Lorwyn Eclipsed: The Most Fun Commanders + Decklists

Lorwyn was the first MTG set I ever had the pleasure of putting my hands on, when I was just a kid. A lot of time has passed since then, and, to this day, that is my comfort set. I love those artworks and nostalgic cards, and the whole set reminds me of my first mistakes, lessons, rights, and wrongs as a player.

Obviously, I was quite happy to return to Lorwyn with the new set, Lorwyn Eclipsed, and I am excited to discuss it and everything it will bring to Commander. This set includes a very limited number of commanders compared to the last releases, and many of them were designed to see play in 75-card constructed formats, which can be great for EDH.

As usual, we'll only discuss commanders included in the main set, so we won't discuss legendary cards released in precons or any other extra material pertaining to Lorwyn Eclipsed. The legendary creatures below are also not ranked in any particular order, so keep that in mind as you read through this article.

Without further ado, let's finally go back to Lorwyn!

Kirol, Attentive First-Year is a three-mana Boros commander that actually doesn't lean too heavily on equipment, for once. Instead, it creates value from triggers, like a Rings of Brighthearth for triggered abilities, essentially. If you tap two untapped creatures you control, this card will copy one of your triggered abilities, once per turn, and also lets you pick new targets for it.

So, this card will clearly be best in a combo-centric list that uses triggered abilities to hoard resources like cards, tokens, or even mana, if we take Firebending into account.

Because you'll have to tap two creatures to use Kirol, you'll also have to build a large board with tokens and useful creatures. You also can't use it more than once per turn, which limits Kirol's potential.

Maralen, Fae Ascendant is a Sultai commander that lets you use cards from other decks, something Wizards of the Coast is always trying to push onto us. This card lets you do that when Elves and Faeries enter play, after they exile cards from enemy decks gradually. This mill strategy is actually quite inefficient. Even if you create a token engine to put lots of these creatures into play, you'll be better off attacking with these tokens than trying to destroy the opponents' decks one by one.

Furthermore, there is an obvious problem when it comes to using cards from enemy decks. You'll have to rely completely on what the other players put in their decks, and you'll often end up with cards that don't add anything to your current strategy. You might also end up with a Craterhoof Behemoth that fits your plan perfectly.

So, Oko's sister sits at a weird middle ground. A hybrid strategy with Elves and Faeries that can both put a good amount of pressure on the opponents and let you steal some of their cards is probably best for her.

High Perfect Morcant is a Golgari commander that makes Elf kindred lists a bit more midrange, unlike Lathril, Blade of the Elves, which is more aggressive and leans on a very defined token swarm game plan. Whenever Morcant or another Elf enters play, each opponent has to Blight 1, that is, this new mechanic triggers and forces each player to put at least one -1/-1 counter on a creature they control. If there are a lot of small useful creatures in play, like Birds of Paradise, this effect will destroy your opponents' support cards bit by bit. If there are big creatures in play, it will wear them down, nerfing enemy boards so that you can remove their units later or fight them in combat.

Morcant's second ability uses Blight in the best way possible. If you tap three Elves, you'll Proliferate at sorcery speed. This, naturally, is a way to increase -1/-1 counters in play, but, because this is a Golgari commander, you'll increase other types of counters as well. This includes +1/+1 counters, Poison counters, and even charge counters on certain artifacts.

High Perfect Morcant, unsurprisingly, rewards a wide board full of Elves with board control instead of infinite mana. This card will let you hoard many resources, not just mana.

Grub, Storied Matriarch is a double-faced red and black commander that changes throughout the game if you pay or mana to transform it. Her standard side, the black one, has an effect that triggers when you put this side in play or transforms her into it: it returns up to one Goblin from your graveyard into your hand. As such, lists with this commander will be able to refill their Goblins after combats, removals, or sacrifices.

When you attack with her red side, you may Blight 1 and create a tapped, attacking token that is a copy of the creature Blighted. This token will be sacrificed by the end of the turn. If that Blighted creature ends up dying, it's all good because you can pay at the beginning of your first main phase to turn Grub back to her black side and get a Goblin back.

I really want to play a deck with the matriarch side. This side will be useful in a Goblins deck, but the other side can also copy many creatures with interesting effects. All we need is a little imagination.

Tam, Mindful First-Year is a cheap commander that protects your board. It gives all your other creatures hexproof against their own colors, which will protect them from the most common spot removals and interactions.

The secret behind this commander is its activated ability, which makes one of your creatures all colors until the end of the turn. Like so, it will be even more protected with this commander's first ability. You'll always be able to save your best creatures from spells or allow them to pass through a board full of monocolored creatures stress-free.

Overall, Tam, Mindful First-Year does not need to be in play for its deck to work, which is quite delightful to see nowadays, considering most commanders are omnipotent engines. Buildings lists around this card will be quite interesting and different from what we see in Commander nowadays. It's definitely worth a look.

This double-faced commander is a new version of a classic Lorwyn character. Ashling, Rekindled is quite cheap: its red side filters your hand, and its blue side creates mana specifically for high-cost cards.

More specifically, when you turn it back into its red side or when you put it in play, you may discard a card and draw another. It's a simple loot maneuver.

If you pay at the beginning of your first main phase, you can turn it into its blue side and get two mana of a certain color. You can only use this mana for spells that cost 4 or more mana.

Like so, this commander will most likely see play in Izzet lists that can play big spells sooner than usual. You'll find them through the cards you'll draw with this card's red side, so you don't have to rely only on mana rocks.

Overall, Ashling works really well as a middle ground between red and blue. Its red side will filter and set up your hand, and its blue side will let you skip your mana curve and play big spells earlier. This commander is simple to pilot and perfect for those who really like Lorwyn.

Finally, this is our last "flipcard": the Elemental Gods Eirdu and Isilu. We'll use Eirdu, Carrier of Dawn in this article because it's the front side. Both sides are 5/5s with flying and lifelink, so they're a real threat straight away.

The white side gives your creature spells convoke, which essentially turns your board into more mana. This is also the side I like the most, and probably the only one I'd use. It will be great in lists with lots of small creatures and tokens because it will help you cast the best finishers possible and find better and better options as you play. You'll be able to follow a natural progression and keep an easy pace as you find your bigger creatures. Meanwhile, lifelink will help you hold on until you fill your board.

Just like the other cards we discussed above, if you pay at the beginning of your first main phase, you'll turn this card into Isilu, which will give each of your nontoken creatures persist instead of convoke. This ability is a useful way to trigger two ETBs at once, survive global and spot removals, and also survive combat. The problem is that you have to wait until something triggers at the beginning of your first main phase to swap to this card's black side. You can't use it as an answer to a combat or removal, so you basically have to "predict" your opponent will play a Wrath of God or similar and swap to this side proactively. Exploring Isilu's full potential will be a bit troublesome.

This commander will probably work better in a midrange Orzhov creatures that adapts to each situation, but I can't say for certain if that will really be the best place for it. Nonetheless, it's an interesting commander, as well as beautiful.

When I opened the first Lorwyn boosters, all I could think was, "Dude, we're in Lorwyn again!". Everything was there: the faithful art direction, the iconic cards, the Lorwyn people, and in particular, its soul. This set honors the original set completely and shows that, if Wizards of the Coast wants to, they can make something interesting and that makes sense in the MTG we all love.

The next set, in more or less a month, is Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, which we've all already seen a lot of because of a distribution mistake that put it within the Lorwyn pre-release kits.

What do you think? Tell us your thoughts in our comment section below.

Thank you for reading, and see you next time!