Magic: The Gathering Lorwyn Eclipsed Review, Part 1 of 4: The Mechanics

Weal and woe weave together once more as we return to one of Magic's most iconic planes in Lorwyn Eclipsed, bringing with it a host of new typal payoffs and wacky designs. Not everything is as it seems in this set, and it and includes mechanics both new and revisited, with a number of callbacks to the original block. In this article we’ll talk about those mechanics, and offer some thoughts on what they mean for Commander and other formats.

Lorwyn Eclipsed will release to Magic: the Gathering Online and Arena on January 20th, and to the tabletop on January 23rd. Commander: Lorwyn Eclipsed will release on the same date.

New Mechanics

Blight

Blight is an odd mechanic, employed here for both you and your opponents in equal measure. To Blight, either as an additional cost or as part of an effect, the Blighting player simply spreads -1/-1 counters among Creatures you control equal to the number listed, though cannot begin to Blight unless they have a Creature to place those counters on. It doesn't target, nor are you always the one that places these counters, leading to some quirks with previously-released -1/-1 counter synergies.

Saffgor: I can already tell you that Blight is going to cause a few mix-ups when it comes to rulings, and judging by some of the early EDHREC data, players are already preemptively including some nonbos in their lists. As an example, I love Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons, but if you're forcing opponents to Blight she won't trigger—not a huge deal, but still something you'll likely need to explain to a new player. The fact she, and cards like her, are in a Commander deck for the set double down on that fact. Still, while I think Blight is clunky, I absolutely adore having -1/-1 counters back, so it's still great to see.

FromTheShire: As a mechanic blight seems solid, playing into classic self sacrifice and temporary reward themes that make perfect sense with the largely Rakdos and Goblin cards. As for how it plays it is likely going to heavily depend on how efficient of a creature generation engine you can build since you do still need to be doing all that blocking and attacking stuff between killing your creatures for fun and profit. I have been playing a Goblin deck in Standard for a while now and this provides some interesting new tools.

BPhillipYork: Blight is a really nice refinement of -1/-1 counters, making them more palatable as a cost for things, and less aggressive if you can blight your opponent, but still quite impactful. There's certain ways you can turn blight into an upside, such as with offsetting +1/+1 counters if you want to be able to trigger undying again on a creature that's got a +1/+1. The two counters will cancel each other out, allowing you to get the creature back again. This seems like a very Phyrexian mechanic though, so it's a little sad to see it show up a while after the whole Phyrexian uh, thing, that mostly ended offscreen.

Vivid

Vivid is an ability word—like Landfall—that describes an ability or effect which cares about the colors among permanents you control. While this isn't a new keyword, having appeared before on cards like Bloom Tender, this is the first time this style of color-matters mechanics are a key facet of a set.

Saffgor: As the resident advocate for Monocolor, especially in Commander, Vivid basically doesn't apply to me. That being said, I've got a soft spot for when they reprint cards with new ability words, and seeing Bloom Tender not only receive a sorely-needed reprint, but with a new bit of flavor, brought a smile to my face. That being said, turning on Vivid is trivially easy, and you should almost always be evaluating it for 4-5 when looking at these cards. Never forget that Leyline of the Guildpact is a card.

FromTheShire: Yeah in older formats this is trivially easy to turn on, with whole decks already being built around Domain, which goes hand in glove with Vivid. This feels like it probably goes from over costed feeling with two colors among permanents to possibly busted at 4-5, so much depends on how easily you can balance your colors.

BPhillipYork: Vivid is essentially something that already existed, but was given a keyword. It's a useful shorthand, though the number of keywords you might be expected to remember at once is, frankly, a lot. Still, it's hopefully indicative of more "multi-color matters" which I think is a really nice archetype to see getting more support. In combination with domain this means decks can benefit both from running lands of all sorts, and creatures of all sorts, or just give a boost to the value of cards like Transguild Courier.

Returning Mechanics

Behold

Behold is a means of referring to one or more of your cards on the battlefield, and/or in the hand, letting you meet additional requirements for a spell or ability. Originally debuting in Tarkir: Dragonstorm, this is its second appearance in a Magic set, appearing exclusively at rarities Uncommon or higher.

Saffgor: Aside from the fact that this mechanic is strictly ripped from Legends of Runeterra, down to the name, it's good to see Behold return once more. For typal sets, it can be an excellent way to incentivize Creature-dense decks, and even allow otherwise high mana value types to still feel important before they hit the battlefield. We've seen designs like this appear as far back as the original Lorwyn, with Silvergill Adept, so it's cool to see the mechanic home to roost.

FromTheShire: This definitely feels at home on Lorwyn - for me the pull is Auntie's Hovel (shocking given the above Goblin leanings) - and as a lover of typal decks it's always nice to get more cards like it. Frequently the cards are borderline playable as is, so getting the upside if you lean into the theme is really nice.

BPhillipYork: Behold is okay; it really supports kindred and of course changeling decks. Celestial Reunion is itself a bit of an outlier since it lets you choose and behold anything. A bit more flexible, though most of the time if you're running this you're wanting to search for a creature type that you've already got so it's likely a kindred deck. Nonetheless I think it's a neat card, and certainly if your deck has a two part combo that happens to share a creature type, it'll let you dump it directly into play.

Evoke

Evoke returns from the original Lorwyn, as an alternative cost for permanents in the set. When you Evoke a card, it enters with a trigger on the stack to sacrifice itself, being temporary without a means of blinking, recurring, or Stifle-ing the trigger.

Saffgor: Evoke historically has been a powerful mechanic, but its return here circumvents quite a lot of the issues it's had in the past. The cycle of Evoke Elementals in the set all care about the mana spent to cast them, meaning flickering them with an Ephemerate does little to help you beyond preserving the body. That's true for that cycle (whose designs I love), but there's a certain Commander also printed here that's needed not only a day 1 errata, but also presents a number of loops. Some great designs, some less so, but the mechanic itself is never boring.

FromTheShire: Another great callback, though as mentioned by Saffgor they made it fair this time around so we aren't getting an immediate icon like Mulldrifter, and that's sad for all of us. The flexibility is still great card design and we can look forward to them seeing play.

BPhillipYork: Evoke hasn't been around a lot for a while, though there was a recent solid cycle of evoke cards. Evoke is potentially really strong, since it's almost always tied to enters play effects and or death effects. There's many times all you really want is the effect and/or you have ways of recurring the creature, or even sacrificing it in response to the sacrifice trigger, meaning it's all pure upside to get it out cheaper.

Kindred & Changeling

Both of these mechanics reinforce the typal-matters identity of Lorwyn, each in their own way. Changelings always count as all creature types, improving their flexibility in both Limited, and obscure types, and Kindred is the new name for Tribal, a secondary supertype that allows non-Creature cards to have Creature types. Both debuted in the original Lorwyn block, though Kindred/Tribal was functionally retired from 2011-2024.

Saffgor: Tribal's rebranding has allowed it to come back in full force, and it's absolutely awesome to see its rise in Lorwyn Eclipsed! I love janky synergies, so seeing cards like a mana rock with Kindred - Changeling gets my brain absolutely whirring; imaging casting it for {1} with an Eye of Ugin out, just fantastic. I can only hope this forecasts the type once again becoming deciduous in design. Changeling meanwhile appears every other release, it feels like, and is therefore less exciting, but I imagine it helps Limited work in such a type-matters dense set. The return of Kindred in earnest here though, that's a huge win.

FromTheShire: Huge fan of kindred decks in general and many of the Lorwyn ones in particular, and getting new support is fantastic as always. Especially untyped things like Firdoch Core that are not locked to a given creature type. Getting creature types on non-creatures is a welcome return as well, I have many fond memories of searching up Tarfires as they are Goblins.

BPhillipYork: This set seems largely focused on kindred keywords and a lot of changelings, which is fun. Changelings get a little troubling when there's just so many of them, and they really let you abuse the idea of a "kindred" deck, but they're pretty useful fillers. Thankfully none of the changelings in this set seem to be of the really brutally good sort, just generally utilitarian and useful, though a changeling that gives you a land token is a new trick. Also land fetching changelings and mana rock changelings are all pretty new and quite useful.

Convoke & Persist

Appearing infrequently in the set, Convoke & Persist are the key mechanics of the new god of Lorwyn, Eirdu/Isilu. Convoke is a keyword ability that allows you to tap Creatures to pay for the cost of a spell, for one mana among the tapped Creature's color(s). Persist meanwhile is a triggered ability, returning a Creature on death to the battlefield with a -1/-1 counter, if it died without having one.

Saffgor: Convoke at this point is functionally evergreen, and frankly, I'm pretty happy about that. While it has some quirks (tapping for colored mana versus similar keywords like Improvise), it's still fairly understandable even to new players. Persist meanwhile is a dangerous ability to bring back, even if it's only on two cards, and I imagine folks will find some janky Standard-legal combo with it, guaranteed. That being said, as a combo enjoyer myself, I see cards like the new Rhys and start immediately planning to break it wide open.

FromTheShire: I absolutely love persist because yeah, it makes dumb stuff happen. For instance, Murderous Redcap has featured in a whole mess of decks I have played across multiple formats. Handing it out to everything is begging for a combo and I'm here for it.

BPhillipYork: Convoke is just great, really benefits from building up a board state, but also gives you something to do with small creatures that you can't attack with. It does sort of help justify board stalls, which are a frustrating state that Commander games can revolve around. Persist is a fun mechanic, and pairs decently with blight to increase your -1/-1 tokens. There's a few cards that absolutely just care about tokens (Tayam Luminous Enigma is a good example), which mean that -1/-1 tokens can be a weird, easily obtainable fuel, but that sort of thing is just really creative deckbuilding

Next Time: The Set’s Multicolor & Colorless Cards

That wraps up our look at the mechanics of Lorwyn Eclipsed. We’ll be back later to look at the most noteworthy cards in the set, starting with the Multicolor cards, and then Monocolor & Colorless options in the following articles.

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