So, you've played a few games of Disney Lorcana, and you're looking for a deeper understanding of general mechanics to improve your gameplay. That's awesome! In this multi-part series, we'll be going over topics, such as deck-building, tempo, when to quest/challenge/active, and more. Today, we'll kick off one of the most important topics, which is resource management.

What are resources in Lorcana?

At a surface level, your deck consists of cards that can be used to play Disney Lorcana. The first subclass of cards is whether they are inkable or non-inkable. Inkable cards can be used to add resources to the inkwell and are used as a method for casting other cards. A common topic among deck-builders is maintaining a healthy ratio of inkable vs non-inkable cards. If you have too many unthinkable cards, you'll end up in a situation where you are unable to add cards to the inkwell to continue to play more expensive cards.

Cards in Hands

Besides having a deck, cards from the deck are part of the engine to your win condition. Using cards in hand to add to the inkwell and playing cards begins to dwindle this resource. Having a good balance of characters and effects that draw cards keeps this resource healthy throughout the entirety of the game. Deplete your hand, and you've "run out of gas," putting you in a top-deck situation which can make it that much harder to cross the finish line.

Merlin - Rabbit is one of the most impactful cards for Amethyst since it draws you a card when it enters and leaves play, basically making this read +1 hand size the majority of the time. Combining this with bounce effects, which are also common in Amethyst, you'll always have a strong hand size throughout the game.

Ink and the Inkwell

Your inkwell is a common resource in Disney Lorcana. Every turn, you may add to your inkwell, whether it's through the means of putting an inkable card in the inkwell, or using effects to "ramp" your inkwell, you'll constantly be growing this pool of resources to cast characters, actions, items, and locations. This is the basis of our game engine. Because we're drawing one card at minimum a turn, you can see that there's a delicate balance to whether you should be playing cards or using them as resources. Play too many cards, you'll have little to no cards to use for resources. If you've been a bit more conservative on using cards for ink, you might draw cards that are too expensive for your current inkwell to cast.

Non-typical resources

Characters

Characters are one of the most common and flexible resources in the game. They can be used to quest for lore, challenge opposing characters, or "sing" Action - Songs for "free" (more on this below). How you use your characters throughout the match will ultimately be based on your deck archetype. Aggro or Hyper Aggro decks mainly use their characters for questing to 20 lore as fast as possible, putting the opponent in high pressure situations where they need to establish control quickly or risk losing the match. Some characters are better off used as protective resources, whether they're meant for challenging or protecting other weaker characters, thanks to keywords like Bodyguard.

Calhoun - Marine Sergeant is a perfect example of an offensive protective resource since it has the ability to gain lore if there's an opposing character that can be challenged and banished by her. This creates awkward scenarios for opposing hyper aggro decks that need to be constantly questing to close the game quickly, forcing them to reconsider whether or not it's valuable enough to quest.

Pluto - Guard Dog utilizes the Bodyguard keyword to protect other characters. This is a great protective resource to keep other highly impactful characters on the board, whether they have ongoing effects, can sing Action - Songs, or quest more aggressively than Pluto can.

Action - Songs

Disney Lorcana has an Action card type that also includes a subtype called Action - Song. These special types of actions allow you to use characters to "sing" the action which means you can exert the character instead of spending ink in your inkwell to pay the cost of the action. Using your characters instead of ink is what I call a non-typical resource. It's a temporary boost to your resources to capitalize on the benefit of the action being a song type.

Madam Mim - Fox can exert to "sing" Friends on the Other Side, allowing you to essentially play the Action - Song without having to spend any ink in your inkwell. This allows you to use your ink for playing other characters, actions, items, or locations instead.

As you continue to establish a board of characters, you can use them to sing songs instead of using ink in your inkwell to play the actions.

Lore

Yes, Lore is considered a non-typical resource as well. If you're coming from other trading card games, you'll understand that there's a finite amount of resources available to you before your opponent wins the game. Whether it's life totals, from Magic: The Gathering and Yu-Gi-Oh!, or prize cards, from Pokemon, these essentially act as a timer for completing your win condition before your opponent does. As tempting as it is to either quest or challenge with one of your characters, there're times where waiting will pay off in the long run. This is especially true with decks that focus more on the control or tempo archetypes, over let's say aggro for example.

Conclusion

Understanding how resources work in Disney Lorcana is a fundamental learning block of advanced gameplay. Ultimately, the player who tends to maintain their resources in ways that gain value exponentially throughout the game tend to win. Learning which lever to pull when it comes to managing your resources is a skill on its own, and something you'll continue to learn and refine through continuous gameplay.

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