Tier 1 · Pull Up a Chair · Lesson 7 of 15
Ink, the resource everything runs on
Once a turn you take a card out of your hand and bury it face down, and it never comes back. That one choice pays for everything else you will ever do, and it is supposed to hurt.
You do not spend ink. You exert it.
Almost everyone has this backwards on day one. When you pay for a card, you turn ink cards sideways. That is the entire payment. They stay in your inkwell.
Fourth, the player pays the total cost. If the total cost includes any ink, the player must exert a number of ready ink cards equal to the ink cost.
Comprehensive Rules 4.3.2.4
In plain terms: a card costing 3 means turning three upright ink cards sideways. Nothing is removed. Nothing is thrown away. And then your next turn starts:
The active player readies all their cards in play and in their inkwell.
Comprehensive Rules 3.2.1.1
In plain terms: everything you turned sideways stands upright again, ready to pay for something else. Ink is not fuel you burn through. It is a crew that clocks in again every turn.
How a card becomes ink
- You say you are putting a card into your inkwell.
- You choose a card from your hand with the swirl around its cost, and reveal it.
- Your opponent checks that the swirl really is there.
- It goes into your inkwell face down and ready.
That last word is worth money. Ink arrives upright, so it can pay for something on the same turn you put it in.
Once per turn, on your own turn, never on your opponent's. There is no limit on how large an inkwell can grow, but at one card a turn the ceiling is just how many turns you have taken.
Once it is ink, the front stops mattering
It stays face down for good. You may never look at a card in any inkwell, including your own, though you may count any inkwell at any time. Exerted ink sits visibly sideways so both players see what is left (7.5.4).
One card is one ink, whatever it used to be, because nothing on the front of an ink card affects the ink it generates (7.5.1). An Amber card pays for a Steel card perfectly well. Ink has no colour.
Why the choice is supposed to hurt
Roughly one card in five cannot be inked, and they are not spread evenly: about 8% of commons, about 32% of rares and super rares. The better the card, the less likely you are allowed to bury it.
And a cost must be paid in full. Four ink and a 5-cost card in hand is not nearly enough. It is nothing.
Inking is once per turn and it does not bank. Miss it on turn two and you do not get two on turn three. You are simply a turn behind for the rest of the game.
Five cards sit in your inkwell, all ready. You play a character costing 3. How much ink can you still use this turn, and how much at the start of your next turn?
- None now, five next turn. You exerted three of the five. The other two are still upright and usable, and that is the ink people forget they are holding.
- Two now, five next turn. Right. Three went sideways to pay, two stayed ready, and your next turn stands the whole inkwell upright again.
- Two now, two next turn, because the three you paid with are gone. Nothing ever leaves your inkwell. Paying exerts ink, it does not remove it.
- Paying ink turns cards sideways. Nothing leaves your inkwell.
- Your next turn readies your whole inkwell again.
- One card into your inkwell per turn, face down.
- New ink arrives ready and can pay immediately.
- An ink card is 1 ink, whatever is printed on it.
Write the numbers 1 to 6 down the edge of a page: that is the most ink you can have on each of your first six turns. Take the cost off any card you like and find the first line it fits on.
Rules quoted from the Disney Lorcana Comprehensive Rules, version 2.2.0, effective 9 July 2026. Rule numbers change between versions, so we cite them rather than quote from memory.
Next: Setting up a game. You know what every turn costs now, so the first ninety seconds of a real game will make sense.
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