Probably the best set of the year.

Welcome, friends, to the first instalment of this column for 2026. And this one will be focusing on Lorwyn Eclipsed.

We first saw Lorwyn back in the ancient times of 2007. In fact, it came out as two blocks consisting of two sets, which was quite the interesting setup, if you ask me. The art of those two blocks is breathtaking, at the very least.

Also, I missed Lorwyn by a hair, as I started playing Magic right after Shards of Alara had released (Shards was released in September 2008, and, if my memory is not failing me, I started around October or November).

Lorwyn was also quite the controversial set because it introduced Planeswalkers. The funny thing about this is that the Mythic Rare rarity type was introduced in Shards of Alara, so the first Planeswalkers were rare. It took 11 years until we saw Planeswalkers that were not Mythic Rare. That happened in 2019 with the War of the Spark, which also featured Uncommon Planeswalkers.

But enough of the history lesson. Lorwyn Eclipsed releases tomorrow, and the pre-release was last week. How is it? Well, let’s tackle things one at a time.

The Pre-release

You know a set is going to be amazing when the event in my area attracts more than 10 people. I think it’s my first time ever playing on a pre-release with 4 rounds, and it was both awesome and exhausting. So 10/10, I would attend again. Anastasios also attended and, in fact, won the whole thing! I didn’t do as well, but I didn’t do badly either, since I mostly had draws due to time. You can find the deck Anastasios built here.

As for my deck, you can find it here, and I will say a couple of things about it, since I piloted it for a total of 12 matches.

Having Oko, Lorwyn Liege as my promo card definitely made me think a lot about adding some blue to my deck. At the moment of the event, I didn’t think I had a ton of cards that could push blue, so I moved towards white and green. However, at the very last moment, I just added Oko and one Island. The reason this worked was not my luck. I had some really good mana fixing in the form of 2 Evolving Wilds, 1 Changeling Wayfinder, and 1 Great Forest Druid. Out of the 12 games I played, I had issues with mana only in two of them, and one of them was me just not drawing any lands at all.

My strategy was to play Kithkins and swing for the win. The times this worked, it worked perfectly. The times it didn’t, it was a slow game that usually turned against me. I didn’t have a card that would be considerd bomb in the sense that it would win me a game on its own. I needed to have bodies on the ground and ready to swing to victory. Thankfully, I had a bunch of Kithkin and Shapeshifters. Catharsis was also really good at filling my board. Clachan Festival was extremely good on turn three. A small synergy I happened to discover during a match was playing Reluctant Dounguard on turn three and Clachan Festival on turn four, allowing Reluctant Dounguard to swing for 4 damage. Oko’s ultimate was basically a win for me, so whenever he was on the board and not immediately dealt with, it meant I was 99% sure I would win the game.

Finally, I have five notable mentions. Hovel Hurler, Flock Impostor, Abigale, Eloquent First-Year, Tam, Mindful First-Year, and Champions of the Perfect were pretty good cards for the deck. Technically, I cannot say how good the Champions of the Perfect were because they would be instantly dealt with the moment they would drop on the board. Flock Impostor basically would double an ETB effect, or save something from being targeted with a spell. A mistake I made with it, however, was that I forgot it had flying. It’s funny because it has a bunch of rows of text, so I kinda skipped the flying part. That mistake cost me a win. Tam, Mindful First-Year was an interesting card. It acted mostly defensively. I did use its ability once or twice, but I think it made some players a bit hesitant in a couple of matches, which gave me a couple of extra turns to do my thing. Mind games, people. They work in Magic.

Overall, I am very happy with the whole event. I got to open cool cards, which, as a cherry on top, had amazing art. Then I got to play with them. I am happy with my deckbuilding, as I believe I have somewhat improved. And, finally, even though I made a couple of mistakes, I am happy with how I played my matches. Of course, there is a ton of room for improvement, but there always is.

But what about the Commander decks?

Well, I’m glad you asked. I got the decks the day before the pre-release event, and I got to play with Blight Curse. Since I haven’t tried Dance of the Elements yet, I can’t say much about it. Also, if you are interested in the monetary value of the decks, the Tolarian Community College has a pretty good breakdown, which I mostly agree with. The summary is that both decks have some pretty good reprints, but there are some noteable complaints, which I will talk about in a moment.

But let’s check out Blight Curse first. That thing is a menace. It is impossible not to churn out -1/-1 counters. A disgusting synergy I made during my first match was casting Chain Reaction while Everlasting Torment was on the board, bypassing the indestructible one of the players had given their creatures that turn. Playing Aberrant Return the next turn to get Inferno Titan, Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider, and Winged Hive Tyrant was just magnificent. Shuffling through the deck, I understand I haven’t tried a ton of synergies and win conditions, so I am greatly looking forward to it.

As for Dance of the Elements, I feel it’s going to be really fun playing it. I am on the market for a 5 colour deck that will excite me, and I believe this has the potential to do so. Plus, it has so many amazing cards, like 7 Elemental Incarnations, 2 Omnaths, a Timeless Lotus, Muldrotha, and much more. What worries me is that it has a ton of lands that enter tapped, so this probably needs to be fixed. I will be playing this one in a couple of hours on Friday Commander Night. Interestingly, it’s going to be a Two-Headed Giant event, so I’m sure everyone’s plans are going to go out of the window. That’s at least a +20% fun modifier.

Now, it’s time to complain

If you watch the video above, you will hear the Professor complain about 3 main things. The first one is that, starting with Lorwyn Eclipse, there will be no collector booster sample pack included in the deck. While this does not remove any value from the deck itself, opening those packs was, at the very least, fun, and, at the very best, a chance to get something really cool.

But this brings us to complaint number two. The price of the decks has gone up. Depending on where you live, you may have to pay 5 dollars or euros more if you are buying at MSRP. This, combined with the removal of the sample packs, leaves a bitter taste to someone who likes getting the decks and supporting their local game store.

Finally, let’s get to the third complaint. While the price has increased and there are no more bonus packs, the Professor also reported a drop in the monetary value of the cards in each deck. Personally, I don’t buy the commander decks to make money. I buy them to enjoy playing with them. I remember the panic True-Name Nemesis had caused when it was released, and I don’t like it when people freak out and buy decks just so they can sell one card that’s in there. But, I do believe Wizards of the Coast has the opportunity to provide Commander staples to the average playerbase through those decks. However, I am going to stay positive and, while there is a reported drop in monetary value, I will wait and see the stats on the next in-universe commander decks before reaching a conclusion. But that’s only for the third complaint. The first two are valid and cannot be justified in any way.

And I think that’s all I wanted to talk about this time. The verdic is that Lorwyn Eclipsed is a really good set and the commander decks are quite promising. I am not going to talk about the rest of this year’s release schedule because I want to end this on a positive note. Now I’ll be leaving since I have a Two-Headed Giant event waiting for me.

And until next time, have fun!