Attack of the Vine! Set First Impressions

We’re halfway through the year, so that means a new booster set for the beloved Disney Lorcana card game. Attack of the Vine! is the thirteenth set since the TCG was released three years ago, with pre-release events starting July 17th and the wide release on July 24th. Time flies, and now the game is digging deep into the Pixar library and bringing back dual-color cards in a big way. In addition, the set focuses less on introducing new keywords and more on further supporting some classifications and varying the kinds of shifts or upgrades that characters can do based on the cards I’ve seen so far.

As mentioned in IGN’s Attack of the Vine! exclusive reveals, Pixar continues to be featured in Lorcana, with characters from Monsters, Inc., Turning Red, and Up making their debut in the Disney card game. Alongside these popular Pixar characters is the introduction of the Team classification, which emphasizes the joining of two separate characters into a powerful duo. For instance, we revealed the Sulley & Boo team up showcasing the Combo Shift, and we see that again with the Incredibles siblings Dash & Violet Parr. Combo Shift allows the card to be played on either of the two characters mentioned or both at the same time. The reason why this Shift differs from others is because these team cards have an effect that triggers based on the number of characters under this team’s Combo Shift character. In Dash & Violet’s case, they draw a card for each card under them whenever they quest or challenge. So the number of cards underneath a Combo Shifted character matters, just like Sulley & Boo’s ability. If Sulley & Boo combo-shifted with both characters together, when the team character is banished, the separate Sulley and Boo underneath may return to the field for free. If only one character was underneath either of these Combo Shift team characters, their abilities would be weaker. In most cases, combo shifting onto both characters seems to bring the most value, but you are sacrificing a wider board for one card. Not to mention, many of these new team-ups are dual ink/color, so certain team cards will only run in certain decks. Between the dual ink limitation and narrowed playstyles that come with it, it’ll be interesting to see what players do with the new combo shift team characters in the upcoming meta.

Another classification getting some love is Hunny, which includes characters from the Hundred Acre Wood like Pooh and friends. There have been Winnie the Pooh characters before, but there was only one character with that Hunny classification. Now we’re seeing cards that build around the classification, like Christopher Robin Hunny Sage and the Magical Hunny Staff. Christopher Robin showcases a cool ability that circumvents the deck rule of having only two ink colors in your deck. This means you can have the ruby/red Tigger Hunny Barbarian or even the emerald/green Gopher Hunny Cook in the same deck as Christopher Robin, who is a dual ink of amethyst/purple and sapphire/blue. In addition, the Magical Hunny Staff gives players the option to make any characters gain the Hunny classification. It’s very unlikely that players will have a highly optimized deck of just Hunny characters, so players can play to the strengths of the Hunny deck while adding staple amethyst or sapphire characters for potential added benefits.

Now even though this set is themed around The Vine, a dangerous entity introduced in the Disney Lorcana lore, and the new classification Vineling, it’s mainly the Floodborn classification that gets a boost this set with cards like Scar and Mrs. Incredible, who are created by The Vine. Vineling Scar gives your Floodborn characters a chance to gain extra lore when challenging. Since challenging also puts the same characters in harm’s way, Vineling Scar’s secondary ability of drawing a card every time your Floodborn character is banished on your opponent’s turn becomes a double-edged sword for your opponent. Now your opponent has to weigh the pros and cons of banishing one of your attacking characters because it means committing one of their characters or resources and giving an extra draw versus keeping them alive and trying to get ahead another way. It’s a lot of potential math to do in the moment. As for Vineling Mrs. Incredible, she can make shift costs less for every Floodborn character that quests that turn. So if you’re running Elsa, Peter Pan, or Tinkerbell in your amethyst deck, there’s potential discounts for the 8-cost Elsa Spirit of Winter or even the new team Peter Pan & Tinkerbell Fast Friends. There’s a lot of choices to mess around with these big card drops of certain classifications. It’ll make sealed or draft events feel like constructed, if players are lucky enough.

With the new core constructed rotation dropping as Attack of the Vine! launches, there will be a major shakeup in the meta. The top three decks from the recent Indianapolis Challenge, for example, are already greatly affected with the rotation. It’s hard to imagine any of the older decks being salvaged by something as powerful as the new dual ink team cards. With that said, it is nice to see a change of pace towards newer classifications like Toys or even Supers. Especially considering they’re getting further support with prominent cards like Woody & Buzz Lighteryear Best Buddies and Darkwing Duck & Launchpad St. Canard’s Finest. Speaking of the Darkwing Duck & Launchpad team up, item decks might still give folks a run for their money, having done well so far. Granted, the item decks performing recently have been in ruby/sapphire, but maybe we’ll see a transition to sapphire/steel with the rotation. Another interesting card is The Horned King Merciless Master with the ability to play characters from your discard pile. Any pseudo addition to the hand size is always appreciated, and can be useful like bringing back characters with Bodyguard each turn. It’ll take a lot of testing, so it’ll be exciting to see which decks make top cut in the coming months.

Attack of the Vine! brings a lot of new cards and adjustments for Lorcana players to chew on as we see a major shift in the meta. Even though there aren’t new keywords per se, this new set is a meaty update. Between the dual color team-ups and the major support for classifications like Hunny and Floodborn, it’ll be interesting to see if players try to salvage older tried and true decks or completely rebuild decks around these powerful dual ink cards. The continued addition of Pixar favorites, and new beautiful full art cards will make any Disney fan do a double-take. It’s an exciting time for both competitive players and collectors, and I look forward to seeing how the competitive season shakes out as folks dig deep on their deck brews. For more Disney Lorcana, check out our exclusive reveals for this set and the hands-on impressions of the last set, Wilds Unknown.