Deckbuilding – A Winter Boost!

Brrrrrrrr... I mean, Mwuhahahahar!

Good day, Illumineers! Winter has fallen upon the realm of Lorcana, bringing snowball fights, holiday cheer, underdogs, ghosts, and mysterious (now frozen) vines!

Winterspell is a beautiful set which provides a plethora of new colorful cards such as Angel – Siren Singer, Tod – Knows All the Tricks, and Pocahontas – Peacekeeper.

Competitive decks have gained interesting new tools to freshen up the meta, and cards like Raging Storm could help to shine a spotlight on lesser-seen ink combinations.

I’ve always had a fondness for creating decks for social play built around a particular theme. During Whispers in the Well, I brought you three villain-focused builds. Well, the recent weather has found me snowed in in my lair, so I thought this would be a good time to bring you some more fun decks for social gatherings, focusing on a specific theme while still attempting to make them as competitive as they can be!

These two decks will focus on the Boost mechanic first introduced in Whispers in the Well and continued in Winterspell. Boost always specifies a number in its card text, which refers to the amount of ink a player needs to spend to activate it. Once you have paid the cost, you take the top card of your deck and place it face down underneath that card. We currently have both characters and locations with the Boost ability!

There are also cards that don’t have the Boost ability themselves, but synergize well with cards that do, by placing the top card of your deck underneath your other cards, which can satisfy the condition of their triggered abilities!

Cards like Cheshire Cat – Inexplicable and Flynn Ryder – Spectral Scoundrel have performed well in competitive decks under the bright lights of Disney Lorcana Challenge, but today I want to highlight some of the latest cards which help to maximize the potential of this archetype, along with a certain king in the making from Winterspell who may be able to thrive with a little help from his friends from the set.

Now I may be a villain, but even I could not deny the charm of Disney’s Mickey’s Christmas Carol. This film was a holiday staple for me growing up, and I had a wonderful time revisiting this classic tale in time for the franchise's debut in Winterspell. Many of its cards work well with the Boost mechanic, so these were an obvious must for one of my theme decks.

Several ink combinations allowed me to showcase the desired theme, but I’ve opted for Emerald/Sapphire—this will help us spotlight Mickey’s Christmas Carol while offering other powerful Boost related combos to win the game!

Let’s start with the themed cards, which will support our overall strategy. The new Scrooge McDuck – Reformed Ebenezer is a Floodborn glimmer who may place the top card of your deck under each of your other characters and give them Ward until the end of the turn. We aren't playing a shift target for him in this list, instead being satisfied by playing him later at full cost. But you are of course welcome to include the new 3-cost Scrooge McDuck – Miserly Ebenezer if you want to lean more into the theming.   

Minnie Mouse – Mrs. Cratchit will also allow us to help trigger Boost abilities when played, while having Ward herself and questing for two lore. Donald Duck – Fred Honeywell also supports our characters by allowing Boost triggers to place an additional card from the top of the deck underneath them, and offering card draw if those cards are banished during opponents’ turns!

Next up are two characters that feature the new Ghost classification! Ghosts join Winterspell as cards that feature the Boost mechanic. Goofy – Ghost of Jacob Marley has two lore and when banished will force the opponent to discard a card for every card under him. Pete – Ghost of Christmas Future will allow you to look at cards from the top of your deck equal to the number of cards under him and add one of those cards to your hand, every time he quests. With 5 Strength, 5 Willpower, and the ability to provide card draw to an ink type that has traditionally lacked it, this Pete glimmer looks set to make a big impact even in competitive decks, so we are more than happy to benefit from him too!

Now, for the payoff, we are featuring two Whispers that will serve as our main win condition! Representing the villains, Tamatoa – Seeker of Shine can Boost for a cost of 2 and will gain one lore every time you put a card under any of your characters or locations. If you can keep the Seeker of Shine on the board long enough for his ink to dry, the hope is to follow up by placing as many cards as possible under all your glimmers and then quest with him for a lot of lore! If you have a wide board of other characters and play Reformed Ebenezer, Tamatoa will gain lore for each card that was placed under another, making for a very powerful combo.

Our next star card comes from Whispers in the Well. Little John – Impermanent Outlaw can Boost for a cost of 3 and will ready whenever you put a card under him, without the common caveat of not being allowed to quest again that turn. With three lore, this can be a terrifying ability which gives our Impermanent Outlaw the potential to close games rapidly if you can maximise the number of cards you place under him in a turn. Further supporting our strategy, we have Emily Quackfaster – Level-Headed Librarian, who is a 2-cost character who, on play, puts the top card under one of your characters with Boost. Also, Roo – Little Helper is an adorable new glimmer from Winterspell who costs one to play, and when dry can exert to place himself underneath one of your other cards with Boost, which is just amazing theming. These two lower-cost characters can help in our strategy of maximising our Little John and Tamatoa Whispers, who can only use their own Boost ability once per turn. Roo predominantly synergises with Little John, allowing him an additional quest, as opposed to Tamatoa, for whom he can provide an extra lore, but alternatively could just quest himself.

Rounding out our deck with some more meta-related cards to add consistency, we are utilizing Sapphire’s 2-cost Tipo – Growing Son, Sail the Azurite Sea, and One Jump Ahead to ramp up our ink and play high-cost cards sooner. Note, I have not included Cinderella – Dream Come True, instead opting to play Kida – Creative Thinker or another supportive 4-cost glimmer on turn three, before curving into a 5-cost character like Pete – Ghost Of Christmas Future, or shift into Clarabelle – Light On Her Hooves, who is here to be the primary draw engine for our deck.

This is a game plan that will require some setup, and while we are playing two copies of Spooky Sight to help against aggro decks, really, we want to be facing off against other slower control strategies. I always try to make these theme decks easily customisable, so feel free to add some more cards from Mickey’s Christmas Carol, like Jiminy Cricket – Ghost of Christmas Past, or remove some in favour of emphasising our win condition with cheaper support cards like Blessed Bagpipes.

I hope you have fun summoning spooky Ghosts and questing with Whispers for an equally scary amount of lore!

4 Scrooge McDuck – Reformed Ebenezer

4 Pete – Ghost of Christmas Future

3 Roo – Little Helper

3 Minnie Mouse – Mrs. Cratchit

1 Goofy – Ghost of Jacob Marley

2 Donald Duck – Fred Honeywell

4 Little John – Impermanent Outlaw

4 Sail The Azurite Sea

4 Tipo – Growing Son

3 Emily Quackfaster – Level-Headed Librarian

3 Bobby Zimuruski – Spray Cheese Kid

4 Clarabelle – Light on Her Hooves

4 Clarabelle – Clumsy Guest

4 You're Welcome

2 Spooky Sight

1 One Jump Ahead

4 Kida – Creative Thinker

3 Tamatoa – Seeker of Shine

3 Donald Duck – Perfect Gentleman

I want to start this decklist breakdown by stating that it is nearly entirely borrowed by a Disney Lorcana player who goes by the name “Humble” on the Ravensburger Play Hub. While I actively attempted to change some cards just to make it more my own, I ultimately decided I was just making it worse. This build already does a great job at spotlighting new cards from Winterspell, getting a lot out of Boost characters, and being a legitimately viable archetype for competitive play.

Simba – King in the Making is a 7-cost Whisper introduced with Boost 3 and the ability Timely Alliance which triggers whenever you put a card under him and allows you to reveal the top card of your deck, and play it exerted for free if it’s a character card. This effect is reminiscent of Mufasa – Betrayed Leader, an Amber card no longer legal for core constructed play which had a loyal following of players constantly looking to maximise the potential of this card. Two of these players, who go by the names “Wahnderful” and “Humble,” are among those in the community looking to represent the Betrayed Leader by sleeving up Simba – King in the Making to see if he can follow in his father’s paw prints.

A new card that fits nicely into this archetype is Reuben – Sandwich Maker, a 2-cost glimmer who can exert to remove up to two damage counters from a chosen character of yours. You then pay one ink less this turn for the next character you play, for each damage counter removed this way. This card fills a similar role to pre-rotation tools like Gaston – Despicable Dealer, which helped to curve into higher cost characters faster. The damage needed requires some setup, which is why we are playing Mulan – Injured Soldier, who can be played on turn one, curve into Reuben, enabling a 5-cost character as soon as turn three! Play Stitch – Carefree Snowboarder to provide card draw, or The Headless Horseman – Terror of Sleepy Hollow for fast removal!

Another new card assisting our deck with cost reduction is Grandmother Willow – Ancient Advisor, who lowers the cost of the next character you play by one, once per turn. One of the issues holding back Simba – King in the Making is his high cost of 7, Reuben and Grandmother Willow – Ancient Advisor help alleviate this cost so that we can utilize his ability sooner.

Another new Whisper we can feature in this decklist is Bambi – Ethereal Fawn who can Boost for a cost of 2. His ability Come See allows you to reveal cards from the top of your deck equal to those under him and add all character cards revealed this way to your hand. Card draw can be hard to come by within this ink combination, so Bambi’s potential to add multiple cards to your hand can be invaluable, especially since this ability will trigger every time Bambi exerts in any way.

Joining Bambi in the 4-cost slot are more new characters from Winterspell, Slushy – Glacial Gluster with the Evasive keyword and a beefy 5-5 stat line. And Sarabi – Protecting the Tribe, who can lower the strength of opposing characters, leading to more favourable challenges and synergising with our Terror of Sleepy Hollow.

If we are playing characters off the top of the deck for free with King in the making, we want to maximize that potential with some high cost high impact characters, so we are sleeving up Stitch – Carefree Surfer, who will also provide card draw, and Maleficent – Monstrous Dragon to rain Dragon Fire down upon the winter-covered realm of Lorcana. Finally, the one card I added from the original list created by “Humble” is the new Wreck-It Ralph – Raging Wrecker, who can do so for a cost of 1 and gains 1 Strength for every card under him. When banished, the Who’s Comin’ With Me ability will trigger and banish all characters in play with Strength equal or less to that of Raging Wrecker when he was in play. This can be a risky effect, but a lot of our higher-end characters have Strength greater than Ralph’s without any buffs.

This style of deck really wants to be playing majority characters, but with Amber ink comes The Horseman Strikes!, which is always tough to pass up. Lastly, Ohana Means Family seems to be one of the strongest new cards gained by this ink, with huge card draw potential.

This deck is playing fewer characters with Boost than the former, but I think it maximises one of the most fun and powerful Boost abilities we have so far, and since it is well supported by a lot of new cards from Winterspell, I thought it would make for a great theme deck to feature here!

4 Simba – King in the Making

4 Bambi – Ethereal Fawn

4 Grandmother Willow – Ancient Advisor

4 Stitch – Carefree Snowboarder

4 Sarabi – Protecting the Pride

4 Reuben – Sandwich Expert

3 Ohana Means Family

4 Rajah – Devoted Protector

3 Mowgli – Man Cub

4 Stitch – Carefree Surfer

3 The Horseman Strikes!

4 Mulan – Injured Soldier

4 The Headless Horseman – Terror of Sleepy Hollow

4 Maleficent – Monstrous Dragon

2 Copper – On the Scent

2 Fa Zhou – Honorable Warrior

2 Slushy – Glacial Guster

1 Wreck-it Ralph – Raging Wrecker


That’s all from me this time round, Illumineers! With each new set comes the potential for new competitive strategies and fun fan expression through creative deckbuilding.

I hope you’re all enjoying trying out new cards and strategies that speak to you as a fan. It’s getting far too cold for me, so I think I'll get my henchman glimmer, Fidget, to make a nice fire and get settled in for the winter. Perhaps I'll see you in Wilds Unknown, until then as always, be prepared.