Locations
From Lorwyn's sun-dappled pastoral aesthetic to Shadowmoor's gnarled and withered vibe, we're heading into the darkness, with just a remaining hint of whimsy. As a set and as a plane, Shadowmoor only works in contrast to Lorwyn; it's only once we see the cheerfully bucolic pseudo-hobbits of Lorwyn warp into the xenophobic and paranoid Kithkin of Shadowmoor that the stakes of the plane make sense. The Merrows' deep knowledge of the waterways twists them from guides to highwaymen who waylay travelers, the Giants and Treefolk turn from ancient sages to gnarled and isolated hermits, and the world becomes full of hideous Elemental abominations instead of curious Changelings.
Magic had explored dark worlds before, but taking away Lorwyn's sunniness in favor of Shadowmoor's cruelty felt a touch sadistic. It's one thing for a world to have existing darkness, as in Ravnica's moroii and Orzhovian thrulls, but it's something else to see a light world corrupted by darkness. The pivot to Shadowmoor, with its -1/-1 counters and vindictive cinders and diseased Treefolk, was shocking, and the shift from caring about creature types to caring about color and what would later be called Devotion was somewhat poorly planned - Chroma was a big miss, and it was possible to go on autopilot and draft a mono-colored deck quite easily, making Limited a bit predictable and boring, especially if someone opened Incremental Blight.
Mark Rosewater is on record that Lorwyn-Shadowmoor marked a nadir of sales for the game, but all that means is that it's our job to give Shadowmoor the respect it deserves. The art and aesthetic of the set is top-shelf. From Larry McDougall's Disturbing Plot to Omar Rayyan's Windbrisk Raptor to Scott M. Fischer's Oversoul of Dusk, there was an autumnal melancholy and palpable menace to Shadowmoor that would pave the way for 2011's Innistrad. There seems to have been, more than with most sets, a concerted effort for the color palettes of the art to match the borders - scroll through the 
hybrid cards and see how the rich forest greens and luminous golden light pop. The lands are especially evocative and perfect if you have a Halloween Cube or macabre Commander deck: rk post's Swamp is one of my favorites.
The set's Constructed pedigree was also strong across all rarities, with Painter's Servant, Fulminator Mage, Vexing Shusher, Kitchen Finks, Murderous Redcap, Swans of Bryn Argoll, Spectral Procession, Manamorphose, Firespout, Guttural Response, Tattermunge Maniac, and Devoted Druid all seeing significant play in one or more formats. The reprint of Reflecting Pool, last seen in Tempest, was huge and led to Standard being a soup of multicolored decks once Shards of Alara dropped that was only rivaled a decade later in the "Moist Jund" era of splashing for Jace, Vryn's Prodigy.
Shadowmoor came out around the same time I began playing Commander, drawn in by a friend's Nath of the Gilt-Leaf deck, so I have a fondness for the block. Many of the cards have been rendered obsolete by two decades of Magical evolution, but Shadowmoor was critical to early Commander, from the Reflection cycle (Boon Reflection, Mana Reflection, etc.) to the demigod cycle (Ghastlord of Fugue, etc.) to the dual-colored anthem Lieges (Wilt-Leaf Liege) to the filter-lands (at the time, enemy-colored dual lands were few and far between).
Shadowmoor and Eventide were the last expansion sets without the Mythic rarity, and they came out during a lull for the game - and soon for the global economy - and so many of the desirable cards commanded high prices for years. Many of them have been reprinted, but those that didn't get a recent reprint have spiked since the reveal of Lorwyn Eclipsed and the Auntie Ool/The Reaper Commander deck. So, cards like Corrosive Mentor are now worth more than most Standard-legal rares. That's the exact sort of card we're trying to identify: a card with niche applications but huge potential. For example, I wouldn't generally recommend Heartmender as a card to include in your Commander decks, but with the influx of -1/-1 counters and payoff cards, it's a useful tool to have access to if your table tends towards Wither, Blight, or Infect decks. And so, let's dive in to the most underregarded but interesting cards from Shadowmoor!
Furystoke Giant
A reasonable card even without Persist, Furystoke Giant lets a token deck surge past a board stall and either go directly to the face or serve as a board wipe. Persist is the extra sauce here, as a +1/+1 counter will cancel the -1/-1 counter out, letting you use the Giant multiple times. Even if you're just getting two instances of Furystoke Giant's trigger, that can be enough to take out a player or push through your creatures - especially if you can sacrifice the Giant at Instant speed. Do note that Furystoke Giant does not give itself the ability to tap for damage - in other words, it stokes fury in others, not in itself - so you can't go infinite as easily as you might want.
Who Wants It?
Mirrorweave
Once a Standard staple, this quirky Instant is versatile and nuanced. Depending on the board, it can serve as a kind of Fog variant, an Overrun, or even a Wrath of God. In multiplayer formats, it can even be a political card. Mirrorweave is one of those cards that used to be an all-time showstopper but has gotten elided as Commander evolved. I would recommend giving this a shot in your base-Blue decks as creatures have gotten better. Turning your army of tokens into an army of Enduring Curiosities feels truly incredible, as does turning a game-winning attack from your opponent into a field of Darksteel Myr.
Who Wants It?
Any Commander in Azorius, Esper, Bant, or Jeskai that makes a ton of tokens loves Mirrorweave, from Alela, Artful Provocateur to Kykar, Wind's Fury.
River Kelpie
Reprinted several times, including as a Gollum reskin for The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth, I rarely see the easily-acquired Kelpie. I get it: it's five mana for a fragile 3/3. But all I ask is that, in some upcoming game of Commander, you count how many spells are cast via Flashback, Retrace, or Harmonize and how many creatures are cast from the graveyard or reanimated. It's certainly table-dependent, but this riparian beastie can draw you a significant number of cards over the course of an average game.
Who Wants It?
- Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver (Gravecrawler loops can draw you as many cards as you'd like, or snag a cheap win with Thassa's Oracle)
- Iroh, Grand Lotus
- Kotis, Sibsig Champion (easy pick - it was in the preconstructed deck from Tarkir: Dragonstorm for a reason)
- Emet-Selch, Unsundered
- The Master, Transcendent
Godhead of Awe
From one Azorius hitter to another, the Godhead is Maha, Its Feathers Night, but symmetrical and less exploitable. Godhead doesn't have any "Maha plus Night of Souls' Betrayal" combos, which means we'll need to work harder. Still, Azorius is great at building up creatures, and Godhead of Awe pairs very well with Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite to achieve the same effect.
Who Wants It?
Any deck that can pump out more tokens than your opponents would love a Godhead, of which the best are:
- Zinnia, Valley's Voice
- Alela, Artful Provocateur
- Akim, the Soaring Wind
- Kykar, Wind's Fury
- Kykar, Zephyr Awakener
Cauldron of Souls
At five mana, Cauldron is a little pricey. But being able to save your side of the battlefield in case of a board wipe, or to be able to politically save a selection of creatures from all of your temporary allies, is worth five bucks and five mana. For a brief window, you could even target your entire board with Nadu, Winged Wisdom; luckily, those days are behind us, but if you're excited to build Auntie Ool, the Cursewretch or The Reaper, King No More, you should be excited to include Cauldron of Souls.
Who Wants It?
Shadowmoor is a set of truly uncommon depth - we didn't even touch on the uncommon Witch cycle that can serve as excellent political cards (Tattermunge Witch, Mistmeadow Witch, Inkfathom Witch) in lower-power or -rarity pods, or on the tranche of playable commons, from Manamorphose to Smash to Smithereens to the Wisps cycle. Little of this carried forward to Lorwyn Eclipsed, which often feels as though it's showcasing just a bit more of the Lorwyn half of the plane, as the name suggests. And Shadowmoor, of course, is only half of the full picture. The next set, Eventide, brought with it the enemy-colored aspects of Shadowmoor, which is what we'll review next time.
