Disney Lorcana’s Azurite Sea expansion moves the upstart TCG out of the doldrums

Disney Lorcana, Ravensburger’s upstart trading card game competing against Magic: The Gathering, the Pokémon Trading Card Game, and Star Wars Unlimited among others is out with its sixth set of cards. The journey continues into the Azurite Sea with a solidly built, thematic pair of starter decks, available now for pre-order. Honestly, with so many different fictional universes in the mix it feels like this game is finally picking up steam.

Azurite Sea’s Emerald and Sapphire deck is led by the Rescue Rangers’ Gadget Hackwrench, Brilliant Bosun, and is all about keeping item cards in play. Once you have three on the table, keyword “inventor” character cards come into play for one less ink. And boy howdy does this deck have a whole lot of them, including most of the cast of Big Hero 6; Goofy, Expert Shipwright; and another version of Gadget, subtitled Perceptive Mouse.

Meanwhile, the set’s Amber and Ruby deck contains a far more motley crew led by Tigger, In The Crow’s Nest. Able hands include Fix It Felix, Jr., Jim Hawkins and John Silver from Treasure Planet, the full complement of Peter Pan’s Darling children, plus Moana and Jasmine both.

This deck finally brings the game’s location cards to the forefront thanks to Moana, Kakamora Leader. Her mass travel ability, called Gathering Forces, lets you land a rogueish regiment on distant beaches to score a lore for each sailor set ashore.

The entire collection is tied together well with ship-shape art. After the fairly bare-bones launch, it’s good to see the mechanics all blending together nicely with the theme.

Azurite Sea arrives at local retailers and select Disney parks on Nov. 15 with a wider release to follow.

Disney Lorcana - Azurite Sea starter decks were previewed using a pre-release retail copy provided by Ravensburger. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These do not influence editorial content, though Vox Media may earn commissions for products purchased via affiliate links. You can find additional information about Polygon’s ethics policy here.