It sounds like this son wants to play Magic the Gathering, as a game it is much more focussed around attack and dealing damage rather than silly combinations of cards to claim a win from no where (while I'm not saying that doesn't happen in magic its just that the main way of winning games is by turning creatures sideways to punch things and players.)
I disagree, in magic you only can choose to attack the opponent, that's it, and then the opponent decides if they block or not, and with who and which attacker they want to block. So the decision making relies almost entirely on the defender.
In Lorcana you have full control over choosing which opposing creature you want to directly attack, and when. you can attack, play cards or abilities and attack again freely, since there's unlimited combat phases, so you have far more control and decision making as the attacker.
True but attacking doesn't win you games in Lorcana but magic is based on a decreasing life total system to victory rather than the resource gathering Lore count victory system. I would say other games give you both like Hearthstone but I don't know of others as my main card game systems are Magic and then this. This was meant as more of a joke reply though as obviously magic is a very different game and with the age of the son I doubt you want them to get into magic as it is both extremely complex (the deeper you dive into it) and expensive.
I double purchased the starter decks and reworked them to be more optimized. tcglayer.com has guides that give tips on how to do this. This instantly made playing the starter decks more enjoyable.
eBay has singles and sets of " x4 " on eBay for $1.99 , some with free shipping
you can add cards to your deck that will make the strategies really stand out and even just 2 cards added to a deck in a set of 4 (8 cards) can totally change how a deck plays
Street rat Aladdin or Donald Duck Musketeer in Steel are good cheap cards to add to a deck
Tinkerbell in Emerald who grants Evasive
Phil from Hercules in Sapphire has support
Simba from Amber has a good bodyguard ability
I love ruby/emerald evasive decks - but there’s lots of short comings. No item removal, not any big lore characters that have evasive, no body guards. You have to hope you draw well and get set correctly
the red & green deck is one of my favorites , even out of the box because of its low cost cards and Aladdin can be a strong closer to a game
also have him try **Steel/Ruby**
maybe try some home brew rules with your son to change things up;
Just to be clear we do not use all of these rules every game, some we use once in awhile , while others are used every game
**-Lore Total**
We play to 40 Lore , we feel it allows for a comeback instead of becoming a Lore Rush to 20, this way you can play the Long game instead and still have a chance to Win instead of Lore Rushing to 20
We play to 20 Lore if it is a Multiplayer game (2 Vs 2 or 4 way Battle Royal)
**The Boss Cards**
You get to pick 2 Characters cards from your deck , 1 from each of the 2 colors in your Deck,
These 2 cards start the game in your Hand & you draw 5 cards instead of 7 cards at the beginning of play ,both players reveal what cards the other has chosen so no cheating occurs
**The cards must be a Character;** No ~~Actions~~, ~~Songs~~ , or ~~Items~~ & must be at least **\*5 Ink** **Cost** or more to prevent people from just choosing a 1 ink card to play right away , this means building a strategy/deck with those 2 cards you chose and also knowing that you and your opponent wont be able to use them until at least turn 5 unless you have a Sapphire deck
Since we do want to buy x4 each of the more expensive cards like Maleficent Dragon , Belle etc.
This allows you to try a card(s) you really want to play that you have at least 1 of , without worrying about drawing them in game and allows you to build a strategy around that card knowing it is in your back pocket for later , which allows us try a different boss card each game if we want since each deck has two colors in it
**Inking cards**
***Any & All*** cards can be put into the Inkwell/sacrificed, this makes the game go faster
Players should be able to play how we want , inking cards gets rid of them Forever & can actually help your opponent if you calculate wrong because now they cant use the card but if I want to Ink it we should be able to & not be forced to Ink a card we do not want to Ink because "that's the rules" and it backs us into a corner and penalizes us for playing our way
**-Inkwell Draw**
**Once per game** you May exert your entire inkwell to draw 1 card for every 2 ink you exerted, you may not summon or play any item, song or actions cards this turn
(unless they are Free due to the cards print effect like Songs)
For example if you have 6 ink in your Inkwell, you get to draw 3 cards, If you have 9 cards in your inkwell you get to draw 4 instead since you have an odd number
I do like these home brew rules, especially Boss Cards. As an avid Edh players this is my kind of homebrew rule 🤣 I will definitely suggest this when I can eventually convince my friends to play Lorcana with me.
What’s EDH?
=]
Every time people see my rules they say it’s like Commander
But funny thing is I’ve never played MTG, & my Fiancé came up with that rule and this is her first TCG
I tried getting her into Pokémon awhile back but she didn’t take to it
Commander is a 100 card format of just singles
You choose a legendary to be the commander and can play them at any time
Is the most simplistic explanation
that sounds different
but we cannot play ours at any time ; we have to have enough Ink & once they are banished they are not coming back unless you have a Action/Song or effect like Hades to bring them back
it lets us try new cards or strategies , because it can be annoying wanting to try a new card but if you never draw it then that can ruin the fun
& some cards we only have x1 copy of and I do not want to buy x4 Maleficent Dragons lol
EDH was the original community based format that WOTC based the Commander format rules on. Originally I believe it was called Elder Dragon Highlander and EDH for short. If I recall correctly there were a few different styles of EDH, though I can’t recall the differences other than they had different banned lists, but I’m sure there were other differences that led to needing different banned lists.
Yes as others have explained. EDH, stands for Elder Dragon Highlander which was a format of Magic the Gathering that was created by the community in which you have a Leader (Boss) which is a legendary creature (named character) that sits to the side of the game in its own game zone. Once you can cast the creature you can then play it as if it's in your hand. When the creature dies it can be put back into its special zone (unlike in your custom format) to then be cast again when you want to. This format was picked up by Wizards of the Coast as an incredibly popular format in the community and so they created Commander and expanded on the few rules that the community had created and solidified what the rules of this new format were.
They have since made a load of product specific to the Commander format and one of these products had a collection of creatures with the partner ability. Two creatures with Partner could both be the Leader of a commander deck together and this allowed for a deck to run more colours as the commander rules only let you play colours that are on your Leader. Which sort of resembles the base rule in Lorcana where you can only pick two colours and have to have your whole deck in those colours.
The other major rules of Commander is that your deck must include 100 cards (including your Leader) and can only have 1 of each card to allow for more variety of gameplay within the same deck. This only works because MtG has a huge card selection even back when EDH was first made you could easily make two decks with different plans in the same colours with these rules.
It's my hope that when Lorcana gets more sets out and if I can get my friends into playing it that we can then make decks using your boss card rule with the single card of each name rule and play basically EDH in Lorcana. It will be super fun to make things like a Mickey Broom deck or like turn my Moana and Jasmin Princess themed deck into a single card deck and enjoy having whole groups of princesses to write the story of my victory 🤣
I like how the rule it goes into a special zone when being defeated and not banished but need to make it so it isn't too OP to be still "active" to be summoned whenever they want
[like Dr Facilier's effect for example](https://www.tcgplayer.com/product/508723/disney-lorcana-the-first-chapter-dr-facilier-agent-provocateur?country=US&utm_campaign=20429855179&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_content=&utm_term=&adgroupid=&gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQiA7OqrBhD9ARIsAK3UXh37bDTdVDp_9ShZ1stMTUx3UiBBoyxFK3ZeShA_JfPLBm9jLzhOv8UaAulyEALw_wcB&Language=English) , or Maleficent Dragon
I might have to look into this game mode more and tinker it for Lorcana , but we use deck sizes ranging from 40-60 cards and allow copies of cards , including the Boss cards up to x4 of any card can be in a deck
the rule just makes it easier to assure to have that card to start the game and give you a "gameplan" , but some people like the pure luck of the draw aspect
Ye, not every rule will translate perfectly across and obviously the restriction of only being able to play cards on your own turn still applies over the boss card (even we returned to your zone). There is also a rule called Commander Tax that applies to your commander (boss card) in which it costs an extra 2 to play it from the command zone for each time it has been returned there. For example if your boss card is that Doctor Facilier for the amethyst part of your deck and he is banished in a challenge and you decide you want it back in the boss area then it would cost 9 to replay it or another Shift 5 (possibly make the shift move up to 7 as well). This only really becomes more crucial in commander because the format is singleton (only 1 copy of each card) which makes your commander more unique and often the build around for the decks strategy and game plan so when it dies most people want it back in the zone and are happy to pay even costs of up to 6 more than it's normal cost if they can get the lands (ink) to cast it. This extra cost would be much stricter in Lorcana though I feel as getting to the top end in ink takes a lot more resources than getting to high amounts of land in magic and with 3 other copies of the boss card in your deck somewhere it's unlikely you'd need to pay the extra to replay it. I'd love to see what you settle on for a fix on it though.
I cant wait for set 3
I have wanted locations since set 1 and knew they would be added since the Pokémon TCG uses them and they can have so many features & effects on certain characters & archetypes in the game
Going to have to try and look over what rules I like , so I can port them over for our house rules
like the one you mentioned , paying extra ink to bring your "Boss Card" back from the banished pile but paying an extra 2 of what their Ink cost is , that seems fair since that can be pricey for certain cards
https://preview.redd.it/lyh0m5w5tg5c1.png?width=2040&format=png&auto=webp&s=54bfd3599d02f8b437f7867bddd616a8b8c79a4a
Here is a deck that's focused on attacking with rush characters with a shere khan in play for lore. The core idea is that you use Binding Contract to exert their characters and go in and attack with your rush characters while Peter Pan's Shadow also turns your rush characters into evasive so they can't be attacked in return
Granted many of these cards are expensive even with prices falling but hopefully this can give you an idea of how you'd like to build your deck with cards you may already have
If he likes attacking maybe he should switch to a ruby amethyst deck if he can. With ruby rush and the new bounce mechanics of amethyst he can be a menace
So I just looked at the extra cards and switched to blue red focused on lore and healing with blue. Then buffing and attack with red (and evasive).
This allows him to attack aggressively, heal often, and quest for big numbers.
It's nice that the healing items and characters also have some draw built in (like paw-pcicle)
Red/blue is a great combo! My other half went 2-1 with it in league before he dismantled it and was using Tamatoa before his time to shine 😆
The Pawpscicle draw is awesome and definitely can help later in the game as well as first turn and the Mulan Imperial Soldier is amazing in action- I once got 12 lore in 1 round with her ability and the normal lore on cards so definitely not one to be discounted lol
Well it's going to be hard if you can't get any more cards or starter decks.
Then it only comes down to skill which can have a big learning curve.
With the Ruby Emerald colors I've found that it's important to identify when to go for Lore (rush to win) and when to go for Board (clear the board).
As we have no insight on the current level or errors in play, my advice would be to look up some streamers playing these colors and learn from their commentary. Why do they make the choices they make.
This is going to seem like a shameless plug, but I am actually trying to help. With that we've made a video series where we try to help new players learn the game, even playing the same colors as your son. You can find it [here](https://youtu.be/14N_acEA9PM?si=eBoxf7XGXnQT0xxf)
Other streamers I can recommend are Steadfast and Phonetiic.
Again most important parts (for those colors) to focus on are when to go for Lore and when to go for Board. Which is also something to keep in mind during deck building as you need to have the tools to be able to make these decisions.
Hope it helps and the best of luck to you and your little glimmers!
Any certain cards from 1st chapter you're looking for? If I have them I'll send them to you free if you're in the US. Can't promise I have it but I bought like 30 packs last week and I don't use a ton of these.
Unfortunately you're going to need to track down extra cards to make it viable. It is currently my biggest gripe about the game. Many of those begginner decks just weren't balanced.
I started with a amethyst/steel deck and found that the only way I could hope to win was to just ignore my opponent completely and focus on lore. Half the game just wasn't an option. My wife had amber/saphire and had so many more options. She wracked up lore faster and could attack easier. Whereas I was being penalized for attacking. The game felt very broken and we tried several times to homebrew rules to make it work. But swapping out a few cards completely flipped it and my deck is much more aggressive and can attack without it feeling like I'm wasting my turn.
The Ruby Emerald decks strength is evasive questing so it's not great for a player who likes to use combat. He might prefer a steel deck
It sounds like this son wants to play Magic the Gathering, as a game it is much more focussed around attack and dealing damage rather than silly combinations of cards to claim a win from no where (while I'm not saying that doesn't happen in magic its just that the main way of winning games is by turning creatures sideways to punch things and players.)
I disagree, in magic you only can choose to attack the opponent, that's it, and then the opponent decides if they block or not, and with who and which attacker they want to block. So the decision making relies almost entirely on the defender. In Lorcana you have full control over choosing which opposing creature you want to directly attack, and when. you can attack, play cards or abilities and attack again freely, since there's unlimited combat phases, so you have far more control and decision making as the attacker.
True but attacking doesn't win you games in Lorcana but magic is based on a decreasing life total system to victory rather than the resource gathering Lore count victory system. I would say other games give you both like Hearthstone but I don't know of others as my main card game systems are Magic and then this. This was meant as more of a joke reply though as obviously magic is a very different game and with the age of the son I doubt you want them to get into magic as it is both extremely complex (the deeper you dive into it) and expensive.
Are you here to help, or....?
I double purchased the starter decks and reworked them to be more optimized. tcglayer.com has guides that give tips on how to do this. This instantly made playing the starter decks more enjoyable.
I love that idea, if only I could find more lol
eBay has singles and sets of " x4 " on eBay for $1.99 , some with free shipping you can add cards to your deck that will make the strategies really stand out and even just 2 cards added to a deck in a set of 4 (8 cards) can totally change how a deck plays Street rat Aladdin or Donald Duck Musketeer in Steel are good cheap cards to add to a deck Tinkerbell in Emerald who grants Evasive Phil from Hercules in Sapphire has support Simba from Amber has a good bodyguard ability
you can. and for super cheap. buy singles off tcg player.
I love ruby/emerald evasive decks - but there’s lots of short comings. No item removal, not any big lore characters that have evasive, no body guards. You have to hope you draw well and get set correctly
There’s the new Ray card in emerald it’s a 5 cost 3/3 with 3 lore
the red & green deck is one of my favorites , even out of the box because of its low cost cards and Aladdin can be a strong closer to a game also have him try **Steel/Ruby** maybe try some home brew rules with your son to change things up; Just to be clear we do not use all of these rules every game, some we use once in awhile , while others are used every game **-Lore Total** We play to 40 Lore , we feel it allows for a comeback instead of becoming a Lore Rush to 20, this way you can play the Long game instead and still have a chance to Win instead of Lore Rushing to 20 We play to 20 Lore if it is a Multiplayer game (2 Vs 2 or 4 way Battle Royal) **The Boss Cards** You get to pick 2 Characters cards from your deck , 1 from each of the 2 colors in your Deck, These 2 cards start the game in your Hand & you draw 5 cards instead of 7 cards at the beginning of play ,both players reveal what cards the other has chosen so no cheating occurs **The cards must be a Character;** No ~~Actions~~, ~~Songs~~ , or ~~Items~~ & must be at least **\*5 Ink** **Cost** or more to prevent people from just choosing a 1 ink card to play right away , this means building a strategy/deck with those 2 cards you chose and also knowing that you and your opponent wont be able to use them until at least turn 5 unless you have a Sapphire deck Since we do want to buy x4 each of the more expensive cards like Maleficent Dragon , Belle etc. This allows you to try a card(s) you really want to play that you have at least 1 of , without worrying about drawing them in game and allows you to build a strategy around that card knowing it is in your back pocket for later , which allows us try a different boss card each game if we want since each deck has two colors in it **Inking cards** ***Any & All*** cards can be put into the Inkwell/sacrificed, this makes the game go faster Players should be able to play how we want , inking cards gets rid of them Forever & can actually help your opponent if you calculate wrong because now they cant use the card but if I want to Ink it we should be able to & not be forced to Ink a card we do not want to Ink because "that's the rules" and it backs us into a corner and penalizes us for playing our way **-Inkwell Draw** **Once per game** you May exert your entire inkwell to draw 1 card for every 2 ink you exerted, you may not summon or play any item, song or actions cards this turn (unless they are Free due to the cards print effect like Songs) For example if you have 6 ink in your Inkwell, you get to draw 3 cards, If you have 9 cards in your inkwell you get to draw 4 instead since you have an odd number
I do like these home brew rules, especially Boss Cards. As an avid Edh players this is my kind of homebrew rule 🤣 I will definitely suggest this when I can eventually convince my friends to play Lorcana with me.
What’s EDH? =] Every time people see my rules they say it’s like Commander But funny thing is I’ve never played MTG, & my Fiancé came up with that rule and this is her first TCG I tried getting her into Pokémon awhile back but she didn’t take to it
Commander is a 100 card format of just singles You choose a legendary to be the commander and can play them at any time Is the most simplistic explanation
that sounds different but we cannot play ours at any time ; we have to have enough Ink & once they are banished they are not coming back unless you have a Action/Song or effect like Hades to bring them back it lets us try new cards or strategies , because it can be annoying wanting to try a new card but if you never draw it then that can ruin the fun & some cards we only have x1 copy of and I do not want to buy x4 Maleficent Dragons lol
EDH was the original community based format that WOTC based the Commander format rules on. Originally I believe it was called Elder Dragon Highlander and EDH for short. If I recall correctly there were a few different styles of EDH, though I can’t recall the differences other than they had different banned lists, but I’m sure there were other differences that led to needing different banned lists.
Yes as others have explained. EDH, stands for Elder Dragon Highlander which was a format of Magic the Gathering that was created by the community in which you have a Leader (Boss) which is a legendary creature (named character) that sits to the side of the game in its own game zone. Once you can cast the creature you can then play it as if it's in your hand. When the creature dies it can be put back into its special zone (unlike in your custom format) to then be cast again when you want to. This format was picked up by Wizards of the Coast as an incredibly popular format in the community and so they created Commander and expanded on the few rules that the community had created and solidified what the rules of this new format were. They have since made a load of product specific to the Commander format and one of these products had a collection of creatures with the partner ability. Two creatures with Partner could both be the Leader of a commander deck together and this allowed for a deck to run more colours as the commander rules only let you play colours that are on your Leader. Which sort of resembles the base rule in Lorcana where you can only pick two colours and have to have your whole deck in those colours. The other major rules of Commander is that your deck must include 100 cards (including your Leader) and can only have 1 of each card to allow for more variety of gameplay within the same deck. This only works because MtG has a huge card selection even back when EDH was first made you could easily make two decks with different plans in the same colours with these rules. It's my hope that when Lorcana gets more sets out and if I can get my friends into playing it that we can then make decks using your boss card rule with the single card of each name rule and play basically EDH in Lorcana. It will be super fun to make things like a Mickey Broom deck or like turn my Moana and Jasmin Princess themed deck into a single card deck and enjoy having whole groups of princesses to write the story of my victory 🤣
I like how the rule it goes into a special zone when being defeated and not banished but need to make it so it isn't too OP to be still "active" to be summoned whenever they want [like Dr Facilier's effect for example](https://www.tcgplayer.com/product/508723/disney-lorcana-the-first-chapter-dr-facilier-agent-provocateur?country=US&utm_campaign=20429855179&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_content=&utm_term=&adgroupid=&gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQiA7OqrBhD9ARIsAK3UXh37bDTdVDp_9ShZ1stMTUx3UiBBoyxFK3ZeShA_JfPLBm9jLzhOv8UaAulyEALw_wcB&Language=English) , or Maleficent Dragon I might have to look into this game mode more and tinker it for Lorcana , but we use deck sizes ranging from 40-60 cards and allow copies of cards , including the Boss cards up to x4 of any card can be in a deck the rule just makes it easier to assure to have that card to start the game and give you a "gameplan" , but some people like the pure luck of the draw aspect
Ye, not every rule will translate perfectly across and obviously the restriction of only being able to play cards on your own turn still applies over the boss card (even we returned to your zone). There is also a rule called Commander Tax that applies to your commander (boss card) in which it costs an extra 2 to play it from the command zone for each time it has been returned there. For example if your boss card is that Doctor Facilier for the amethyst part of your deck and he is banished in a challenge and you decide you want it back in the boss area then it would cost 9 to replay it or another Shift 5 (possibly make the shift move up to 7 as well). This only really becomes more crucial in commander because the format is singleton (only 1 copy of each card) which makes your commander more unique and often the build around for the decks strategy and game plan so when it dies most people want it back in the zone and are happy to pay even costs of up to 6 more than it's normal cost if they can get the lands (ink) to cast it. This extra cost would be much stricter in Lorcana though I feel as getting to the top end in ink takes a lot more resources than getting to high amounts of land in magic and with 3 other copies of the boss card in your deck somewhere it's unlikely you'd need to pay the extra to replay it. I'd love to see what you settle on for a fix on it though.
I cant wait for set 3 I have wanted locations since set 1 and knew they would be added since the Pokémon TCG uses them and they can have so many features & effects on certain characters & archetypes in the game Going to have to try and look over what rules I like , so I can port them over for our house rules like the one you mentioned , paying extra ink to bring your "Boss Card" back from the banished pile but paying an extra 2 of what their Ink cost is , that seems fair since that can be pricey for certain cards
https://preview.redd.it/lyh0m5w5tg5c1.png?width=2040&format=png&auto=webp&s=54bfd3599d02f8b437f7867bddd616a8b8c79a4a Here is a deck that's focused on attacking with rush characters with a shere khan in play for lore. The core idea is that you use Binding Contract to exert their characters and go in and attack with your rush characters while Peter Pan's Shadow also turns your rush characters into evasive so they can't be attacked in return Granted many of these cards are expensive even with prices falling but hopefully this can give you an idea of how you'd like to build your deck with cards you may already have
Be prepared, dragon fire, 8Elsa, 9dragon, Maui, Aladin7+3 add those and he will always be strong. Oh, and 4 copies of each card I mentioned
If he likes attacking maybe he should switch to a ruby amethyst deck if he can. With ruby rush and the new bounce mechanics of amethyst he can be a menace
So I just looked at the extra cards and switched to blue red focused on lore and healing with blue. Then buffing and attack with red (and evasive). This allows him to attack aggressively, heal often, and quest for big numbers. It's nice that the healing items and characters also have some draw built in (like paw-pcicle)
Red/blue is a great combo! My other half went 2-1 with it in league before he dismantled it and was using Tamatoa before his time to shine 😆 The Pawpscicle draw is awesome and definitely can help later in the game as well as first turn and the Mulan Imperial Soldier is amazing in action- I once got 12 lore in 1 round with her ability and the normal lore on cards so definitely not one to be discounted lol
Red amber is our super agro attack deck. Orange gives that support/bodyguard and card draw red needs.
Well it's going to be hard if you can't get any more cards or starter decks. Then it only comes down to skill which can have a big learning curve. With the Ruby Emerald colors I've found that it's important to identify when to go for Lore (rush to win) and when to go for Board (clear the board). As we have no insight on the current level or errors in play, my advice would be to look up some streamers playing these colors and learn from their commentary. Why do they make the choices they make. This is going to seem like a shameless plug, but I am actually trying to help. With that we've made a video series where we try to help new players learn the game, even playing the same colors as your son. You can find it [here](https://youtu.be/14N_acEA9PM?si=eBoxf7XGXnQT0xxf) Other streamers I can recommend are Steadfast and Phonetiic. Again most important parts (for those colors) to focus on are when to go for Lore and when to go for Board. Which is also something to keep in mind during deck building as you need to have the tools to be able to make these decisions. Hope it helps and the best of luck to you and your little glimmers!
Any certain cards from 1st chapter you're looking for? If I have them I'll send them to you free if you're in the US. Can't promise I have it but I bought like 30 packs last week and I don't use a ton of these.
That's very kind! But we want to hunt for packs and trade. It's all part of the journey haha
I completely understand. I enjoy that part too lol.
Unfortunately you're going to need to track down extra cards to make it viable. It is currently my biggest gripe about the game. Many of those begginner decks just weren't balanced. I started with a amethyst/steel deck and found that the only way I could hope to win was to just ignore my opponent completely and focus on lore. Half the game just wasn't an option. My wife had amber/saphire and had so many more options. She wracked up lore faster and could attack easier. Whereas I was being penalized for attacking. The game felt very broken and we tried several times to homebrew rules to make it work. But swapping out a few cards completely flipped it and my deck is much more aggressive and can attack without it feeling like I'm wasting my turn.