Lorwyn is a fan favorite setting. After nearly two decades, we return to a set inspired by fairy tales and folklore. It was the set that introduced planeswalkers and had a unique setting featuring no human creatures. Lorwyn was unique, experimental, and imaginative. Let’s see if Lorwyn Eclipsed can keep that legacy alive.

Today, we’ll focus on the Lorwyn product suite, new cards for Commander, and notable reprints.

Play Boosters come in a couple of different options this time. Boosters are €5 or €140 for a booster box.

Bundles contain nine play boosters. This is a great starting point for newer players. It comes with 15 foil and 15 non-foil basic lands, a promo card, and a storage box to hold all your cards and even a couple of decks. You can pick it up for €55.

Draft Night is a new product type. For €90, you get twelve play boosters. It has everything you need for a four-player draft. This is a great product to share with friends.

Finally, the last play booster product is a Prerelease Kit. This costs €30. It contains six packs and a promo card. You can buy kits individually or sign up for a prerelease event.

We see the “Kindred” card type make a return. This was originally known as “Tribal” in Future Sight but has since been changed in all cases. Kindred is used to give a creature type to non-creature cards.

Ashling’s Command is a “Kindred Instant – Elemental”. This means it will also cost one less if you have a Brighthearth Banneret in play. Being kindred does not do anything on its own.

Kindred also counts as a card type. Ashling’s Command can be found with Atraxa, Grand Unifier, and it will grow your Tarmogoyf/Nethergoyf style cards.

Evoke makes a return here. Those used to Modern and Legacy might be afraid of the Modern Horizon elements, but Lorwyn brings a much more balanced evoke spells.

Evoke is an alternative casting cost. You cast the creature for its evoke cost; it is immediately sacrificed when it enters the battlefield. Normal spell timing rules apply. This synergizes well with the enter/leave the battlefield triggers.

The big example in ECL is the “Elemental Incarnation” cycle. These can be cast or evoked using hybrid mana. Depending on what colors you use to cast them, you will have a different effect.

Emptiness returns a three mana creature from your grave to the battlefield if WW was spent to cast it, and it puts three -1/-1 counters on something if BB was spent. You can evoke it for two mana to get either of these effects, or if you hard-cast it, you can get both effects if you have access to WWBB.

The whole cycle looks great. Wistfulness is my favorite. The mix of card draw and interaction makes it a great fit for any deck simic.

We see a new take on double-faced cards. A cycle of legends can be transformed at the beginning of your first main phase if you pay a cost. On their other side, they have a mirrored ability allowing them to transform back.

Ashling, Rekindled, draws a card whenever she enters or transforms to this side. You can pay U to transform her during your first main phase. She transforms into Ashlin, Rimebound when she transforms to this side, and at the beginning of your first main phase, add two mana, but it can only be used to cast spells with a mana value of four or greater.

Ashling is a great draw engine that can accelerate you on mana. The Rimebound side is particularly strong as it can be used to cast elementals for their evoke cost.

I like this more dynamic approach to double-faced cards. Both sides of Ashling feel appropriately powerful. I like the idea of moving between the two phases. We have seen plenty of transforming designs where the second half is a powerful monster. The Lorwyn approach is much more interesting to me.

Blight is a new mechanic. It’s written as

“Blight X”. To blight you put a X -1/-1 counters on creatures you control.

High Perfect Morcant is the ideal commander for this. When she, or another elf you control, enters, each opponent blights 1. You can also tap three elves you control to proliferate. Blight quickly gets out of hand as your opponent’s board continues to wither down to nothing.

Blight can also affect you. Dose of Dawnglow returns a creature from the graveyard to play at instant speed. But, if you didn’t cast this spell during your main phase, you blight 2. It is a creative way to balance an otherwise powerful effect.

Vivid is a flavor word, rather than a mechanic. All vivid effects grow based on the number of colors among permanents you control. Elemental Spectacle creates a 5/5 elemental for each color among permanents you control. Then you gain life equal to the number of creatures you control. A nice detail in this set, many creature tokens are multicolored. This can help feed into your other vivid spells.

Persist fits well in any set with -1/-1 counters.

Rhys, the Evermore, is a great example. He has flash, and when he enters another creature you control gains persist until the end of the turn. Rhys can also remove counters from a creature you control.

There’s some creative versatility here. Remove the -1/-1 persist counter, or combo it with Baloth Prime for a quick 10/10. Another idea: you can remove lore counters from saga creatures, such as Summon: Bahamut. Finally, you can remove finality counters. Rydia, Summoner of Mist, lets you double-dip on the saga theme and finality counters.

Behold is an additional cost. You reveal a card from your hand that meets some condition. Champion of the Weird beholds a goblin, and has you exile the revealed card. When the champion leaves play, you return the exciled card to its owner’s hand.

This is a play on the “Champion”  mechanic from the original Lorwyn. Champion of the Weird also lets you pay two life to blight 2 and have an opponent blight 2. This could be a great way to clear the board, especially if you have some aristocrats strategy. It’s also combos with Melira, Sylvok Outcast. Your creatures cannot have -1/-1 counters put on them. So you can now wipe the board, assuming you have enough life.

Shock Lands are a welcomed addition to any set. We saw half the cycle in Edge of Eternities. The remaining five:

Hallowed Fountain, Blood Crypt, Temple Garden, Steam Vents, and Overgrown Tomb, are available in play boosters. They are Standard legal. Expect these to be in high demand.

They pair nicely with the “Verge” land cycle from Duskmourn/Aetherdrift. Bleachbone Verge just wants you to control a Plains or a Swamp. Hallowed Fountain fits that criteria! The same applies to the Tarkir Dragonstorm lands. Mistrise Village entering untapped is amazing.

Shocks also come with an alternate art treatment. They are double-faced with day and night artwork. Pick the one that you like the most. This makes them a great fit in your cute Bloomburrow bunny deck, or your edgy Duskmourn horrors deck.

These are standard legal cards, so they will be in high demand.

Bloom Tender is a fantastic mana dork. It adds one mana for each color among the permanents you control. Even in two-color decks, this is a great piece of ramp. In five color you can race ahead on mana. This is available in lots of special treatments too, so you can find the one that suits your deck.

We have plenty of great mana dorks in the Commander decks. Faeburrow Elder and Selvala, Heart of the Wilds, are a great way to get ahead on mana. For something smaller, Ignoble Hierarch gives you access to Jund mana. Devoted Druid is a great inclusion as a mana dork and combo piece. All these are worth picking up for your green stompy decks.

Timeless Lotus and Chromatic Lantern are some fantastic reprints for five-color decks. Lotus is great for paying for Ashling’s ability.

Endurance and Fury each get a reprint in the Dance of Elements deck. They see play in Modern and Legacy, and are great for free interaction for any Commander deck. Red/green are the most common colors in the deck. The other pitch elementals are solid upgrade options. Pick up Solitude first, as the deck has lots of white pips to help cast it for free. Grief and Subtlety are great too; however, you may want to add more dimir cards to support their evoke cost.

This is a strange reprint, but a welcome one. You discover 5 at your end step. Nice and simple. Build your deck right, and it’ll pay for itself in no time. Chimil is a hard card to reprint as it is based on Ixalan. Commander is a great opportunity for reprints.

Ashling functionally doubles your enter-the-battlefield triggers. There are plenty of new elementals to capitalize on it. Impulsivity lets you cast an instant/sorcery from your grave for free. Jubilation gives your board +2/+2 and trample. Lamentation destroys a creature. The whole cycle is excellent whether you cast normally, with Evoke, or Encore.

The alternate commander is Mass of Mysteries. The Mass gives another elemental Myriad until the end of the turn. This is the opposite of Ashling. Mass of Mysteries wants you to cast your elementals and keep them around.

This deck is incredbly open ended. Both commanders offer useful but not overpowered abilities. You can lean in multiple directions. Focusing on killing your own creatures would make for a great aristocrats deck. If you like the idea of reanimator, you could use Reaper to supplement that plan.

Sinister Gnarlbark is a fantastic enabler. At the beginning of your end step, blight 1 and draw a card. While this is normally a downside, you can definitely make it worth your while here.

The Golgari members are Vernal Fen and Festering Thicket were first printed in Edge of Eternities. Despite that, they are printed it here too with new art. I have been waiting for this cycle to finish since Battle for Zendikar. These are awesome inclusions for any Golgari deck.

As of this article, both cycles are missing a Plains/Swamp and an Island/Mountain.