The Shadow Series Recap and News: LadyLore’s Farewell to the Blog
The Shadow Series by Purple Shadow Gaming The past few weekends have been filled with excitement thanks to Purple Shadow Gaming’s innovative Shadow Series. This event series featured five separate $1K tournaments held over the course of four weekends in April, each at a different game store across the Phoenix Valley. Not only did each tournament offer its own $1K prize pool, but players also competed for a spot on the Shadow Series leaderboard. Points were awarded at each event, with each player’s best three finishes counting toward their final ranking. The ultimate leaderboard winner received an additional $1K and a special prize: a 001/001 hand-painted altered Lorcana card of Elsa, Spirit of Winter, painted by Yours Truly, LadyLore. The series quickly gained recognition across the Lorcana community, with metadata shared by Inkborn Heroes, recaps by Speci, and local coverage by The Lorcana Muses. Congratulations to Julio Rodriguez, who emerged as the Shadow Series Champion, winning two of the five events and racking up an impressive 66 points! Here’s a closer look at the top decks and finishers from each tournament: Shadow Series #1 SS#1 – Sunday, April 6, 2025 — Tabletop Wargamers (Goodyear)Top 4: View Deck Lists Shadow Series #2 SS #2 Saturday, April 12, 2025 — J and J Gaming Factory (Glendale)Top 4: View Deck ListsCoverage by Speci (min 22): Watch here Shadow Series #3 SS #3 – Sunday, April 13, 2025 — Ronin Games (Mesa)Top 4: View Deck Lists Shadow Series #4 SS #4 – Saturday, April 19, 2025 — North Valley Games (Phoenix)Top 4: View Deck Lists Shadow Series #5 SS #5 – Saturday, April 26, 2025 — North Valley Games (Mesa)Top 4: View Deck Lists Purple Shadow Gaming continues to establish itself as a pillar in the Arizona TCG scene, committed to “growing the competitive scene and bringing top-tier events to the community.” A Fond Farewell: My Last Blog Post It’s with mixed emotions that I’m announcing today: I am retiring from writing the Local Report blog. But don’t worry! The blog is not going anywhere.I’m thrilled to announce that I am handing over this project to a wonderful member of our community: Linh (better known as gremlihn). Linh is an active player, judge, and a passionate member of our Arizona Lorcana family. I know she will bring her own amazing touch to this space. How It All Began When I joined the Arizona Lorcana community last spring, I started creating under the name LadyLore, first designing stickers and pins. Quickly, my Mom-brain needed a way to organize all the league nights, so I built a Google doc… then shared it in local Discords and Facebook groups. When the Stitch Set Championships arrived, I expanded the document to track tournaments—and suddenly, I realized I wanted to present everything more cleanly. Enter: my first website. By June, the idea of a local Lorcana blog was born. I wanted a space where players could find tournament results, standings, and meta insights. As the community grew, so did LadyLore20.com—becoming a one-stop resource for Lorcana in Arizona. I never set out to be a content creator in the traditional sense. Writing wasn’t my first love—but sleuthing tournament results, tracking Melee handles, finding photos, and connecting players has been a joyful, unexpected journey. What’s Next? Over time, my creative passions have continued to grow. In late 2024, I launched the Ladies of Lorcana Project, a project close to my heart dedicated to celebrating and empowering women in Lorcana. If you haven’t yet, check out the ongoing video-interview series HERE, highlighting women from all facets of the game—from players to designers, casters to collectors. At the same time, I discovered my love for altered art cards. As a longtime painter, it immediately clicked—and I began making altered art commissions, getting completely lost in the creative process. But being a multi-passionate person has its challenges. Balancing multiple creative projects began leading to burnout. After some reflection, I realized it was time to step back from being the “local Lorcana reporter” and allow someone new to step forward. Looking Ahead LadyLore20.com will still continue to be a home for Arizona Lorcana news. Linh will be shaping the blog into her own amazing creation, and I can’t wait to see where she takes it. I will continue supporting the weekly play listings for Phoenix and Tucson and updating tournament listings with the help of the community and store owners—thank you all for helping keep the information accurate! Thank You To everyone who read, shared, contributed, and supported the blog:Thank you.Your encouragement and collaboration made this project possible. And now, it’s time for me to say farewell to this chapter and pass the pen to a new voice. Over to you, Linh!