The 16 Best Black Cards in Lorwyn Eclipsed Ranked

Dawnhand Eulogist | Illustration by Evyn Fong

Lorwyn Eclipsed feels like a breath of fresh air: Not only is it an in-universe set after multiple Universes Beyond sets in a row, it’s a return to one of Magic’s most iconic planes. And the cards look pretty sweet, even if the power level is a touch lower than other sets.

The black cards in particular have excellent choices. They include typal payoffs, as one expects from Lorwyn, callbacks to the original block, and exciting build arounds. Let’s look at the ones worth going for.

What Are Black Cards in Lorwyn Eclipsed?

Sinister Gnarlbark | Illustration by Olivier Bernard

Black cards in Lorwyn Eclipsed have a mono-black color identity. They have typal synergies, some generic, some focused around elves and goblins, plus more generic effects like removal and -1/-1 counters. This list considers cards from both the main set and the Commander precons, as well as Special Guests.

Best Reprints and Special Guests

Bitterblossom

One of the scariest enchantments of all time, Bitterblossom hardly needs an introduction. In Constructed and Cube, it defines inevitability as a cheap threat that’s hard to remove profitably as it swarms the board with faerie tokens that dominate the game in the air. Though the 1/1s are less impressive in Commander due to higher life totals,

Blowfly Infestation

Blowfly Infestation is central to many -1/-1 counter decks. Their gameplan often boils down to distributing the counters, then proliferating them until they kill opposing creatures. This keeps the chain going by spreading -1/-1 counters posthumously, which is perfect for cards like Massacre Girl, Known Killer and Maha, Its Feathers Night.

Massacre Girl, Known Killer

Massacre Girl, Known Killer got a welcome reprint in the Blight Curse precon. One of the most popular commanders from Murders at Karlov Manor, it’s one of the best mono-black -1/-1 counter (or removal) commanders, and one of the deck’s key support pieces. This level of card advantage for simply killing creatures creates huge swings that drive wins.

Necroskitter

-1/-1 counter payoffs are few and far between, and Necroskitter is one of the greatest. Or, at least, the most fun. Stealing your opponents' creatures just because they died gives you an incredible advantage, and a 1/4 with wither is miserable to attack into.

Tree of Perdition

Tree of Perdition is an extraordinarily unique card; it’s one of only two 4-mana creatures with more than 10 toughness, which makes it critical for toughness-matters and defender decks. It also boasts a powerful activated ability that’s especially potent in Commander, stripping an opponent down to just over a quarter of their starting life total. It’s one of the most valuable cards to see a reprint.

#16. Blight Rot

Blight Rot is rather vanilla as removal goes, but it’s worth noting for decks that care specifically about when -1/-1 counters are placed on a creature.

#15. Auntie’s Sentence

Discard effects that cost more than 1 mana are often mediocre, but Auntie's Sentence has a compelling additional mode as a removal spell. It’s much less likely to be a dead card than, say, Aggressive Negotiations or Check for Traps. This won’t warp any formats, but it looks neat for Cube.

#14. Dawnhand Dissident

Dawnhand Dissident has an extremely promising textbox. The ability to cast spells from a zone other than your hand can often be the foundation to a combo engine—see Underworld Breach, Bolas's Citadel, Tayam, Luminous Enigma.

Except the Dissident has a serious problem: Since you’re restricted to the spells exiled with it, it needs to survive for several turns, or you need some Intruder Alarm-esque engine to activate it a bunch in a single turn. Plus, you need to consider where you’re putting those blight counters; the Dissident can’t hold them. This is probably too tame to be busted, but it’s worth keeping an eye on.

#13. Nightmare Sower

Faeries often care about casting spells on other turns, a mechanic that hearkens to their trickster nature. Nightmare Sower uses this particularly well; those -1/-1 counters could be a combat trick, a removal spell, or a synergy piece with cards like Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons. Black has enough proliferate effects to turn a counter or two into a serious infection.

#12. Mornsong Aria

Mornsong Aria takes away card draw in exchange for consistent tutors, balanced by giving all players access to the potent power. It’s not amazing since your opponents get the first crack at tutoring a spell, so they can set up a good turn before you reap the benefits, or even find a removal spell for the Aria so you never see a boon. But the effect is really cool, and I expect it to be lots of fun in Commander, even if it isn’t great.

#11. Shimmercreep

Shimmercreep is effectively Gray Merchant of Asphodel for multicolor decks. It lacks Gary’s peaks since X can never exceed 5, but 5 is still a substantial chunk of life. Throw in ways to flicker, clone, or copy the elemental, and this could end a game in a flash.

#10. Lamentation

One-for-one removal is a losing game in Commander. Some countermagic and spot removal is necessary to handle threats efficiently, but too much of it costs you card advantage in the long run. Lamentation handles this twofold. Since it’s a creature, it’s a two-for-one, and a strong one since you can get to flicker or reanimate it. Encore makes it even better because it synergizes with discard and self-mill, and it handles three threats when needed. Eight mana is a lot, but that’s also about the time the real threats you want to handle hit the table. The dream is to play this, kill something, trade again in combat, then encore it.

#9. Twilight Diviner

Twilight Diviner offers graveyard decks a unique payoff for getting creatures into play from the graveyard. It works best with creatures that have strong enters abilities, but any creature looks pretty good when you get two of them for the price of one. This card gets bonus points for being a pretty fresh design.

#8. Aberrant Return

Wizards has slowly keyed into the fact that reanimator decks in Commander need to reanimate multiple threats, not just one, and Aberrant Return is the latest in a line of mass reanimation spells that stop short of Rise of the Dark Realms. This costs only 1 mana more than Rise from the Grave for more creatures—an excellent deal, even if they enter with -1/-1 counters. To mitigate that downside, reanimate threats like Etali, Primal Conqueror and Summon: Bahamut that you want for their abilities, not their size.

#7. Bloodline Bidding

Move over Patriarch's Bidding, you’ve been utterly power-crept. Sure, Bloodline Bidding costs more mana, but convoke handles that nicely, and you don’t need to reanimate creatures for your opponents. In all likelihood, typal decks that want one will play the other, but it’s a serious upgrade if you only have room for one themed mass reanimation spell.

#6. Moonshadow

Moonshadow wants to be the next Death's Shadow and… it actually looks pretty strong. In formats with fetch lands, it can often attack as a 1-mana 2/2 with menace, which is a fine aggressive card. You can also discard or mill cards to trigger it. And, of course, you can simply get around the counters entirely with cards like Vizier of Remedies, which lets you play this as a 1-mana 7/7. Moonshadow may never see the levels of play Death’s Shadow did, but it’s a great design for brewers to toy with, and one of the best designed cards in the set.

#5. Boggart Mischief

Boggart Mischief is a fantastic goblin card. Rakdos () goblin decks often care about sacrificing goblins, so a Blood Artist effect super-powers the archetype. Even better, this one comes with two pieces of fodder and probably a death trigger if you put the blight counter on a 1/1 token. It’s a synergy powerhouse in the textbox; since it’s a kindred enchantment, it even works with effects like Goblin Matron.

#4. Taster of Wares

A creature that makes your opponent discard a card provides a solid two-for-one, and it’s often worth playing. But the ceiling on Taster of Wares is far higher. Once you assemble a few goblins, it goes from a simple discard effect (one that can’t fuel the graveyard) to targeted hand disruption à la Thoughtseize. And if you ever hit an instant or sorcery you can cast, you get an absurd deal. The goblin restriction means this probably won’t see widespread play, but it might be one of the biggest upgrades the creature type gets from the set.

#3. Eventide’s Shadow

Eventide's Shadow has the potential for massive swings. The most obvious combo is Dark Depths—a Marit Lage and 10 cards for 5 mana sounds pretty good. But it does far, far more; this removes any counters, so you can reset your sagas, cumulative upkeep cards, or just consume +1/+1 counters for a huge burst of card draw. Oh, and it wrecks opposing decks since it can target any player. Five-mana spells need to do a lot these days, and Eventide’s Shadows delivers.

#2. Bitterbloom Bearer

Bitterbloom Bearer takes a Lorwyn classic and slaps it on a stick. A Bitterblossom that dies to Lightning Bolt is more fragile, but flash lets you play around countermagic and hold up other interactive spells. If nothing else, this provides a decent removal check: If your opponent got greedy and doesn’t have an answer, this takes over the game in a few turns.

#1. Grave Venerations

Monarch cards are always solid, and Grave Venerations makes a decent argument as one of black’s strongest methods of claiming the crown. A Zulaport Cutthroat that makes you the monarch is an aristocrat player’s dream, and the added card advantage has great potential. You almost certainly go up two cards the turn this comes down, which is a fine investment alongside the death trigger; anything more and you have a serious engine on your hands.

Wrap Up

Moonshadow | Illustration by Olivier Bernard

Lorwyn Eclipsed’s black cards look pretty sweet. We got some build arounds, typal payoffs, and more niche effects that could be explosive. The power level on these cards—really, ECL as a whole—is a little lower than previous sets, but that might mean power creep is slightly on the downswing.

What are your favorite ECL black cards? Are you looking forward to sleeving any of these up? Let me know in the comments below or on the Draftsim Discord!

Stay safe, and thanks for reading!