Bloodline BiddingBloodline Bidding | Art by Drew Baker

From the vibrant, adventurous world of Avatar: The Last Airbender, we go now to the long awaited return to the world of Lorwyn Eclipsed, two decades in the making, where Lorwyn and Shadowmoor are in constant flux.

While this isn't a world of Minotaurs, it is a world of shapeshifting changelings, which has me very excited. But beyond that I'm confident there are still plenty of new cards that can assist Minotaur typal strategies.

For those new to my reviews, I analyze cards from the perspective of Minotaur typal and how they can be used in the various sub strategies available, those currently being Aggressive Combat, Discard, and Magar Big Spells. Each has their own nuances, but all broadly rely on the same core Minotaur typal backbone.

So with that, lets explore this land of faefolk whimsy and delve into Lorwyn Eclipsed.

Bloodline BiddingBloodline Bidding

Let’s begin with Bloodline Bidding. This is a rather interesting take on a mass resurrection spell and it's an effect we don't see too often. The problem with these type of effects is they often cost a lot of mana, which ends up meaning you’re unable to cast any additional spells that turn. With convoke, as long as we have a few creatures in play, we can cast this earlier in the game or hold back enough mana for a follow-up spell. This shouldn’t be hard to pull off in a SethronSethron deck with the tokens he generates.

However, due to the higher mana value Minotaurs tend to have, that makes this harder to convoke with than say Elves or Zombie typal decks. At the same time, we don’t want to be tapping our Minotaurs to cast spells, we want them attacking as much as possible, so Bloodline Bidding in a way works against our game plan.

Therefore, I’m not sure if Bloodline Bidding is good enough to run instead of other similar cards like Haunting VoyageHaunting Voyage or Patriarch's BiddingPatriarch's Bidding.

Nameless InversionNameless Inversion

I think this might be one of the most creative cards to have the changeling ability, as its function is to be every creature type while also temporarily stripping creature types from its target. However, this highlights its key flaw: Inversion is a combat trick we don’t want to cast on our own Minotaurs.

Instead, I see this as a card best used as a political tool in Commander. The -3 toughness it grants makes it good spot removal, especially against indestructible targets or utility creatures that never block. We can also use it to boost another player’s attacks and win some favor amongst the table.

Despite this being a "Minotaur" spell by technicality, it doesn't actually do anything specifically for Minotaur strategies. I'd recommend playing it only for flavor or theme purposes, as there are better spells you can play in its place.

Collective InfernoCollective Inferno

As I discussed in my review of Avatar, I am always on the lookout for cards like Fated FirepowerFated Firepower. The faster we can destroy our enemies the better, so doubling or tripling our damage is always important. Collective Inferno might just be my new favorite of these kinds of effects.

As mentioned with Bloodline Bidding, Minotaurs aren't exactly suited for convoking spells, but given the casting cost of Inferno is five mana, it’s a little more reasonable to be able to convoke with one or two Minotaurs. This way we can still have mana left over to cast another spell, such as a mana rock. What makes me most intrigued is that even at its undiscounted cost, it costs the same as Dictate of the Twin GodsDictate of the Twin Gods.

Now this doesn’t have the surprise factor of Twin Gods, but it also doesn’t double the damage of our opponents. So, we can attack more aggressively without having to fear retaliation as much and commit more Minotaurs to our assault. So, with this and its convoke, it might be the best damage doubler available to Minotaurs at this moment. Its something I think will give my Minotaur decks an edge they didn't have previously.

Chronicle of VictoryChronicle of Victory

It only took one look to understand how incredible this will be for Minotaur decks. The immediate comparison is Vanquisher's BannerVanquisher's Banner, which also draws a card for casting the chosen type, but here the anthem effect is doubled, and it grants first strike and trample to our Minotaurs.

In other words, Chronicle is like two different Minotaur lords, such as Rageblood ShamanRageblood Shaman, combined into one artifact. The power of this should not be underestimated, as now a humble Hurloon MinotaurHurloon Minotaur becomes a 4/5 with trample and first strike. Making it so much easier to crush our opponents as well as defend better against counter attacks.

Gathering StoneGathering Stone

I’ll say upfront that I’m a little uncertain about this card. While reducing the casting cost of Minotaurs by one mana is very valuable, it costing four mana means it won’t come into play until the middle point of the game and delay us developing our board at the critical time when we're able to play the Minotaurs core to our strategies.

That said, its ability to get a Minotaur into our hand on our upkeep if it’s the top card is useful, as it doubles the number of cards drawn from our deck when we already have few forms of card draw available to us.

But all of these points are moot when you remember that Herald's HornHerald's Horn already exists and does everything Gathering Stone does for only three mana So with all of this context, I don't think that I'm interested in using Gathering Stone. The only way I would want to play it is if I could somehow curve Herald’s Horn into Gathering Stone to effectively get double its effect, which admittedly would be powerful.

Changeling WayfinderChangeling Wayfinder

Changeling Wayfinder is most likely the best Minotaur we’ve seen printed since Gornog, the Red ReaperGornog, the Red Reaper in 2024, and this isn’t even trying to be a Minotaur. The reason I hold this position is that Rakdos' () decks frankly suck when it comes to mana ramp.

Now you may say getting a basic land into your hand isn’t mana ramp, which is technically correct. But what I am saying is that it might as well be ramp if the alternative was missing a land drop. So as far as I am concerned, Wayfinder is the first ramping Minotaur available to us, and it’s sad that I even need to sing praise over what was most likely a card designed for draft filler.

This is all to say that Changeling Wayfinder is likely going to be an auto-include in every Minotaur deck from this day forward, and I highly encourage other Minotaur enjoyers to do the same.

Rooftop PercherRooftop Percher

Here we have another changeling creature that honestly isn’t too shabby. Minotaurs for obvious reasons don’t historically fly or have reach. In my experience, we really don’t have many tools available for us to defend against opponents with flyers, Dragons being the most common.

We have Minotaur SureshotMinotaur Sureshot, Longhorn SharpshooterLonghorn Sharpshooter, and Talruum PiperTalruum Piper, but they can be a bit clunky to play or not available when we need them.

So, this little Shapeshifter provides us with a Minotaur that can gain all the benefits of our lords to go toe to toe with enemy flyers and offer a method of attack against opponents entrenched in a defensive board state. The ability to exile cards from graveyards is honestly just icing on the cake here. And having more cards that can deal with enemy flyers make it easier for us to stay alive in the long game.

Abundant CountrysideAbundant Countryside

This land is going to be huge for creature typal decks. The way I see it, its a Sliver HiveSliver Hive for every creature, though it costs six mana to make a 1/1 token instead of five.

I like this a lot because of how it can make any color of mana for creature spells, which is useful if you happen to get color screwed. In Minotaurs, our creatures tend to skew more towards red mana, so our mana bases reflect this. This means sometimes we have black Minotaurs or Rakdos Minotaurs, without a method of casting them. So a land like Abundant Countryside can help alleviate that issue.

But then it also gives us an outlet for our mana so we're never wasting it each turn. If a game goes long or we're on a discard strategy, having this ability to make a Shapeshifter with changeling seriously helps maintain a board state and keep the pressure up.

However, if our goal is to make changeling tokens, I would much rather use Maskwood NexusMaskwood Nexus to do it. The token is 2/2 and it costs us only three mana to generate it. But I think it's important to have a redundancy of these abilities in a Minotaur deck to ensure they're always available as an option to us.

Conclusion

And with that a sunset arrives on Lorwyn. Not the approach of Shadowmoor, but rather our departure as we move back to the city that never sleeps with TMNT.

I had a lot of fun with Lorwyn and I can see why it's so beloved. I only started playing the game in Kaladesh, but had I been around for the release of Lorwyn I think I would have been a die hard fan of it. There's truly a charm to it not found in any other Magic setting.

Until next time, be sure to check out the other set reviews found on EDHREC for a broader analysis on everything Lorwyn Eclipsed has to offer.