Lorwyn Eclipsed Mechanics

We're headed back to Lorwyn. And Shadowmoor. Which are now the same place. Well, they've always been the same place, but now they're really up in each other's business. Lorwyn Eclipsed returns us to the bucolic and/or dire landscape of old, but what you remember and what currently exists are basically day and night. Let's check out some mechanics!

Vivid

The Lorwyn aspect of the plane is bright and colorful, with the majestic sun inspiring all who feel its warmth. Vivid is an ability word that highlights abilities that care in some way about the number of colors among permanents you control. This number will be between zero and five.

Each vivid ability uses this number in a different way. If it's in the effect of an activated ability or triggered ability like the one Shinestriker has, you count the number of colors among permanents you control as that ability resolves. Remember that lands are usually colorless, so they won't help vivid abilities unless something gives them a color, although this is unusual.

Lorwyn Eclipsed includes hybrid cards. You can pay for each hybrid mana symbol with mana of either color, but the resulting permanent will still be every color present in its mana cost. For example, Voracious Tome-Skimmer is a blue and black card, even if you paid or to cast it.

Blight

If the plane is a little too bright and colorful for your liking, you could try mucking things up a bit. A prominent feature of Lorwyn Eclipsed is -1/-1 counters. One obvious use for them is to make opposing creatures weaker. One less-obvious use for them is to make your own creatures weaker. But why? One reason is blight, a new keyword action.

Blight includes a number and is often phrased as a cost you pay. To blight N, put N -1/-1 counters on a creature you control. That creature isn't targeted, so you choose which creature will get the -1/-1 counters as you're taking the blight action. Importantly, you can put more -1/-1 counters on a creature than it would take to get rid of it. For example, if you blight 3, you can put three -1/-1 counters on a hapless 1/1, thank it for its service, and reap whatever benefit blighting got you.

There are many reasons to blight. It's often a cost you pay, such as to activate an ability or as an additional cost to cast a spell. While -1/-1 counters aren't great for your creatures, there are several ways in this set to remove them. These effects not only relieve the counters' power and toughness penalties, but the effects often have additional benefits as well.

There are no new cards in Lorwyn Eclipsed that put +1/+1 counters on anything, but there is a rule that kicks in if a permanent has both +1/+1 and -1/-1 counters on it. Those counters are removed in pairs, essentially annihilating each other until only one kind of counter remains. For example, if you blight 2 and put two -1/-1 counters on a creature with three +1/+1 counters on it, two of those +1/+1 counters and the two -1/-1 counters will be removed, leaving the creature with only a single +1/+1 counter on it.

Changeling

The original Lorwyn block is remembered fondly for its typal strategies. There were eight key creature types to focus on (Giants and seven other ones I can't recall at the moment), with changeling being a versatile keyword that bridged those creature types. Creatures with changeling could literally be anyone or anything.

The changeling keyword allows the card that has it to be every creature type. It's a Human. It's a Goat. It's a Surrakar. (Remember them?) For every creature type that's actually on the list—that list is kept in rule 205.3m if you ever feel the need to go look at it—a card with changeling is that creature type. It's not any subtype that isn't a creature type, like Food, Island, or Oko. The Shapeshifter creature type on its type line is really more of a flavorful touch than anything else. It's just as much a Shapeshifter as it is an Azra. (Remember them?)

Changeling applies no matter where the card with changeling is. Sizzling Changeling has all creature types while in your hand, library, graveyard, and so on. If an effect allows you to search your library for a card with a certain creature type or affects cards with a certain creature type in your graveyard, a card with changeling always fits the bill.

Kindreds

Speaking of creature types, kindreds return in Lorwyn Eclipsed. Kindred is a card type that's added to noncreature cards to allow them to have creature types.

Being a kindred allows Boggart Mischief to also be a Goblin. This means it's a Goblin card in your library, graveyard, and so on. So, if you search your library for a Goblin card, you can find Boggart Mischief. Note that it's not a creature card or a creature while on the battlefield, so be careful about effects that specify "Goblin creature," like Boggart Mischief's last ability. Unless you somehow turn Boggart Mischief into a creature, that ability won't trigger when Boggart Mischief itself hits the graveyard.

Some effects may check to see if you control a [creature type]. This means a permanent with that creature type, be it a creature or a kindred, but not a spell. As Wanderwine Farewell is resolving, you'll create Merfolk tokens if you control a Merfolk kindred (or perhaps a kindred permanent with changeling), but Wanderwine Farewell won't count for itself, even though it is a Merfolk spell you control.

Double-Faced Cards

No mechanic encapsulates the transformative nature of Lorwyn and Shadowmoor quite like double-faced cards. Each face reveals a different aspect of these characters as they walk the different aspects of the plane.

Double-faced cards are a regular sight these days, and as the name would suggest, each one features two Magic card faces: a front face (with an up arrow icon in the upper-left corner) and a back face (with down arrow icon in the upper-right corner). All of the double-faced cards in this set are what's called nonmodal double-faced cards, previously known as transforming double-faced cards. This means that, unlike some double-faced cards that you may have seen before, they have no mana costs on their back faces and when you cast them you can cast only their front faces.

After you cast one of these double-faced cards, the spell goes on the stack with its front face up, and after it resolves, it enters the battlefield with its front face up. If you put one onto the battlefield some other way, it also enters with its front face up unless the effect specifically says it enters transformed.

While a nonmodal double-faced card is on the stack and while it's on the battlefield with its front face up, it has only the characteristics of that face. They usually have a way to transform to their other face. In this set, the double-faced cards all have an ability that triggers at the beginning of your first main phase, signifying the transition between Lorwyn and Shadowmoor. As that ability resolves, you may pay the requested mana if you wish to transform the permanent. However, other permanents may transform in any number of ways.

As a double-faced permanent transforms, it's still the same permanent, so any Auras, Equipment, and counters will stay on it. Any effect that was affecting it continues to do so.

The back faces of nonmodal double-faced cards don't have a mana cost. However, there are two things you should know about the back faces. First, while a nonmodal double-faced card is on the battlefield with its back face up, the mana value of that permanent is calculated using the mana cost of the front face. For example, the mana value of Trystan, Penitent Culler is 3 because the mana cost of Trystan, Callous Cultivator is . Second, the back faces will each have a dot of a color or colors to the left of its types. This is the color indicator, and it tells you what color(s) the card is. Okay, the frame does a pretty good job of that, too, but the color indicator tells the rules what color(s) the card is. That black dot assures the game that Trystan, Penitent Culler is, in fact, black.

Lightning Round: Other Returning Mechanics

These returning mechanics aren't featured in this set and appear on only a small number of cards, but they gave me some cool cards and what, I'm not going to show them off? Plus, you may not have seen these before or in a while, so here's a quick look.

Convoke

As you're paying for a spell with convoke, rather than spend mana, you can tap untapped creatures you control, even ones that just came under your control this turn. You can tap any creature you control to pay for or, for a mana symbol with a color, tap a creature of that color.

Behold

Some cards will ask you to behold something, usually a creature type. To do that, either choose a permanent you control or reveal a card from your hand that fits the description. Champions of the Perfect is a little unusual in that it also asks you to exile the beheld Elf. Most behold effects aren't so demanding.

Evoke

Evoke is an alternative cost on some permanent cards. If you choose to cast a spell for its evoke cost, an ability triggers when it enters, forcing you to sacrifice it. Evoke is an economical option if you want to access the card's enters abilities (and sometimes abilities that trigger when it dies) ahead of schedule.

Persist

Persist is on the back face. Click the arrows.

Dying is kind of a bummer for your creatures, but persist can make it less of one. When a creature with persist dies, if it had no -1/-1 counters on it, it returns to the battlefield under its owner's control with a -1/-1 counter on it. That -1/-1 counter will get in the way of persist saving that creature again, but I did mention ways to get rid of -1/-1 counters …

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Embrace the light and the dark within. Lorwyn Eclipsed previews are on the rise, with the set's global release on January 23. Preorder Lorwyn Eclipsed at your local game store, Amazon, TCGplayer, and elsewhere Magic is sold.