Disney Lorcana Gateway

• Designers: Ryan Miller, Steve Warner
• Publisher: Ravensburger
• Players: 2
• Age: 10+
• Time: 20-40 minutes per game
• Played with review copies provided by Ravensburger USA
• Amazon affiliate link: https://amzn.to/46Nm3RH

Disney Lorcana: Gateway uses the same game system as the Disney Lorcana trading card game, but it consists of a fixed set of two 30-card decks designed for the newcomer. This set is playable on its own as a two-player game, with the cards featuring characters, items, songs, and perhaps one other mechanism that players can add into other Disney Lorcana decks after getting comfortable with the basics of play.

Unlike my usual review format, I’m not going to tell you how to play Disney Lorcana Gateway – because the entire reason this box exists is to teach you how to play the game.  You don’t need me to outline that here for you.  What you get here (at least when you first open the box) is two small 30-card decks for two players to learn how to play.  

If you want some more background information – let me direct you to my review from last year: https://opinionatedgamers.com/2023/12/20/dale-yu-review-of-disney-lorcana/

Disney Lorcana Gateway gives you a board to place on the table between you and your opponent. There is a lore track down the middle that players can use to track their points. The initial decks are not even supposed to be shuffled; the order of the cards is meant to let players get off to a nice scripted start. 

The rules provide a nice step by step intro to the world of CCGs, explaining the different bits of information on each card and then a brief outline of the turn format.  The one thing which struck me as a bit weird is that they have used common color names (red and blue) instead of the actual color names used in the game (Ruby and Sapphire).  Not sure why they felt the need to do this and then possibly confuse people later.  Or, if they were going to use basic colors anyways, why use fancy-schmancy names in the full game?

In any event, as you get started with the game, you then turn to the Guidebook which helps you learn the different parts of the game.  Interestingly, as you learn the game, you’re not actually trying to win Lorcana matches.  Instead, you’re thrown into a sort of cooperative campaign with the other player where the two of you work to complete certain goals – essentially learning different components of the game rules by doing them yourself.

Once you get through the goals for Gate 1, you’ll get a reward pack – this will provide you new cards to add to the two decks – thus slowly introducing new game concepts to the players.  For instance, the first bonus pack provides you with Song cards, and the Guidebook now gives you the rules for Songs…

I really like the methodology used here.  No one is rushing you through the different steps, and you can take as much time as you like.  You end up with enough time to learn the different starting cards well, and as you add in each new idea, you likewise can take all the time you need to become familiar with them.  The stepwise progression of learning the rules also helps keep players from being overwhelmed.  While Lorcana is a fairly standard CCG in terms of rules (actually probably on the easier side as it hasn’t had enough time to keep adding more ideas/rules), it can be a lot to absorb all at once.

As you move through the four Gates of the Guidebook, you’ll eventually end up with two decks, each with 66 cards.  That now puts you in a good place to continue your journey in Disney Lorcana (should you wish to do so).  You have a little bit of latitude at this point in deck building as your deck only needs to have 60 cards; but if you’ve caught the Disney Lorcana bug, I’m sure that you’ll end up with plenty more cards in short order…

My largest concern at the time of initial release was that it was nearly impossible for me to learn the game.  My press review pack only included one starter deck, and this wasn’t enough to play with someone else.  To make things worse, the huge demand for the cards at the initial release made it difficult to easily acquire new cards without resorting to the extremely expensive secondary market.  This new release, albeit a full year too late IMO, seeks to remedy that.  This box will give Disney Lorcana neophytes a way to learn about the game system in a single package.  If you’re new to the game, and want to learn how to play the game as opposed to just collecting the cards – this is perfect.  No need to worry about rare or foil cards; just give me a bunch of commons that teach me how to play the game.  Provide me with a full deck of cards that just works.  Don’t let me try to pick what 60 cards work out of a vast sea of cards… because if I’m a beginner, I’ll have no idea how to put together a deck that I can actually play with.

In the end, this is the box I wanted to have last year – to be available at the initial release of the game.  It’s a beautiful and elegant way to learn the game.  As CCGs are in continual flux with new rules and mechanisms being found in new expansions – the current plans are to update the Gateway boxes every 12 months.  But… a gamer should really only ever need to buy this once – because after you use Gateway to learn the basics, you’ll be able to just get more cards on your own to continue playing the game and learning the new rules in an organic way with each successive expansion.

This is definitely the Disney Lorcana item that I’d most recommend for beginners. 

Amazon affiliate link: https://amzn.to/46Nm3RH

Until your next appointment, 

The Gaming Doctor