New Meta, New Season of Set Champs, & A New Reporter?!
It really is ‘A Whole New World’ for the Arizona Lorcana Report.
The Lorcana Game Designers for Ravensberger have taken their players on a wild rollercoaster ride of emotions this season – changing the existing meta, literally, month after month.
Chapter 7: Archazia’s Island made its way to Big Box Stores on March 7th, 2025, bringing new and exciting options for players going forward.
A month later, on April 8th, 2025, Ravensberger had announced their first ban-list for the game: Hiram Flaversham – Toymaker & Fortisphere, effective immediately. The news regarding this ban had players in an uproar. Some players rejoiced, others mourned. The majority of competitive Sapphire Item Decks (like Ruby Sapphire and Sapphire Steel) were now crippled without Flav’s extraordinary draw power.
Now, another month later, the results of everyone’s hard work are being put to the test: Archazia’s Island Set Championships. Each weekend starting May 3rd until May 25th, Illumineers across the nation will showcase their deckbuilding and piloting skills for an opportunity to become ‘the Champion of Archazia’s Island’. This Champion will also receive the Hiro Hamada – Armor Designer Champion’s Playmat.
Arizona’s Set Championships Meta Breakdown: Week One
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Watch out for the wide board of singers, your characters might not be safe even if your opponent doesn’t have any expendable ink! Amber Steel’s most popular variant this season is turning out to be Steel Songs.
Ariel – Sonic Warrior is coming back to the meta for additional damage on top of songs like Along Came Zeus and Strength of a Raging Fire. The new dual ink singer, The Trubadour – Musical Narrator is making his debut in the meta, almost replacing Ursula – Vanessa for her Singer 4 spot!
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Even though Chernadogs didn’t make the top cut this week, this combo/aggro deck is still one to be weary of. Lady and the Tramp are making their way into the meta by using Tramp – Street Smart Dog’s ability to fuel the discard pile with characters and cranking out Chernabog – Evil Doer for free. Better hold onto your removal spells, you are gonna need them.
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Birds, Draw Power, and Jafar? You can definitely count on both variants of Amethyst Steel to brew up something wicked. If you aren’t dealing with Iago – Spectral Parrot’s powerful statline on an evasive body, you could still get jumpscared by Giant Cobra – Ghostly Serpent’s ability to gain 2 lore. Thank goodness they’re illusions!
Jafar – Striking Illusionist’s reign came early. Raking in 7 lore whenever he hears A Whole New World should be a crime.
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Rest in Peace, Hiram Flaversham – Toy Maker.
Even though Flav is gone, Ruby Sapphire still lives on! DKP’s Shark/Manor list has been inspiring players to keep this Tempo/Control deck alive and well! Maui – Half Shark takes control and siphons lore with ease when he hears Tipo – Growing Son and Gramma Tala – Keeper of Ancient Stories sing A Pirate’s Life together.
Archazia’s Island Set Championship Leaderboards
In the Phoenix and Tucson areas, there were SIX Major Events held on opening weekend!
Saturday, May 3rd
J&J Gaming Factory – Glendale, 26 Players
5140 W Peoria Rd #100, Glendale, AZ 85302
Final Standings
1st – BloodscorN 🟡⚪️
2nd – PoppyTrovey 🟡⚪️
3rd – JeromeTPO 🟣🔵
4th – Samnite27 🔴🔵
5th – ChrM20 🔴🔵
6th – ChinoDynasty 🔴🔵
7th – Edygordo23 🟣⚪️
8th – Gibson_elliot 🔵⚪️
Toy Temple HQ – Tempe, 12 Players
2180 W University Dr, Tempe, AZ 85281
Final Standings
1st – AK_Mario 🔴🟣
2nd – JesS7 🟡🔴
3rd – d_mcmxcix 🔴🔵
4th – Jose160465xy 🟡⚪️
Isle of Games – Tucson, 28 Players
7835 E Broadway Blvd, Tucson, AZ 85710
Final Standings
1st – snapcastro 🟣⚪️
2nd – NoaS8 🟡⚪️
3rd – OiMDomino 🟣⚪️
4th – Zinger 🟣⚪️
5th – Yokidragon 🔴🔵
6th – amontminy 🟡⚪️
7th – Eeyore 🔴🔵
8th – omontoya 🟡⚪️
Sunday, May 4th
Play or Draw – Avondale, 17 Players
965 E Van Buren St #116, Avondale, AZ 85323
Final Standings
1st – ZachG07 🟡⚪️
2nd – Nathan_G 🔴🔵
3rd – MrUnlucky13 🟣⚪️
4th – DavS53 🟡⚪️
5th – Ilucasmac 🟣🟢
6th – just_op 🟡⚪️
7th – touchmyfluff 🟡⚪️
8th – FrostFire420 🟣⚪️
Samurai Comics – Phoenix, 21 Players
1602 E Indian School Rd, Phoenix, AZ 85016
Final Standings
1st – DannySantana 🔴🔵
2nd – Dsingxv 🟡⚪️
3rd – TeacherOfMath 🟢⚪️
4th – Csdfire 🟡⚪️
5th – ccastillo 🟣🔴
6th – Ashcap 🟣🔴
7th – HeyHeyRawn 🟡⚪️
8th – Gibson_elliot 🔵⚪️
IRL Cards – Tucson, 18 Players
4444 E Grant Rd #115, Tucson, AZ, 85712
Final Standings
1st – Stoneybologna 🔴🔵
2nd – Eeyore 🟡⚪️
3rd – ryanmalexander 🟡⚪️
4th – snapcastro 🟣⚪️
5th – Redeemer12 🔴🔵
6th – AdamRenegar 🟣⚪️
7th – ewal 🟡⚪️
8th – Lucia333 🟡⚪️
Upcoming Set Champs
Saturday, May 10th
Phoenix Gaming Lounge
4747 N Central Ave, Phoenix AZ, 85012
$25 entry, 128 Player Cap
9AM Registration, Round 1 Starts at 10AM
Best of 3, Cut to Top 8, Decklists Required
Additional prizing to Scale depending on number of entrants
Showtime Sports Cards and Gaming
3415 S McClintock Dr #111, Tempe, AZ 85282
$15 entry, 16 Player Cap
9:30AM Registration
Best of 3, Cut to Top 4
The Reign of Linh
Thanks for sticking around and reading this far, Illumineer!
I’m no LadyLore, but! I can safely say that I share the same passion for the game. I’m honored to take on this project.
I started playing Lorcana when the First Chapter was first released, and I fell in love. At the time, I was playing two other TCGs (both casually and competitively) as well as studying to become a Level 1 judge for Magic: the Gathering. After my first few games playing Lorcana, it was almost instantaneous how my passion shifted from multiple different TCGs to another. Here we are, almost two years later, my love for Lorcana and its community has only grown. So much so, that I’ve spent a lot of my time and effort to have topped multiple Set Championships, I even became a Tournament Organizer and a Local Judge.
Thankfully, with my years of knowledge of competitive play in other TCGs, I’ve turned it into fuel for how I think about Lorcana’s Competitive scene. I was more than excited when LadyLore asked me to take over the blog because now, I get to share this insight with you all.
You can count on me to do my very best to add to the magic!