The full upstream README, mirrored here for reference. Install config, tool schemas, adoption signals, and an original overview live on the Lorcana MCP listing page.
An MCP server that lets Claude (or any MCP client) search, analyze, and build decks for the Disney Lorcana TCG. Ask for cards in plain English, get rules-checked deck validation, ink curves and keyword breakdowns, and round-trip deck lists with Dreamborn/Pixelborn.
2,506 unique cards (3,192 printings including alternate arts and promos), refreshed daily. No API key, no database, no rate limits — the server ships against a snapshot published from our own pipeline, so it never depends on a third-party API being up at query time.
| Tool | What it does |
|---|---|
search_cards | Filter and retrieve cards by name, color, cost, rarity, type, keyword, stats, set, and body text. Supports response_format="toon" for ~10% fewer tokens |
count_cards | Count cards matching a filter without paying for the card objects |
aggregate_cards | Group counts by cost (ink curve), rarity, color, set_code, or type |
resolve_card | Fuzzy-match an informal, partial, or misspelled card name to the closest cards |
top_traits | Most common traits (Storyborn, Hero, Villain, Ally, ...) across all cards |
validate_deck | Check a deck against format rules (≥60 cards, max 4 copies, ≤2 inks, dual-ink requirements); returns {legal, total_cards, inks, violations} |
deck_stats | Ink curve, color split, inkable count, type breakdown, keyword counts, subtype counts, and per-card keyword tags |
import_deck | Parse a Dreamborn/Pixelborn deck list into resolved cards, with fuzzy candidates for unresolved lines |
export_deck | Render a deck back out as a Dreamborn/Pixelborn-compatible text list |
server_status | Startup metadata (card count, configuration) |
Claude Desktop / claude_desktop_config.json:
Claude CLI:
The server is also published to GHCR and the MCP Registry.
To persist the card cache across container restarts, mount a volume:
No port is exposed; MCP communication is over stdio.
Once connected to an MCP client, you can ask natural language questions like:
Card lookup
Deck building
Keyword & ability search
Stats & aggregations
Cross-filter queries
Note: For plain keyword queries (Evasive, Bodyguard, Shift, etc.) use the
keywordparameter — it filters against the structured ability list and is more reliable than substring search. For value-specific queries likeSinger 5orResist +2, usebody_text(keyword values live in the card's full text, not the ability list).
build_deck(colors, playstyle="balanced") — guides the model through assembling a legal Lorcana deck (60-card minimum, ≤2 inks, max 4 copies of any card) for the requested color(s) and playstyle (aggressive / control / lore-race / balanced). Uses the search/aggregate tools above plus the rules embedded in the server instructions.On startup, the server fetches a JSON list of cards from
https://danielenricocahall.github.io/lorcana-mcp/allCards.json. The snapshot is refreshed daily
by data_pipeline/fetch_cards.py, which pulls from the Lorcast API,
normalizes each card into our internal schema, and publishes the list to the gh-pages branch.
That middle layer insulates running servers from Lorcast's availability and rate limits — the
runtime never calls Lorcast directly.
Cards are kept in memory as a Python list for fast filtering. The dataset holds 2,506 unique
cards, each carrying a printings array for its alternate sets, numbers, and rarities (3,192
printings in total). Consolidating printings onto one row per card means a search for "Elsa"
returns each distinct Elsa once rather than repeating her for every promo reprint. A local JSON
file cache (LORCANA_CACHE_PATH, default cards.json) lets the server skip the network fetch on
subsequent startups.
LORCANA_API (default: https://danielenricocahall.github.io/lorcana-mcp/allCards.json)LORCANA_CACHE_PATH (default: cards.json) — local file for caching fetched cardsLORCANA_HTTP_TIMEOUT_SECONDS (default: 60)LORCANA_REFRESH_ON_STARTUP (default: false) — true always fetches and repopulates storageLORCANA_SKIP_IF_DB_EXISTS (default: true) — false fetches and repopulates even if the cache is populatedsearch_cards accepts a response_format argument:
"json" (default) — list of card objects, unchanged from prior versions."toon" — a TOON string with one column header line and one row per card, encoded by the toons Rust-backed library (the official community reference implementation).Example (search_cards(name="elsa", limit=2, response_format="toon")):
The outer cards[2]: falls back to YAML-style per-card blocks (rather than a single tabular table) because card shapes vary — Actions and Items don't carry strength/willpower/lore, for example. The inner printings[N]{...}: block is fully tabular since every printing has the same four fields.
Measured with benchmarks/bench_toon.py against the live 2,506-card dataset, tokenizing with
tiktoken cl100k_base (used as a proxy for Claude's tokenizer):
| query | rows | JSON tokens | TOON tokens | Δ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
color="amber", limit=200 | 200 | 44,101 | 39,680 | −10.0% |
color="ruby", limit=50 | 50 | 10,522 | 9,519 | −9.5% |
card_type="action", limit=50 (sparse cols) | 50 | 10,154 | 9,250 | −8.9% |
body_text="when", limit=50 (long full_text) | 50 | 11,602 | 10,391 | −10.4% |
name="elsa", limit=20 | 14 | 3,488 | 2,940 | −15.7% |
| total | 79,867 | 71,780 | −10.1% |
Note: TOON's relative savings are smaller here than they were before the printings consolidation
(pre-PR-#29 the same queries showed ~50% reductions). That gap is structural to the nested
printings array — TOON's columnar encoding wins on the top-level fields but falls back to
JSON-style encoding inside the per-printing entries, so the array dilutes the relative gain.
Absolute token counts are still down meaningfully versus the equivalent count of pre-consolidation
rows, since each unique card is now represented once with a small printings list rather than as
1-3 separate full rows.
Reproduce with PYTHONPATH=. uv run python benchmarks/bench_toon.py (requires a populated
cards.json cache).
This is a personal, unofficial fan and engineering project. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, sponsored by, or reviewed by Disney, Ravensburger, or the Disney Lorcana TCG team. It is built and distributed in accordance with Ravensburger's Disney Lorcana TCG Community Code, using only publicly available and community data sources. All Disney Lorcana TCG names, card text, trademarks, and related intellectual property belong to Disney and Ravensburger. This project is non-commercial and reflects my personal views only, not those of my employer.
MCP Registry ownership verification — the registry reads this line from the published package description to confirm this project owns the server name.
mcp-name: io.github.danielenricocahall/lorcana-mcp