Lorwyn Eclipsed's New and Old Mechanics Explained: Blight, Vivid, and More!

We're returning to Lorwyn and Shadowmoor - and with it a plethora of both new and returning mechanics, all of them explained here.

Let's delve deep into the world of light and dark.

New Mechanics in Lorwyn Eclipsed

Blight

Blight N will appear on cards typically as a cost to cast a spell or activate an ability, and it's going to instruct you to put N -1/-1 counters on a creature you control.  In most cases, you'll want to put it onto the worst creature, which might even result in killing it! Crucially, you cannot split the N counters *among* creatures you control as it has to be all on one. However, you can take advantage of it by, say, putting two -1/-1 counters on your 1/1, killing it in the process of overblighting.

While Lorwyn is said not to use +1/+1 counters that would nullify the -1/-1 counters, when it comes to broader environments like Constructed (Standard, Modern, Pauper, EDH), you might want to pair Blight with +1/+1 effects, rendering this seemingly negative cost neutral.

One cool application might be Modern Yawgmoth where you're happy to reset your Undying creatures with -1/-1 counters - and it's just one possible way to lighten the burden.

It's a great balancing mechanic that can provide powerful effects if you can bear the downside - or turn it into something actively beneficial to you as well.

Vivid

Another new mechanic is Vivid. Vivid cares about the number of colours present among permanents you control - and it's typically going to be a part of an activated or triggered ability.

Explosive Prodigy, for instance, will shoot an opposing creature for as much as you have colours on your permanents, crucially counting Prodigy itself. Therefore, you could shorthand it to deal 1 damage on turn two, or more later. If the opponent kills it in response, though, you'd have 0 colours upon resolution, fizzling your effect!

Lorwyn has plenty of hybrid mana cards which will count as all the colours presented.

Sanar, for instance, will count as 2 colours, beneficially affecting its own Vivid ability.

When it comes to Vivid's strength, you have to ask yourself how good an effect is going to be given N=2, as this is going to be typical for both Constructed and Limited. Such a small number might cut it for Limited, but not so much for a format like Standard, where it'd need to be N=4 to make a splash. 

Returning Mechanics in Lorwyn Eclipsed

The bulk of what you see in Lorwyn Eclipsed is going to be returning mechanics, leaning into the nostalgia of this place. Let's take a look at what we can relive at the next prerelease!

Changelings and Kindred

Lorwyn is a plane of typal strategies. You'll see Faeries, Merfolk, Kithkin, Treefolk, Elves, and more. When you build your deck, you'll want to include as many of the specific type as possible. However, you can also add wildcards that will work regardless of which typal strategy you go for - enter Changelings.

Changelings basically means that a creature is every creature type. If your effect benefits from Merfolk, Changeling counts. Elf? No problem. Even if it doesn't fly, it'll count as a Faerie. Changelings are a great way to boost up your synergy typal numbers.

There's also Kindred which is a card *type* rather than an ability. It'll make is it so that your noncreature spells can also count towards typal synergies.

Those two abilities were seen prominently on the original Lorwyn plane and have since also appeared in other sets and products, like Modern Horizons.

Persist

Persist is a mechanic that allows you to keep your creature for a tad longer, but it'll be a bit weaker. When a creature with Persist dies, it'll come back with a -1/-1 counter - but only if it didn't have such a counter previously already, at which point it's gone forever.

This counter-synergises with Blight where a -1/-1 counter present would mean your Persist creature isn't coming back! So be careful what you put your counters on.

This mechanic has been seen numerous times in different expansions after Lorwyn, as it's a fan favourite. It's great to keep your creatures coming back, especially if you can turn the -1/-1 counter into an upside, like we discussed with Blight.

Evoke

Evoke is your way to put a creature on the battlefield ahead of schedule for a much cheaper cost. Unfortunately, once it has entered play, it will immediately get sacrificed and go to the graveyard. Naturally, it's a way to use a creature's *enters* ability, and you can expect Evoke creatures to have one. There are more neat uses, though, that synergise with what we see in the set. For instance, you can evoke Emptiness, and before it dies to its own Evoke, you can Blight onto it - why not after all if it's going to disappear in a second anyway!

Evoke has played a major role in enternal formats in no small part thanks to the evoke elemental cycle from Modern Horizons 2. Those creatures can uniquely be evoked for free mana-wise, but you need to lose a card in the process. The older the format, the more time within the game matters compared to raw cards and it turns out effects like these for 0 mana are pretty powerful. So powerful in fact that two of the above five are illegal to play in Modern.

Behold

Behold will ask you to reveal a certain type of card from your hand to bolster an effect or as an additional cost. At times, the cost will be more demanding and you'll need to exile that card or a corresponding creature type from the battlefield - all for an exponentially more powerful effect.

We saw behold next to the word Dragon quite a bit previously in Tarkir: Dragonstorm.

Convoke

Convoke is another returning mechanic but this time from Ravnica.

It allows you to use your creatures as mana sources, helping to cast a spell. Every creature you tap adds one generic mana or the colour of that creature. For instance, to play Disruptor of Currents for free, you would have to tap 2 blue creatures and 3 creatures of any colour (could also be blue).

There have been countless cards with Convoke and it's definitely a fan favourite. 

Double-Faced Cards

The last mechanic is double-faced cards which embody the Lorwyn-Shadowmoor transformative nature.

You can only play those cards as their front - which is going to be easy to remember as only the front part has a cost in the top right corner. Later, if you satisfy the condition, you can transform it, flip the card over, and use the back half. Then again, you can do as the card instructs and flip it over again! 

What's key is that this process does not make the card leave play technically, so all the Auras, Counters, and other effects still apply to it.

Conclusion

The mechanics in this set are an exciting blend of new and nostalgic. I also see a ton of synergies between cards like Blight and Persist or Evoke and Convoke. It'll be an exciting Limited environment for sure and I cannot wait for my pre-release!