We’re officially one month out from the Local Game Store (LGS) release of Rise of the Floodborn, the second set in the mind-boggling under-printed card game: Lorcana.
~37 cards have been spoiled at this point, and an interesting set of combos have already come to light.
And that’s the focus of this blog post! May I present…
MERLIN — Shapeshifter
“My prediction is: Merlin — Shapeshifter will create a new “Bouncing Archetype” of combo decks. Only time will tell if it will be competitive or not!”
- Vaughn Reynolds
On his own, the Shapeshifter may not look like much, but his ability is quite powerful because it is not limited to triggering only once per turn. This means if you were to return 2 characters from play to your hand in a turn, he would quest for 3 lore!
Combo decks tend to be centered around cards that have a triggered ability with a high limit or no limit on how many times it may trigger.
Along with Merlin, of course, the designers at Ravensburger have handed us some very straightforward synergy. For example:
With Merlin — Shapeshifter in play, you can play Bounce or Madam Mim — Fox/Snake to bring damaged or “when you play this” characters back into your hand for some surprise Lore, or to help get you ahead!
Rise of the Floodborn is delivering some very spicy options for cards that trigger an effect when they play and leave play. That means if they hit the board, their ability is guaranteed to trigger twice! Talk about value!
Another very important thing to note on Merlin — Squirrel/Rabbit/Crab/Goat is that they say, “when he leaves play”, meaning its triggered whether the card is returned to your hand, banished, sent to your ink well, or even shuffled back into your deck!
That last effect isn’t on a card YET, but may be one day!
Just after publishing this article, a new spoiler dropped and OH MY is he AMAZING for this combo!
In Part 2, we’re going to discuss Chapter One cards from all 6 colors!
Please let me know in the comments anything you need clarity on and I’ll respond as soon as I can!
Vaughn Reynolds