The hotly anticipated return to the beloved plane of Lorwyn-Shadowmoor is mere weeks away and preview season is finally upon us.  In today’s preview stream on YouTube and Twitch, Wizards of the Coast revealed a handful of cards — just enough to wet the palette.  Immediately following that, 145 new cards were added to the official card gallery. With that many cards to explore, we’ll take a look at some of the cards making a big splash in Magic’s newest set.

Glen Elendra’s Answer

Glen Elendra is home to the fae.  A powerful new Mythic-Rare instant shows how the land protects its inhabitants.  Glen Elendra’s Answer costs 2UU and can’t be countered.  Its text reads “Counter all spells your opponent controls and all abilities your opponents control. Create a 1/1 blue and black Faerie creature token with flying for each spell and ability countered this way.” 

Countering spells is the bread and butter of any control player in Magic: The Gathering. One way aggressive players handle that is to manipulate the stack so that before control spells can resolve, a slew of other spells and abilities get added to the stack.  A mono-red deck can take out even a seasoned control player if they have enough resources.  Glen Elendra’s Answer addresses that problem by giving its controller the ability to wait on just the right moment and then counter everything all at once. As an added value, its controller will also bolster defenses in the form of creature tokens with flying.  

Explosive Prodigy

The Flamekin are a species of elementals that grew in power when Lorwyn and Shadowmoor began to co-exist.  In Lorwyn Eclipsed, a new mechanic called vivid has many uses but in this case, it shows how powerful the Flamekin have become. Explosive Prodigy is a 1/1 Elemental Sorcerer with a casting cost of 1R. Its card text reads, “Vivid — When this creature enters, it deals X damage to target creature an opponent controls, where X is the number of colors among permanents you control.”

While Explosive Prodigy is only a 1/1, it’s true power is how it comes in swinging. Vivid in this case acts as an ETB trigger that can take down a powerful creature before even moving to combat.

Aurora Awakener

Other vivid triggers will have a different effect.  For example, Aurora Awakener is a 7/7 Giant Druid with trample that has a powerful vivid trigger. It reads, “Vivid — When this creature enters, reveal cards from the top of your library until you reveal X permanent cards, where X is the number of colors among permanents you control.  Put any number of those permanent cards onto the battlefield, then put the rest of the revealed cards on the bottom of your library in a random order.” 

Even at 6G, Aurora Awakener is a formidable creature especially in multicolor decks.  The ability for a powerful 7/7 to hit the battlefield and then boost that same battlefield with as many as 5 more permanents cannot be understated.  This could be a game changing card for many Commander decks.

Oko, Lorwyn Liege // Oko, Shadowmoor Scion

Oko makes his return to Magic: The Gathering in Lorwyn Eclipsed as a double-sided Planeswalker.  Oko, Lorwyn Liege is the Lorwyn version of Oko.  It is also the side that can be cast with a casting cost of 2U.  On the other side is Oko, Shadowmoor Scion.  To transform Oko, Lorwyn Liege into Oko, Shadowmoor Scion, pay G at the beginning of your first main phase.  You can also transform him back at the beginning of your first main phase by paying U.

Oko’s strength lies in making the battlefield incredibly advantageous to himself.  While in Lorwyn, Oko can grant creatures all creature types, making them have card interaction with a number of spells they wouldn’t otherwise interact with.  When Oko is in Shadowmoor, he feeds cards to your hand, creates green Elk creature tokens, and gives you powerful emblems to bolster the power/toughness of a chosen creature type.  

Trystan, Callous Cultivator // Trystan, Penitent Culler

Trystan is a new Elf character. The elves lost a lot of their power and prestige when the planes of Lorwyn and Shadowmoor began to co-exist.  Trystan works for the tyrant, Morcant but secretly he hopes to bring the Elves back to their former glory and get the credit himself.  

In Lorywn, he is called Trystan, Callous Cultivator.  He’s a 3/4 Elf Druid with deathtouch and when he enters or is freshly transformed from his Shadowmoor side, his controller must mill 3 and then if there’s an Elf in the graveyard, gain 2 life.  Like Oko, Trystan can transform back and forth at the beginning of your first main phase. Trystan, Callous Cultivator transforms into Trystan, Penitent Culler by paying B at the beginning of your main phase.

Trystan, Penitent Culler is his Shadowmoor identity.  He is also a 3/4 with deathtouch but what sets him apart is that his type line identifies him as a warlock instead of a druid. Further, when Trystan transforms into his Shadowmoor side, you mill three cards and you may exile an Elf card from your graveyard. If you do, your opponents each lose 2 life.  By paying G at the beginning of your first main phase, you can transform him back.

Vibrance

Evoke is a new mechanic in Lorwyn Eclipsed that gives an alternate casting cost. Paying that casting cost is lower than its normal cost giving you less expensive access to the card’s ETB triggers or in some cases, “when it leaves the battlefield” triggers but at the cost of immediately sacrificing it after it enters the battlefield.

The Elemental, Vibrance is a great example of this because its casting cost is 2(R/G)(R/G). It has an ETB trigger that stipulates if RR was used, this creature deals 3 damage to any target while if GG was used, you search your library for a land card to put in your hand after revealing it and then gain 2 life.

The evoke cost on Vibrance is (R/G)(R/G). This would allow you to play the card for just those two mana and not have to pay the other 2 in the casting cost so you’d have access to the ETB triggers that depend on you using either RR or GG to cast.  So in practice, Vibrance would resolve, the ETB triggers would resolve, and then you’d sacrifice Vibrance.

With preview season fully underway, there will be many more cards to explore in the coming days.  Lorwyn Eclipsed will have Prerelease start on the 16th and the set officially releases on January 23rd.