was exciting! My first trip to my new LGS to look for the product, however, was a confrontation with the reality we’ve all now encountered: my LGS was getting less than 25% of its requested order, and all product would be relegated to folks showing up for league play.
This policy has had the happy effect of preventing predatory resellers from buying up the scarce product near MSRP in hopes of flipping it on ebay, and keeping the cards in the hands of people who are investing in growing the local scene. The short supply, however, means that luck and capital, rather than player skill, have so far been the determinant of the local constructed ladder. With so little product available, and prices sky high outside of the trickle of product from our local comics and games stores, constructed events are currently a mixture of players with barely more than a starter deck, and small number of very dedicated players with decks that are approximating top-tier meta decks (a meta which exists mostly because of resourceful players finding ways to play digitally). The games are still fun, and the folks are really friendly, but I wonder how long folks without the ability to upgrade their decks will keep showing up to face-off against optimized aggro and control piles.
The good news is that many of the adults in the area have brought this game home to our kids, and everyone seems to really enjoy the game! Playing with this small crew and my family will be enough to keep me engaged until the supply situation finds equilibrium.
On September 15-17, Sioux City held its annual fall gaming convention, and our local stores, Games King and Starfighter Comics, collaborated to run Lorcana draft, sealed, and constructed events. Some folks in the community demonstrated the game and taught interested folks how to play. Unfortunately, this meant almost the end of supply for our local game stores. Will our small constructed scene and whatever cards that can be scavenged out from under opportunistic resellers prowling big box stores be enough to keep new folks interested until the October restock and the mid-November/early December release of Lorcana’s first expansion? I hope so! We’ll all find out together.
The Lure of Lorcana
by Kyle Winkler
I was hesitant to try Lorcana after it was announced back in 2022. Or, rather, I was hesitant to get interested in it. At the time, I was already deep into Magic and was developing a growing appreciation of Richard Garfield’s other creation, KeyForge. Not to mention trying out Ashes: Reborn and then even more recently a fascination with LCGs like Arkham Horror. So my budget was already strained; it was a real block on my motivation. However, the owner of a local game parlor, Sapphire City, where I spend a lot of time playing mentioned that Ravensburger did solid work. He trusted them. And I’d recently bought a Ravensburger-designed Minecraft board game for my son that was incredibly . (Truly, it has no business being as fun and strategic as it is.) enjoyable
Secondly, I don’t have an aesthetic lure to the Disney art style. And while I was raised on Disney films and shows, I’m not a Disney lifer. But when I started to watch early gameplay online, and recognized the mechanics–(a little bit of Magic, Flesh and Blood, KeyForge, etc.)–my interested was piqued once more.
I have two LGSs that I patronize, and both received Lorcana merchandise. One store sold out immediately. The other still had four boxes on the shelves when I came in for some sleeves for my cube. A friend from my commander pod had bought some Lorcana a few days prior, and he seemed pleased. The box called my name. We all know that siren song. I tried to justify it as an investment in the same way someone back in 1993-1994 would’ve bought a box of Alpha or Beta cards. I could put them into my closet and wait. But then what was the point? Didn’t I want to play?
A woman sat at a nearby table, opening her pack, announcing her pulls. “I got a Mickey! Oh, a Robin Hood! Aladdin!” The lottery/dopamine pull was strong. But I resisted. I’d wait. The next day, all the boxes were (unsurprisngly) gone.
My local game parlor had put in an order request with its distributor, but apparently Disney was not allowing any establishment that served alcohol, like mine, to receive shipments in this first wave. Second wave and after, sure. From what I understand, Disney wanted to steer clear of that association in the initial release, especially as many children could/would be attending prereleases. (My anecdotal observation doesn’t bear this out. Adults are the primary buyers and players.)
I will likely buy a precon or a box when the second release occurs. The game is, as I’ve been saying to folks around me, pretty close to KeyForge in style and mechanics. They are quick games and the depth isn’t close to Magic, but it looks to be as fun. Hope to report back on more in the future.
Jacob W. Torbeck, Ph.D. (he/him) is a researcher and lecturer in philosophy and theology. Jacob hails from the Greater Chicago area, and loves playing Commander and Limited Magic, especially his Old School (93/94) and spooky cubes.
Kyle Winkler (he/him) is a teacher and fiction writer. While he was pre-teen when Magic: The Gathering was released, he didn’t start playing until recently. He’s the author of the cosmic horror novella (The Nothing That Is), a collection of short stories (OH PAIN), and a novel (Boris Says the Words). His favorite card is a toss up between Crypt Rats and Oubliette.
Rich Stein (he/him) has been playing Magic since 1995 when he and his brother opened their first packs of Ice Age and thought Jester’s Cap was the coolest thing ever. Since then his greatest accomplishments in Magic have been the one time he beat Darwin Kastle at a Time Spiral sealed Grand Prix and the time Jon Finkel blocked him on Twitter.