Disney Lorcana’s Hyperia City introduces a new mechanic that changes everything. Over the past four years, Disney Lorcana has grown at a steady pace, focusing on little mechanical tweaks that make an outsized impact. Hyperia City makes one of the biggest mechanical swings yet, introducing a mechanic that will be familiar to most Magic: The Gathering players. In addition to the new mechanic, Hyperia City also introduces characters from Coco into the new game, along with returns to movies like Turning Red and Big Hero 6, and TV shows like Gargoyles and Tale Spin. Overall, the new set is an impressive endcap to 2026 and offers up a host of new possibilities for Disney Lorcana’s future.
The big new mechanic in this set are Ink Drops, which act mechanically similar to Treasure tokens in Magic: The Gathering. Ink Drops are special tokens that can be spent to generate 1 extra Ink, thus allowing players to get more powerful cards out earlier in the game or play an extra card in later rounds. Numerous cards in the new Hyperia City set generate Ink Drops, with some cards having extra interactions based on whether an Ink Drop was spent to play that card. The good news is that all six ink colors have various ways to generate ink drops, although Amethyst, Emerald, and Sapphire have the most ways to generate Ink.
Ink drops are a powerful tool that opens up Disney Lorcana in a lot of different ways. Previously, Lorcana matches played out over a steady cadence, with players gradually playing more powerful cards as they filled their Inkwell with Ink. With Ink Drops, there’s now a way to break up that cadence, with players able to get more powerful cards into play much earlier thanks to one-time spends. Ink Drops also offer up another choice to players every round. Do players choose to spend Ink Drops every round to speed up their deck deployment? Or do they hoard Ink Drops to overwhelm an opponent in later rounds of the game? There’s multiple viable strategies that comes with Ink Drop deployment and I’m excited to see how play develops around this new mechanic.
Ink Drops also feel a bit more significant than other mechanics introduced during past sets. Mechanics like Sing Together (which allow players to exert multiple characters in order to sing a song) or Dual Ink cards (cards that have multiple Ink types) were subtle additions that made limited impacts to the overall game. It’s not that these mechanics didn’t change Disney Lorcana. But their impact has been somewhat blunted as they only appear on a very small cross-section of cards per set. But Ink Drops are referenced on over 50 cards in Hyperia City and it seems unlikely that such a massive mechanic won’t also be featured in future sets in some way. Ink Drops are too versatile and has too much mechanical potential to only be featured in one set. It wouldn’t surprise me to see the rest of this Disney Lorcana cycle feature Ink Drops in some fashion.
A new two-player Starter Set also heavily features Ink Drops, which further hints at the mechanic’s overall importance to the game. Technically Terrific and Madcap Whimsy offer up two new starter decks for players to try to introduce them to the game. Technically Terrific is an item-focused Emerald/Sapphire deck.
Its signature cards include a Baymax – Amped Up card that can be shifted by spending two Ink Drops, making it much cheaper to Shift than a typical 7-Cost Shift card and a Don Karnage – Debonair Pirate card that damages all opposing characters when played and reduces the lore of opposing characters by one. The rest of the deck is highly dependent on item play, especially to generate Ink Drops. Unfortunately, this deck suffers from the same problems as many other Starter decks do – it struggles with card draw, which limits its overall effectiveness.
On the flip side, Madcap Whimsy is the rare Starter Deck to feature a significant card draw component, thus allowing players to better cycle through their deck. The deck also emphasizes Ink Drops, with several location cards that automatically generate ink drops or allow players to draw a card. This deck emphasizes card draw and location usage, with plenty of options every turn besides drawing the top card and hoping for the best. To be honest, Madcap Whimsy is one of the better Starter Decks released by Disney Lorcana, if only because it has multiple card draw options.
Some of the major cards in the set include a sprinkling of cards across franchises. The two Iconic cards of the set are Mickey Mouse – Best in Town and Cinderella – Unintentional Icon. Mickey Mouse is a 1-cost Amber card with 4 Willpower and 2 Lore, making it a must-have early card for Amber decks. It’s also a valuable Ink Drop generator in the early game, although it generates Ink Drops for every player, which could accelerate opponents’ plans as well. Cinderella is an ink accelerator, with players able to use her to add an additional ink from their deck at the end of every turn. Neither card is strong enough to be a signature card for a meta-relevant deck, but both are versatile enough that they should be in consideration for deck lists in the future.
Another extremely powerful card is Belle – Exceptional Writer. Belle is an example of a card that benefits from Ink Drops without actually mentioning Ink Drops on her card. Her main ability, Hyperia City Tips, allows players to play their next action for 2 less Ink. This couples well with her other ability Hyperia City Secrets, which rewards players for playing three actions in a single turn by giving them 3 extra lore. Of course, players will need card draw to get enough actions in their hand to play three on a single turn and sufficient Ink to play all three actions in a turn. With enough Ink Drops, players should be able to stockpile enough Ink to fully unleash this card, granting them an extra way to gain lore late in the game.
Hyperia City is one of the most exciting Lorcana sets released in quite some time. While it’s not particularly flashy in terms of hot cards or new rarities, it introduces a potent new mechanic that should make a big impact for years to come. Given how crucial Treasure Tokens have become for Magic: The Gathering, I expect a similar impact for Ink Drops. Expect Hyperia City to mark the start of a brand new era of Disney Lorcana, one that greatly influences how the game is played.
Hyperia City will pre-release on October 16 with a wider release on October 23, and you can find out more information here.