Disney Lorcana Challenge Indianapolis Recap

Nearly 2,000 Illumineers gathered at the Indiana Convention Center for the chance to claim the title of Champion and stamp their ticket all the way to the Disney Lorcana Challenge World Championship. Piloting a Ruby/Sapphire deck all the way through 12 rounds of Swiss and the single elimination bracket, Bryan Pereira was crowned the champion in a four-game final match!

The Main Challenge Event is the central focus of Disney Lorcana Challenge, and we’ll have more on the event below, but surrounding the tournament was plenty excitement for players to celebrate everything they love about Disney Lorcana. From folks who were attending their first Challenge to those who have attended every event, it was a wonderful time for the community to come together.

As usual, Disney Lorcana Challenge Indianapolis included many side events. From Pack Rush to Draft, Sealed and Core Constructed, there was something for everyone! I spoke with one Illumineer who spent time with her kids playing On-Demand events. They especially loved the Sealed Draft. Another player who was enjoying Pack Rush ended up pulling three (yes, three!) Enchanted glimmers while playing! And yet another player told me about the excitement he felt ending the Sunday Core Constructed event with a 6-1 record. He said even though he didn’t make day two of the main event, he proved to himself that he could do Day 2 at a future Disney Lorcana Challenge.

Three fantastic artists were at the event, Koni, Ian MacDonald, and Oggy Christiansson, who were busy meeting Illumineers. Players could also meet and play Pack Rush with Disney Lorcana Developers on site.

One of my favorite parts of the Disney Lorcana Challenge events is seeing all the community members who come dressed up as their favorite glimmers. This event had more people dressed in Disney Lorcana-inspired outfits than usual and they seemed to be leveled up, or should I say, Shifted! 

On to the Main Event, there was lots of competition happening at the top tables. But before we dive into the meta and decks, I also talked to multiple players who were thrilled to have earned their first Mulan – Charging Ahead promo card at this event! Any player who won three rounds in the main event would earn this promo card and it’s a great first goal for those just getting into competitive play. Congratulations to all the players out there who earned this promo!

Now to bring us more about the Challenge, I’d like to hand it over to Ed Chiu!

Disney Lorcana Challenge Indianapolis Kickoff!

On June 20 and 21, over 1,700 Illumineers came to Indianapolis, Indiana to fight for the coveted Disney Lorcana Challenge trophy and secure their spot to the World Championship! We had a Disney Lorcana Challenge in Dortmund following the same Set 12 Infinity format where Amethyst Emerald defeated Amber Steel in the grand finals so it would be interesting to see the adaptations and evolutions that Illumineers had for this tournament.

Here is the meta breakdown for Day 1 and Day 2:

There are 3 clear decks at the top of the meta and a couple decks trailing behind them. Amber/Emerald Dogs have been dominating tournaments in both Infinity and Core tournaments alike so it is no surprise it is the most represented deck here with 21.2%.  Amber/Steel Songs and the emerging Discard variant have always been popular ever since the inception of Cinderella – Ballroom Sensation and Let the Storm Rage On being able to efficiently deal with character based decks and that takes the second spot with 19.4%. Ruby/Sapphire Actions and Items follows with Actions being able to ramp to Be Prepared to take control of the board and Items being able to play Oswald – Lucky Rabbit and Maurice’s Workshop to generate tons of card advantage placing both archetypes in the third spot with 19.1%. There is a steep drop off after this with Amethyst/Sapphire at 9.6%. I suspect that this deck’s significant disadvantage to Ruby decks playing Be Prepared and Dogs being able to overwhelm them caused many Illumineers to not play this deck in large numbers.

Amethyst/Emerald, the winner of the grand finals in DLC Dortmund, only took 9.0% of the meta. I suspect the reason may be is that many of the decks included answers to Diablo – Devoted Herald so he just doesn’t run away with the game as he used to. In a similar vein, Emerald/Steel comprised 5.9% of the meta. Amethyst/Ruby also took 5.9% of the meta and has been struggling as they haven’t found the footing to beat the top 3 decks of the format.

Looking at the Day 2 conversions, Amber/Emerald was hit 33.2% of the field! They by and far had the best conversion of any deck this weekend and proved once again they are the most dominant deck of the format. Behind that, Ruby/Sapphire also increased their representation to 25.4% with a solid showing into Day 2. There was a significant drop off for Amber/Steel where they were almost a fifth of the competition in Day 1 and only hit 13.8% of Day 2. Amethyst/Emerald converted similarly, up to 10.3% and Amethyst/Sapphire had a slight dip to 7.3%.

Bryan Pereira wins with Ruby/Sapphire Actions!

Main Deck:

2 A Pirate's Life

4 Be Prepared

4 Develop Your Brain

2 Firefly Swarm

2 Gramma Tala - Keeper of Ancient Stories

1 Hide Away

4 How Far I'll Go

4 Liquidator - Iced Over

3 Maleficent - Monstrous Dragon

4 Maui - Half-Shark

2 Maui - Hero to All

1 Merlin's Carpetbag

4 Olaf - Snowman of Action

4 Pawpsicle

4 Sail the Azurite Sea

1 Sisu - Empowered Sibling

1 Spooky Sight

4 Tamatoa - Happy as a Clam

4 Tipo - Growing Son

4 Vision of the Future

1 Vitalisphere

Bryan Pereira triumphs over 1,700 Illumineers to be the Disney Lorcana Challenge Indianapolis champion! Ruby/Sapphire has always been a popular deck as the Sapphire cards were the most efficient in getting large amounts ink quickly while gaining card advantage and Ruby cards had the best unconditional removal in the game with Be Prepared. There are however some new cards that have modernized this archetype. “Liquidator - Iced Over” has been pivotal on the draw against Amber/Emerald Dogs and other aggressive strategies to slow them down. Speaking of cards that slow down your opponent, Olaf – Snowman of Action also plays a key role in making sure your opponent doesn’t reach 20 lore before you get to develop your cards. He also provides a crucial body in the mid game that can sing the aforementioned Be Prepared and allow you to take the initiative even after banishing all characters on the board. Firefly Swarm also synergizes very nicely with the classic Pawpsicle to easily fulfill its 2 cards going to the discard condition to banish any character your opponent has. A singleton copy of Spooky Sight and Sisu – Empowered Sibling was extremely impactful as additional copies of Be Prepared in order to clear your opponent’s smaller characters. Overall, the deck is constructed in a way to have a good matchup spread into most decks in the format with the multitude of polarizing cards and that paid huge dividends in his win!

Amber/Emerald Dogs dominate the Top 32!

12 of the 32 slots were occupied by Amber/Emerald Dogs. 2 of my good friends Dave Solberg and Shane Downey piloted identical lists to a top 8 finish:

Main Deck:

4 Aurora - Holding Court

4 Bobby Zimuruski - Spray Cheese Kid

4 Elinor - Renowned Diplomat

4 Grandmother Willow - Ancient Advisor

4 Kida - Atlantean

4 Kida - Protector of Atlantis

4 Lady - Decisive Dog

2 Lady - Miss Park Avenue

4 Lilo - Escape Artist

4 Nani - Stage Manager

2 Rapunzel - Gifted with Healing

4 The Queen - Devious Disguise

4 Tramp - Enterprising Dog

4 Tramp - Street-Smart Dog

4 Under the Sea

4 Ursula - Deceiver

Elinor – Renowned Diplomat has recently taken the Disney Lorcana competitive scene by storm. Her ability to draw a card, gain a lore, and deal 1 damage has completely changed the way that the deck is played. Characters with 1 willpower have become susceptible to being removed by her so cards like Oswald – The Lucky Rabbit, Sisu – Daring Visitor, and the 1 cost support characters with 1 Willpower have all decreased in popularity. The Queen – Devious Disguise also makes her way into the deck as another draw engine that has synergy with Aurora – Holding Court being able to reduce her cost. Historically, there weren’t a lot of easy ways to develop Singer 8 on board without playing a bunch of characters but now, any of these 2 of these 4 cost characters would do the job. The final piece of the puzzle is the inclusion of Kida – Protector of Atlantis to reduce the Strength of your opponent’s characters to be under the 2 Strength threshold of Under the Sea. The common play pattern that make this deck so strong is being able to play an Aurora – Holding Court or Grandmother Willow – Ancient Advisor on Turn 1 or 2 into 2 4 cost characters on Turn 3 and 4 and then play Kida – Protector of Atlantis and Under the Sea to send all your opponent’s characters under their deck. 

Amber/Steel Discard ticks up!

6 Amber/Steel decks made it to the top 8. We’ve seen the traditional Amber/Steel songs variants but the up and coming variant with You Have Forgotten Me have been making waves in the competitive scene. 2 of my teammates Jeff Baumgartner and Patrick Côte piloted an identical list to a top 8 and top 32 finish, respectively:

Main Deck:

4 Akood et Emuti

4 And Then Along Came Zeus

4 Angel - Siren Singer

4 Ariel - Ethereal Voice

4 Ariel - Spectacular Singer

4 Beast - Tragic Hero

1 Beyond the Horizon

4 Cinderella - Ballroom Sensation

2 Cinderella - Stouthearted

2 Dale - Ready for His Shot

4 Let the Storm Rage On

4 Pete - Games Referee

4 Rapunzel - Gifted with Healing

2 Stitch - Carefree Snowboarder

4 Strength of a Raging Fire

3 The Bare Necessities

4 Ursula - Vanessa

2 You Have Forgotten Me

The core of the deck is the same as the Amber/Steel Song variants but there are some notable differences in the deck. Dale – Ready for His Shot has seen some success in Amber/Emerald Dogs to try to challenge in the mirror and it makes an appearance in this deck to do exactly that. There are many characters with 4 or 5 willpower that can effectively challenge and banish any character they get into a fight with. Stitch – Carefree Snowboarder also takes the spot of the traditional Namaari – Single Minded Rival. Stitch’s ability to keep the card is vital in keeping up card advantage as redundant copies of Beast – Tragic Hero. The common play pattern that makes this deck so strong is being able to develop a multitude of Singer 3 or 4 to sing songs that banish your opponent’s characters and then play The Bare Necessities and You Have Forgotten Me to discard your opponent’s hand into Beast – Tragic Hero and Stitch – Carefree Snowboarder to gain card advantage.

Many more DLCs to come!

And that’s a wrap for Disney Lorcana Challenge Indianapolis!

Although that is the last Disney Lorcana Challenge for the 2025-2026 in North America, there will be one in Brazil on July 4th, Manila on July 11th, and Yokohama on July 18th. I hope to see you all there!

Until next time!