D23 Dreams & LCQ Spirals

With the LCQ right around the corner, the Muses are deep in playtesting, deck decisions, and maybe just a little bit of competitive spiraling. Brittany, Nikki, Lesley, and special guest Chris talk about preparing for a wide-open meta before diving into the HUGE wave of Lorcana news revealed at D23.

From Hyperia City, Figment, collector boosters, and the Season of Villainy to expanded Disney Lorcana Challenges, youth divisions, new qualification paths, and some dangerously good-looking promos, there is a lot to be excited about…and apparently a lot of money to spend.

Plus, we look ahead to Glimmer Days, the LCQ, and our upcoming 100th episode live from Disneyland!

Happy Questing!

Follow us on Social Media:
Instagram/Faceboook/BlueSky - @thelorcanamuses
Twitter/X: @lorcanamusespod
TikTok: @thelorcanamusespodcast


**The Lorcana Muses Podcast uses trademarks and/or copyrights associated with Disney Lorcana TCG, used under Ravensburger’s Community Code Policy (https://cdn.ravensburger.com/lorcana/community-code-en). We are expressly prohibited from charging you to use or access this content. This podcast is not published, endorsed, or specifically approved by Disney or Ravensburger. For more information about Disney Lorcana TCG, visit https://www.disneylorcana.com/en-US/.

Transcript

Copy Transcript Copied

SPEAKER_01 0:09

Hello, and welcome back to another episode of Dun Lorcana Muses. I'm Nikki. I'm Brittany. And I'm Leslie. And we also have a very special guest today, our teammate and Leslie's partner, Chris. Chris, why don't you give a hello? Hello and Chris. Thank you for joining us today. That was awesome. But yeah, yeah, nice to short.

SPEAKER_02 0:34

He gave us a he gave us exactly what we asked. Exactly. So today we're gonna do our Muse's Musings. I'm still gonna get tripped up on that type type name for a while.

SPEAKER_01 0:42

It's a little bit of a tongue twister.

SPEAKER_02 0:44

I do enjoy it, but Muses Musings, and then we have a ton of news that got revealed at D23 this weekend. So this past week, um, we I actually played a decent amount of Lorcana, even with being as busy as I am. So we did Sunday playtesting after we recorded. And then we had uh team playtesting, we did it virtual this week, and then um, which was kind of interesting, I I like in-person play testing better than playing on a computer. And then by by like a large margin. And I ended up not being able to play at recreation this week because I worked until 7:30 on that on Thursday.

SPEAKER_00 1:40

Well, like the in-person versus online thing, I realized because we're so spoiled by things being automated online um playtesting. It I in person I'm realizing I'm missing so many triggers because it's it's just done for you and it like makes it really hard to remember the triggers. And so that's what I've been working on this week in all of the play that playtesting that we've been doing is is going through the triggers and like making sure we remember, you know, the sequence.

SPEAKER_02 2:10

Yeah, I've I've gotten in the habit of asking between the difference because you know, it against the songs decks, they have the Milo and the turnabug. And I want to make sure I'm using the correct trigger as it is bounced off my board, right? Is it bounced back to my hand? Is it bounced into my deck and shuffled? Um, so I always confirm with the player I'm playing with. This goes back to my hand, right? Or this gets shuffled in as a reminder myself and for them on the trigger itself. And then I know because Milo is a mandatory trigger for the draw to ask them, did you get a Milo trigger this turn? That's that's for myself as something I'm taking back because it can be a game warning or a game loss for both players if you miss that trigger on the board.

SPEAKER_05 2:59

Yeah, it's actually it's really interesting that a conditional trigger like that is mandatory because usually those are Mays, like Clarabelle, so that it's not like a game state issue if you miss it, but Milo's not.

SPEAKER_02 3:10

Yeah, exactly. So I feel like that's why people are miss it because all the other previous triggers that were similar to it were May abilities. And then Friday played at League Night, and I lost to the same Emerald Amethyst deck that I lost to earlier in the week. So I might be having a moment against playing Emerald Amethyst.

SPEAKER_00 3:30

I feel like everyone's that's going to the LCQ, at least I've talked to, has spun out a little bit in the last couple weeks because it's getting so close and it's the pressure is mounting.

SPEAKER_05 3:42

Well, it's just yeah, I always even spun out a little bit.

SPEAKER_02 3:45

Yeah, and you're the calmest one out of all of us.

SPEAKER_05 3:50

Yeah, I only spin out at home with Leslie. You guys don't see it.

SPEAKER_00 3:52

Yeah, you know, you see them spin out, but uh he's he has he has been spinning out a little bit.

SPEAKER_02 3:58

My my thing is like I just want to do better than I did last time, and I did pretty well last time, and so that's a really hard, like high bar to set for myself. And so I'm it's definitely all internal pressure, right? Right, 100%. It's like I won four rounds last time, and so it's like, okay, well, I have to win six rounds.

SPEAKER_00 4:19

And so it's like, you know, just well, but I mean our team's been great because it's like, oh, we're we're gonna be there to have fun. Of course, we're gonna do our best. But yeah, a lot of the pressure is internal pressure, which is why I feel like everybody's spinning out just a little bit because everyone wants to do well, obviously. But as Daryl keeps quoting, the 1.56% of the room is only gonna be like that's that's the chance that you have to make it. And so not all of us will be successful, unfortunately.

SPEAKER_02 4:47

Or all of us. We're team muses is all of the 1.56%.

SPEAKER_00 4:51

Or the entire, yeah. I mean, their positive side is Team Muses could just sweep the entire how many people get out?

SPEAKER_05 4:56

32 or something.

SPEAKER_00 4:57

32, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 4:57

Okay, yeah, yeah. There's not even 32 of us going to be.

SPEAKER_02 5:01

Yeah, no, I I have lots of faith in our team, but I also have realistic expectations when it comes to like percentages and things like that. It's still a it's still an internal struggle just because you know you want to always cons consistently be improving and things like that. And it I I remember how much fun it was last year. So I do like have that in my mindset too. I mean, it's been almost a year and a half, right? Since, or it's been longer than that since we were there. And so, like, it was such a fun experience then. And I think that they've only made the DLC level events even better since then. So I'm very excited to see what they're gonna put in place for the event. From what we've seen at D23, like they've definitely like made Lorcana like bigger and better from all of the pictures. And my FOMO has been, you know.

SPEAKER_01 5:48

Right? My phone was going off like crazy, all these D23 events. I was like, I should be there. Yeah. So many really cool announcements.

SPEAKER_02 5:56

Muse this will be at D23 and 2028.

SPEAKER_01 6:01

Let's do it.

SPEAKER_02 6:04

Yeah, so yeah, that that's kind of where I was at. Like, I've been a little bit of a in a spiral when it comes to playing this week because like I thought I had locked in on a deck, and I still feel like it's still probably a good deck choice, like percentage-wise, meta-wise, and all of that, and just my play style. But losing to these decks that I still feel like might not be, you know, large percentages of the room makes that choice feel harder.

SPEAKER_00 6:33

It is, because like the meta is wide open and and there are decks that are clearly coming out, you know, as you know, a larger share of the room. And so we want to practice into those, but it's those rogue one of decks, you know, that you don't really see. It does make you nervous.

SPEAKER_02 6:49

Yeah, like the Mickey Mini deck where they shift on two, and you're just like, well, now they have a five-five a quest for five who shifts on two, and I don't have anything that hits for five until later in the game. Right.

SPEAKER_00 7:01

Yeah. Or like the one Ruby Emerald deck at the CCS that made top 16. And it's like, I haven't seen Ruby Emerald do anything. So it was very shocking to see that happen, which is it's cool for sure, but uh it makes me nervous.

SPEAKER_04 7:18

Like you what version is that?

SPEAKER_00 7:21

I know you want to see the deck list.

SPEAKER_04 7:26

Uh yeah, no, I was like, I don't think we see any deck lists yet.

SPEAKER_00 7:29

Yeah. But having uh the D23 CCQ and the CCS right before the LCQ and nationals is is really interesting because it gives us more insight into the crazy things people are brewing out there.

SPEAKER_02 7:42

Yeah, I uh I am I'm always so impressed by people with deck building. I have decided that like I am better at like tweaking decks than making them from scratch for myself, especially for these higher level competitive events. Like I can make a theme deck, no problem. And I actually can make some decent decks. Like I don't think I'm a terrible deck builder, but when it comes to figuring out consistency and things like that, I just don't have enough time to play test all the card choices. And so like I can make tweaks based on my own playstyle with some meta decks, but I've decided I will let the people that have, you know, way more time on their hands make those decks than I do. I agree.

SPEAKER_05 8:24

Yeah, I mean you have to test like a hundred games or something on a deck to know the consistency really, and we don't have time for that.

SPEAKER_02 8:31

No, we wish we hadn't even allowed.

SPEAKER_05 8:33

We do have jobs.

SPEAKER_02 8:34

Yes, yes. No, I I'm always like, okay, well, I I have a job that I work, you know, at least 50 hours a week. And then that doesn't include, you know, commuting time. And so I'm like, I don't have the time. And then, you know, we're doing, you know, recording a podcast and we're, you know, playtesting with our team too. And I don't consider those the same, it's not the same, right? Playtesting and testing out like specific card choices don't doesn't always lay the same, right? It's the type of playtesting you're doing. Yeah. Um, and so I will give the time to those people that, you know, can game all day long.

SPEAKER_00 9:11

Yeah. Or game while they're well, and honestly, like just have the brain power for it because you know, if I'm sitting there playing a hundred games of Lorcana, I probably don't want to play any more Lorcana after that, let alone like tweak a deck and play some more and tweak it again. And yeah, it's it definitely is a dedicated mindset to be able to do that well.

SPEAKER_02 9:31

I um I I mean, I I feel like my job is relatively mentally taxing. Um because I work in, you know, construction, emergency health, uh, and safety, right? Or environment, health and safety. I c I know what EHS stands for. Yes. And so like a lot of my job is like very uh, you know, reactionary. Um and so when I get off of work, I don't necessarily want to use your brain anymore, turn it off. And so part of it is just like, okay, I just need something a little bit, you know, lower to the ground in terms of I can pick up a deck and play it, but like having to do the deck analysis piece of it is just something I don't have the time for right now. Yeah. And so I've done and I that took a lot for me to walk away from like making decks from scratch for myself, right?

SPEAKER_00 10:26

Yeah, we all want to be like point of pride. Yeah, we all want to be like, we're really good at everything, but that's like not humanly possible. So Yeah, no.

SPEAKER_05 10:35

I I mean I'm not much of a deck builder either. I it is helpful when you are playing like one deck for the whole set. I've been playing pretty much one deck for most of this set so far, so I've changed maybe like six cards in testing from the original list that I grabbed. But yeah, building something from scratch is a lot harder. Like I was trying to make like Amber Steel Circle of Life a thing, despite Logan constantly telling me it can't be a thing. He's kind of right, it turns out it's kind of it's kind of good sometimes, but usually not.

SPEAKER_00 10:59

Yeah, I always talk about how much of a deck builder you are, and like because you just like making new combinations and trying different things and I do love that.

SPEAKER_05 11:08

And usually the deck that I am playing is like some weird rogue deck that got 16th at a tournament, and I make it work because that's fun instead of the first place deck. So people think I built the decks, but I'm like, I didn't build this deck, I changed like six cards.

SPEAKER_00 11:21

Nothing wrong with that. I well, I feel like with how much information there is out there about all the decks that are making it, like it's very hard to come up with a unique, like homebrewed deck. You know, I hear people say that all the time, like, oh yeah, I homebrewed this. And I'm like, no, I've seen versions of that pretty much everywhere. Like it's it's very hard to have a a deck that nobody knows about really anymore.

SPEAKER_05 11:45

Especially a functional one.

SPEAKER_00 11:46

Yeah, especially a functional deck.

SPEAKER_02 11:48

I mean, yeah, you can have a deck that nobody knows about and it doesn't function, but No, I mean, I feel like because we know which decks are decent competitively, like, so that means, you know, the the the card pool is very big, but it gets significantly smaller when you're thinking about how competitive a card is, right? We have lots of lots of cards that we great in theme decks. We have lots of cards that are great because you know, they're just a decent vanilla card. But for the most part, we don't play that many just vanilla cards, so that narrows down the field. And then, you know, you have to pick two ink colors and that narrows down your field, and then, you know, you have to play on curve and that narrows I mean, you don't have to play on curve, but you should play on curve.

SPEAKER_05 12:29

Unless you're like songs or something.

SPEAKER_02 12:31

Yeah. Yeah. And so like it just it it it significantly narrows down your car choices, and so you can't be that original. Yes. If if you if you're making a complete homebrew, uh, I guess you can be more original, but it depends on how basically how big of a pond are you trying to play in, right? Right. We've talked about that before.

SPEAKER_05 12:52

There's always surprises, but it's never like a fully original deck. Like I didn't know until this past weekend that people are putting the Darkwing duck package into every steel deck, apparently. And that's like a change that's pretty recent, but surprised me at the tournament this weekend. So, you know, there are things that you can like take people by surprise with, but it's not the whole deck, you know. The rest of the deck, like I played against the purple steel version, the rest of the deck was still just like Mal Diablo and the normal stuff that you see in Purple Steel.

SPEAKER_02 13:17

Yeah, and I mean in the Emerald Steel decks we've seen on the D23 stream also are running that, you know, dark wing package at the beginning of the steel, which honestly is just it's a good draw engine. That launch pad just draws cards, right? Like drawing cards is good.

SPEAKER_00 13:34

Turns out drawing cards in a card game, good.

SPEAKER_02 13:37

Equals good. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:38

Equals good.

unknown 13:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:39

I was like, and it, and honestly, the the three-drop dark wing duck has really great stat line and the ping damage in steel is always good. But yeah, no, I it's just it's it's interesting because I think people really were leaning into the uh touch the sky build for the Emerald Steel as it was doing well over the last few weeks. But it looks like people are well, I don't know if some of those lists, those Emerald Steel lists, are still on the touch the sky package, but I feel like you had to choose either the Darkwing package or the touch the sky package, just based on space, right? In in a deck. Um for me, I think the Darkwing package would probably be more consistent than the than the Touch the Sky package. But I really like, you know, if you're going to play a combo deck, if it doesn't have other pieces that work outside of that combo that you're relying on that are more consistent, you're just not going to do it as well. As someone who's played plenty of decks that have had some interesting, you know, combos that would work without it, but it's like you can't just in time a Jim Hawkins and a RLS legacy every game to win, right?

SPEAKER_05 14:43

Yeah, but I I think the thing with those combos were better in my opinion, the touch touch paradise, as I've been calling it. Uh because I don't think you ever hold touch paradise in like your opening, unless you also already have like one, two, three Eleanor and Touch Paradise, then you know you just have perfect hand. But like you're not holding touch the sky and paradise falls in your opening hand when you're playing a deck that has to hit one, two, three, hopefully Eleanor on four. So you're just like hoping to draw into it. It's it just feels awkward in that deck to me.

SPEAKER_02 15:11

Yeah, no, I I don't disagree. I've always I really liked the idea of it because locations are always a you know backburner love of mine. But as with every location deck, I feel like that has seen prominence in the last few sets, it just doesn't feel good overall.

SPEAKER_00 15:29

Yeah, like it's not as consistent. Yeah, no, we're still waiting for obstacles. Yeah, yes, yes.

SPEAKER_02 15:36

I love obstacles are part of the the those challenge games, or what what are they called? Yeah, the reign of Jafar. Challenge Jafar and the yeah, I love the the obstacles. Those are it's such a fun mechanic, but I'm wondering if they're just gonna keep it in those.

SPEAKER_05 15:51

Yeah, I mean it's been five sets already since that came out, so yeah, maybe they did they showed some locations that look decent in the few spoilers, which it's no McDuck man or no, they're really scared to give locations a lot of health, even though they've upped the stats of base characters, which makes them very hard to use.

SPEAKER_02 16:09

Which is kind of funny because they've increased the amount of support characters, so I don't even think the higher health locations are no, yeah, they wouldn't do well in this meta for sure. Yeah, no, I was like, there's too many Augustines running around to make those high health locations that much of a worry. Yeah, but D23, holy wow.

SPEAKER_00 16:30

So we had like You guys know I never watch, I never watch these things, so I'm really excited for you to tell me what was revealed at D23.

SPEAKER_02 16:37

Yeah, so so we had basically two days of reveals at D23. Um, the first day we panel, uh, and so we we had some teammates that were there in person, so we were getting pictures like from the inside the at the and then we got some nicer pictures from you know a blog update later. Um but and we watched, I mean, okay, I'm gonna be really honest, I was a very rude player at league on Friday night because I was actively watching the D23 stream while we were playing League, because I could not wait for the spoilers. So I'm actively watching the Twitch stream while playing while playing Lorcana against another player. And she was very nice. Um, but I was thoroughly distracted the whole time because I was watching the stream and I was getting so excited because y'all, when I tell you this game, when I tell you this game.

SPEAKER_01 17:30

In short, you and Daryl are gonna go broke.

SPEAKER_02 17:33

We're gonna go broke. We're gonna go broke. I I'm gonna lose so much money, especially this like this next season is the season of villainy. Such a villain girly, except for when it comes to Beauty and the Beast, and the next collector set, yeah, a curator set is a Beauty and the Beast one. And it's not even just Beauty and the Beast, it's Beauty and the Beast, and it's the stained glass. Yeah, it's beautiful, and the stained glass is my favorite motif when it comes to Beauty and the Beast, which is part of why I love it so much. Um losing my freaking mind. Okay, I was I was telling myself I need six of these boxes. Wow. Oh, wait, no.

SPEAKER_00 18:11

A play set and a sealed and one to display.

SPEAKER_02 18:14

Exactly. I need a play set of all of the cards, and then I need a display box, and then I need one to go in my sealed collection. So that's six boxes. And I know I sound crazy, but this is my it's my favorite, yes, it's my favorite IP. It is gorgeous. I I am beside myself because these cards are amazing. And I have played every single one of those cards except for the Mrs. Pot. Yeah, that didn't get much play. No, I that's the only card out of the set that I hadn't played. I mean, and I probably played her in sealed, sure, but because her stat line is decent. But I I am like, I've played out of all those cards, I've played that Lumiere the most, right?

SPEAKER_00 18:57

Yeah, yeah, the art they did on the Lumiere is so pretty. So pretty.

SPEAKER_02 19:02

And then you have the rose in the background there. I was staring at these cards for over. You were losing your mind at least. It was crazy. Losing it. I was like, oh no. And I'm like, okay, we're driving to Disneyland again to go pick these. I know. Um like we're gonna make it. We're gonna make them October next year, luckily.

SPEAKER_05 19:19

You have time, huh? It's October of next year, luckily. So you have some time.

SPEAKER_02 19:23

Yes, you have some time. We're gonna actually make it a trip instead of an overnight drive forever. And then, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:30

That's uh I as soon as you saw that, you were like, We're going, we're gonna be in line again. We're gonna go to Disney World or whatever Disneyland again.

SPEAKER_01 19:38

We have to properly plan this time.

SPEAKER_02 19:40

Yes, no, it's gonna actually have an actual plan. But if this is a this is a necessity, like I was excited for the princess set. It's really pretty. I like the princess set. Don't get me wrong, I'm gonna lose my mind on this Bell Beauty and the Beast set. Okay. But that what honestly, that that was my favorite part of the whole thing, but there were some awesome reveals in this. Um, we had some really fun card reveals for Hyperia City. Uh we saw the iconic Mickey who has a hot dog, which is it's so funny. It's so funny.

SPEAKER_05 20:14

Glizzy Mickey.

SPEAKER_00 20:15

Yeah, and then he's like Glizzy Mickey.

SPEAKER_05 20:18

That's not what he's called. He's a hot dog.

SPEAKER_01 20:21

Oh glisszy Mickey.

SPEAKER_02 20:29

Yeah, but I mean, the first words that Mickey Mouse ever said were hot dogs. And so hot dog and Mickey Mouse kind of go hand in hand. Hot dog, hot dog, hot diggity dog. Yes. And so that was great. So that's the iconic, and then or the first of the iconics, we don't know what the other one is yet. So we saw the enchanted of the name of the cat is just went out on my head.

SPEAKER_05 20:51

The pizza.

SPEAKER_02 20:52

Oh, pita. Yeah, which is really pretty. Like I just love how vibrant, very colorful. Yeah, because I feel like cocoa and hyperiousity actually really go well together. Yes. Because the world of Cocoa is so vibrant, and so like that that kind of goes hand in hand. But the whole set, I feel like is that the colour.

SPEAKER_00 21:09

Yeah, the cocoa enchanted are really pretty too.

unknown 21:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:14

Yeah. I see the Miguel enchanted, and it's so pretty.

SPEAKER_02 21:18

Yeah. I I think I think the whole set is gonna be really vibrant in colors. I feel like I feel like because we have I think it's gonna remind me a lot of the Shimmering Skies set, like where it's just like very vibrant.

SPEAKER_01 21:30

Yeah, it's a good thing.

SPEAKER_02 21:31

Um at least what from from the small pieces we've seen.

SPEAKER_00 21:35

Yeah. The I love it. I mean, Coco is such a sorry, Coco is so colorful as like a movie, and the art in it is so pretty, and like con like the contrast in the colors are so nice. So yeah, I I also expect the set to be very colorful.

SPEAKER_05 21:51

Yeah. I think people were a little concerned about Hyperia City when they just announced it that like, you know, it's just like a city, and then uh they're having like a a festival or whatever. It doesn't sound as exciting as the other sets, but I think the colors are really standing out immediately. So I think it's gonna be an exciting set.

SPEAKER_01 22:06

Yeah. I think so. Cause the map shows like five distinct locations that, you know, we have to follow, I guess. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:13

No, I like I like the map. I'm I love maps. So that's part of why I really liked, you know, when we had the Azureite C part, right? They were all like maps, map themed. So I will definitely be trying to find that map. I'm s I'm assuming that we'll be able to get that as a print somewhere, right?

SPEAKER_01 22:29

Yeah, maybe.

SPEAKER_02 22:29

Or maybe it might be the the cards. Oh, the cards might make the map. Yeah. So make that an art to go in my walls. Walls are getting full of this Lorcana stuff, y'all. You're not moving into the kitchen. I know. I'm gonna I'm gonna take all my Star Wars art that because I have a Star Wars kitchen, I'm gonna take all my Star Wars art down and put all my Lorcana art up, and I'll move my Star Wars art upstairs. There you go. Yeah, I'm I'm gonna lose that. I'm gonna run out of wall space. But that was pretty cool. I've l so I because I work in construction now, the mini mouse where she's like looking over city plan, she looks like a little construction worker.

SPEAKER_01 23:02

Yeah, yeah, that card is really cute. She's so cute. Yeah. Yeah, and I like the way the the princess cards that they revealed, the Mulan, Bell, and Rapunzel. I just I love how they're kind of like not in their typical like you know gear and it looks almost maybe like industrial, maybe.

SPEAKER_02 23:29

Yeah, I mean I just feel like they all are like like they're they're working princesses. Yes, working, working girls. It's like what what what would their jobs be? It's like Belle would be like she would be some researcher type of job, right? And then Rapunzel would definitely be an artist. And yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:48

Milan.

SPEAKER_02 23:48

Milan's still just kicking butt.

SPEAKER_01 23:50

She's just kicking the light.

SPEAKER_02 23:52

But yeah, she's a war, she's a warrior, but you know, she she she teaches, you know, self-defense classes.

SPEAKER_00 23:58

Yeah. And I mean, there's more other than the cards, there was more news, right? Because they announced all the DLCs that were coming out for this upcoming season. Yeah, so they're on Sunday.

SPEAKER_02 24:12

Yeah, that was on Sunday. So the the they announced all the set, like a lot of the sets that are coming out. So we we have the into the ink dark, which is the Q1 of 2027, and that is the one where Hades is the big bad, and that's when they uh have the uh collector boosters, yes, which are gonna be kind of crazy. Yeah, there's only 23 of each of these illustrus is is the new card type. So there's 23 of each ink color one. So that's a very, very small amount available of these cards that are in these collector sets, along with them having a higher pull rate of, you know, the higher card cards, right? They're all gonna be foil and it'll be a randomized foil cards, but they'll have an increased pull rate of enchanteds and iconics as well. Well, it'll be an increased pull rate, but as well as having the illustrious as the option in those packs.

SPEAKER_05 25:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 25:18

They did not tell us what the price was gonna be.

SPEAKER_05 25:20

Yeah, they didn't announce like of the an official split or anything either. I don't I can't imagine it'll actually randomize like you could get a pack of all enchanteds or something. Maybe, maybe Pokemon does god packs like that. But I mean, like collector boosters and magic, for example, have like a specific number of commons and uncommons, and then they have like six spots that could be mythics or rares or like alternate arts or whatever.

SPEAKER_02 25:41

Yeah. So they did, yeah, they did say that they would be all the foil. So they would all be foils, but past that, they didn't give us any specifics. But a really big thing that was announced is the online play is official now. Now we've all been we saw the job posting, you know, a year ago for the for the online play coordinator. So we know that it is still coming. We have no timeline on that, but we know it's coming. And so, like, that's a really big one. Q2 of next year, we have the cosmic quest space theme. So, you know, love it. And Ariel being the one that's in the space, that she's the one that's introducing the set is really funny to me because the mermaid in space is so funny. That was my thinking too. We had some teammates that were like, that means Zari's coming. Like, that would be awesome. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_05 26:32

Uh and more importantly, it's the Leroy set.

SPEAKER_02 26:35

Yeah, Leroy. That's true, it is, yeah. Yeah. So we're we're having some, we're gonna have some really good times, I think, with the sky. Yes, we'll we'll be we'll be doing a uh space themed party, I'm sure. Like Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:50

We'll go to outer space for our for our set release, get freeze-dried food.

SPEAKER_02 26:55

Nice, yeah. We'll have we'll have some dip and dots.

SPEAKER_01 26:58

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 26:59

I uh I'll I'll hang out at the party, but I don't think uh I'm dedicated enough to eat freeze-dried food. Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_02 27:07

Daryl at one point wanted me to eat MREs um because he like grew up eating them randomly with his grandpa. And I was like, I do not want to eat this. Like, why would you bring this to me? Why would I eat this when I can just eat real food? Right. I'm like, I am not a soldier. I do not need to eat this. So a really interesting thing to me, and we were talking about this a while ago, has they wanted them to introduce like Disney park attractions into the game, but before they've done they're introducing Figment, yes, which is like a Disney-specific character who's who, you know, he's the Disney World Epcot mascot. And so I thought that was interesting because he is the mascot for Festival of the Arts parts. And so I'm interested to see him actually be in the game because that that changes kind of what IPs we thought were gonna be possible. So to me, that's very interesting. Now, Figman, out of all of the, you know, park specific characters, is the most well known.

SPEAKER_01 28:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 28:11

But we have like Duffy, the bear, and we have the ones that are Orange Bird, Orangebird, and things like that. Those are other park characters that aren't as well known, but I'm curious to know if those would also be there. But because this is a figment is being released at Festival of the Arts as the promo card, but it also says set 14. It does. So it's going to be in the set. I'm all I'm wondering, because this is like a city set, right? Are they going to be, is this because it's not quite within the story of Lorcana? Because that's what they've said previously about this set, is that it's kind of not quite in the same timeline as everything else. And so, like, story-wise, what does that mean, right? Like, where are these characters, where are these glimmers from? Is it the same location? Is this within the realm of Lorcana? Is it like an alternate portal? Like, I ask myself those questions about thinking about the story. Um, because as we get deeper and deeper into the sets, like, where are all these connections? Yeah, somewhere outside the vine. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Like, where do we get here? Because, like, if we're thinking about the story of Lorcana, right now we're still in the vine.

SPEAKER_01 29:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 29:18

Right? Yes. But how do we get out of it? And are we actually getting out of it in this set, or is it off timeline and then we're out of it in the next set after that?

SPEAKER_01 29:26

Yeah, maybe it cut ties back into the the ink dark. Yeah. Yeah. Somehow.

SPEAKER_02 29:32

So that that's that's another thought is like as the figment got, I was like, okay, well, is Figment there because the this is actually not a real place. It's another figment of our imagination. Could be, right? Like this is somebody, this is a glimmer's dream within the dream of Lorcana. Like, we're getting real deep in here, right? Yeah, that's an interesting take. I don't know. We we always spin some some some interesting thoughts here. I'm trying I'm trying to like make all this connection for the story as we can.

SPEAKER_00 30:02

You're bringing in your experience as a Swifty to be a detective about Lorcana. This is true. This is true.

SPEAKER_02 30:08

I am finding it.

SPEAKER_00 30:09

Because if any if we learn anything from Taylor Swift, it's that everything is connected.

SPEAKER_02 30:14

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 30:14

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 30:15

Well, and now let me just say, Taylor Swift can be in Lorcana. Yes. She did a song for Toy Story. We heard.

SPEAKER_05 30:24

Yeah, her character from Toy Story could be in there.

SPEAKER_02 30:26

Yes. Well, and then Miley is in. Miley is in here. Yes. Miley's already bolt. Bolt.

SPEAKER_01 30:34

That's true. We can do it. And honestly, I'm wearing a Hillary.

SPEAKER_05 30:38

Expanding what properties are in Lurcana. They announced a bunch of Coco cards, and then they announced Coco for Kingdom Hearts. And I felt like they were so close to putting Kingdom Hearts cards in Lurcana, but we're probably a few D23s away. But I would lose my mind for that.

SPEAKER_00 30:52

Yeah, you have a bunch of people, I think. Everyone's like super excited for the possibility that Kingdom Hearts might be coming to Lurcana eventually. But yeah.

SPEAKER_02 31:03

Yeah, that's actually like a larger IP conversation because technically Disney doesn't own Kingdom Hearts. Yeah. They own the characters, but they don't own the game. And so that is one of those things where Daryl and I, you know, we're looking at the actual legality side of some of these choices. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 31:22

Yeah, there'd have to be deals made and stuff, which maybe they don't want to deal with.

SPEAKER_02 31:27

The fact that they put the Kingdom Hearts and Lorcana on the same banner for D23 definitely made a lot of people very interested to see if that was the connection they were releasing this time. For sure. So another thing they announced was that all Disney Cruise line stuff will have the collection quest, which is kind of fun as just an additional thing to do on the Disney cruises. I know people that did the Disney, the Lorcana at sea things had a great time with it. We had a few friends that gave us some of the or sent us their promos because they didn't really play Lorcana, but they did the collection quest on the on the cruise. So like that's a fun element, I think, to keep increasing, you know, the entry point to Lorcana. Cause it's a really especially the collection quest, I feel like is a really good way to introduce people to a lot of the cards at the same time.

SPEAKER_01 32:16

So we need to have muses on the high seas. Muses on the high seas.

SPEAKER_00 32:20

We have to convince Leslie that that's okay. I know. You guys, I mean, it's like I'll I'll do it. I'll probably do one cruise in my lifetime. But we talked about this before where it's just like it's it's like a floating petri dish that you can't escape. So I'm I'm very nervous about going on a cruise. But we're getting to that age where going on a cruise is the ideal vacation for a lot of people. So yeah, that's true.

SPEAKER_05 32:45

We've been invited on many cruises.

SPEAKER_00 32:46

We have been invited on many cruises.

SPEAKER_02 32:49

Yeah, so that was all that was announced on Friday. And then on yesterday, so Saturday, they announced all of the competitive play. And it is so jam-packed. We have five North American Lorcana challenges announced. We have five European challenges announced, one in Japan, one in Thailand. And then I know that there's going to be a few more in the other regions that will be announced. They're expanding to having local qualifiers, what that exactly means, but it's you're gonna be able to participate in your set champs to win a chance to advance to a local qualifier. And then if you win that local qualifier, you earn a seat at the championship event.

SPEAKER_05 33:33

So which is really that's really exciting for people that like can't afford to travel, right? Like we have people on our team that are really competitive, but they just can't make the time or money to travel. And you can just win a set champ and then qualify for this event and then hopefully win that event and qualify. Like you have a path without extreme travel to qualify for national.

SPEAKER_00 33:52

Without making it a career to travel to competitive events for sure. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 33:58

And then we were just looking.

SPEAKER_00 33:59

I say another exciting thing is well, one, there's more DLCs this year because last year I only having three was pretty disappointing, and one of them being infinity was I don't think they didn't say anything, but I don't think any of these are infinity.

SPEAKER_05 34:09

I think they would have said it if it was.

SPEAKER_00 34:11

Yeah. But they're also increasing the capacity of people who can compete, which is exciting because it just makes it more accessible now that 4,000 people can compete at the DLCs, on top of there being an increase in the number of DLCs.

SPEAKER_02 34:25

Yeah, they they said they really liked the European ones with the increased capacity. So they're increasing the capacity for each of these, which is why uh I think they're gonna be even better. But I we were looking, Daryl and I were like, okay, well, which ones can we actually go to? Vegas. Right. Yes, we can definitely go to Vegas. That one's easy. Can we just drive? Yes. The rest of them we would have to fly to. So we'd have to think about it now. You know, Kimber and Doug live over near Portland. So like that would be a good one to go to and then get to see her. Um, maybe we'll do a Lurcana Muses episode while we're there. And then yeah, we definitely Daryl and I were talking about this with Mikey on the team and his fiance. And we want to do one of the Europe ones. That would be very cool. I know. It's like, see, we're we're constantly saying how we're going broke for this game. It's just because we also want to travel for the game. Like we want we want all we want all the shiny cards and we want to travel for the game, which makes it very expensive. And also, uh, there's not enough time off in the world. No, no, there's not. So that's part of it's pretty funny. The youth division. Yeah, that's exciting too. So they have so they're doing a similar breakdown, like Pokemon, um, where they're gonna have two divisions for the youth. And so it'll be eight to twelve and thirteen to seventeen. And they also they get a different promo and playmat for their divisions and their syndrome this season for the season of villainy. So that would be really fun. Now, season of villainy, y'all. That be prepared card is so cool. All of these, all of these cards, I'm like, okay. Again, I was like Beauty and the Beast, and all these villain cards that are just so over the top and amazing. The art looks fantastic. Like, even just the non-foil promos of these are great. So, but the serialized Hades and that the art increases in his like yeah, his over-the-topness just gets bigger and bigger in each of these cards as you increase the, you know, how high you get with the card is fantastic. I love that. And I love that they changed the golden card to be a villain for the season of villainy. That doesn't mean that those Mickeys are going anywhere, which is great. Because I love that Mickey is just fantastic. But having it be there is hilarious. Now, when I say Daryl and I, we were losing our minds though over these last couple of days. It was just kind of an understatement. Because if anyone knows anything about my husband, is he is a Gaston stan, right? And so the fact that we're getting the Gaston card in the beginning to be set, yeah, but then also Gaston being a promo. Yeah. Is a lot. And it's not just a promo, it's also a pin. You did see the pins. So Daryl has so much gaston. So much Gaston. So much Gaston. We're gonna have so many Gaston things in our house, which I already have so many Bell things, so it's not like a it's not a far stretch. And if you like me, like my team jersey, I have Belle like as the name, and Daryl has Gaston as his name. So like it's one of those things where we're just gonna keep going, we're just gonna keep leaning in. But it's and then and then Ursula is my favorite villain, and she has an amazing uh promo card as well. Um and then be prepared. I'm like, okay, I guess I'm gonna have to play Infinity, or just put it in my coconut deck. Coconuts! Which honestly, nothing had made me even remotely excited for coconut until I could start putting these really pretty promo cards in.

SPEAKER_00 38:05

So yeah, but again, I've no nothing. Like the card art is just yeah, the card art is just getting better and better every set, and it's so like it's like they can't get any prettier, and then they do.

SPEAKER_05 38:18

Yeah, like I hate be prepared, but that card is gorgeous. I want a million of them. I won't play them because I hate that card, but no, I will play them.

SPEAKER_02 38:25

I played them a lot when they were saying when they were in rotation.

SPEAKER_00 38:28

Quite fair. Yeah. I had a moment of panic when when you guys are deciding, like, oh, be prepared. I'm like, did they re- are they reprinting be prepared? That would be so bad. With raging storm in the game, too. Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_01 38:39

I would be playing uh eight board wipes. Yep. Uh eight uninkable board wipes.

SPEAKER_05 38:47

Emerald amber items becomes emerald ruby items because I can board wipe a turn earlier.

SPEAKER_02 38:51

Yeah, that's crazy. Oh man, yeah, no, I this these announcements are just crazy. Like they're so good. Yeah. And the Madame Mim art for one of the one of the cards, like just the amount of cards that were revealed were also awesome. I like that they're reintroducing pins again because pins leaving just felt bad. So having them come back is good again. I I think they listen to people saying, hey, no, we want those back. And so that was something that's good.

SPEAKER_00 39:21

And yeah, instead of the like million stickers that everybody has 10 copies of. I think I still think they might be doing the stickers.

SPEAKER_05 39:30

We're not positive, but the pins are only DLC things, I think.

SPEAKER_02 39:34

No, I I think so. And so, but that's still another reason to try to go to these challenges, right? Because then you can have access to the pins. So, like Daryl and I are like counting, like, okay, if we want this many of this many this promo, we have to go to this many DLC. Oh goodness. And so, like, we already know we want to go to Portland and to Vegas because those are on our like our side with the country. Yes, the West Coast. And then looking at the timing of the other ones, we like we might go to Italy for the European one. So, like, that's just kind of where we're looking right now. But we'll see if we end up being able to go to more of them.

SPEAKER_01 40:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 40:14

But yeah, it's like it's it's like long weekends because now they're three days. So you have to also so then you're basically taking Thursday and Monday off too for traveling. Yep. So like that just makes the trip even longer. And so that increases the cost of travel. So that's something to take in mind. Like the Vegas one will be easy enough because we could drive there, but every other one we'd have to fly. Um, and then that's a different type of accommodation and things like that. So we are fortunate, Daryl and I, like that we have the capability of being able to decide to go to multiple of these, right? Um, but that's just not always something that everyone can do. But we we love DLCs and we think it's a really great way to experience Disney Larcana, especially with their gonna increase capacity. We hope that more people will be able to go out and enjoy themselves. Even if you're not playing at a hyper competitive level, the experience itself is just so different than any other like competitive event, I feel. I like the fact that they're having a youth side too. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 41:13

Yeah, I was saying and having them on both sides of the coast also is helpful because last set there or last season there was only the east coast. Three of them, right? So the already not enough. Um, and then three, all three of them were on the east coast or Midwest, and that was a little bit less accessible to people on the west coast.

SPEAKER_05 41:31

Yeah. This year it's two East Coast, two West Coasts, and one Canada.

SPEAKER_00 41:35

Canada. Yeah, and then West Coast, Canada. I don't know where Toronto's on the I guess. What's Canada? You're gonna make people think you're not intelligent.

SPEAKER_05 41:46

Oh, I'm not. Sorry, it's a disappointment.

SPEAKER_02 41:51

Yeah, no, we're gonna have, yeah, no, the Canada one, so the this is this is my bad. I don't have an active passport right now, and so I say I want to do this international travel, but I have to actually get an active passport to make this work.

SPEAKER_01 42:06

It'd be easy to get.

SPEAKER_02 42:08

Yeah, well, so the thing is, so I know our listeners don't know this, but I've lost a significant amount of weight. Yes. And so, like, my driver's license doesn't look like me. So I have to go get a new driver's license to then get a new passport because my name has also changed since my passport uh expired because I got married. So I have like it's just a bunch of extra steps that is just enough of an annoyance because then I had to take time off to go and do this. And now I have yeah, now I have a reason. I already had a reason, like I want to be able to travel internationally, but now yeah, this this is definitely like increased the timeline of this, but also makes this next few months even more expensive after you know spending a lot of money on this game. Yeah, passports aren't cheap.

SPEAKER_00 42:52

So I'm probably gonna be Especially if you want to get well things, especially if you want to get six of the D23 collector boxes.

SPEAKER_02 43:00

Thankfully, those are next year, right? And so that will help because then I can start building up. But then also if I'm planning on going to six DLCs next year, that's gonna be expensive. So so it's just one of those things, yeah, to trying to find a balance and then figuring out how much overtime I need to work at my new job. Or my new job, but my my at work. At work, right? So grind. And then building up enough PTO. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 43:29

So much overtime. So much overtime.

SPEAKER_02 43:34

But yeah, I we're super excited. We this is episode 98. So we'll have one more episode here, uh recording here in Phoenix, and then we will do our hundredth episode, and we're really we're we're practicing now. So, like sound quality right now, we're recording from my phone. Um, so sound quality, we're gonna be hopefully doing this at the Disneyland Hotel, doing a live episode. We'll put more information out there so we can have, you know, some of our listeners there, possibly do some uh QA uh live from the Disneyland Hotel. We will put more details out on our Instagram when we have that all like nailed down. But just anyone that's going to the LCQ, we would love to see you and meet you. I just ordered new stickers, so please make sure you come and see me and Leslie because we'll be there at the LCQ or anybody from our team. I will make sure everybody that has Larconum uses stickers to pass out. But we are having such a blast doing this podcast, spending time with our community. We're very excited to see the rest of you or a good portion of you at Disneyland here soon. Big shout out to Rebecca for helping organize the Glimmer Days, which is the new name of Quest in the Park. We'll be doing that that Thursday before the LCQ. Um, and I will be there. I just got all the pieces for my cosplay, red closet cosplay. I'm very excited. So I'm not gonna say what it is yet. I'm gonna reveal it on the day. But so I'm doing that. I am, however, planning on dressing up like Mike Wazowski on the Saturday of the weekend. Mike Wazowski. Yes. Well, because Leslie and Chris have like a boo and Sully thing. So we'll take a group picture. Um, but I'm also gonna get my picture because I got the VAP package for the event. So I'm gonna get to do do a picture with Sully there. So I was like, okay, I have to be Mike Wazowski. So I'm gonna do like a cutie my I'm gonna do a cutesy Mike Wazowski cosplay uh for the Saturday where my team uses gear Friday. Yeah. And you know, just Disney.

SPEAKER_05 45:42

We have to cover your face in the picture, right?

SPEAKER_02 45:45

Yes. Yes, when our group picture, yes, you can cover my face. You can't cover my face for them for the Soli picture because I really want to. That would be cute. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. But yes, our our group picture, yes, you could totally just cover my face. That'd be fun. Well, we would love everyone to hopefully be ramping up for their competitive season. Like we have set champs coming up here really soon, starting September 5th. And love you guys. Thank you for listening.

SPEAKER_01 46:15

Thank you for listening. Happy Questing, happy questing, happy questing, happy questing.