With each new season of Lorcana, I find myself enjoying the art that comes with each series, because you never really know what you might get in the mix. The latest season Reign of Jafar is on sale now and coming in, I knew that Jafar and by extension Aladdin would have a big role in this season, but I was not expecting a Disney Afternoon resurgence either and it was wonderful.

If you want to know more about the story behind the game as whole, check out my hands on with the previous series, but there is a new story for this series. The story is still set in the same location as the previous series Archazia’s Island, but now it has been taken over by a glimmer Jafar. While Jafar has abilities, he can’t do everything himself, so he begins to hypnotise other characters to help him out, one of them is Basil from the 1986 release Basil The Great Mouse Detective. The catch is that while the regular heroes are away, Jafar has taken over and with the power of the Hexwell Crown, there is no force who can stop him, or at least until you start to play that is. Look as far stories go, it is fairly basic, but as a plot point for people to play it works.

Now the new series has a few new additions with dual ink cards. In the picture below you will see some of the dual ink cards. What makes them dual ink is that there are two colours where the card name appears, indicating the two types of ink they can use. Mechanically it is a great idea, but I do wish the cards made more of an impact with them. Having the backgrounds be a blend of the two colours would have made it much easier to spot which card was a dual ink card. Now I don’t play the game, but from a distance and upside down, I have noticed some of the cards are not exactly easy to spot if they are dual ink or standard. The other type of card being added are the Mysterious Illusion, which are tied into what Jafar is up to, they mostly look the same as the other cards and can be dual ink, but hey have one big change. Each of the cards has a character that appears to be made from sand, and once an action takes place against them, any action, they vanish from the field of play. In gameplay that is a cool idea, but what I love is the look, because they are also sand art in a way, they look great.

As I have said countless times before, my biggest draw to the series is that of the art and some of the designs in this new series are ink-redible, sorry I had to. Finding cards to showcase in a photo are always a challenge, because there are always just so many amazing ones and with this new series featuring a number of Disney Afternoon characters, it made it more the challenge. One of the characters that I was not expecting to see was Don Karnage, which then made the theme song for TailSpin pop into my head. Of course, the biggest show to get some love was Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers, because the characters got cards, but also, they are the feature characters on one of the two playmats, you can sort of see it buried under the card in the photo below.

In addition to those series, Alice in Wonderland, The Emperor’s New Groove, Wreck-It Ralph, Mulan and Encanto all got a number of cards. Perhaps one of the surprising additions was a card for Jim Dear, which I feel is a deep cut release. Overall, I really like a lot of the card designs here and again, still love to see the names of the artists on each one.

Something returning for the series is the Illumineer’s Quest: Palace Heist, the second one they have done after Deep Trouble which came out with Ursula’s Return. From the moment I saw the box I knew this was going to be a great addition, because it was a proper box this time. With Ursula’s Return, the box was more like the starter set box, which meant there was no way of closing it once you opened it, this time it’s a proper box and it makes a big difference. Once I cracked open the box, I did what any fan would do and check inside the top part and there inside the box is a piece of art of Jafar, that truly makes them seem evil. The board in which you play on, also features a piece of art that again has Jafar on it, but also Aladdin, Basil and Bolt. What is fun about this game is that it does not require you to have any existing cards to play, it comes with all you need. You get three preset decks of cards in here, two of them you can use in regular matches if you desire, but the third one is just for use on this game. It is easy to spot which cards are allowed and which are not, because Jafar’s deck has a red back, whereas the rest are the traditional Lorcana purple.

Lorcana may not have started off strong in Australia, just due to how quickly they released the first few series, but now it has found its groove. Reign of Jafar’s main story is fine, it won’t be what convinces people to play the game, but the art it inspired should be what makes people check it out. The new dual ink cards should have a great impact to matches, but I do wish there was an easier way to distinguish them from a glance, as some of the colour combinations do blend together a little too well. The Palace Heist set is a great addition and is a way for people to step into the world of Lorcana, without having to dive fully in, the box being a proper box is a welcome touch. If Lorcana keeps delivering some amazing cards with each series, we are going to be well fed, but if Reign of Jafar was the last one ever, it would be an amazing way to end, but there is more coming.