The world debut of Magic: The Gathering’s long-awaited return to Lorwyn is here. During a Jan. 5 livestream, Wizards of the Coast showed off more than 40 new cards across variant art versions and flip cards for the Lorwyn Eclipsed set, and kicked off the event with a rock opera musical starring two boggarts (goblins in this realm) produced by The Jim Henson Company.
Lorwyn Eclipsed depicts the dual-plane of Lorwyn-Shadowmoor, where Lorwyn’s whimsical, neverending day exists opposite to but in tandem with Shadowmoor’s ceasless night. The set is designed around this tension of opposing forces existing at the same time, both narratively and mechanically. That duality shows up immediately in the set’s typal (or tribal) focus. Creature types like elves, kithkin, faeries, boggarts, merfolk, treefolk, and elementals all appear with abilities and effects that incentivize focusing specifically on creature types in your deckbuilding.
Also prevalent in Lorwyn Eclipsed are -1/-1 Blight counters associated with Shadowmoor as an expression of decay. Rather than exist in isolation, Blight counters seem to interact with other systems that reward timing and careful investment, creating a push-and-pull between erosion and growth that plays out directly on the battlefield, particularly with black-green cards. There’s also a “Persist” mechanic on at least one white card that sees a creature self-revive upon death with a Blight counter, as long as it had no previous Blight counters on it.
Convoke and Evoke also return in Lorwyn Eclipsed, offering varied ways to cast certain spells. With Convoke, you can tap creatures to help pay part of the spell’s cost. Evoke allows you to pay an alternative, cheaper cost for a creature to trigger its “enter” effects at a discount, but the creature is sacrificed after those abilities trigger.
Another returning mechanic is Behold, which was first introduced in last year’s Tarkir: Dragonstorm. It essentially grants additional effects on a card if you exile a certain creature type from the battlefield or your hand. In Tarkir, that obviously involved a lot of dragons, but in Lorwyn Eclipsed, it seems like Behold will lean into the various tribal themes. In the one example shown, it functions with elves, but it’s likely other Behold cards might appear in the set that involve the various other prominent creature types.
One of the bigger new reveals to come out of the livestream is the confirmation of a totally new mechanic called “Vivid,” which has you count the colors among your permanents for some kind of scaling effect. In the example provided, Explosive Prodigy deals X damage to a target creature based on the number of colors among the player’s permanents. While not terrible in tri-color decks, Vivid will obviously be huge for five-colored decks like the Dance of the Elements precon (more on that in a minute).
The reveal also confirmed the return of the Planeswalker Oko, which makes sense considering Lorwyn-Shadowmoor is his home plane. Like other cards from the set, this Planeswalker comes with the transformation mechanic that lets him alternate between light and dark versions. He also leans into tribal themes.
Two preconstructed Commander decks are confirmed for the set as well: Blight Curse and Dance of the Elements. The former is led by Auntie Ool, Cursewretch. In Boggart culture, Aunties are the wisest among their race. Lorwyn Aunties are leaders who impart wisdom whereas Shadowmoor Aunties are loners described as chaotic beings. Blight Curse, fittingly, is a black-red-green deck that focuses heavily on the Blight mechanic. Dance of the Elements is a five-color deck led by Ashling, the Limitless. That deck leans into the aforementioned evoke mechanic to capitalize on certain mechanical triggers, along with an emphasis on various kinds of elementals.
Lastly, here’s a look at some of the special art, shock lands, and more shown during the reveal.
Players can get their first hands-on experience with Lorwyn Eclipsed during Play Early events at local game stores from Jan. 15 to 22, with the set arriving on Magic Arena Jan. 20. The full release follows shortly after, when Lorwyn Eclipsed becomes available everywhere on Jan. 23.
