An Ever-Shifting Game

Hello again, Illumineers! My name is Lukas Litzsinger and I was the lead game designer on Attack of the Vine!

I’m here today to talk about one of my favorite mechanisms in Disney Lorcana: Shift! Shifting a character is one of the most exciting moments that can happen during a game, and we wanted to explore different ways to shift characters in the set with new shift variants and a returning favorite.

Teams and Shift

We call cards of the same character that can be shifted onto “shift bases.” In many cases, the power of a shift is related to the number and cost of its shift bases. Having more shift bases to choose from allows you to shift more reliably and go into more decks;, we’re bringing back an idea we haven’t done since Chip ‘n’ Dale – Recovery Rangers in Azurite Sea.

Introducing Team Shifts

Team Shifts are cards that have the name of two characters. For the purposes of play, including shifting, this card can be played on top of any card named Belle or any card named Beast. And of course, when you shift, you can immediately exert the character if its base was already dry. Which means Belle & Beast can immediately refund all of the ink you used to play them! Team Shift is the most common form of shift you’ll find in Attack of the Vine!, and we had a lot of fun selecting a bunch of beloved (and two of them are literally Iconic!) characters to team up with each other.

Duo Shift

In addition to Team Shift, we also have a special variant for our Mickey & Minnie card in the set: Duo Shift. In this shift variant, you have to shift the card on top of a character named Mickey AND a character named Minnie. So you are replacing two of your cards with this one. That’s a lot to ask, but if you are able to do it, the reward is huge! The shift cost is 0 {I} and you get a character that can quest for 5 lore! In addition, if the character would be banished, it, alongside all of the cards underneath it, goes to your inkwell!

Combo Shift

Combo shift is a combination of Team Shift and Duo Shift: you can shift onto one character that shares a name, like Team Shift, or you could shift on both of them, like Duo Shift. It gives you the ultimate flexibility! There are two cards with Combo Shift in the set, and here’s one of them:

Sulley & Boo, when banished, allow you to play their shift bases again. One of the downsides of shifting is that you give up a card by putting another one on top of it, and this ability completely negates that downside. Also, if any of the cards underneath had any “on play” abilities, they will resolve again since cards underneath other cards are considered out of play. And it even sets you up for another combo shift! Wowza.

Temporary Shift

Attack of the Vine! marks the introduction of glimmer characters from Turning Red. In the film, certain characters can turn into red pandas . . . temporarily. We knew that just putting regular ol’ Shift on these cards wouldn’t feel right, so we came up with another shift variant specifically for them: Temporary Shift.

Meilin Lee – Popular Red Panda can shift onto other cards with the same name, however, at the end of the turn, she will remove all damage from herself (to avoid any going back on her shift base!) and return to hand. Because the Shift is, by nature, more temporary, the shift cost is even cheaper than the typical 2 {I} discount for this card.

Shift Bases

In addition to shift variants, we have several cards that are ideal to shift on top of, and get better when you do. One of my favorites is Belle – Always Reading, who gives you a discount when shifting on top of her. Especially powerful with the Team Shift we saw earlier!

These are just some of the shift variants and bases you’ll see in the set, but there is still much more to explore. Including this lumpy-looking potato. . .