5 Big Wins and 1 Major Flop From Lorwyn Eclipsed Prerelease Weekend

Last updated on January 22, 2026

Brigid's Command | Illustration by Sam Guay

Lorwyn Eclipsed is/was the most anticipated set of 2026 for many people I regularly engage with. It marks a temporary “return to form” after about 4-5 months of Universes Beyond, and it’s a return to a beloved multiverse plane for the first time in nearly two decades. And for many, it was exactly what you’d want out of a prerelease experience. Here’s why.

#1. Sold Out Events

Morningtide's Light | Illustration by Mark Poole

Echoing something we saw with Avatar: The Last Airbender late last year, Lorwyn Eclipsed events felt packed. According to the LGS managers at the store I attended, they registered 246 people across five events this weekend, roughly 50 people per event. According to them, that’s the most people they’ve had for a prerelease since Khans of Tarkir over 10 years ago. Other game stores in the same general area didn’t even have spots available by the time I went to register. And while that’s just one select area, there are plenty of people popping up to report the same thing:

Source: Blogatog

Seems like the sky is always falling with MTG, and something new is “killing the game”, but ECL was a pleasant reminder that Magic’s alive and well, at least when it focuses on Magic.

#2. A Break From UB

We here at Draftsim get the occasional feedback that we hate on Universes Beyond a bit too much. Sure, we ragged on Spider-Man quite a bit, but look at it. I’d say that’s not entirely true though, since many of our writers praised Final Fantasy and Avatar, though the same can’t be said of the upcoming TMNT set….

That all said, it’s a breath of fresh air to have a new set that acknowledges and celebrates one of its own planes, and Magic’s at its absolute best when its doing its own internal worldbuilding. It was great to see Lorwyn/Shadowmoor again, especially for players like me who missed the original block, but it was also nice to see anything Magic again after two back-to-back Universes Beyond sets. That’s enough of a sales pitch for anyone who refuses to engage with UB, and refreshing for myself and others who are fine with it, but still want to see Magic planes and characters first and foremost.

#3. The Set’s Just Kind of Cool

Temple Garden | Illustration by Adam Paquette

Lorwyn Eclipsed is kind of just a vibe. We’ll see if it holds up in Draft, where some of the streamlined typal decks might just run over anything else the format has to offer, but as far as Sealed was concerned, I found it both challenging and fun, despite the predicted “on-rails” nature of the format.

This is a typal set, where a good half or more of the design is dedicated to five creature types, with some other archetypes sprinkled in. As such, you get an almost pre-determined pool in Sealed. Opened a bunch of kithkin? Guess you’re playing kithkin. Some people are outspoken against sets like this (Bloomburrow being the most recent example), but I think the decks in Lorwyn are just kind of fun to play.

Yes, if you open a pool full of green and black elves, you’re probably going to play green/black elves, but there are fun micro-decks within each color/color pair that make it still feel like a deck. GB, for example, has a theme of getting elves into the graveyard, UW merfolk has a tapping/untapping mini-game aspect to it, BG goblins plays like a standard sacrifice deck of sorts, UR elementals has a high mana value and triggered ability subtheme that I found actually viable. GW kithkin… well, that’s just standard kithkin beatdown, so you got me there.

There are also a few alternative decks, like UB flash or a BW deck that manages -1/-1 counters as upside, but I didn’t see these in action across my three Sealed events. They’re present, but certainly not as loud as the five creature type-focused decks.

#4. Lorwyn Looks Great

This is obviously not gated to Sealed and prerelease events, but the art of Lorwyn Eclipsed is excellent. I missed the original block, but I always associated original Lorwyn with a sort of goofy aesthetic and art direction, and that’s on full display here. The changelings are as derpy as they’ve always been (Flock Impostor), the kithkin stand out as something distinctly Lorwyn-coded (Bristlebane Battler), and the goblin aunties are on full display (Sourdough Auntie).

You’ve also got excellent pieces of art by Jesper Ejsing, Chris Rahn, Olivier Bernard (Moonshadow‘s ridiculously good), and plenty of other artists who worked on the original block, plus all the Special Guests paper machet art, though those didn’t pop up much this weekend. The mechanics of ECL are cool, but it’s always nice when a set/plane can distinguish itself through art alone.

#5. Risk/Reward Was on Full Display

And back to the gameplay for this final point. One thing I really enjoyed about the gameplay of ECL Sealed is the risk involved in some of the game mechanics. I was fortunate enough to play with Champion of the Clachan, Champion of the Path, and Champions of the Perfect, and I found that beholding was not always “free”. It was generally easy, but sometimes I had to essentially sacrifice a creature to get my typal payoff into play, and these are especially brutal to run into counterspells.

-1/-1 counters are a clear standout. I imagine in Draft you’ll be able to craft decks that actively use -1/-1 counters as an advantage, but it was harder to make that work in Sealed. In other words, -1/-1 counters were actual disadvantages as they’re intended to be, which made it harder to manage cards like Bogslither's Embrace and Cinder Strike. However, it was amazing to “reload” a creature like Glen Elendra Guardian or Loch Mare while also turbo-charging a Cinder Strike. That’s gameplay I can’t associate with very many other Limited sets, and I look forward to seeing how blight plays out in the larger picture, since it wasn’t a huge factor in the Sealed games I played.

To close out, my Lorwyn Eclipsed prereleases were awesome, and it sounds like many people are echoing that sentiment. Part of my personal experience is playing Two-Headed Giant and having a blast with a buddy (which I highly recommend people try out), but the whole weekend just felt like a success. And to leave you off with story time, I managed to Boulder Dash a 2HG team that started off with Timid Shieldbearer and Abigale, Eloquent First-Year on turn 2. Feels good, man!

Dishonorable Mention

As an editor’s note, I’m adding this a few days after the initial publish, because as some people pointed out, glossing over the TMNT debocle doesn’t tell the full story.

For anyone who missed the news, a ton of prerelease kits had rares from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles inserted in place of Lorwyn Eclipsed cards. Not only does this severely damper any enthusiasm people might’ve had for TMNT spoilers in a month, but it also took away from some players’ ECL experience. The store I played at didn’t experience this, but there have been reports of some stores having 10+ players at a single event catching TMNT strays. It’s an extremely bad look for WotC that this happened, and simultaneously de-hypes two sets at the same time. I wasn’t originally overlooking this, per se, but just didn’t realize how much annoyance it caused people, and I definitely get how this might’ve hampered someone’s Lorwyn experience.