We’ve gotten the first major look at the first set of 2026, Lorwyn Eclipsed.  The idyllic Lorwyn and gloomy Shadowmoor are bringing back familiar faces and nostalgic gameplay while also introducing new characters and mechanics.  As announced by Matt Tabak at Daily MTG, there are a number of new and returning mechanics in Lorwyn Eclipsed. We’ll take a look at a few them today.

Vivid

To help shine a light on the colorful world of Lorwyn, Vivid interacts specifically with the colors associated with your permanents.  When a card featuring vivid checks for colored permanents it will assign it a number between 0 and 5. It is specifically checking how many colors among permanents you control there are. Then the ability will trigger and it’s exact effect will depend on what that number is.  

For example, vivid appears on Shinestriker and says “When this creature enters, draw cards equal to the number of colors among permanents you control.”  If you control a permanent of each of the five colors, you draw 5 cards.  This is intended to be a celebration of the bright colorful Lorwyn.

Blight

The counterpart to Lorwyn is the bleak and often mischievous Shadowmoor.  Blight is a keyword action that acts as a cost to take another action.  To pay that cost you put the prescribed number of -1/-1 counters on a target creature you control. The set also includes multiple ways to   

So for example, if the card says Blight 1, add one -1/-1 counter on a target creature you control and that acts as the cost for another action or in some cases, the penalty. Chaos Spewer says “When this creature enters, you may pay 2. If you don’t, blight 2.”  This Shadowmoor-centric mechanic will allow skilled strategists to build decks where a little pain becomes a powerful ally.

Changeling

In the Lorwyn set, changeling allowed players to strengthen their typal strategies by making the creature every creature type in addition to whatever is printed on the card. The creature type in the type line is shapeshifter and the changeling keyword means that any spell or ability checking for creature type will work.

This means a card like Rooftop Percher, a 3/3 flying creature with changeling could work in any creature-themed deck.  A deck that regularly checks for humans, or giants, or druids, or nobles, or anything else you can think of would allow for Rooftop Percher to slot in without any problem. 

Kindred

Kindred is another returning mechanic that will be useful to building typal strategy-based decks.  Where Changeling was a keyword in the card text that affected creatures, Kindred is a card type found on noncreature cards.  Formerly called Tribal, Kindred gives creature subtypes to noncreature cards that grants them tribal effects. 

Because these noncreature spells have creature types, they can also have the changeling keyword.  A great example of this is Crib Swap that is a Kindred Instant with Shapeshifter subytpe and changeling.  Its card text says “Exile target creature. Its controller creates a 1/1 colorless shapeshifter creature token with changeling.” 

Double Faced Cards

It’s reasonable to assume that Lorwyn Eclipsed will feature many double-faced cards because according to the debut video released by Wizards, everyone in Lorwyn becomes a different version of themselves when they cross into Shadowmoor. That version of themselves will have a personality suited to the realm they’re in and only remember small parts of their other self.

Boggarts, the Goblins found in Lorwyn Shadowmoor, are known as aunties as they age.  Grub is an auntie who in Lorwyn goes by Grub, Storied Matriarch. She’s a 2/1 Goblin Warlock with menace. By paying R during your first main phase, she can transform into Grub, Notorious Auntie, also a 2/1 with menace.  The real difference between these two versions of the same character is found in their card text.  They both have a trigger.  In Lorwyn, Grub upon entering or transforming returns up to one target goblin from your graveyard to your hand.  On the other hand, in Shadowmoor, Grub has an attack trigger that says when she attacks, you may blight 1.  If you choose to blight 1, you create a tapped and attacking token that’s a copy of the blighted creature except it has “At the beginning of the end step, sacrifice this token.”  

Lorwyn Eclipsed releases January 23rd. Prelease events will start on January 16th and the set will come to MTG Arena on January 20th.