Winning Trades and Board Control in Disney Lorcana

At Level 1 you learned when to challenge instead of quest. Now you learn how to challenge well. Every challenge is a trade between two characters, and the player who makes better trades over a game usually controls the board. The player who controls the board decides who quests safely.

Challenge math

The rules are short:

• Your challenger must be dry and ready, and its target must be an exerted opposing character, or a location.
• Each character deals damage equal to its Strength to the other, at the same time.
• A character with damage equal to or greater than its Willpower is banished.
• Damage stays until something removes it.

So before any challenge, compare two pairs of numbers. Your Strength against their Willpower minus their damage: does it banish them? Their Strength against your Willpower minus your damage: does it banish you?

Four kinds of trade

The clean kill. You banish their character and yours survives. This is the best trade in the game. You remove a quester and keep your challenger for next turn.

The even trade. Both characters are banished. Whether this is good depends on what each was worth. Trading your 2-cost character for their 5-cost quester is a win. Trading your best quester for their cheapest character usually is not.

The chip. Your challenger survives and their character survives too, but damaged. This sets up a later kill, by another challenge or a damage effect. It is useful when you have a follow-up, and wasted when you do not.

The bad trade. Your character is banished and theirs survives. Avoid it, unless the damage you deal lets you finish the job this same turn.

What a character is worth

Cost is a rough measure, but not the only one. Ask:

• Lore value. A 3-lore quester gains more every turn than a 1-lore one.
• Ongoing ability. A character that helps every turn is worth more than its stats.
• Cards invested. A shifted character sits on top of the card it shifted onto. If it is banished, both cards go to the discard pile. Banishing one is a two-card trade in your favor.

Keywords that change trades

• Challenger +N adds Strength only while challenging. These characters are built for clean kills.
• Resist +N reduces damage dealt to the character by N. Do the math with it, not around it.
• Bodyguard characters must be challenged first if able. Your opponent may put one in front of their questers to protect them. You can choose to stop challenging, but you cannot go past the Bodyguard.
• Evasive characters can only be challenged by characters with Evasive or Alert. If you have none, look for other answers.
• Ward stops your opponent choosing the character for their effects, but it does not stop a challenge.

Locations

Locations are never ready or exerted, so you can challenge one on any of your turns. They have Willpower but no Strength, so they deal no damage back. Every challenge into a location is a free hit, as long as the lore your challenger could have gained is worth less than the location, and you can afford to leave the challenger exerted on your opponent’s turn. A location giving your opponent lore every turn is often a good target.

Board control as a plan

Some decks win by questing fast. Others win by controlling the board: trading well, turn after turn, until the opponent has nothing left to quest with. Most games mix both.

A useful habit is to count lore on the board: the total lore value of each side’s characters that could quest next turn. A clean kill does not just remove a character. It lowers your opponent’s lore on the board, and that slows their whole race. The next level turns this into a clock you can count.

When not to trade

Sometimes the best trade is none. If your opponent’s characters are not threatening to win and your questers are safe, keep questing. Trades are a tool for the race, not a goal of their own.