From your first deck to “One more game?”
The CocoDex beginner’s guide. Read it all, or jump straight to the part you need.
You want to try Coconut. Excellent.
Maybe you have never played Lorcana. Maybe you bought a starter deck and a few boosters. Maybe you have played Core for years and just want to know why everyone is suddenly talking about coconuts. Or, like me, you come from other TCGs and need no introduction to the word singleton.
Let’s keep it simple.
Where do you want to start?
“I have never played Lorcana.”
Start at the beginning. We’ll go from your first game to your first Coconut deck.
“I have played Lorcana and own some cards.”
We can skip the basics. Your first Coconut deck starts here.
“I play Core, but I’m new to multiplayer.”
This is your section. Three opponents are not simply three times as many opponents. Unfortunately.
“I know Lorcana and multiplayer. What can CocoDex do for me?”
Jump to deckbuilding and synergies. If Coconut itself is new to you, read Coconut in a minute along the way.
1. Getting to know Lorcana
Play first. The card cupboard can wait.
If Lorcana currently means “Disney characters on very pretty cards” to you, that is enough to start with. Before trying Coconut, play a few regular games.
The official Disney Lorcana quick-start rules are the best starting point. Start there, rather than with the comprehensive rules. You want to learn a card game, not begin training as a Lorcana judge.
My advice is even simpler: find someone and play.
If someone can lend you a deck and teach you, perfect. Otherwise, get a preconstructed starter deck. If you are both new, get two and give it a go.
Make mistakes. Mix things up. Wonder why a card does not work. Read it again. Make a completely different mistake next game. That is how you learn card games.
Finding someone who shares your enthusiasm is already an important part of the hobby. For me, it begins no later than finding someone who will listen to ten minutes about why my plan was brilliant and failed only because of an absurd chain of unfortunate events.
Obviously, it wasn’t the deck.
An official digital Lorcana game has also been announced for desktop and mobile. We do not currently know whether it will support Coconut. For now, we need a table. And some cards.
2. Your first Coconut deck
You know Lorcana now. Time to build something of your own. You do not need a complete collection or every expensive card people mention. Start with an idea you want to play.
How to use our deckbuilding toolStep by step to your first deck with CocoDex.
Coconut in a minute
Coconut is in official open beta. Rules and Coconut abilities may change.
Choose a Coconut. It gives you a special ability and one required ink color; you may add up to two other colors. Your deck contains at least 60 cards. You may include up to four copies of its associated character card. Other cards are generally limited to one copy each: the singleton principle.
A different illustration of the same card does not get around that rule. Nice try. Individual Coconuts may have exceptions, so read their current text.
Multiplayer games are played to 25 lore. Ravensburger expects three or four players to work best.
Your Coconut and its associated regular character card are different things. The Coconut supplies the format ability; the character card goes in your deck.
Welcome to Coconut.
Which Coconut should I choose?
Visit our Coconut overview. Perhaps you already own a linked card, love a character, or read an ability and think: I could do something with that…
That is the thought we want. Don’t worry about the theoretically strongest deck. Choose one you want to play. Songs? Princesses? Items? Lots of characters? A theme that makes you smile when you unpack the deck? All good reasons.
Try finishing this sentence: “My deck wants to…” If you can, you have already achieved quite a lot.
Our deck ideas can help you find cards and mechanics that support that plan. They are not commandments. Replace cards you lack, try your own ideas, and play a card because you enjoy it. We are building a deck. There is room for a card simply because you enjoy playing it.
I would still start with 60 cards. Not 63. Not “around 60”. Every extra card makes the others slightly less likely to be drawn. Yes, I too have found very convincing reasons why card number 61 was indispensable.
Before you buy booster boxes…
Two words: buy singles.
A friendly greeting here to the Professor at Tolarian Community College, who has probably said that more often than I have said “I’m just changing one little thing in my deck”.
Opening boosters is fun. I enjoy it too. But it is different from building a particular deck. If you need ten specific cards, buy those ten, for example through Cardmarket, a local store, or other players. Coconut helps here because you generally need only one copy.
Before ordering every apparently perfect card, build version 1. Not version 14. Set a budget and play. You may discover that the expensive card does not solve your problem, while an unassuming uncommon does exactly what you need.
Rotation and card prices
Prices change. The sets legal in Core depend on the current rotation; check the official rules and format information. Changes may affect prices. May, not must.
I would never promise that waiting for rotation will make a card cheaper. Markets do not work that way. Otherwise, I would probably have built a very different website.
Ask whether you need a new, popular card now. If it transforms your deck and you want to play it, go ahead. If it is a minor upgrade, you can wait.
I say this as someone who regularly sees new cards and immediately thinks: I need that. Sometimes I deliberately pay more at release to try a combination straight away. That is money spent on a hobby, not an investment. Both are worth keeping distinct.
3. From duels to multiplayer
Suddenly everyone has an opinion about your deck.
Instead of one opponent, you usually face three. They are not one opponent with triple the lifespan: they are three people with their own decks, plans, and an impressive ability to notice something unpleasant taking shape.
You can have the strongest deck and still lose. Perhaps because it is the strongest. When three people realize you could win in two turns, they discover common ground.
I know this from Commander. Alliances can be about as stable as a typical Disney villain partnership, yet last long enough for the moment.
Multiplayer does not automatically balance everything. A much stronger deck can still overwhelm the table. Answers may be missing, threats recognized too late, or deck strengths simply mismatched.
Before playing, ask: what are we playing today? First attempts, theme decks, optimized lists, or a test evening? This need not become a conference. But three first-time decks facing a fully optimized machine priced like a used car may produce an evening three players did not expect.
Learn to read the table
Ask who can win before my next turn? Not who has the biggest character, who challenged me, or whose card annoys me most. Who is actually dangerous?
It might be the player on 21 lore, the one quietly collecting items for three turns, or a harmless-looking combination about to explode. You are playing your deck, but also the table.
And then there is politics
Politics mostly means people talking: “If that stays, we have a problem.” “I can remove it, but then I have no answer to that.” “If you leave me alone now, I’ll deal with it next turn.”
For me, those conversations belong here. “You must play this card now” does not. Explain why something is dangerous, particularly to new players, then let them decide.
Don’t obsess over looking harmless. If nobody ever sees you as a threat, perhaps you are doing nothing. Build, observe, hold something back, and recognize the moment when “just preparing a little” suddenly becomes “Oh.”
Experience a game of Coconut
Why Not Coconut · YouTube · Video in English
4. Building further with CocoDex
Turning 60 cards into a deck
After a few games, you learn what does not work. That is valuable. Perhaps you run out of cards, hold too many expensive ones, or use your Coconut’s wonderful ability only twice all evening. Perhaps drawing a certain card always makes you think: Oh. You again.
Now the interesting work begins.
Tags help identify jobs
CocoDex uses tags, including CocoDex Tags, to describe roles such as Draw, Protection, Removal, and Recursion. Coconut and strategy notes ask a further question: why might this role matter to your Coconut?
Drawing cards alone does not guarantee a good fit. A less spectacular draw effect may support your actual plan at the same time. Tags should not say “play this”; they should say “take a closer look here”.
Your deck needs an everyday plan
Everyone loves the spectacular combination that makes them feel brilliant for 45 seconds. Until then, you still need to play a card game.
Can I do something early?
If the interesting plays begin on turn five, your hand may simply be a lovely card collection for four turns.
Can I reliably build my inkwell?
Not every card is inkable. A deck full of wonderful uninkable cards can become wonderfully unplayable.
Can I get more cards?
If your empty-handed plan is drawing exactly the right card each turn, that is hope rather than a plan.
Can I answer opponents’ problems?
Sometimes something needs to go. Simple as that.
How do I actually win?
A beautiful machine can draw, recur, turn items, move characters, and perhaps make coffee. If it gains no lore, it still does not win.
Good cards can do more than one job
I like characters that also refill my hand, answers that support my own plan, and effects I can reuse. Singleton makes different ways of doing similar jobs especially useful.
But theoretical versatility is not enough. If a card requires six conditions, three candles, and a rare moon phase, it may be a lovely story rather than a reliable component. Sometimes that is still a good reason to try it. We are playing a game, after all.
Don’t change everything after one game
Improve your deck. Ask what was missing, which cards you wanted or never wanted to draw, whether your Coconut mattered, and whether you had enough ink, cards, and answers.
Change a few cards, then play again. One defeat proves little. Your deck may have been poor, your play imperfect, your luck bad, or three other people may have decided you were tonight’s problem.
Only repetition gives you a useful clue. Repeated ink trouble points to inkable cards and the curve. An empty hand suggests reliable card supply. A plan always arriving too late may need cheaper components more than another spectacular card.
You need not fix everything at once. Adjust a few slots and keep the rest stable. Eventually the question becomes not whether a card is good, but whether it is good in your deck.
Now play a game.
Choose a Coconut, build your first list, and bring it to the table. It need not be perfect. It only needs to give you a reason to look forward to the next card.
We will learn the rest by playing. And when someone asks for one more game, you will probably know why this website exists.
Search less. Play more.
