Dawnhand EulogistDawnhand Eulogist | Art by Evyn Fong

Welcome back to Lorwyn, everyone! The long-awaited return to a fan-favorite world that holds a lot of Magic's history within it. This block introduced a ton of game changing new pieces to Magic that we take for granted today, like hybrid mana, kindred spells, Merfolk being an effective creature type, and planeswalkers.

Why have we never been back here since 2007? Some say the plane was too unique, others say the block was too strong; but today we're going to reveal the true reason as to why its been nearly two decades since we've been back to the home world of Oona, Queen of the FaeOona, Queen of the Fae.

It was to give Wizards of the Coast time to COOK, and cook they did with these fantastic new mechanics for us to dive into! So lets see what a love letter to the longest block in Magic's history looks like.

Blight

Lorwyn Eclipsed's main mechanic that stretches throughout the whole set and every color is a brand new look at using what's usually seen as a detriment in Magic. -1/-1 counters are usually associated with infect and our creatures withering away, but blight has us placing -1/-1 counters on our very own creatures in order to pay the costs for some amazing abilities.

Dawnhand DissidentDawnhand Dissident lets us tap it and place two -1/-1 counters on a creature we control in order to exile a card from a graveyard in order to let us cast it on a different turn. Scuzzback ScroungerScuzzback Scrounger lets you blight 1 on your first main phase to make a Treasure token. Pyrrhic StrikePyrrhic Strike has you blight 2 for additional costs that let you unlock more options.

We even got a counterspell in Wild UnravelingWild Unraveling, as long as we blight 2.

Much like the dichotomy of Lorwyn-Shadowmoor itself, this set also provides us ways to remove counters. We don't always like the tradeoff of making our creatures weaker for the value blight brings, so we can use cards like Bristlebane BattlerBristlebane Battler, Glen Elendra GuardianGlen Elendra Guardian, Slumbering WalkerSlumbering Walker and more. These all have ways to either actively or passively remove counters from themselves for their own benefit. They do double duty when we get to blight them to cast a cool spell and then just whisk those counters away.

While there are no +1/+1 counter givers in the set (thank goodness) it is important to note that -1/-1 counters and +1/+1 counters cancel each other out, so if we blight 1 and then bolster 1 on the same creature, we end up with no counters!

Hoof MommyHoof Mommy is the premiere Commander for this mechanic and through her you're going to find a lot of spells from the past that really take advantage for both you or your opponent's creatures getting -1/-1 counters on them. Don't forget that the Jund () precon helmed by Auntie Ool, CursewretchAuntie Ool, Cursewretch is also heavily based on -1/-1 counters, and if you've seen any bit of content with her, you'll see just how scary strong they can be!

Vivid

One thing that we can't deny is that Wizards of the Coast learns from its mistakes. It's usually not a quick correction, considering how long design takes, but when they fumble a mechanic, they take it, see what worked and what didn't, and come back to the table sets later with a new face. The new mechanic fivid, is the rare example of them glowing up twice.

Vivid is the newest rendition of the Eventide original mechanic of chroma, a much unloved mechanic at the time. Whereas chroma and its successor devotion had you look for the amount of single mana symbols on the permanents you control, vivid asks you to look for the number of colors among them instead.

So we're only counting from one to five for the effects of our cards, which is way easier to quickly check.

So say we put a KithkeeperKithkeeper into play, and just count the colors of the permanents we have in play. Clearly we have white on the Kithkeeper, so then we check for blue, black, red, and green; then we make a KithkinKithkin creature token for each of those colors we have. If Kithkeeper is our only permanent, we'd just have white, so we'd make one token.

If we were to play SquawkroasterSquawkroaster afterwards, we'll see that it has a total of three power because we control red, green, and white permanents. Even though we have two white permanents, we'll only count that once.

Vivid is a pretty cool mechanic, and while it does have a home in every color, most of the cards with the mechanic are in , which makes sense because playing multicolor decks is a lot easier when you have access to land tutors.

Speaking of multicolor, there's another mechanic in this set that goes hand in hand with vivid and is also a callback to the original Lorwyn block, and that's Hybrid mana!

Hybrid

Hybrid mana might not be seen as much of a mechanic now a days, considering it's in sets seemingly whenever it wants. It also usually doesn't matter much at all either and typically just means we can cast more cards in Draft without having to completely shift our decks.

However, in Lorwyn Eclipsed it matters a lot more thanks to vivid. Yes we still get to have our Draft decks not make a lateral into a completely different mana base, but we also get an additional color of permanent on our battlefield.

Twinflame TravelersTwinflame Travelers and Eclipsed FlamekinEclipsed Flamekin are both blue and red and would count for a vivid count of two; but a deck that can payShinestrikerShinestriker's double cost probably likes the hybrid mana more.

Yet the mechanics-that-feed-into-another-mechanic stack doesn't end there! For we have another retuning mechanic from the original Lorwyn block: evoke!

Evoke

Cards with the evoke ability allows us to cast it for a - usually - reduced cost, but as soon as it enters the battlefield, we must sacrifice it.

Why would we want to play a creature just to sacrifice it before we can swing or block with it? Well that would be because they all have very good enters-the-battlefield (ETB) abilities that make them worth getting for just a second.

CatharsisCatharsis can bring in tokens and/or +1/+1 counters and haste, while WistfulnessWistfulness can exile an artifact or enchantment while also drawing and discarding cards for you. If you don't really need DeceitDeceit's 5/5 body, but really need to bounce a permanent and/or take a card from their hand, we can just pay or and get those effects now.

What's all this and/or going on? Well unlike most ETBs, you only get certain ones based on how you pay for each of these hybrid mana evoke cards. EmptinessEmptiness's evoke cost is an opportunity to pay either or to get its abilities, or to get neither.

How do we get both abilities? Well if we paid the regular cost for VibranceVibrance, , we have that we can still spend or with. That's the only way for us to get both ETBs for this cycle of five mythics in Lorwyn Eclipsed.

Something even more notable as well as a reference to OG Lorwyn (this whole set is quite literally filled with callbacks, huh?) are their creature types: Elementals and Incarnations. Spoiler alert, this brings us right into our next topic!

Kindred

Kindred is a term in Magic that can refer to both a card type, as well as just a term relating to a strategy that involves one single creature type (this is also referred to as "typal"). Typically when we hear a player say "This is my Kindred deck" it usually means their deck is based around a specific creature type, like Elves, Goblins, Elementals, and so on. Kindred, the card type, is when a noncreature card is treated as if it's one of the creature types.

So say we're playing our Merfolk Commander deck and we have Merrow ReejereyMerrow Reejerey out. Normally we can only trigger the "Merfolk spell" cast with creatures. However, Sygg's CommandSygg's Command and Wanderwine FarewellWanderwine Farewell will both trigger the Reejerey abilities as they are seen as Merfolk spells.

Likewise, Emperor Mihail IIEmperor Mihail II would "see" Sygg's Command on the top of the library and let us cast it.

Lys Alana's BowmasterBowmaster and HuntmasterHuntmaster (both from Lorwyn) will trigger when you play Morcant's EyesMorcant's Eyes and Trystan's CommandTrystan's Command. Leaf-Crowned VisionaryLeaf-Crowned Visionary can trigger off of every kindred Shapeshifter spell as well, since the changeling ability makes it count as every creature type, so it's as if you've cast an Elf spell (as well as a Dragon, Dog, Cat, Zombie, etc. type).

Kindred the deck type makes its appearance all throughout Lorwyn Eclipsed with the different synergies among the many creature types in the set. While there isn't a specific thing that each creature type does, as most abilities they have are rather generic, like Champion of the ClachanChampion of the Clachan giving +1/+1 to your army of Kithkin, or Champions of the ShoalChampions of the Shoal dealing with Merfolk's propensity for tapping and untapping.

Doran, Besieged by TimeDoran, Besieged by Time plays into Treefolk typically having higher toughness than power, but most typal support is portrayed through cards like Harmonized CrescendoHarmonized Crescendo and Bloodline BiddingBloodline Bidding where just building around a singular creature type will net you a lot of value.

That's it for the mechanics of Lorwyn Eclipsed, a set that is truly a callback to the largest block in Magic as much as it is an exploration of an oft forgotten plane. It's been really great seeing Wizards take a look at what worked and what needed work, just to come back around and show us that the old block had a lot of great ideas, but modern Magic design perfectedperfected them.

Let us know in the comments down below if you like what they've done with the place, or if you liked how things used to be back in the day. I'd be hard pressed to find anyone not excited to mess around with blight and all the +1/+1 mechanics from Tarkir to get rid of the -1/-1s for unending value!

Elementals are also a fan favorite, so be sure to check out the five color Commander precon deck out too!