Many other game formats for Lorcana have come up since the game's release. This document describes each of them and the rules.
In this type of limited format, instead of playing with a prebuilt deck, players are given six booster packs each. The players can then open these decks, looking at all of the cards, and create a 40 card deck using only them.
Play then conmences according to the usual Lorcana rules.
In this limited format, players are given four booster packs each. They all open their first packs and select a card from its contents. The pack is then passed to the player to their left, select a card, pass the pack to the left...and so on until all cards are exhausted. This pattern continues for all four of the booster packs provided to each person.
Players should end up with 48 cards. Each player should then remove 8 cards to make a 40 card deck.
Play then continues according to the normal Lorcana rules.
In this format, teams of 2 are playing against each other. Just like in regular Lorcana rules, the team that goes first does not draw. When it is each team's turn both players on that team play at the same time. Players can take actions on any of the opposing team's cards in play.
- Teammates cannot pay the ink cost or ink cards from their teammate's hand.
- Teammates may view and discuss each others' hands
- Effects that read "each opponent" or "each player" affect each team member separately
As in normal Lorcana play, the goal is to get to 20 lore. However, both players on the team must reach 20 EACH, not combined. This format can also be played in a 3 versus 3 mode if multiplayer is not desired.
The pack rush format is great for casual games and plays quickly due to the limited numbers of cards. To play pack rush, each player uses two booster packs. Open them, remove the extra cards. Shuffle the cards without looking at them.
- The addiitonal cards, whatever they are for the given set (puzzle cards, rules cards, Gateway promos, etc.) become the first two ink for each player. These are played before the opening hand into your inkwell.
- Players are not allowed to look at their decks.
- Players draw five cards for starting hand.
- ALL cards are inkable.
- If a player's draw pile is exhausted, they should shuffle their discard and that becomes their new draw deck.
Play then continues according to the usual Lorcana rules (with the exceptions listed above) with the goal of getting to 15 lore.
Players start this game format by selecting a character from their deck to act as a "leader".
- Decks should still contain 60 cards (59 cards and 1 leader).
- Decks can only have one of each card, not 4
- Your deck can contain up to 3 different ink colors. One of those colors must match the ink of your leader
- The ink cost of playing your leader increases by 2 each time you play them from the "leader zone". This cost increase also increases the shift cost.
If your selected leader does not have “Shift” it gains Shift and it’s Shift cost is 2 ink less than it’s natural ink cost and no less than 1. To start the game, place the leader off to the side in a "leader zone" faceup. You can then play this leader character as you would any normal character according to normal Lorcana play rules. When a leader would change zones, they may be put back into the "leader zone" instead.
NOTE: This gameplay is similar to "Commander" in Magic: The Gathering.
You can find the official rules for playing Lorcana multiplayer in section 1.10.Multiplayer Games of the comprehensive rules document
Anything interesting variations your LGS does? I'd love to hear about it!
This format focuses on cards with lower costs - commones and uncommons. The deck construction rules are slightly different:
- Decks are still 60 cards
- Up to three inks are allowed
- All cards must be uncommon or lower
Gameplay then follows standard Lorcana rules.
This mode is a variation of the "Poorcana" approach above with the only additional rule being that you can only have one prince or princess character of any rarity and then everything else has to be common/uncommon.