If you’ve been put off getting into Disney Lorcana due to its complexity, Ravensburger is releasing the product for you this August. Gateway is new beginner-focused way to gradually learn the game. Each one will come with two decks and a number of prize cards, allowing you to progress through tutorials for the game until your decks become fully viable precons for regular play.
Launching alongside the fifth set this August, Ravensburger explains that Gateway will include “everything two players need to play right out the box”, including two 30-card decks, a game board to explain the various zones cards can sit in, and even character standees to help visualise how questing and challenging work.
The really interesting bit, though, is that it will come with “additional cards” that are given as rewards for completing stages of learning how to play the game. As you progress through it, these cards will be added to introduce new mechanics and concepts, making the decks more complex until, by the end, it’s become a legal, regular deck you can take to your shop and play with.
Though Lorcana is markedly simpler than competing TCGs like Magic: The Gathering and Yu-Gi-Oh!, there are still several things that a new player can be tripped up on. Questing, challenging, using songs, and even Into the Inklands’ new locations all need teaching, and a step-by-step playable guide seems like a great way to do it.
One thing we don’t know is whether Gateway will include exclusive cards not seen in the sets, or whether it will just include reprints. If it’s the latter, this could be a great way to get some of the more highly sought-after cards out into the wild, even if the potential of brand-new cards is also exciting. If other TCGs are anything to go by, this will likely be a reprint-focused product, but have a few cards worth grabbing from it nestled in there somewhere.
The inclusion of standees is an absolute genius move, as well. Certain other games include standees as accessories, like the gift boxes for the Digimon card game, but putting them in a starter product is a great way to help people unfamiliar with TCGs see how a turn is going. Play a Flounder, put a Flounder standee down, and you’ve immediately communicated something to a new player that can seem like a complete non-issue for those already invested in the game.
Disney Lorcana TCG Gateway will cost $24.99 when it launches on August 9, alongside the game’s fifth set. At the same time as the Gateway announcement, Lorcana confirmed the release dates for all of its currently-announced 2024 releases, including the upcoming Into the Inklands and three unnamed sets due across the year.
