Disney Lorcana just revealed its answer to Magic’s Commander format

Moana from the island of Motonui is drawn to the sea even as a little girl, and her father, Chief Tui, spends all of the song “Where You Are” trying to convince her to embrace her duty as the next village chief. The humble coconut is an important part of their culture (a part that, according to Maui, he gave to them). “Consider the coconut!” is a punchy refrain from that song, and it’s one that’s referenced in the codename for what’s ostensibly Disney Lorcana’s answer to Magic: The Gathering’s hugely popular Commander format — because, well, they’re considering it. Playtesting began this week at Gen Con 2026, which runs from July 30 through Aug. 2 in Indianapolis.

Traditional Magic is 1v1 with relatively loose deck construction rules (generally speaking) where you can have up to four copies of any card. The first player to lose all 20 health lost the game. Commander has you select one legendary creature which defines your entire deck since the colors you use depend on the Commander you choose. Each deck also must have a total of 100 cards (including the Commander) with no repeat cards. You also get 40 instead of 20 life and typically play at a table with four players. While there are other nuanced rules to the mode, that about sums it up. It’s largely considered a casual format that’s far more expressive than traditional Magic, since your entire strategy revolves around your Commander.

Lorcana’s co-creator Ryan Miller announced the new [Format Coconut] in a blog post on Tuesday ahead of Gen Con, confirming that it’s a codename for a new format intended for more than two players. It’s clear that he understands what makes competitive TCGs a bit overwhelming — and why formats like Magic’s Commander are so popular. Coconut mimics a lot of the same broad strokes: more than two players, increased life (in this case, a higher Lore threshold you have to reach to win), and singleton decks built around an [Coconut] card you select ahead of time.

“From the beginning, co-designer Steve Warner and I imagined how much fun it would be for groups to play the game together, and folks have enjoyed being able to play with more than 2 players using the basic multiplayer rules,” Miller wrote. “Now we want to step it up!”

There are several key distinctions, however, that feel uniquely Lorcana. Because there’s no equivalent to the “legendary” creature classification in Lorcana, [Coconut] cards are instead chosen from a preselected assortment of 18 beta cards. Rather than anything like a Command Zone, you instead place four copies of your [Coconut] in a 60+ card deck. All of the cards on the beta lists are prominent figures throughout Disney’s history, in most cases protagonists of individual franchises with a few villains in the mix as well. In every case, the base cards are already “build-around” cards with strong abilities that can and should define a deck’s identity. Yet there’s an even more interesting wrinkle: in [Format Coconut] each of your [Coconut Cards] gets an extra special ability.

Take Moana – Curious Explorer from the Winterspell set, for instance. Her Ancestral Legacy ability lets you ink cards from your discard pile. Her special [Coconut] ability, however, lets you ink an additional card during your turn if you have a Moana, Heihei, or Pua character in play. Together, these abilities make Moana – Curious Explorer hugely efficient at ramping up your inkwell, so long as you can also keep your discard pile relatively full.

Image: Ravensburger

Moana – Curious Explorer is a sapphire card, and [Format Coconut] rules allow each deck to have a total of three ink types, but one of them has to match your [Coconut] card. This deck’s strategy is ready-made: set up a strong discard and draw engine so you can leverage Moana’s abilities to fill up your inkwell. That’s probably best done with Sapphire/Amethyst/Steel, but what seems really compelling about [Format Coconut] at large is that it sets up a deck’s identity first and then lets you flesh out how you want it to look.

Moana – Curious Explorer also wants you to lean into Moana cards with lots of Moana, Heihei, and Pua cards, so it winds up being a fun thematic riff that ebbs and flows (like the sea!). Looking through the 17 other [Coconut] cards available in the beta, it’s clear the design team put a lot of thought into flavorful abilities. Snow White – Merry as Morning wants to get all seven dwarves out of your deck. Ariel – Spectacular Singer grants extra lore when any of your princesses sing. Pocahontas – Peacekeeper boosts lore gained when one of your characters quests. In every case, it feels like a fun way to roleplay these characters in a deck rather than assemble a netdecked list of cards to win a competitive match.

[Format Coconut] is still very much so in the early days for Lorcana, but if players receive it half as well as Magic’s players received Commander, then it’s bound to become the most popular way to play the game before long. As for me? I’m torn between building a Nick Wilde – Wily Fox deck with Pawpsicles and other items, or a Robin Hood – Sneaky Sleuth deck that peppers all of my enemies with arrows.