Disney Lorcana’s newest set Attack of the Vine might be the most impactful set we’ve seen since The First Chapter, thanks to its introduction of multiple new mechanics and powerful new cards. With new team cards featuring iconic Disney duos and a host of new Shift mechanics, Attack of the Vine is incredibly splashy and loud, with multiple cards that either act as the anchors for existing deck archetypes or create brand new decks that should be incredibly fun to play with. This is one Disney Lorcana set that’s definitely worth jumping into with two feet.
Disney Lorcana has long taken a slow and steady approach to molding its metagame, with sets introducing new mechanics one at a time that are then iterated on over multiple subsequent sets. We’ve never had a truly splashy set that has rapidly redefined the metagame, save for Fabled, which was released right after Lorcana’s first-ever rotation.
Fabled was notable in that it selectively brought back some (but not all) meta-relevant cards, but it didn’t offer anything in terms of new mechanics. Attack of the Vine, on the other hand, features at least five new mechanics. Five of these mechanics are variants of the game’s crucial Shift mechanic, which offers players a way to quickly bring powerful cards into play. The fifth is a game-bending rule that allows players to finally build a deck without the two ink color limitations that has long defined deckbuilding.
Several of the new Shift mechanics are tied to new Team cards. These cards feature duos like Mickey and Minnie, Woody and Buzz Lightyear, or Belle and the Beast. Team cards have a few commonalities to them. All but one of the Team cards are Dual-Ink cards, meaning they can only be used in decks that comprise of both ink colors. All of the Team cards are also Rare or rarer cards, which typically denote that they are among the more powerful cards in the set. All of the cards also have the Shift mechanic, meaning that players can play it on top of another character card for a lesser Ink cost.
Typically, players can only use a card with Shift with another character card of the same name. However, most of the Team cards in Attack of the Vine use a new variant of the Shift mechanic that allows players to shift on either character named on the card. This in essence means that players have twice the shift targets than they would with usual decks. Team cards also have a lot of incredibly potent effects. Peter Pan & Tinkerbell turn all characters into Evasive characters.
Belle & Beast readies all cards in the inkwell whenever it quests and it can spend 6 ink to ready all of a player’s other characters, although they can’t quest a second time. Woody & Buzz Lightyear allows a player to draw cards until they have an equal hand size to their opponent and allows a player to play cheap Ink cost characters for free whenever it quests. Most of these cards are so potent, players will want to build a deck around them and there’s plenty of options to choose from.
Several Team cards feature unique Shift mechanics. Two cards feature Combo Shift cards, cards that can be shifted onto either one or two cards. While it might seem antithetical to use two cards to Shift instead of one, both Boo & Sulley and Dash Parr & Violet Parr have mechanics that directly correlate to the number of cards underneath them, meaning they grow more powerful if players sacrifice multiple cards to bring them into play.
There’s also a single card that features the Duo Shift mechanic. Mickey Mouse & Minnie Mouse can be shifted into play for free, but only if a player has both Mickey and Minnie in play. Considering that Mickey & Minnie gain a whopping five lore whenever it quests, there’s incentive to create decks filled with low cost Mickeys and Minnies just to get this powerful card into play.
Characters from Turning Red also debut in Attack of the Vine and several come with their own unique Shift mechanic. The Red Panda cards in this set come with a Temporary Shift mechanic that allows them to be put temporarily into play. When a card Temporarily Shifts, it enters into play on a player’s turn but leaves play at the end of that player’s turn. The key is that Temporary Shift cards leave behind their shift target and removes all damage from play. This is a great card for aggro decks, as players can shift in a powerful Red Panda card (one of which has stats of 10/10), wreck their opponents, and then pop out of play until the next turn.
Also introduced is a novel new Item Shift card, which allows players to shift a card onto a worthless Potato item card. This is more a novel mechanic, for now, but I’m curious to see whether Disney Lorcana iterates on this concept in later sets, especially with the introduction of a new magical vine within the vine that creates its own Floodborn characters.
Vinelings are another new card type in Attack of the Vine. These are Floodborn cards created by the magical vine at the center of this set. Although there’s no unifying mechanic between all of the Vineling cards, they generally have abilities that either enhance other Floodborn cards or activate when a Floodborn card quests or enters play. As many of Lorcana’s best cards are Floodborn cards, my guess is that Vineling cards will see play as cards that provide minor buffs to cards.
Outside of the flurry of new Shift mechanics and Vineling cards is a potent card that fundamentally changes deckbuilding in Disney Lorcana. Christopher Robin – Hunny Mage allows a player to include Hunny characters of any color in their deck. There’s at least one Hunny card in each Ink color, meaning that for the first time, players can build a deck using all six colors. The new Hunny deck is capped off with a new Winnie the Pooh & Piglet card that gains 1 lore for every Hunny card of a different Ink type in play, meaning that it potentially can gain up to 6 Ink per turn.
Attack of the Vine represents a fundamental shift for Disney Lorcana, perhaps the biggest we’ve ever seen in the three year history of the game. There are multiple new mechanics and new card types and almost all of them have the potential to make an impact. While existing deck archetypes remain meta-relevant, I can’t think of a time when a set has made this much of a major impact, literally changing how the game is played in one fell swoop. While I doubt that sets like Attack of the Vine will become commonplace for the usually stalwart Disney Lorcana, I love that its designers made such a big splash for at least one set.