Pixar finally enters Lorcana
Every time Ravensburger teases a new Lorcana set, the Pixar question comes up. Where's Buzz? Where's Mike and Sully? When are we getting the Up house? The answer arrived this month: May 15. Wilds Unknown is Lorcana's ninth major set, and it's the one that finally unlocks the Pixar catalog inside the game. Buzz Lightyear. Woody. The Incredibles lineup. Those are the first four Pixar characters confirmed, with more full-art reveals rolling out through May.
Prerelease is May 8. Wide release is May 15. The set continues Lorcana's standard 204-card core with booster packs, a starter deck, the Illumineer's Trove, and gift sets. What's different this time is the collector treatment. Ravensburger has shown a new 'full-art Pixar' card style that's exclusive to the Pixar cards in the set. That's a layered collector chase I haven't seen from Lorcana before, and it's a clean way to give Pixar characters their own visual identity without breaking the game's existing rarity structure.
For anyone who's been building Azurite Sea or Archazia's Island decks, Wilds Unknown is a continuation. Not a reset. Inkwell colors, ink costs, and the Shift / Singer / Challenger keywords are all here. The set just layers Pixar names on top of the mechanical foundation Lorcana's had since Rise of the Floodborn. New deckbuilding opportunities, same rules.
Wilds Unknown is Lorcana Set 9. First Pixar set ever in the game
Ravensburger is pacing Pixar way smarter than Wizards paces Universes Beyond
Here's the part that got me thinking: Pixar isn't a one-set drop. It's three sets across 2026. Wilds Unknown in May (Toy Story, Incredibles). Attack of the Vine! in July (Monsters Inc., Up, Turning Red). And Hyperia City in Q4, which is explicitly going to debut Coco characters for Dia de los Muertos. That's a Pixar rollout plan that stretches across seven months and touches five different movies without dumping the entire studio into a single product.
Now compare that to how Wizards does Universes Beyond. MTG got the entire Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles universe in a single Standard-legal set, launched March 6. Final Fantasy is one set. The Walking Dead was one set. Warhammer 40K was one set. Every time Wizards touches a licensed IP, they try to stuff the whole thing into a single SKU, and every time, the secondary market reacts the same way: preorder hype, collector box collapse, singles prices that crater within 60 days.
Ravensburger is doing the opposite. Spread the IP. Let each set have its own voice. Give Toy Story its own prerelease. Give Monsters Inc. its own prerelease. Give Coco a set literally designed around Coco's visual palette. It sounds obvious when I type it out. But Wizards has had three years of Universes Beyond and they still haven't figured this out.
What to buy at prerelease and what to wait on
Prerelease kits go live May 8. If you've never done a Lorcana prerelease before, they're drastically easier than Magic prereleases. 4 boosters and a foil promo, about 90 minutes, and the format is constructed-light. I'd go. The Pixar promo is going to be the early collector piece, and prerelease promos tend to hold value when the IP is new to the game.
For singles, the full-art Pixar treatments are the obvious chase. If you're building a sleeve-worthy deck, I'd wait two weeks after release and pick them up on the secondary market rather than crack booster boxes. Lorcana's box EV has been rough since Archazia's Island. The value is in the chase singles, not in the sealed product.
If you want the full Pixar experience, the Illumineer's Quest: The Great Hunny Rescue ships in October at $59.99 MSRP. That's a Pooh-focused standalone adventure product. Not Pixar, but a good signal that Ravensburger is investing in longer-form Lorcana experiences beyond booster packs. I'm preordering it.
Wilds Unknown is live May 15. Set your LGS reservation now. This is going to be the biggest Lorcana launch of the year, and prerelease slots are going to fill up by next weekend.
