Modern Set Review: Lorwyn Eclipsed

The Magic: The Gathering 2026 release season has begun! Lorwyn Eclipsed, the first of three in-universe expansions this year and the first of seven releases scheduled for 2026, returns players to a plane brimming with mystical creatures and fables, marking a homecoming to the iconic realm of Elves, Goblins, Faeries, Kithkin, and Elementals.

With previews wrapped up, our review season at Cards Realm begins, where we highlight the biggest additions of the expansion for Magic's major formats—in this article, we cover Modern!

The lack of immediate value means Kinscaer Sentry has to work hard for its slots, but between Lifelink and a recursion ability that interacts with Voice of Victory and the Energy shell, the card is worth testing, albeit with low expectations.

The few players still trying to make Faeries work in Modern received their best new tool in Flitterwing Nuisance, but the card's power level is a bit too low for Modern's standards, especially considering it dies instantly to Orcish Bowmasters before generating any value.

There might be cases where having an extra Merfolk in play via a token matters in the archetype's two-drop slots. Combined with any of the lords, we're talking about five extra power for two mana and/or an Aether Vial activation away—but the two-drop slots are already packed in this deck, and it doesn't solve most of the archetype's issues today.

As a Death’s Shadow fan, I'd like to be more excited about Moonshadow, but it has more in common with Stalactite Stalker, which had potential in Modern but never had its time to shine.

Maybe a deck with Street Wraith, lots of Fetch Lands, and other ways to put permanents into the graveyard at the lowest possible cost will find room to test it, but how much better is Moonshadow compared to Nethergoyf, which grows more naturally and doesn't require "saving" resources to trigger it? And how much will having a 7/7 at the end of the process really be worth compared to other options?

Fatal Push still sees play in Modern, and Requiting Hex is a fine complement at instant speed. However, trading two life instead of having Revolt seems to do too little, even when facing a hyper-aggressive strategy like Prowess.

Spider-Punk became a sideboard piece in Living End, and Hexing Squelcher is probably a better card, since Ward 2 applies to all your creatures, not just Goblins, making it harder for opponents to use Counterspells while also punishing them for interacting with your creatures through spot removal.

Between Agent of Treachery, Master of Cruelties, Famished Worldsire, and Hornet Queen, there are enough targets to consider a deck with Meek Attack, the most likely involving Hornet Queen or Agent of Treachery since these interact with Ephemerate and Phelia, Exuberant Shepherd. If we follow this line, some targets you might want to use with the enchantment include Solitude.

Lines with Kiki-Jiki, Mirror-Breaker and untappers like Deceiver Exarch or Pestermite are also possible, but we'd be adding more copies of "dead" cards to a combo that would naturally be more expensive than the original Splinter Twin.

Formidable Speaker is possibly the best card in the new set for Modern as a strong combo setup. How about enabling the hit-kill of Samwise Gamgee with Cauldron Familiar using the same card—one we can fit into Birthing Ritual slots without much trouble while also gaining some redundancy in the archetype's toolbox?

Or the possibility of using Formidable Speaker to find Primeval Titan and, the next turn, generate extra mana with a Bounce Land to accelerate the Titan's casting? And what if the enabler for this "combo" in both cases is also a Green Sun’s Zenith target?

We can also consider the possibility of discarding creatures for Agatha’s Soul Cauldron, like Walking Ballista, while finding Heliod, Sun-Crowned or Yawgmoth, Thran Physician, which now also have a "pseudo-tutor" in Formidable Speaker through the same Green Sun’s Zenith combination mentioned above.

In short, Depraz's card has so much potential for Modern that I wouldn't be surprised if the player designed it with the format in mind, not just as a Cube or Commander staple. We just need to figure out where exactly this new Elf will have the best home.

While unlikely, it's worth mentioning that Abigale, Eloquent First-Year turns Death’s Shadow into a 13/13 with Flying, First Strike, and Lifelink. A few years ago, SaffronOlive featured a budget Mono Black Shadow deck for Modern, and Abigale plays a similar role to Temur Battle Rage in that variant, even with the "downgrade" of destroying your other Shadows if the vanilla version connects.

Catharsis offers a complement to another deck from times past, 8-Whack. I don't think the archetype will be competitive with this addition, nor will the card play any significant role in Energy lists due to its high-cost.

Deceit offers a Bounce effect and a Distress attached to a 5/5 body that can be returned from the graveyard with Living End. It seems like a good interaction piece that also fuels the combo and helps protect it with Force of Negation and Subtlety.

Although the space for a splash in Merfolk just for Deepway Navigator is questionable, the card also works as a two-mana Deceiver Exarch if used at the opponent's end step: enchanted with a Splinter Twin, Navigator can create a copy of itself that, on ETB, untaps every Merfolk in play, including the original.

I believe this addition does little to make Splinter Twin a viable deck, as the problem of trying to execute a combo that's vulnerable to two-for-ones while needing four mana in a Metagame full of Solitude and other hyper-efficient removal isn't solved by a two-drop, but the splash and the card's redundancy might bring something new to the strategy.

The Unearth ability on Emptiness could be interesting for formats that don't have access to the card for returning Abhorrent Oculus and similar creatures. In Modern, two mana seems too slow for this type of effect.

The sorcery speed and the need for a splash make Sygg’s Command impractical for Merfolk, since its use could be disrupted by Harbinger of the Seas and, for three mana, the card doesn't do anything the archetype currently needs.

Tam, Mindful First-Year is a pseudo-Giver of Runes in green/blue for two mana, making it a potential target for Green Sun’s Zenith's toolbox when we need to protect a creature or ensure a key piece or win condition stays protected—provided the opponent isn't running Kozilek’s Command.

Living End hasn't ran in its lists, and Vibrance doesn't seem enough to make the archetype change that stance without Fury in the format.

On the other hand, Wistfulness looks like an instant staple for Living End and perhaps for other strategies running Foundation Breaker. For two mana, it works as "Looting," directly fueling the deck's game plan while putting a 6/5 into the graveyard. It can also handle most common hate pieces in the format while dealing with troublesome artifacts and enchantments from other archetypes.

That's all for today!

If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment!

Thanks for reading!