Disney Lorcana‘s new Attack of the Vine set is its most cohesive yet, with clever new card types and characters allowing for fresh combinations and more powerful decks, all while telling a neat, Lorcana-exclusive story in the Disney canon.
For those intrigued by DIsney Lorcana, it does appear to be a good starting point. There’s an array of options for new, flavourful decks defined by single or duo characters. For returning players, there’s plenty of cool new mechanics to vibe with and inspiration for revamped decks with new, more targeted strategies, particularly around Shift mechanics.
Disney Lorcana: Attack of the Vine review – quick links
What’s new in Disney Lorcana: Attack of the Vine
Disney Lorcana: Attack of the Vine is a major set, even without constructed decks. It charts a new chapter in Lorcana lore, pulling together threads that have been teased over the last few sets.
Here, the characters of Disney face one of their biggest threats yet, as the mysterious Vine infiltrates the Lorcana universe. This creature is a being of thorny sprouts and ‘blooming terror’ with the ability to corrupt Glimmers – ghostly versions of Disney characters – and turn them into Vinelings.
Vineling is a new character type here, with synergies between them and the Floodborn (those changed by the magical in-universe Flood). They’re essentially plant versions of Disney heroes and villains, with their will determined by the Vine. Their ultimate goal is to replicate and strengthen their allies, so they’ll all bounce off each other based on their Floodborn buffs.
Vinelings add a nice bit of horror to this set, as well as revealing core stakes in the overarching plot. Any character can seemingly become a Vineling – heroes and villains alike – and there’s a real kid-friendly creepiness in their green glowing eyes and vine-covered designs.
Cleverly, having Disney characters be the subject of the Vine’s will makes their appearance all the more exciting. You’re not dealing with non-canon and lore-light characters here – you’re dealing with a corrupted Gaston, or an Aladdin led astray.
Should you be corralling a deck with Attack of the Vine cards, the Vinelings are populous and fun, and feel ready-made for any Floodborn-focussed decks.
Another new character type is Hunny, with denizens of the Hundred Acre Wood (from Winnie the Pooh) having this designation. Around a new core version of Winnie the Pooh as the Hunny Wizard – Winnie the Pooh – Honey Archmage, or Winnie the Pooh & Piglet – Hunny Mages – you can build new decks focussed on boosting Winnie and his pals. They all get new designs here, complete with magical robes and explorer gear. Owl even gets a fun new outfit that makes him resemble Pokémon’s Decidueye.
The appearance of Winnie the Pooh & Piglet together on a card brings me to the next best thing about Disney Lorcana: Attack of the Vine.
New Disney Lorcana duo cards allow for fun Shift team-up decks
One of the new features of Attack of the Vine is the arrival of duo cards feature two synergistic heroes working together. Cards of this type include:
- Winnie the Pooh & Piglet – Hunny Mages
- Woody & Buzz Lightyear – Best Buddies
- Darkwing Duck & Launchpad – St. Canard’s Finest
- The Madrigal Family – Every Generation
- Mickey Mouse & Minnie Mouse – Adventuring Duo
Each of these cards have very powerful core abilities – but what’s most novel about them is they can be played as a Shift card to transform from either or any character listed.
Take The Madrigal Family team-up card. You can pay three ink to Shift any of the Madrigal heroes into this particular card. When you do, once during your turn, you can remove one or more damage from one of your characters and put the top card of your deck into your inkwell facedown and exerted, speeding your progress.
Of these new duo cards, the most powerful (and likely to be most coveted) appears to be Mickey Mouse & Minnie Mouse – Adventuring Duo. This card can be played for seven ink, or it can be Shifted for zero ink as long as it can be played on top of two characters – one Mickey, one Minnie. Once played, if it gets banished (and a smart player will want to remove it immediately), it gets put into your inkwell facedown and exerted instead.
As a whopping main benefit, and the reason why the card will be targeted by opponents, Mickey Mouse & Minnie Mouse – Adventuring Duo gives you five lore gain every time it quests. So far, the only other card in Disney Lorcana to give you an equal amount of lore is Mirabel Madrigal – Family Gatherer, and she’s held back by a requirement to have five or more other characters in play.
If you’re thinking cleverly, Mickey Mouse & Minnie Mouse – Adventuring Duo could earn you lore much faster, particularly if you stack your deck with lower-cost Minnie and Mickey cards.
More generally, the new team-up cards are great for synergistic decks built from the ground up. All are dual colour and feature the flagship heroes of major franchises, so you can build a strategy around them and their Shift mechanics.
Picking Mickey & Minnie, you’ll have a lovely classic Disney deck, with plenty of individual Mickeys and Minnies to buff each other (like Sweetheart Princess / Brave Little Prince and Enthusiastic Dancer / Dazzling Dancer).
The Darkwing Duck & Launchpad card is great to create a more fully-featured Darkwing Duck deck, including many of the cards introduced in Winterspell and Wilds Unknown.
The Woody & Buzz Lightyear card is great to rally your Toy characters around, with cards from Wilds Unknown being boosted by this arrival. Toys have their own set of fun synergies, and Attack of the Vine introduces a bunch of new cards to ensure you can have a decent Toy Story deck.
The best of the rest in Attack of the Vine
Beyond all of this juicy new synergy for more powerful deck building and better ramp, Disney Lorcana: Attack of the Vine also has other secrets up its sleeve.
This set introduces three new franchises to the action – Monsters Inc., Turning Red and Up – and they’re mostly well integrated as the threat of the Vine grows.
The biggest and most impactful arrival is the crew of Monsters, Inc. via cards for Mike, Sully, Celia, Boo, Roz, and Randall, all of which are actively fighting the Vine. Each new Monsters, Inc. card actually features the Vines in the background, infiltrating their story even as they perform their familiar roles.
The folks of Up also get a good showing, with Russell and Carl getting a team-up card, and their adventures through the jungle being haunted by the Vine in the distance.
Turning Red is slightly worse off for being a bit siloed in the plot. The Vine is haunting some of protagonist Meilin Lee’s cards, but the majority are actually focussed on her and her young friends attending the 4*Town boy band concert. So while it’s nice to see Lee included, her role her is relatively off to the side, and her Red Panda / Storyborn type is not particularly synergistic with other cards.
Regardless of this lower-key inclusion, Disney Lorcana: Attack of the Vine feels overarchingly cohesive by design. There’s ample new mechanics and card types to serve most of the new arrivals, and those team-up cards feel particularly game-changing as Lorcana enters its next era.
I’d expect much of the discourse around deck match-ups will be defined by this powerful new set going forward, requiring some tinkering for those looking to stay competitive in structured gameplay formats.
Disney Lorcana: Attack of the Vine booster packs and a portfolio were provided for the purposes of this review.
