I think my most uncontroversial Lorcana opinion is that Tinker Bell, Giant Fairy is a very special card. I know at the very leastmy fellow TGers agree with me. It’s been my favorite card since it was first revealed ahead of the game’s launch, and even though it hasn’t been quite as powerful in the Rise of the Floodborn era, I still think it’s the most interesting, and maybe even the most important card in the game right now. But as we look ahead to this month’s Into the Inklands expansion, I’ve finally found new love. Helga Sinclair, Femme Fatale is everything I want from a Floodborn character, and my new favorite card in Lorcana.
I’ll back up, briefly, to explain why Big Tink is such an important card.I covered this topic before while looking for Rise of the Floodborn’s own Big Tink, but to reiterate: the reveal of Tinker Bell, Giant Fairy expanded the creative limits of Lorcana, strengthened the game’s identity, and set the bar for what Floodborn characters can be. This category of ink-infused glimmers, born from the chaos of the Flood, are best represented by wild and imaginative designs like Big Tink’s. This is a beloved Disney character depicted in a way we’ve never seen before, using unique abilities befitting of such an eye-catching design. It’s a strong card, a playable card, and card with a thematically imaginative design. Golly, I sure love Big Tink.
Not every Floodborn has lived up to the giant fairy’s standard. When the first few were revealed - a Rockstar Stitch with a blonde mohawk, Aurora as a magic-wielding guardian, a long-haired Hades sitting on the throne of Olympus - I thought I had Floodborn pinned down as multiversal reimaginings of classic characters. A lot of them aren’t very distinct from their original designs though, and the identity of the Floodborn has quickly gotten blurry.
In Rise of the Floodborn, ironically a set that was meant to be devoted to the Floodborns, a lot of the Dreamborn characters had more Floodborn qualities. While The Queen, Commanding Presence , Snow White, Well Wisher, and Madam Mim, Rival of Merlin could all be confused for Storyborn characters, among others, Dreamborn characters like Winnie the Pooh, Hunny Wizard and Daisy Duck, Secret Agent look like mislabeled Floodborns.
Behold, the Helgas of my heart
Helga Sinclair, Femme Fatale, does not have that problem. One look at the German commando, and it’s clear that this is a very different character than the one depicted in Atlantis: The Lost Empire. What I love about this design is that it maintains the character’s core identity as a duplicitous villain who is far more capable than she first appears, but also reimagines her in a new genre, giving her a strong, immediately identifiable theme.
Like the best Floodborns, Helga’s card tells an entire story. Instead of a turn-of-the-century covert spy, this Helga is portrayed, as her name implies, as a Lovecraftian Femme Fatale. Her sickly green dress hugs her figure and exposes just enough skin to portray her as vulnerable and alluring, while the sharp look in her eye betrays her true intentions. Her setting - a dark, deep-sea vessel potentially related to some other underwater characters we’ve seen - is fitting for her film, yet foreboding at the same time. The shadowy tentacles conjure images of the terror in the deep. Perhaps on their expedition to find Atlantis, this alternate version of The Ulysses found something forbidden and unspeakable instead.
Plus, I think it would be neat if she stepped on me. Do you think I was going to get through this entire thing without saying that? Grow up.
Helga looks like she stepped directly out of Arkham Horror and into Disney Lorcana as a wholly new, fully realized version of a classic character, and I’m smitten with her. At first blush (and oh boy, did I blush), I don’t believe she’ll be as playable as Big Tink - questing abilities that only affect already-damaged characters are situational, and require a lot more setup than Big Tink “play card, make everything hurt” effect, but it isn’t lost on me how well Big Tink and Helga synergize together either.
There’s nothing that makes her work on curve, and there’s alreadya lotof competition for five-cost emerald cards, so I don’t think Helga is going to end up being a meta staple the way Big Tink is. Still, this is the direction I want all Floodborn characters to take. It gives the entire classification a strong identity that’s easy to recognize. There’s still a lot of Floodborn still to be revealed for Into the Inklands, and I hope they’re all as good as Helga.
