How to Prepare for Your First Lorcana Tournament
How do you prepare for a Lorcana tournament?
Whether this is your first Lorcana tournament or you’re getting back to it after a while, this guide will help give you the info you need to prepare and succeed at your first Lorcana tournament.
After reading this guide you will know:
What to expect from a Lorcana tournament.
Where to go for the latest meta information
How tournament points work
*Updated April 29, 2024
How long is a Lorcana tournament?
How long a tournament is depends on the level at which you are playing. Smaller, local tournaments could just take a few hours, whereas bigger, regional tournaments (called Challenges) will take days. Regardless, plan to spend ample time at the tournament, including a lot of down time in between rounds. While it would be nice if everything ran 100% smoothly all the time, the reality is things like judge calls, disputes, and technical errors tend to always occur without fail.
How long to wait is too long?
While it’s normal for things to come up and for rounds to take a little longer scheduled, your time is valuable and you shouldn’t put up with extensive delays. If a tournament is, for example, two hours late (it happens), you should probably ask for your money back and find somewhere else to play in the future. I only say this because disorganization is all too common in the TCG world. But just because it happens doesn’t mean you should have to put up with it.
What should you bring to a Lorcana tournament?
The list of what you need to bring to a Lorcana tournament isn’t terribly extensive, but there are certainly a few items that are a must have. These include the following:
Your Lorcana deck
This one may seem like a no-brainer, but assuming you are going to a constructed tournament, you will need your pre-constructed deck that fits all of the current Lorcana deck building rules.
Card Sleeves
Technically, card sleeves are not a requirement to play as in you won’t get kicked out of a tournament for not having them. But playing without card sleeves isn’t very wise for a number of reasons, chief among them the fact that your cards will be pretty banged up after many rounds of play.
In regards to what card sleeves you should get, you can see what we recommend via our TCG card sleeves guide.
Dice/damage counters
It is your responsibility as a Lorcana player to bring your own damage counters. You don’t need a lot – six should be good but you can bring extra if you feel like you need them. You can store them in any way you feel like. I tend to keep them in an easy to reach pocket of my bag or in a spare deck case. The best damage counters right now for Lorcana are the ones you can get in the Into the Inklands trove.
Lore counter
Of course, counting Lore is fundamental to Disney Lorcana, and you will need an easy and reliable method for counting it. Many players prefer to use the official Lorcana Lore counter app. However, I actually prefer the Lore counter dials found in the Illumineer’s Troves from Into the Inklands onwards. This separates me from my phone which is good mentally, removes possible distractions, and also keeps your phone from getting its battery drained during the many hours of competition.
Playmat
Again, playmats are not necessary for entry into a tournament and not having one won’t get you kicked out or disqualified. However, almost everyone who competes regularly uses a playmat, and having one will certainly help you fit into the crowd. Beyond this, it helps preserve the life of your cards sleeves and makes it much easier to handle cards. If you are looking for a good playmat, I would recommend any of the ones available from Ravensburger directly (although most you find online will do, as well).
A digital watch
I use an Apple Watch in my day-to-day life, but it’s better to use a basic digital watch without internet connectivity at official tournaments. This way people can’t accuse you of cheating and it also eliminates distractions.
Water
You’ll get thirst so do yourself a favor and bring water.
A backpack or bag to carry it all in
You don’t want to be running around fumbling with all of your stuff while you are moving between tables and battling your way to victory. You definitely need something convenient to carry all of your stuff in. I use a basic backpack that I had in high school as my dedicated TCG bag. It doesn’t need to be fancy. It just needs to be convenient.
Deck list
Last but not least, many tournaments require you to submit your deck list. This is often done either online or in person at the event. While these tournaments will have pen and paper for you to write your deck list down, it’s much more convenient to have your deck list printed out ahead of time. You can easily do this via places like Dreamborn.ink. Just make sure to triple check your deck matches the one on your list before you get to the event!
Prepping for the big event
Now that you know the basics of what you need to bring to your first Lorcana tournament, let’s talk about how you can make sure you are prepared. I’m not talking about making sure that you are going to win – that takes a lot of experience and is something you can think about once you’ve gotten a few under your belt. However, everyone who attends a competitive level card game tournament should want to at least play and compete well.
This you can certainly do without any previous experience!
Here’s how you do it.
Practice with your cards
As most people who play a lot of card games will tell you, playing online and in person is very different. While playing online is by far the best way to get a lot of experience testing the mechanics of your game, nothing beats in-person, in-card play. There’s a lot of pressure during timed rounds when you are facing off against an experienced trading card player and you will need to be prepared for it. That means knowing how to handle your cards, shuffle your deck quickly, deal with the cards in your Ink well etc.
At the very minimum, you should be attending your weekly league leading up to the tournament, and it’s even better to get plenty of practice with friends leading up to the event as well.
Again, the point for your first Lorcana tournament isn’t to win or dominate – but you will have a lot more fun if you feel like you are playing your best, and part of playing your best includes being well practiced before you get there.
Set your own goals
Hyper competitive players will often be disappointed with anything other than a top finish at a tournament. However, that doesn’t need to be your goal. Just because a tournament offers a rare card (like Enchanted Stitch – Rock Star) to the winner doesn’t mean that everyone else is a loser. Your own goal for the event could be as simple as just winning one round, or maybe finishing in the top eight. It’s important that you set your own goals and know what success means to you apart from flat out winning an event. It’s very, very hard to win a Lorcana tournament and getting a top finish is certainly its own victory to be proud of.
Understand the meta
It’s impossible to fully predict exactly what you will be facing at your next event in terms of decks, but it doesn’t hurt to have a solid understanding of the Lorcana meta (or most frequently played decks) heading into the event. The thing is, the meta changes quite frequently. To help you out, we have a comprehensive guide to the Lorcana meta that includes all of the best and most popular decks in the game. Make sure to check this guide frequently so you know what you are up against before you face down the competition. We keep it up-to-date so you don’t need to worry about surprises sneaking up on you.
Know the rules
Before heading to your Lorcana Set Championship or Challenge, make sure you know the rules. The Lorcana comprehensive rules can be found via this link, and more info on general competitive play in Lorcana can be found here.
What to do during the event
Lastly, talking about handling the event is important. While most of the work should be done before you get there in the form of practicing and studying and preparing, the actual game play has its own set of challenges. You may deal with a bad hand, a bad play, or even a toxic player. What matters in card games more than the game itself is how you handle this adversity.
Players frequently call judges on other players looking for a handout, especially when losing, and many players won’t be good sports, or may even ridicule your deck choices especially when you lose.
The important thing, however, is to keep your head about you, don’t let bad draws or toxic players get to you, and keep playing at least until you are no longer able to make the top cut (at which point many players drop and there’s no shame in that).
Losing a match does not necessarily mean you are the worse player, and luck is inherent to the game. Don’t doubt your strategy or the deck you have worked hard on just because you lose a few battles at one tournament. Instead, look for ways to improve and be open to change.
Handling a victory and defeat with grace
Just because Lorcana has some of our favorite characters on it from childhood doesn’t mean tournaments aren’t competitive. They are. So the same rules that apply to any competition apply to competing at Lorcana tournaments, especially in regards to sportsmanship. You should seek to be a good winner when you win, and a good loser when you lose. Being a good winner means not rubbing it in the face of your opponent, not giving your opponent unsolicited advice about what they could have done better, and so on.
At the same time, losing at a competitive level can be hard. It means you won’t necessarily get that Cinderella – Stouthearted alternate art or the gold Mickey – Brave Little Tailor. But that doesn’t mean you should act poorly in defeat. Refrain from agonizing over what you could have done differently to win, and never point out that it was luck that caused your opponent to win.
Instead, something I like to always do in defeat is to point out something positive about my opponent’s gameplay. This doesn’t have to be over-the-top, but it usually helps keep me from getting focused on that one bad call I made.
Understand how tournament points work
Last but not least, the points system in competitive Lorcana tournaments is quite complex and can be very difficult to understand for newcomers. To help you out, I’ve put together a guide on how to navigate the top cut and stay informed to secure your spot at the top.
Do all of these things and you should be well on your way to an enjoyable and successful first Lorcana tournament!
