Wilds Unknown Is Our Starting Line for Lorcana

We've been circling Lorcana for a while now. We picked up a small box and a few packs earlier this year, got excited, then got busy with the Pokémon side of things — and Winterspell came and went without us. Which stings a little, because Darkwing Duck's first Lorcana appearance and Pocahontas making her debut were exactly the kind of thing we should have been there for. But we weren't, and that's on us.

Wilds Unknown drops May 15th. This one, we're actually going to be ready for.

How Winterspell Got Away From Us

It wasn't a deliberate skip. Life got in the way the same way it did with Ascended Heroes on the Pokémon side — between getting back into the hobby properly and the general chaos of things, Lorcana kept sliding to the next-time list. The thing is, there's always a next time. For us, next time is now.

If you collected Winterspell, we want to hear about it. The Frost Foil Enchanted cards, Pocahontas as one of the Iconic cards, and Darkwing Duck showing up for the first time. We followed the previews from the sidelines, and it looked like a great set. Drop a comment below and let us know what you pulled, and whether you'd recommend jumping back in at Winterspell or just starting fresh with Wilds Unknown.

Why This Is the One That Finally Pulled Us In

Toy Story. The Incredibles. Brave.

Those three franchises are making their Lorcana debut in Wilds Unknown — the first time Pixar characters have appeared in the card game at all. For a family whose kids (and mom and dad) have grown up on these movies, it stops being about a card game and starts being about something we actually care about. A Woody, Buzz Lightyear, or Mr. Incredible card won't be just a piece of cardboard in this house.

The art direction is what really got our attention, though. We're loving the art on these, especially with the new Pixar characters included in their own, new scenes to enjoy.

What's Catching Our Eye

At the very top of the set sit two Iconic cards — the absolute rarest in any Lorcana release, roughly one every fifteen hundred packs or so. We haven't even seen one of this in person, much less hold one. Wilds Unknown's two are Buzz Lightyear – Jungle Ranger and Merida – Formidable Archer. We're not expecting to pull either of them. That's not the plan. But they set the tone for what kind of set this is, and who knows, luck could be on our side!

The most talked-about card since previews dropped is the Enchanted Jessie – Lively Cowgirl, with artwork by Medusa Dollmaker that the collector community has been genuinely excited about. Cards like that — where the art stops you mid-sort — are the ones we end up keeping regardless of everything else.

For me and my kids, who are still finding our footing in Lorcana, the real excitement is simpler than any of that. It's just seeing Woody, Buzz, Rex, Violet, Dash, and Merida on cards for the first time. And the depth of the Toy Story cast alone is something — Woody has three different card versions in this set, Buzz has the Iconic plus two others, and then there's Rex, Hamm, Bo Peep, Bullseye, Lenny, RC, the Aliens, and even Sid Phillips' whole crew of mutant toys. It's a proper Toy Story collection inside a single set. That's the hook. The secondary market can figure out the rest.

Collector Bro's Corner

Before we get to what we're buying, there's one card that was claimed before we'd even finished reading the card list.

Rex — Protective Dinosaur. Card 10 out of 204. Collector Bro called it the moment we mentioned his name was in the set. It's his card. There is no further discussion to be had on the matter, and honestly, that kind of immediate connection is exactly what makes collecting with the kids worth it. When a card means something to someone before they've even seen it in hand, you know the set got the characters right.

What We're Planning to Pick Up

We're not going big right away. This is an entry point, not a deep dive — and that's by design.

The Illumineer's Trove is the starting product for us. At a $49.99 MSRP (hopefully we can find it around this price), it comes with 8 booster packs, a card storage box, six card dividers, dice, and a lore counter. That's a proper way to start a Lorcana collection without just throwing packs at the shelf and hoping something clicks.

The 2-Player Starter Set is also on our list. It comes with two ready-to-play decks — a Toys deck built around Toy Story and Merida, and a Supers deck built around The Incredibles — plus lore trackers and damage tokens. For a family that wants to actually sit down and learn the game together, that's the most direct path in, and those deck themes were basically made for us.

We'll grab some extra packs too. But the Illumineer's Trove is the anchor, and we'll build from there.

About Availability

One of the things that made us hesitant about Lorcana early on was the supply situation. The first few sets were genuinely hard to find, and chasing a card game across stores wasn't something we had the energy for at the time.

Wilds Unknown is a full mass retail release — Target, Walmart, GameStop, Amazon, Barnes & Noble — wide and on shelves May 15th. Ravensburger appears to have distribution sorted out since those early days. No panic, no markups, no hunting required. That's the kind of launch that actually works for a pack-here-and-there family, and that's us.

If you're picking up Wilds Unknown too — or if you're a Lorcana veteran who's been at this since the beginning — drop a comment and tell us what you're grabbing on launch day. And seriously: tell us about Winterspell. We want to know what we missed.

We'll share some videos and content about what we pull soon!