Beginner's Guide to Item Cards

The Fairy Godmother’s Wand.

Winnie the Pooh’s Pot of Honey.

Even a Dinglehopper!

These items, and so many more, are just as recognizable as the characters we know and love. Players and collectors love to see not just versions of their favorite Items, but also new and exciting objects in Disney Lorcana Trading Card Game. Players can use Item glimmers in everything from theme decks based on their favorite Disney film to tournament-winning meta decks.

Items are one of the four types of cards you’ll find in the game, the other three being Characters, Actions, and Locations. You could fill a grotto with all of the items that have been introduced to the realm of Lorcana ever since the inaugural card set, The First Chapter. 

Items are glimmers just like Characters and Locations. They have a cost, and you’ll need to exert your ink to pay that cost to play an Item from your hand. When an Item is played, it will remain on the board until it is banished. There’s no limit to the number of Items you can have in play at one time and, in fact, sometimes it will work in your favor to have many Items in play.

How is an Item banished? Some Items require you to banish them on your turn in order to activate an effect. Other times, an Item can be used again and again until an opponent is able to banish it!

Some items have a static effect, like Maleficent’s Staff, which means the Item’s ability always applies and there’s no additional cost or action you need to take. Some items, like Lantern or Merlin’s Carpet Bag, require you to exert the Item or exert and pay additional Ink to use the Item’s ability. Just like Characters, once an Item is exerted, it will stay exerted until the beginning phase of your next turn. This means most Items can only be used once per turn.

However, unlike Characters, Items do not have to dry in order to be used. This means, if an Item requires you to exert it for an effect, you may immediately use the Item on the turn it is played. This can be very powerful, which is why some Items actually enter play exerted, such as Hidden Trap.

With so many fun Items in the game, let’s take a trip through all six inks as I highlight a few fun cards you may want to add to your Disney Lorcana TCG deck…

It's hard to pick a few Items to highlight, but when it comes to flavor, there’s a particular Amber Item which, in my opinion, has the best flavor of any card in the game: The Glass Slipper. Not only are you limited to only two in your deck (because, of course!), but the ability to use a Prince Character to search for a Princess glimmer is just *chef’s kiss*.

Another Princess-related Item is Queen’s Sensor Core from Shimmering Skies, which can help you find Queen and Princess glimmers from your deck. With so many Princesses and Queens in the game, there is a lot of synergy with this Item.

The Mystical Inkcaster is a new Item in Winterspell, which has a really fun effect. Pair this Item with a Character such as Iago – Reappearing Parrot, who will return to your hand if banished in a Challenge, and you’ll have some fun shenanigans.

Who doesn’t love to draw cards? And with Junior Woodchuck Guidebook, you can draw two! What’s especially great about this Item from Whispers in the Well is you can split up the cost across turns by playing it with two ink on one turn and then banish it later in the game by paying one additional ink. This allows you to really maximize your resources during gameplay.

For low-to-the-ground decks that play a lot of low-cost Characters each turn, the Enigmatic Inkcaster, also from Whispers in the Well, is a great addition to gain additional lore. 

The new Item Snow Fort is the kind of Item that forces your opponent to do more math, and perhaps make some poor decisions. Additional Strength paired with Resist on your opponents’ turn makes for a lot of fun interactions and can be very effective to get you a win.

Illumineers who are playing Characters with Boost may want to take a closer look at Lonely Grave. You can only pay to Boost a character once each turn, but with Lonely Grave, you could Boost an additional time on your turn with this Item’s ability.

Vitalisphere is a fun Item and one your opponent will need to watch out for. It only costs one Ink to play, then, at the opportune time, you can pay one additional ink and banish it to give a character Rush and +2 Strength! While this Item from Ursula’s Return is out of rotation, it can be played in Infinity decks.

I love a good theme deck, and with Microbots, you can build a fantastic theme deck with Yokai and more from inspired by Disney’s Big Hero 6. The most fun part, you can have any number of Microbots in your deck!

We can’t talk about Items in Disney Lorcana without talking about one of the most Legendary Items - Lucky Dime. Combo this Item with Tomatoa – So Shiny! and a slew of items to swing the game in your favor. While this Item has been rotated out, you can still play this item in Infinity format!

While Ingenious Device is not inkable, it’s effects are surprisingly fun! You’ll get to filter through your deck, which is always a good thing, plus do some damage. Fun and flavorful. I think Vincenzo Santorini would be proud. 

Another wonderful Item for flavor, pair The Thunderquack with Darkwing Duck – Cool Under Pressure for some incredible synergy and gaining lore.

As you can see, there are so many incredible Items in the Disney Lorcana TCG. Although you may be more concerned with how to banish opposing Items than playing them yourself. Lucky for you, there are many cards in the game which can help you banish items. From characters like Wasabi – Methodical Engineer, to the He Who Steals and Runs Away Action cards, to the song card I Find ‘Em, I Flatten ‘Em, there are plenty of options to help you out.

From Microbots to Mystical Inkcasters, there’s an Item to help most any strategy. With plenty of Items to choose from, I hope you’ll find one or two (or maybe twenty) to include in your next Disney Lorcana deck!