ith our mechanics guide on Lorywn Eclipsed!
We’ve finally made it back to Lorwyn, and it unsurprisingly has a mix of old and new mechanics. Today, we are going to take a look at the mechanics in Lorwyn Eclipsed and refresh ourselves on the old ones, as Prerelease is on the horizon!
Vivid
Shimmercreep
Lorwyn Eclipsed, Uncommon
Vivid is a new mechanic that rewards you for having a spread of colors across your permanents. It works particularly well with multicolored cards, and most of the Vivid cards work well even with just two colors in play (though obviously get quite a bit better the wider you go). Hybrid is the best combo here, as you can stretch to three to five colors of permanents while still just playing two colors.
Hybrid
Eclipsed Merrow
Lorwyn Eclipsed, Uncommon
Speaking of which, the Shadowmoor theme is back, and en masse. Hybrid cards are pretty strange, as they range from being extremely hard to cast (Eclipsed Merrow in blue/black is basically just a triple-blue card, which isn’t easy), to essentially colorless (Merrow in blue/white is always castable). One way to maximize your hybrid value is to try to have a main color with only a splash, so you can scoop up all the hybrid cards in your main color.
Blight
Cinder Strike
Lorwyn Eclipsed, Common
Blight is another central mechanic, as -1/-1 counters are a huge part of Lorwyn Eclipsed. Blight is a cost you pay by putting that many -1/-1 counters on one of your creatures (Blight 1 is one counter, Blight 2 is two — you get the idea). You can play Blight straight up by just using the cards as drawback cards, but there’s much more play to it in this set. There are plenty of cards that remove -1/-1 counters (such as Rhys, the Evermore), so you can use those to mitigate the drawback, and you can over-Blight a small creature if you have one lying around (Blight 4 on a 1/1 still works just fine). This looks like a cool mechanic, and one that has a lot of intricacy in how it plays out.
Changeling
Graveshifter
Lorwyn Eclipsed, Uncommon
It wouldn’t really be Lorwyn without Changelings, so I’m not surprised to see them return. This mechanic means that the creature (or spell in some cases) is every type, everywhere, all at once. That helps smooth out your kindred decks and acts as glue that can connect multiple archetypes. A couple good Changelings makes it so your Merfolk and Faeries deck works, even if the actual Merfolk and Faeries don’t overlap that much. Changeling is sweet, and I’m glad to see it back.
Kindred
Ashling’s Command
Lorwyn Eclipsed, Rare
Kindred is another returning mechanic, and not the most complicated — it just means that spells can have creature types as well. Cards with Kindred count as their respective types everywhere, so an Elemental tutor could find Ashling’s Command, a card that makes Elementals cheaper would make this cheaper, and so on. There aren’t a ton of Kindred cards in the set, but they will make an impact.
Double-Faced Cards
Ashling, Rekindled
Lorwyn Eclipsed, Rare
At this point, double-faced cards (DFCs) are in basically every set, so I considered not even calling it out. In any case, there are some in the set, and they are sure to play well, as DFCs usually do.
Behold
Soulbright Seeker
Lorwyn Eclipsed, Uncommon
Behold returns as well — we just saw this in Tarkir: Dragonstorm. It’s a natural fit for Lorwyn Eclipsed, as it pushes having a bunch of cards of the same type, and offers significant advantages if you can Behold successfully. Most of the Behold cards are still playable if you miss, but some of them really need a card of the right type to function (like Champions of the Perfect).