More spoilers from Lorcana TCG: Rise Of The Floodborn! In this article we cover the following cards: Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo, Last Stand, Fang Crossbow, Scar, Lady Tremaine, Prince Charming, Prince John, Grand Duke and Li Shang.
Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo
Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo lets you ‘Return chosen character of yours to your hand to play another character with the same cost or less for free.’ This is great in recycling some of your damaged characters back to hand or characters who have on-play abilities. As it is a song, you can potentially sing it with the character you are returning (cost of three or more) to your hand in order to avoid spending any ink from your inkwell.
Similar to Mother Knows Best, the action/song costs three ink to play and is a non-inkable card. Mother Knows Best is a lot more versatile in that you are able to play it on your opponent, returning one of their characters to their hand as well as playing it on yourself, though you cannot play a character from it like BBB.
Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo certainly feeds into the new Merlin characters from the Amethyst Ink which have been announced the past few weeks. Merlins various forms such as Crab, Goat, Squirrel, Rabbit all offer something ‘on-play’ and ‘leaves-play’ so there will be fun to be had with these combos. We will look at all the Sword In The Stone cards more closely in the next spoiler article.
Fang Crossbow
Most of the items in The First Chapter have felt a little meh. Fang Crossbow is a strong, versatile and very useful item card. The three cost inkable card is the first card in the game to come with multiple choice. Firstly ‘Careful Aim’ lets you exert and spend two ink to give chosen character -2 Strength this turn.
Secondly and alternatively ‘Stay Back’ allows you to exert and banish the card to banish chosen Dragon character. The only Dragon character currently in the game from The First Chapter is Maleficent – Monstrous Dragon. This is a big hint suggesting that there will be more dragons to come in the next set. Madam Mim – Purple Dragon for Amethyst has already been announced and we will cover her in more detail along with the other Sword In The Stone cards in the next Spoilers article. We already know that Raya will feature in The Rise Of The Floodborn, so that opens up potential dragons – Sisu, Amber, Jagan, Pranee and Pengu. Mulan also features which hopefully means we will see the Dragon, Mushu.
Grand Duke & Prince Charming
Grand Duke – Advisor to the King from the Amber ink, is a two cost inkable card with a Strength and Willpower of two and a quest value of one lore. His ability ‘YES, YOUR MAJESTY’ allows Your Princess, Prince, Queen and King characters to gain +1 Strength.
There will be plenty of these characters to make use of ‘Yes, Your Majesty’. There are already 42 Prince/Princess/King/Queen characters across all Inks in The First Chapter already, and currently 13 Prince/Princess/King/Queen characters announced from The Rise Of Floodborn (as of the time of this article).
Two Prince characters which have been announced recently are Prince Charming – Heir to the Throne and Prince John – Greediest Of Them All…
Prince Charming – Heir to the Throne does not have any abilities but quests for three lore, and has both a Strength & Willpower of three. He costs four ink to play and is an inkable card. He is the Sapphire mirror of Emeralds Hans – Scheming Prince.
Prince John - Greediest Of Them All
Prince John – Greediest Of Them All is a three cost non-inkable character with the Ward keyword. His ‘I Condemn You’ ability reads ‘Every time your opponent discards at least one card, you can draw that many cards.’
The most effective use of this ability is playing A Whole New World. You could end up with a rather large hand. Not only will you be drawing seven cards from playing A Whole New World, you will also be drawing cards in which your opponent has discarded.
Other cards from The First Chapter that work with his ability are Flynn Rider – Charming Rogue and Sudden Chill from the Emerald Ink and You Have Forgotten Me from Amber.
Last Stand
Last Stand from Amber is a two cost non-inkable Action card and is perfect for banishing a big opposing character or one that you can’t take out in one go. Simply challenge them with one of your cheap characters (Gramma Tala – Storyteller would be a good choice if paired with Sapphire) and then play this card to ‘Banish chosen character who was challenged this turn.’
Alternatively a nice little combo is to challenge an opposing character (making sure your own doesn’t get banished in the process), playing Last Stand to finish your opponent off and then playing Rapunzel – Gifted With Healing to heal the damage received to yourself while drawing cards to replenish your hand.
Lady Tremaine - Overbearing Matriach
Following the likes of Aladdin – Street Rat, Rapunzel – Letting Down Her Hair and Aladdin – Heroic Outlaw, Ruby continues to control your opponents lore with Lady Tremaine – Overbearing Matriach. She costs two ink to play so you could potentially play her early on however you will want to wait until your opponent is ahead on lore to make use of her ability ‘NOT FOR YOU’. This may be a slight hindrance as it will slow you down but is a common approach in a control deck.
The non-inkable character has a Strength and Willpower value of two and a quest value of one lore.
Li Shang - Archery Instructor
A slow winded way of gaining Evasive, you will have to think a few steps ahead when playing Li Shang – Archery Instructor. Only benefitting from his ability when he quests, it won’t be until your next turn after you have played him (as he won’t have dried) that you can make use of his ‘Archery Lesson’ ‘Whenever this character quests, Your characters gain Evasive this turn.’ But Steel is not known for its Evasive options. Two similar characters are Donald Duck – Musketeer (though he only gives the Evasive keyword to other musketeers) and Simba – Returned King (Only giving himself Evasive). ‘Archery Lesson’ opens up the chance to spread the keyword across your board giving you more options for taking out your opponent’s Evasive characters.
While he is not Evasive himself, he hits for three and has a Willpower of five and can quest for two lore.
Scar - Vicious Cheater
Scar – Vicious Cheater is a seven cost non-inkable Legendary character from the Ruby Ink. He certainly is a Vicious Cheater as his Rush keyword will allow you to sneak in a challenge before your opponent is able to try anything.
‘Daddy Isn’t Here To Save You’ reads ‘Whenever this character banishes another character in a challenge, you may ready this character. This character can’t quest for the rest of this turn.’ His Willpower of five will allow you to pick off a couple of smaller prey with no trouble although with a Strength of six, he is certainly capable of taking out some bigger characters too.
An alternative option perhaps to the existing Scar – Shameless Firebrand depending on your playstyle though cannot shift onto Scar – Fiery Usurper or even Scar – Mastermind for that matter.
Unlike Beast – Relentless from Emerald, this character is reigned in with the fact he can’t quest for the rest of this turn making him a fairer option to play against.
