After the awesomeness that was Avatar: The Last Airbender Magic set, I was chomping at the bit for some in-universe Magic. I had never played with the plane of Lorwyn before, but when I saw Elves, Elementals, Goblins and stuff, I was so keen. The Magicest Magic I had ever seen. So after Lorwyn Eclipsed got pushed back to the start of this year, I felt the hype rising. Now it is here and… well… It was worth the wait!
Why is Lorwyn Eclipsing?
If, like me, you are going in without knowing about Lorwyn, it’s a fascinating world. Basically, it is a plane with massive changes between night and day. There used to be a Faerie queen Oona, who would change the world from night to day as she saw fit. When it is night the world is called Lorwyn, but at night it’s called Shadowmoor. In Lorwyn people are in general nicer and happier, and the details in the world are more peaceful. In Shadowmoor everyone is meaner, and the world is more jagged and thorny. A fun quirk: when people change between forms, they forget most of their memories from before.
So anyway, since that queen was beaten, the world now has two elemental gods. When Eirdu is walking around, areas become Lorwyn, and when Isilu walks around, the areas become Shadowmoor, more akin to a day-night cycle. Our story has some students from Strixhaven fall through an Omenpath to Lorwyn, where they accidentally wake up Isilu, who walks around, and they watch people transform from nice to gnarlier. The story follows these students as they try to get home and meet the different species on Lorwyn, and we have some time with our old friends Oko and Ajani.
I won’t spoil the story, but it’s an interesting plane filled with a great story. Honestly the only weakness is the length; I enjoyed everything about it but wanted way more detail and time with teams. I know we are getting a Strixhaven novel, but I want the Lorwyn Eclipsed novel!
What’s it like to play?
This is not the easiest set to start with, but it is a super fun set. Unlike a lot of other sets, a lot of the power comes from sharing creature types. You can run a good elf, a good fairy, a good treefolk, and a good merfolk card. And sure, they will do cool things, but the creature types have a lot of synergies. A medium-power typal deck with synergy can go so much harder than a deck that has random good cards. Though chuck some treefolk in for the top end; they slap so hard.
Returning mechanics include the fun Evoke keyword, which basically means when something enters, it can have a different effect based on the mana used to cast it. Behold means that you need to show another card with the same type, either from your hand or on the battlefield, and then there is Convoke which lets you tap creatures to reduce the cost of that spell. 8 mana isn’t so high when you can tap 7 kitchens to make it cost 1!
The biggest thing that was new to me was kindred cards. Because the set is heavily tribal-based, kindred makes a whole lot of sense. Basically it means there are cards like enchantments that have a type, like Goblin. This means if you have a Goblin enchantment on the battlefield, and you have a card that gets stronger for each Goblin, this counts as one. It’s super fun.
Then there are the new mechanics.
New mechanics!
Well let’s talk about the two new mechanics first, Vivid and Blight. Vivid is a card that has an effect based on how many colours you have among permanents you control. So for example, if you have a blue enchantment out and a red creature out, when a card like Bloom Tender taps for mana, you get 2 mana. This is a simple and fun mechanic to play with. This is extra fun with hybrid cards, where you can cast them for one mana, but they may have two or more colours on them. This can make a two-colour deck have some big Vivid payoffs.
Then there is Blight. Here you have the choice to put -1/-1 counters on your creatures. Sounds great, right? Well, it can be! When something has Blight on it, it usually comes with some sweet perk, like a creature being cheaper than it should be, or you can kick an effect in an instant. It’s a hard mechanic for newbies to swallow, as instinctively you don’t want to make your creatures weaker, but if you get your head around it, then you can do some powerful stuff. Then if you get the 0/4 Great Forest Druid out, then you have a great target for those counters.
The commander decks!
There are two commander decks in Lorwyn Eclipsed, Dance of the Elements and Blight Curse. First I will cover off the changes. The first is Commander Decks, which used to come with a little Collector Booster Sample pack, usually with a Rare and an uncommon with the cool Collector Booster treatments. I was a big fan of these because I like fancy arts. These are now gone, which is unfortunate. The other thing is there has been a slight price bump in the decks of around $10.
Aside from that, they still come with the 100-card deck that is ready to play out of the box with two full-art options to choose for your commander. It also comes with a flimsy cardboard box you can use to store your deck and a booklet with a guide on what the deck is about. So nowadays you are now paying for the deck. But is it still worth it?
I had a play with the Dance of the Elements deck, and in short, I love this deck. This deck is all about Elemental creatures, which use the ability Evoke. This means you can bring out elementals at a reduced cost to get their ETB effect, and you sacrifice them at your end step.
The face commander Ashling, the Limitless, allows you to give all elementals Evoke 4, which can be bananas, but also when you sacrifice the elemental at the end of your turn, you create a token, which sacrifices at the end of the next turn unless you pay one of each mana colour. So at worst, you get to have two turns with the elemental and two ETB effects. At best, you get to keep them. This is so much fun to play with. The alternate commander gives your elementals myriad, which is fine, but I am leaving that in the 99, as Ashling is way more fun.
I rarely upgrade precons, and this one is fun out of the box. The issue is there are heaps of cool elementals in the main Lorwyn set, which is going to force me to have fun popping some of them in the deck. That’s right, that big issue is causing me to have fun. The other issue is because the deck is five colours, it runs a lot of great lands to get there, but they are tapped, which made me a turn too slow. So it will need some minor manabase upgrades.
But this is a deck I will pull out a lot, because it’s so damn fun to play.
I haven’t played with Blight Curse, but looking at the cards, it heavily uses the blight mechanic. This has you putting -1 counters on your creatures to gain some benefits. This looks like it will be fun as well, so I will likely pick this up at some point.
Both of the decks have a bit of a learning curve for newer players. The Blight Curse can be a bit of a challenge for new players, as you have to reduce the power of your creatures, which can be hard for new players to decide is worth it. Dance of Elements has you having to choose when to play elementals for the lower cost, knowing they will be sacrificed. This means the decks are great for older players who like the mechanics. Having said that, they are great ways for new players to learn the balance of cost vs benefit, so I wouldn’t be afraid to hand this to someone I was teaching to learn that balance.
Is the art any good?
Oh my god, yes! I mean take one look at Figure of Fable and see for yourself, the art in this set on the standard cards alone is stunning! Some of these I want to get prints of because they are that beautiful. Then there are the alternate arts.
Like many sets before, there are Japanese showcase cards that you can only get in Collector Boosters. These look awesome as hell, but they always do. Then there are the normal alt art cards. These remind me a lot of other fantasy alt art, like the Enchanting Tales cards from Wilds of Eldraine or the Bloomburrow alt arts. Not that they look the same, but both of those had fantastic storybook-style art, and Lorwyn Eclipsed has gone a similar way. These arts look like they have come straight out of the most expensive fantasy kids’ books, and they are gorgeous. I will be collecting as many of these cards as I can.
With the Lorwyn Eclipsed theme, there are alternate full-art land cards too. Each depicts a scene with a shadowmore or a Lorwyn theme. They are, yet again, gorgeous.
The last thing is the special guest cards. As always, these are reprints from old sets, some being valuable. For Lorwyn Eclipsed, the special guests have an almost 3D papercraft effect. I haven’t cracked on myself yet, but I have seen some in person, and they are absolutely gorgeous.
How can you buy Lorwyn Eclipsed?
Unlike some of the other sets, this is a simpler one. As always, there are boosters you can buy and collector boosters. Collector boosters come with more rares, more foils, and more fancy art cards with the only chance of pulling one of the anime art ones. The problem with a set like this is the alt arts are so pretty, I want to buy Collector Boosters, and they aren’t cheap. They are awesome, but they aren’t cheap.
As usual, there is a bundle with nine play boosters, a promo card, some lands, a dice, and a box to keep it all in. The promo card is an alt-art kinbinding, which is an appropriate card for this kindred-focused set. This die is a stunning green with an awesome swirly fantasy-like typeface for the numbering. Then the full art lands, and a useful box is always welcome.
Something new are the 60 Card Theme Deck’s. These are a cool idea if you are looking to get into a 60 card format like Standard. I haven’t played with them. but looking at the deck lists, the pirates deck could be fun in a very casual game, but would likely struggle at any local Standard showdown. The Angels deck, while it needs some upgrades, certainly has the bones of a fun Standard deck. I have a Standard angels deck, and the removal, and some of the angels are on point here. Pop a couple of super storng angels in, and it could win you some games. It would have been nice for these to have a stronger mana base like a shock land or two.
There is also a new box called Draft Night. This comes with all the boosters and lands you need to host a draft night at home, and a collector booster you can use as a prize. Or keep that Collector Booster for yourself as a thank you for hosting. I like this idea a lot!
Then there are the two commander decks I mentioned before. There is something nice in the simplicity of the release for this set.
So should you buy Lorwyn Eclipsed?
It’s an easy recommendation here. Stunning art, fun mechanics, fun cards and awesome commander decks. I mean, what more do you want from a set? I don’t have any notes, except play with Lorwyn Eclipsed; it’s awesome!
When Magic does it's magic thing, there is nothing quite like it. There is a bit of a learning cuve for newer players with the strong tribal theme, but the learning is worth it!
