Lorcana: Fabled review — Shiny new toys and familiar faces

Fabled is an interesting Chapter in Lorcana that arrived with some significant changes to the game. We have new rarities, sets being cycled out, and, of course, the usual array of new cards and accessories to enjoy.

With Fabled, we have not one, but actually two new card rarities. Epic cards slot in between Legendary and Enchanted and feature frameless artwork, new types of foil treatment, and tinted text. They look amazing and provide players and collectors with a type of card to chase. Each set will feature 18 Epic cards.

If you think Epic cards are nice, wait until you see an Iconic card. Iconic cards are the new rarest type of card in the game. Considering I have still never even opened an Enchanted card, I’m sure I will never have one, but that doesn’t mean plenty of you won’t get lucky and open one up. Iconic cards feature new full card artwork that makes them standalone from their non-iconic counterparts. They have a custom foil treatment as well. Going forward, each set will have 2 Iconic cards to discover. 

What’s this about cards being cycled out? At this point, Fabled is the 9th set of Lorcana. With each set having 204(ish) cards, that’s over 1,800 cards to keep track of. If you play casually, it’s not a big deal to just play with what you have. For the competitive player who needs to know what every card does and how it interacts in a certain type of deck, that’s a lot to keep track of. As we get further away from the start of Lorcana, those powerful cards from early sets can also be harder to find and get expensive on the secondary market, which isn’t great for a healthy competitive play scene. The solution? Cycle the old sets out.

So does that mean I can’t play with all of my cards? Sort of, but not exactly. The first 4 chapters are the ones being cycled out. In standard competitive play, cards from those sets will no longer be legal to play. The catch is that Fabled is actually mostly reprints of those first 4 chapters. In fact, 172 out of the 205 cards in the set are reprints from chapters 1-4. So what does that mean? If the cards were included in the reprint, it’s technically now in Set 9 and legal to play. If you really want to play with all of your cards, or just don’t care about official competitive play, nobody is stopping you from continuing to use all of your cards, and there is even a new Infinity Constructed format that ignores the set rotations and has access to the full card pool. 

The starter decks for Fabled dive into two very fun deck archetypes. My favorite is the singer-heavy Goofy Movie deck featuring Max and Powerline. You’ll be belting out I2I before you know it. The second leans into the Princess keyword and provides a great foundation to build on if you want to go more into a Princess-focused strategy. 

Alongside the new card types and changes to set rotations, Fabled features the usual cast of supporting products with stunning artwork to make your game pop. The Goofy Movie makes up a good chunk of the new cards in this set and is the featured artwork on one of the deck boxes and card sleeves. If you haven’t seen it, it’s a true 90s classic with some banger songs to add to the game. The other deck box and sleeve pack features Mulan and the artwork from one of the new Epic cards. 

Speaking of amazing artwork, this set goes perfectly with the new Powerline metal poster I just got from Displate. It looks like it came straight off of Max's bedroom wall. A Goofy Movie has always been one of my favorites, and to have cards featuring the movie couldn’t have arrived at a better time. 

The Trove is a great deal as always. A storage box, lore counter, 8 boosters, and a set of dice are all included. Typically, there isn’t much to say about the Trove, but the dice in the Fabled set are the best yet. Each one represents one of the Ink colors in the game. I want to buy more Troves just to have full dice sets of each color. They look amazing and have replaced the Into the Inklands set as my new favorites to use while playing the game. 

Finally, we have the playmats. The two mats that released with Fabled look back at some classic original characters from the earlier reprinted sets. Mufasa is the standout for me with a gorgeous hand-painted look. The second mat features Cinderella in her ball gown and looks great, but doesn’t quite grab me the way the Mufasa one does. 

Overall, Fabled does a lot to move the game forward and pave the way for future sets. If you are not a competitive player, it may not be an essential set with all the reprints, but cards like Powerline and friends from A Goofy Movie are worth it to pick up, in my opinion. Either way, the future of the game is more secure than ever with set rotations in place, new rarities to enjoy, and a consistently fun game to play.

Want to learn how to play the game or what we thought of earlier sets? Hit the Lorcana link at the bottom of the page to see everything we’ve ever written about the game!

"If we listen to each other's heart
(Oh yeah) we'll find we're never too far apart
And maybe love is the reason why
For the first time ever we're seeing it eye to eye"
-Powerline