Team Lorcana Q&A – 3rd session Answers - Mushu Report

The 3rd Team Lorcana Q&A just completed and we have some additional questions answered!!

Note: All ruling related answers have been updated into the Mushu Report Wiki under Category: Card Rulings, which also provide the direct links to the source for the rulings.

Here are all the questions and answers from the Team Lorcana: Q&A 3rd session answered by Lorcana co-designer Steve Warner and the Global Community Manager Richelle Brady!!!

Card Rulings

If my opponent and I deck out at the same time (say we both have 6 cards left in our deck and one of us plays A Whole New World), how would we know who loses the game?	Active player resolves first, so active player would lose the game in this example.
In case the question gets missed: Please confirm the ruling in the case of Brooms while Mickey Wayward is in play, when Brooms banishes Cheshire Cat or Prince Phillip. Same example for Marshmallow v.s. Phillip/Cheshire. Thank you for holding this Q&A!	Any abilities that say “In a challenge” trigger and resolve while that challenge is still happening.
	So in the case of say Marshmallow and the Cheshire Cat, Marshmallow will banish the Cheshire Cat. Because it did so in a challenge, the Cheshire Cat’s effect will banish Marshmallow. This is still resolving in a challenge.
	So, Marshmallow was banished in a challenge and returns to hand. All this talk of Marshmallow, feels like the temperature just dropped 10 degrees… 🥶
The emerald card “Do it again” says Return an action card from your discard to your hand. Are songs considered action since under their title it reads Action • Song	Yes! Song is a classification of the Action card. Good rule of thumb – All Songs are Actions, but not all Actions are Songs.
Can I challenge and banish my own character with Tinker Bell Giant Fairy since it doesn’t specify “opposing” character for challenging and banishing in order to deal 2 damage to an opposing character?	Steve: You have to Challenge opposing characters. Period.

Gameplay

With current spoilers it seems that steel (tink, removal actions) and ruby (evasive characters) may be a little overpowered compared to the rest of the inks. Are starter decks balanced to prevent a “best starter” situation?	Starters were all tested against each other. They are different play styles, but they should all be similarly powerful.
Will cards in different languages be legal to play outside of those regions?	This is more related to when Organized Play ramps up. We’ll have more announcements and rules regarding that at a later time.
How do you deal with cards like “A whole new world” so they don’t deck you out? Do I need to run an 80+ deck?	Magic Broom 🧹 can help a little there, but something to remember: Since it’s not inkable, it’s very possible that they will have to discard extra ones when they play one of them. But…
	On top of all that, as noted above, they resolve first, so if you have the same number of cards left, they would be the ones to lose….. If all that fails, yes, you could go to an 80 card deck. 😄
Are packs randomized to have cards of every color in them or are they completely random?	We try to make sure that there’s one of every ink color in the common cards, but it is in fact random so we don’t guarantee it.
In your internal testing, what has been the average amount of non-flourish cards in your decks?	We test cards with and without ink a lot, there have been decks that have had lots of cards without the ink symbol, and ones that have run all ink symbols. (feels cold in here, someone mind turning up the heat?)
	Overall it’s up to the player, and their playstyle on what works best. But I’d suggest being very careful with the amount of cards they can’t put into their inkwell. Play a few games, and modify as needed.
In a limited sealed or draft environment , what would deck building restrictions look like ?	Rules for this will come when we’re ready to share.

Others

From a design perspective, are “Ramp” effects going to be something that all inks can do in their own way, or will it be “Color pie allocated” to certain ink strategies instead of others (given that we’ve only seen Sapphire and Amber get is so far)? Thanks for the QnA! 😁

Abilities and mechanics are tied to ink colors, some of those are in 2 or more ink colors. The types of cards that give you extra ink are mostly in Sapphire. Other colors may be able to “ramp” in other ways, but Sapphire is the most direct about it.

MtG has WUBRG, do we have AMERST? Or do you have/use a different abbreviation convention thing?

We do not use an abbreviation in design.

So far, what would you say is your personal favorite keyword/ability?

Steve: I love a lot of them, but I think Bodyguard is one of my favorites for its ability to change up the current board state and evaluations immediately.

Richelle: I wanted to chime in here, Singer is my favorite! I love Song cards.🎶