The new Disney Lorcana set, Archazia’s Island, is just around the corner with the early release on March 7 at local game stores, followed by the wide release on March 21. With this seventh set, the trading card game introduces dual color cards for the very first time. Two new starter decks also accompany the new booster expansion: a Ruby/Sapphire deck featuring characters from Beauty and the Beast, and an Amethyst/Steel deck featuring characters from Aladdin. Disney Lorcana starter decks have been a good way to tease what the new meta could be with its new mechanics, but one of these new decks seems stronger right out of the box than its counterpart. Starter decks are, of course, not optimized for super competitive games, but they’ll get you part of the way. So generally, playing starter decks out of the box may feel slow. With that said, there are synergies with certain cards if you can find them in time. The Ruby/Sapphire deck, for instance, relies on the use of items whether they are on the field or not. The new dual-color Belle can be cheaper to play based on how many item cards are in your discard. When she quests, she also allows the player to put three items from the discard back into the deck. Outside of getting rid of your items normally, you also have characters like dual-color Beast, who banishes two items to deal damage to an opposing character. Then there’s Cogsworth, who becomes stronger if there’s just one item in the discard. So now you have this engine where you’re using your items as normal, benefitting from them in the discard, and putting them back into the deck to do it all over again. With so much opportunity for interactions, a player has to be careful about the order of their plays. For example, you don’t want to put back items into the deck if a character benefits from them being in there in the first place. Outside of that, the usual Ruby and Sapphire tendencies are there in the deck, like building up your inkwell or dealing damage and rushing down characters.As for the Amethyst/Steel deck, this gets the most interesting mechanic from this set with the Vanish keyword. A character that has Vanish is immediately banished if it is targeted by an action, which are like single-use spells. For example, the action card Double Trouble deals 1 damage each to up to two characters. If your opponent has two cards with Vanish on the field, this action card will make both of those powerful characters go away for cheap – and they don't even need to damage them to do so. This keyword is seen on characters that are Illusions, which is also a new attribute to Lorcana. So like Illusions, they disappear as soon as they are waved away. This sounds pretty bad, of course, but the Illusion characters themselves are quite strong considering the cost for them. In this deck, for example, we have a 4/4 Mufasa that costs four ink to play. The Illusion Iago is 4/6 with evasive and also costs four ink to play. Generally, these Illusion cards can wreak some havoc as long as the opponent doesn’t have the necessary cards to get rid of them easily. The main beneficiary of these Illusion cards is the dual-color Jafar, who can return any Illusion cards that are banished on the opponent’s turn. Considering the value and threat these Illusion cards pose, Jafar is crucial to making this deck perform. Otherwise, playing an Illusion to only get banished immediately feels pretty bad. So far, the introduction of dual-color cards seems to be an obvious addition to a deck if you are playing the right colors with the right playstyle. As expected, they’re strong with new cards and a whole expansion, but they are locked with the deck color of choice, unlike Star Wars Unlimited, where you can splash other colors in the deck but incur an extra cost. In regards to deck brewing, it doesn’t leave too much room for creativity. For instance, if you run Illusions, you kind of have to have a card like dual color Jafar to give you the extra value with the negative kickback of Vanish. On the other hand, Illusions can be cheap throwaways to banish any opposing characters before they quickly disappear. Out of the box, though, Illusions are very susceptible to actions, and with one Jafar, those characters are not lasting too long in any game.Both Archazia’s Island starter decks showcase the new mechanics of the upcoming set well, but the Ruby/Sapphire deck just has a more consistent engine than what the Amethyst/Steel can pull off. Unfortunately, the featured characters are ones we’ve seen already in the game, but that does allow for some room to mess around with the older Belle or Jafar cards in this upcoming meta. With that said, these starter decks are always a good chance to see what the game has to offer so far. For more on Disney Lorcana, check out our interview with one of the game designers on how the card game came to be. Each Archazia’s Island Starter Deck comes with:60 cards11 damage counters1 paper playmat1 paper tracker tokenGame RulesRuby & Sapphire (An Inventive Pair)2xBeagle Boys – Small-Time Crooks1xBeast – Frustrated Designer1xBelle – Mechanic Extraordinaire3xCogsworth – Climbing Clock2xCy-Bug – Invasive Enemy2xEdgar Balthazar – Ambitious Butler1xLyle Tiberius Rourke – Crystallized Mercenary1xMaurice – Unconventional Inventor2xMoana – Island Explorer2xSir Kay – Unruly Knight3xStabbington Brother – Without a Patch3xToby – Dogged Companion2xGold Coin*2xLongboat*3xMaurice's Machine2xRuby Coil2xUnconventional Tool3xBelle – Apprentice Inventor2xChaca – Impressive Daughter*2xDonald Duck – Focused Flatfoot*2xGaetan Moliere – The Mole3xJebidiah Farnsworth – Expedition Cook1xKida – Creative Thinker2xMarie – Favored Kitten2xMonsieur D'Arque – Despicable Proprietor2xRobin Hood – Eye for Detail1xAll Is Found2xEver as Before*2xHelping Hand*2xMedal of Heroes**Part of a previous setAmethyst & Steel (Feathered and Feared)3xGiant Cobra – Ghostly Serpent1xIago – Giant Spectral Parrot1xJafar – Newly Crowned2xKashekim – Ancient Ruler1xMadam Mim – Cheating Spellcaster2xPain – Impudent Imp2xPanic – High-Strung Imp3xRajah – Ghostly Tiger2xTanana – Tribal Elder2xTe Kā – Lava Monster2xThe Carpenter – Dinner Companion*2xTreasure Guardian – Foreboding Sentry2xA Very Merry Unbirthday*2xMagical Maneuvers1xRestoring the Crown2xAmethyst Coil2xRetrosphere*2xAkela – Wolf Pack Elder2xArthur – Wart*1xFa Zhou – War Hero3xHeihei – Rambling Rooster2xHelga Sinclair – Tough as Nails3xJafar – Aspiring Ruler2xKing Hubert – Phillip's Father*3xMufasa – Respected King1xRaya – Guidance Seeker3xRazoul – Menacing Guard2xRoyal Guard – Bovine Protector*2xDouble Trouble2xTraining Dummy**Part of a previous set