Bucky – Squirrel Squeak Tutor has always been a nuisance when playing against it, sucking the fun out of the game as he forces you to discard cards from your hand. This extremely impacted the meta, especially in Set 3 with Emerald Steel dominating the competitive scene. If decks didn’t have tools to replenish their hand after they’ve discarded resources, they wouldn’t keep up with the Emerald Steel deck.
On July 10, Ravensburger announced an errata for Bucky, which will take effect starting August 9th, 2024.
Hello, Disney Lorcana TCG players. We have an announcement regarding a card that will be receiving errata in all formats starting with the Shimmering Skies hobby release on August 9th, 2024.
Errata is not something we take lightly or want to do too often, so we want to give some context for our plans. Errata and bans going forward will be planned to be effective at the hobby launch of the next set, unless a change is deemed immediately necessary. We want to preserve a fun environment for the game, and address cards that cause negative experiences for players at all levels. We’re looking for ways to make printed versions of the updated card available to players later this year, and it will be corrected in any future printings.
Starting August 9th, 2024, the following card will be changed as follows:
Bucky – Squirrel Squeak Tutor
Rise of the Floodborn (Set 2)
Cost: 2 -> 3
Keyword: Ward -> No keyword ability
Updated ability: SQUEAK Whenever you play a Floodborn character, each opponent chooses and discards a card. -> Whenever you play a Floodborn character, if you used Shift to play them, each opponent chooses and discards a card.
Context: Ursula’s Return gave Bucky players the opportunity to discard multiple cards from opponents’ hands as early as turn 2 while building up a board that was very difficult to interact with, creating a stressful environment that just wasn’t fun. Ward also made Bucky close to untouchable, taking away player agency to deal with a powerful and cheap threat. For these reasons, we’re increasing Bucky’s cost to 3 and removing Ward from him. Additionally, we feel that requiring Shift better represents the Floodborn experience, as many decks utilizing Bucky have mostly ignored using the Shift mechanic (outside of one sinister bird).
Please keep in mind, for Challenge events, Shimmering Skies will be legal on August 30th, but the errata will go into effect immediately, so the Challenge event in Toronto on the weekend prior will have the errata in effect even though Shimmering Skies is not legal for the event. We apologize for missing the mark on this card and hope you understand why we’re taking steps to preserve a fun experience.
Lastly, as we’d like the Disney Lorcana TCG to remain a welcoming experience for players new to TCGs, please be understanding and helpful with those who may not follow changes like this. It can be tough to keep up with, so we’re working to provide an update on the app as soon as we can.
Thank you for your support of the Disney Lorcana TCG.
Disney Lorcana TCG Global Organized Play Team
Bucky Changes
Bucky – Squirrel Squeak Tutor
Rise of the Floodborn (Set 2)
Cost: 2 -> 3
Keyword: Ward -> No keyword ability
Updated ability: SQUEAK Whenever you play a Floodborn character, each opponent chooses and discards a card. -> Whenever you play a Floodborn character, if you used Shift to play them, each opponent chooses and discards a card.
These are massive changes that pretty much kill Bucky and kick him out of the competitive scene entirely. However, this left the community wondering about this “drastic errata”, that will simply confuse players who don’t know about the change. An outright ban on the card would have made more sense and would create less confusion.
To address the community’s frustration, Richelle Brady, the Global Community and Engagement Manager for Disney Lorcana, explained the decision behind an errata for Bucky instead of banning him.
We know many of you have been surprised by the errata to Bucky, and want to reiterate that this was done for the good of the game as a whole, not as any sort of “fix” to competitive play. Additionally, our approach to errata rather than ban in this instance was a unique case. We are planning support for printings of additional languages in the future and want to deliver a fully playable experience to our future fans, rather than having those players have one less card in Emerald. Banning is still a tool in our tool box that we will deploy if necessary in the future, and one we would typically prefer over a drastic errata like this.
What does this mean for the competitive scene?
Well, for the time being, Bucky will still be around until the 9th of August, so tournaments in Fort Worth, TX and Bologna, Italy. The old Bucky will also be playable in the Ursula set championship this month. Toronto, ON tournament on August 24 will be playing in Set 4 with the errata Bucky, so it’ll be a different meta.
With an errata to bucky, decks like Red Mufasa and Ruby Amethyst will have a boost in the meta and should see a rise in play. However, this doesn’t mean Emerald Steel is completely out of the meta, but it’ll see less play and will rely on Ursula – Deciver of All double-casting Songs.