The most hotly anticipated set of the year is here at last! Many players have been eagerly awaiting for Wizards to return to one of the biggest cult favorite planes of all time - Lorwyn-Shadowmoor - for years. Lorwyn-Shadowmoor has consistently been noted by Magic's Head Designer, Mark Rosewater, to be among the most requested returns on his blog. Now, nearly two decades later, Lorwyn Eclipsed preview season has begun.

This Monday saw the beginning of preview season kick off a little earlier than normal with the usual Debut Stream beginning a full week of Lorwyn-Shadowmoor goodness!

Welcome to Lorwyn Eclipsed, enjoy A Boggart Ballad. #MTGLorwyn

youtu.be/mCQ5EF69rSQ

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— Magic: The Gathering (@magic.wizards.com) January 5, 2026 at 1:59 PM

The Lorwyn Eclipsed Debut began with a real treat: a short musical short film featuring work by the Jim Henson corporation! That's right - the makers behind iconic works such as The Muppets, The Dark Crystal, and Labyrinth were commissioned to bring their unique touch to Magic: The Gathering. This segment utilized their signature puppets, highlighting the differences between Lorwyn and Shadowmoor in a fun and entirely original way.

From there, we got to see a bunch of awesome cards! Here're a few that stood out among the rest.

If you've been paying attention to the story for Lorwyn Eclipsed, you'll know Oko, the beloved (or perhaps loathed) planeswalker, plays a big role. It turns out this mighty faerie planeswalker was born on Lorwyn-Shadowmoor thanks to Oona, and was destined to be the lord of Shadowmoor. Oko's new planeswalker card looks interesting, though the front half leaves a bit to be desired. It will be fun to see if a new Oko can break a few formats in half once again.

Meek Attack

One fun card that was revealed is a sly callback to classically overpowered card Sneak Attack. Sneak Attack's brutal method of cheating on mana enabled players to spit out massive threats for just one mana, making it a staple of Eternal play. This card asks "what can you do by cheating out only small creatures?" There's certainly plenty of fun shenanigans to be discovered with this card and it will likely prove to be a fan-favorite.

Mirrorform

Mirrorform is another epic card that offers a big, sweeping effect. For six mana, you can turn every one of your nonland permanents into a copy of a single non-Aura permanent. This is clearly a nod to the classic Shadowmoor card Mirrorweave, though it mimics the effect in a much more grandiose way. Mirrorform's effect doesn't stop at the end of turn either, allowing you to set up some serious nonsense with the right cards. Can you say Ouroboroid?

Now let's take a look at the various mechanics of Lorwyn Eclipsed showcased during the debut.

Vivid and Hybrid

Vivid is an all-new mechanic that leans into the colors among permanents you control. Well, it may not be quite as new as it appears. To highlight this, Wizards has reprinted Bloom Tender - a classic mana dork with this ability - using the new Vivid keyword alongside it. This provides potential to be rewarded for having a ton of different colors among permanents you control.

That's a tall ask, but it's made a bit easier by hybrid returning as well! Hybrid lets you have permanents in play with multiple colors even if you can only cast them with a single color. Hybrid has become a staple of Magic design over the years, and it's made all the better with the implementation of Vivid.

Blight

The other all-new mechanic we're getting is Blight. We'd seen this one on a handful of cards, like High Perfect Morcant and Dose of Dawnglow, prior to this debut stream. This mechanic allows you to give -1/-1 counters to permanents you control in exchange for a bonus. In the case of High Perfect Morcant, you can put those counters on opponents' creatures instead. This will no doubt provide some interesting play to how -1/-1 counters are utilized.

Returning Lorwyn-Shadowmoor Mechanics

Several mechanics from the original Lorwyn and Shadowmoor blocks make their return here. Changeling and Kindred really lean into the setting's classic typal-focused strategies while still functioning in a larger format. Additionally, Persist returns once more to allow creatures to return from the dead, with the tradeoff that they come back a little weaker. This can prove extremely effective with the one card shown off thus far - Rhys, the Evermore - combined with Evoke creatures to pay for a cheap effect and then keep them around when they die on entry.

It's unclear just how many cards these mechanics will show up on, but it's very welcome to see them back!

Other Returning Mechanics

Additionally, we're seeing a handful of classic mechanics return once more. Convoke comes back on some cards, showing the teamwork among various creature types throughout the plane. Behold also makes a return from Tarkir: Dragonstorm, this time acting as an evolution on the Champion mechanic from Lorwyn. Last but not least, as you probably gathered at the top of this piece, double-faced cards make their grand return to highlight the duality of a variety of characters in this world.

Fable Frame and Borderless Art Cards

Once we got past the mechanics and sweet new cards, we also got a glimpse at some of the new Booster Fun treatments in the set. Chief among these are the Fable Frame showcase art cards, which bring a look and feel to the cards of the set that emulates the style of children's storybooks. Additionally, we get a bunch of borderless cards that utilize the frame break style used before for specialty releases like Commander Masters and Modern Horizons 3.

Japan Showcase and Fracture Foils

Lorwyn Eclipsed also sees the return of the Japan Showcase and Fracture Foil card treatments. These borderless card styles highlight a variety of Japanese artists with amazing specialty frames that often make up some of the most sought-after cards of the set. These have remained a standout treatment ever since Duskmourn: House of Horror and it's rarely been more fitting to see it in a set.

As with past releases, these cards will be available in both English and Japanese for both the normal Japan Showcase cards as well as their Fracture Foil counterparts. This time around, though, the Japanese versions of these cards will only be available in Japanese collector boosters whereas you could sometimes open them in non-Japanese collector boosters as well.

Commander Cards

We also got to see our first glimpse as to what the two Commander decks for the set will entail thanks to the reveals of Ashling, the Limitless and Auntie Ool, Cursewretch. Ashling leans into the five-color aspect of Lorwyn Elementals, filling in the role that Horde of Notions did in the original Lorwyn Block. Auntie Ool leans into the Blight mechanic and will boast a deck that heavily features -1/-1 counters. These decks will both be revealed later in the week, so keep your eyes peeled as they are shown off in the coming days.

Special Guests

Last but not least, we also were shown the various Special Guest cards for this release. With the shortened preview schedule, all twenty were revealed all at once.

Yes, you read that right: all twenty.

To further highlight the duality between Lorwyn and Shadowmoor, Wizards has opted to print twenty Special Guests this time around. Ten highlight the look of Lorwyn while the other ten highlight Shadowmoor a bit more. Many of these cards are beloved classics from the original four sets, with a few others like Goblin Chieftain and Leaf-Crowned Visionary being included for their thematic resonance.

That wraps things up for the Lorwyn Eclipsed debut stream! I'll be back on Friday with another preview recap to take one more look as the set finishes with its reveals on Thursday. It's a shorter preview period, so there's going to be plenty to cover in such a short span of time.

If you'd like to learn more about the set you can check out these additional resources:

• Lorwyn Eclipsed Debut Video
• Lorwyn Eclipsed Card Image Gallery
• Collecting Lorwyn Eclipsed Article
• Lorwyn Eclipsed Mechanics Article
• Magic Story page (featuring Lorwyn Eclipsed)

Prerelease is already right around the corner as well! Make sure you check in with your local game store to see if you can register early for this hotly anticipated release. Can't find what you're looking for locally? No worries! Check out the Lorwyn Eclipsed page right here on CoolStuffInc and lock in whatever typal goodness you might be looking for!

Paige Smith

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