Since the introduction of Universes Beyond (UB) sets in Magic the Gathering becoming a prevalent force, core MTG sets are becoming a rare delicacy. With that in mind, it means that they need to have more legs to stand on than previously. Lorwyn is a plane that hasn’t been featured since 2007 and was a highly loved set for both the cards in it and the location itself for its rich lore. It features heavily classic fairytale-like creatures such as merfolk, treefolk, faeries, shapeshifters, elementals, giants and of course, elves. Lorwyn is a plane that completely encapsulates what a lot of people believe MTG is at its core.
So Lorwyn Eclipsed needed to stand out as one of the few core sets. It needed to compete with the Avatar the Last Airbender UB set that came out just before it. It needed to compete with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles UB set that came out just after it. And it needed to live up to the love players had for the original Lorwyn set. So, with all that pressure, did Lorwyn Eclipsed crack like a common rock, or did it form a beautiful diamond? I am here to break it all down for you here.
Highlights of Lorwyn Eclipsed
When a new set is released, we usually get to play around with new mechanics. And when we return to familiar settings for sets, we get to catch up with familiar characters, locations, and mechanics. So, what are the highlights of Lorwyn Eclipsed?
Blight is one of the new mechanics introduced in this set. And it harkens back to the original Lorwyn set. Blight has you putting -1/-1 counters on your own creatures and occasionally forcing your opponent to do the same to theirs. Inherently the sound of making your creatures weaker sounds like an unwise decision but the set is filled with ways to mitigate the downside, move the counters, remove them, and use them to your advantage. This makes deck construction really fun. Especially for people like me who enjoy working with unusual synergies. It is important to note that one card with blight is only available in the Blight Curse, featured on the exclusive commander.
Vivid is the other new mechanic here and it cares about the amount of colours on the cards you control. Inherently this works incredibly well with hybrid mana costs which is another prominent feature of this set. A lot of the spells in Lorwyn Eclipsed have hybrid mana costs, meaning even in a dual-coloured focused standard deck, you can easily have 3 or 4 colours on your spells. Vivid is a utility mechanic and has different effects based on the card played: reducing mana costs, making creatures stronger, drawing cards etc.
Evoke returns prominently in this set too with 6 new evoke cards. With the return of elementals, it would be rude not to have some new evoke cards after all. Evoke is a different mana cost for a spell. But paying that cost instead sees your card automatically sacrificed at the end of the turn. In a card game with tens of thousands of cards, 6 might not sound like a lot, but considering there are only 36 cards with evoke (including these 6) this is a great inclusion. The 6 cards are super interesting designs too with 5 being dual coloured and working incredibly well with hybrid mana. It is worth noting that 1 of these cards can only be acquired in the Dance of the Elementals commander deck, featured as its commander.
Convoke also returns in force here (not to be mistaken with evoke). But still quite a niche (albeit beloved) mechanic. Convoke is a mechanic that allows you to tap creatures to help pay for its mana cost, helping you play these big beefy cards easier. With just over 100 cards in total with convoke, Lorwyn Eclipsed gives us 16 of those cards. And potentially so much more considering ‘Eirdu, Carrier of Dawn’ gives every other creature spell you cast convoke, this can lead to some very interesting board states.
Behold also makes a striking return in this set. And I think it is a clever inclusion. As Behold itself is an evolution of the older ‘champion’ mechanic which featured in the original Lorwyn set. Behold is another cost effecting mechanic but this time it is an additional cost to cast spells. This makes kindred decks much more synergistic and gives them some interesting options.
Hybrid mana is something that has been a part of the game for a long time. However, Lorwyn Eclipsed leans more into this than most sets. Whilst likely this was to prop up the vivid mechanic; I enjoy it more because hybrid mana cards are much easier to play in standard formats as opposed to commander. Commander gets too much love; you know it too.
Fetch Cards from Play Boosters
With every set of MTG, there are always a few cards that stand out amongst the rest. Lorwyn Eclipsed is no different. There are plenty of cards available in standard play boosters that fetch a pretty price. What I love about these cards though is that when you get them, you won’t want to sell them because they are interesting card designs that you will also want to build decks with.
Hexing Squelcher, Bitterbloom Bearer, Bloom Tender, Formidable Speaker, Moonshadow and the shock land series stand out as cards you want from this set. This is simply at the base artwork, non-foil, completely vanilla versions of the cards, not to mention the other versions you could potentially pull of them (and many others) from play boosters. Moonshadow is my personal favourite amongst these as I love intimidating creatures that only cost 1 mana but shift the focus of the board state.
Also available in the play boosters are two different full art basic land sets. One that depicts locations in Lorwyn, and the other shows the same location during its Shadowmoor cycle.
There are also full arts, borderless arts, fable framed and special guest cards available in the play boosters. The most sought after of these are likely the double-sided shock lands which feature the same card on each side but with different artwork. One for Lorwyn and one for Shadowmoor, tying into the lore of the plane for this set.
All in all, I think the Lorwyn Eclipsed play boosters offer some tremendous potential for both fun cards to play with and interesting art cards for collections.
Fetch Cards from Collector Boosters
Collector Boosters are at their core – for the collectors. They feature alternate artwork for cards from the set and have the chance to include some incredibly rare cards that are worth more than a pretty penny. Some of these cards could net you enough pretty pennies to buy a car. Or put a deposit on a house.
Lets get the big guy out of the way first. Without a doubt, the highest sought-after card of this entire set, and potentially MTG as a whole at the moment is the serialised version of Bitterbloom Bearer. Where the base version of it is currently worth about £12, and the fable frame £18 (both available in the play boosters); the serialised (only 500 in the world, alternative art, full art, double rainbow foil) is worth between £3000 and £5000. You read that correct. More money than I have ever seen in my bank account at any time before.
The prominent showcase for this set is the Japan showcase cards. These all have an anime-ish feel to them drawn in the classical waterwork style that features prominently in the Lorwyn Eclipsed set. Bloom Tender for example in the Japan showcase edition is worth around £35, and the fracture foil version of the Japanese showcase edition is worth over £220.
The only other card type exclusive to the collector boosters are the foil versions of the special guest cards. The special guest version of Bitterblossom for example sells is worth about £18 (available in play boosters). The foil version of the same card, only found in collector boosters, is worth about £20. There are likely other cards that can net a higher value difference but as a whole, these are the cards that are on the low end of what is available in the collector boosters.
All in all, there are some fantastic pulls you can get from the collector boosters. Lets be real though, neither you nor I are going to ever pull a serialised Bitterbloom Bearer, and the foil versions of special guests aren’t that exciting. Pulling some of the Japan showcase cards are likely the pulls that we should aim for realistically. And thankfully they are super pretty cards.
Final Thoughts
Lorwyn Eclipsed is a fantastic MTG set. It has so many pros, but a few cons. The set works so well in a limited format. I actually went to a prerelease event for this one – my first one ever! It features many interesting cards that will likely find their way into many of my decks. The downside to this is its own success. The original Lorwyn cards were released back when Wizards of the Coast printed sets in blocks. This was where there were several sets of cards a year, all based in the same location, same characters etc so the cards could tell a story, weave lore, and mechanics, creature types and synergies had room to breath and evolve. The original Lorwyn set had 897 unique cards to get creative with. Lorwyn Eclipsed gave us 273. It felt like a taste of something more. It only gave us 7 new treefolk for example but it did give us 23 goblins. When goblins already had 501 cards and treefolk only had 109.
Lorwyn is one of the most beloved planes in MTG lore. It relates to our childhood stories of fae folk and giants. It evokes such fantastical feelings in us. Lorwyn Eclipsed is great, and it showed us that Wizards of the Coast still has it in them to produce amazing sets in the MTG universe when they seem to have their main focus on giving us Spiderman, TMNT, Assassin’s Creed etc. Even in-universe sets lately feel like universes beyond, with cowboys, murder mysteries, and space races. Lorwyn Eclipsed was like a refocus on what MTG made MTG what it is. I just want more. We all want more. Lorwyn Eclipsed is the best set in years, if you are an MTG player, you owe it to yourself to give it a try.
