The Best Commons and Uncommons By Color for Lorwyn Eclipsed Draft

Dundoolin Weaver | Illustration by Olivier Bernard

Jumping into a new Draft set can be daunting. What do you take for your first pick? You’re looking at 13-14 brand new cards with a lot of text to read through, and you know you’ll probably pick something that ends up being bad.

Here, I’m going to go over my picks for Lorwyn Eclipsed’s best commons and uncommons in each color to arm you with a bit of extra information about what you should take in your drafts. As the format progresses and we learn more about it, these will absolutely change, so take these picks with a pinch of salt.

Let’s get started.

Commons

Blossoming Defense | Illustration by Eelis Kyttanen

Honorable Mention – Changeling Wayfinder

We’ll talk about my choices for the best commons and uncommons in each individual color for the set, which naturally means we’ll skip over the multicolored and colorless cards. Given that, I just wanted to take a moment to highlight Changeling Wayfinder, which I envision as one of the most important commons in Lorwyn Eclipsed. There’s no cycle of common duals, so mana fixing is at a premium. Changeling Wayfinder is fantastic fixing while also being every creature type to enable every synergy in the set. We’ve seen similar cards in past Draft formats be among the best commons in the set, and while Limited has gotten quite a bit stronger since then, this still looks like a key card for ECL.

White

#3. Sun-Dappled Celebrant

I was torn between a few of white’s common creatures for this spot, but I settled on Sun-Dappled Celebrant. These big convoke creatures usually do quite well and we also have merfolk to benefit from being tapped to help this card perform.

#2. Spiral into Solitude

Pacifism has pretty much always been a mainstay in Limited, and Spiral into Solitude is no exception to that. This is just a great way to incapacitate opposing threats proactively, and that’ll always make this one of the best white commons in any set.

#1. Liminal Hold

Liminal Hold is double the cost of Spiral into Solitude, which might honestly make it worse, but actually removing a threat from the board can prevent its abilities from still being useful. While Spiral into Solitude also has an option to do this, this enchantment also has the ability to answer any problematic permanent, including the two planeswalkers you might see.

Blue

#3. Blossombind

Blossombind is perhaps the best variant of this type of effect that we’ve ever seen at 2 mana. It’s very effective at taking a creature out of combat, though its abilities might still do something, so it can’t answer everything.

#2. Summit Sentinel

I love defensive creatures like this. Summit Sentinel might not be as good as Forecasting Fortune Teller was, but getting on the board early and cashing in for a whole card later is just a great effect.

#1. Temporal Cleansing

The best blue common is bound to be Temporal Cleansing. We’d prefer to see these kinds of effects at instant speed, but frankly, when you can get them discounted down to 0 mana, I’m not about to complain about that.

Black

#3. Bile-Vial Boggart

The goblins deck in this format looks pretty well-supported. The plan is to make a bunch of little goblins and use -1/-1 counters to kill them off, and Bile-Vial Boggart really wants you to kill it. Please make its wish come true!

#2. Bogslither’s Embrace

If you want to remove a creature unconditionally in this format (who wouldn’t, right?), then this is how you do it. Black is kind of shallow on removal this time round, so Bogslither's Embrace really is the best option we have to deal with the bigger creatures in the format.

#1. Blight Rot

While often more expensive to cast than Bogslither's Embrace, Blight Rot being an instant makes it quite a bit better. It should be able to answer most creatures really cleanly while it’s also a good option to kill bigger creatures during combat.

Red

#3. Elder Auntie

I was torn between this and Gristle Glutton for this spot, but I think I have to hand it to the two bodies that Elder Auntie gives you. Goblins are trying to go wide in this set (and in most others to be honest), and this is the perfect common to help you do that.

#2. Tweeze

Who could have guessed that the top two red commons would be burn spells? I certainly didn’t. Tweeze is a little more inefficient than we’ve come to expect these days, but you can’t argue with the results.

#1. Cinder Strike

One mana for 4 damage is incredible. Flame Slash is a uniquely powerful burn spell, and all we have to do to imitate that is put a -1/-1 counter on something? Yeah, Cinder Strike is just incredible.

Green

#3. Mistmeadow Council

Look. I just like drawing cards, okay? Mistmeadow Council is a great creature to curve into with kithkin, and drawing a card helps to find you a play for your next turn. It’s just sweet, and I love to see cantripping creatures for aggro decks.

#2. Assert Perfection

Green’s best removal spell in the set is always going to make this list, even if Assert Perfection is a fair bit worse than some other removal spells we’ve seen in recent sets. You just need to deal with stuff, and this is a way to do it.

#1. Great Forest Druid

Great Forest Druid really impresses me. Mana dorks are always good, but a 0/4 in this format, with all of its -1/-1 counters, sounds extremely good.

Uncommons

Flock Impostor | Illustration by Ilse Gort

White

#4. Kithkeeper

White seems to be inundated with high quality uncommons, but I wanted to highlight Kithkeeper in particular. Each color has access to a big elemental with a vivid trigger, and I think this is one of the more important ones to close out a game.

#3. Flock Impostor

I love to play tricksy creatures like this. If you can hold open 3 mana through your opponent’s turn, there’s all sorts of plays you can make with Flock Impostor, including saving a creature from removal, messing up combat, or picking up something with a good trigger.

#2. Wanderbrine Trapper

To reiterate what I said in my main set review, I think Wanderbrine Trapper looks like the best “tapper” creature that we’ve seen in a very long time. The best part is that even when you can’t tap anything, it’s still a great, aggressive 1-drop.

#1. Moonlit Lamenter

My boy! Moonlit Lamenter might be my favorite card in Lorwyn Eclipsed, and I can’t wait to draw a ton of cards with it! In a few weeks’ time when I write my Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reviews, I’ll look back at this list, and I hope I see this card here and think “oh yeah, I was right on the money with that one!”

Blue

#4. Tanufel Rimespeaker

I love seeing good build-around cards for various archetypes. Drawing cards and creating tokens are usually the best possible payoffs for “doing the thing”, so I’m quite excited to see if we can make good use of Tanufel Rimespeaker.

#3. Pestered Wellguard

What did I literally just say? Or… type? The best Limited formats have good, fun build-arounds to play with, and Pestered Wellguard looks like one of the better ones. On this list, we have a merfolk build-around and an elemental build-around, and it’ll be interesting to see where each of them lands as the format evolves.

#2. Wanderwine Farewell

“Pay 4 mana and tap these, cast Wanderwine Farewell targeting this and this, trigger, trigger, trigger…” Oh, can’t you just picture that? Casting this is going to be so sweet, I can hardly even wait.

#1. Rimekin Recluse

You can never go wrong with a Man-o'-War variant, especially a strictly better one. We just had one be the best nonrare in Avatar, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Rimekin Recluse were in the running for that honor in ECL. It’s worth noting that there are a lot of enters triggers running about, so I might overestimate it a little.

Black

#4. Gnarlbark Elm

I’m really high on the black/white toughness-matters deck (have I mentioned that at all?). Gnarlbark Elm is a great card regardless, but it should really excel in this deck in particular, because we put extra counters on it and hopefully kill a few extra creatures.

#3. Nameless Inversion

Nameless Inversion was on my wish list of cards to get a reprint in Lorwyn Eclipsed, so I’m very happy to see it here. Not only is 2 mana for -3 toughness just a great deal for a removal spell, but being every creature type at once is bound to be useful in some decks.

#2. Boggart Mischief

Back to the build-arounds, Boggart Mischief does everything you want in goblins. It kills something, gives you two more tokens, and also gives you a bonus for killing your goblins. It just does it all!

#1. Graveshifter

While Graveshifter isn’t some busted build-around, it’s a generically powerful creature that can go in literally every black deck. As such, it’s going to be a high pick for every deck, not just one.

Red

#4. Sourbread Auntie

Sourbread Auntie can be played on its own and it’s great, or it can be obscene if you use the blight 2 to kill something else for a benefit. The rate of return you get on this is unreal, and it has to be one of the better goblin payoffs in ECL.

#3. Flamebraider

Elementals looks like a weird deck, where it’s supposed to be blue/red, but it has a bunch of powerful off-color creatures that it really wants to be able to play. Flamebraider is going to be a high priority for the deck because it not only ramps you to these big spells faster, but it also fixes the colors you need for them perfectly.

#2. Sear

What would red be without burn spells? Two mana, 4 damage, nice and simple. Sear is just about as efficient as an instant speed burn spell can get.

#1. Explosive Prodigy

This card bothers me a little, because while I want it to be a great payoff that’s exclusive to vivid decks, can you honestly tell me you wouldn’t run it in any 2-color red deck? Even just as a 2-mana 1/1 that deals 2 damage when it enters, Explosive Prodigy can be a really nasty card and every red drafter should look to take it highly.

Green

#4. Blossoming Defense

Green usually lacks for removal, but the offerings in Lorwyn Eclipsed in particular are pretty dire. That said, if you can’t have any removal spells, then neither should anyone else! Blossoming Defense is an excellent spell, mostly because it’s so cheap and really easy to leave open. I’d take it quite highly in a draft, though I’d probably want to know I’m in green first.

#3. Luminollusk

I’m having a hard time picturing how the vivid deck will play out, especially as the vivid cards have all sorts of weirdly disparate effects. What I’m getting is that it’s going to be a pretty slow deck that plays for the long game, and Luminollusk is the perfect payoff to make sure you get there.

#2. Dundoolin Weaver

Kithkin is kind of light on the build-around front, but I’ll easily take a 2-mana Eternal Witness that just requires a little setup. Dundoolin Weaver is likely good in either kithkin or elves, but the kithkin deck enables it a lot more often, where it should just always be a sweet two-for-one.

#1. Morcant’s Eyes

Elves haven’t had a build-around so far, but Morcant's Eyes is perfect for it. It’s like elves have their own Spider Spawning, which is one of the best cards to play when you’re trying to fill your graveyard. This is definitely something I’d take early as a sign to be drafting elves.

Wrap Up

Voracious Tome-Skimmer | Illustration by Loïc Canavaggia

I hope this helps even just a little bit. This set looks quite interesting to draft, and I can’t wait to try it out for myself. What are you looking forward to drafting the most?

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Until next time, take care of yourselves!