Last week, I started sharing the document Mark Gottlieb handed off in the middle of set design to Michael Majors, his co-set lead. We only got through the first half, so let's pick up where we left off. Everything included below is the text from the actual document, with my commentary appearing in boxes.

Pillar Three: In-Between Stuff

Design territory that fuses elements from Lorwyn and Shadowmoor, conceptually and/or mechanically. These are cards that could not have previously existed, bringing some novelty into the set even while returning to previous territory.

Double-Faced Cards

One side is a card's Lorwyn identity, the other side is its Shadowmoor identity. Previous examples exist, but they had to be on two separate cards in two separate sets (Sygg, River Guide and Sygg, River Cutthroat; Spinerock Knoll and Knollspine Dragon).

Goals:

  • Concise, visceral way to show the Lorwyn-Shadowmoor story on individual cards
  • Place to use "dark mirror" tropes

From the very first time I pitched a return to Lorwyn as a setting where both aspects coexisted, double-faced cards (DFCs) were a key part of my proposal. One side was the Lorwyn version and one side was the Shadowmoor version. The DFCs would go through many changes, but that one premise never changed.

We found no need for consistency regarding which side was which. Some front sides could be Lorwyn themed, other front sides could be Shadowmoor themed.

In the end, all the front sides were Lorwyn themed and all the back faces were Shadowmoor themed.

Executions have been problematic. We have tried:

  • DFC creatures that automatically flip at the beginning of your upkeep.
  • MDFC creatures where you choose to cast the Lorwyn side or the Shadowmoor side. They're different colors on both sides, but the same power and toughness. They have different ETB abilities, so they're like split cards. These are anti-hybrid; each side should do something its counterpart color can't.
  • DFC creatures with attack triggers that flip when you untap them. Again, they're different colors on both sides but have the same power and toughness. These are more like hybrid cards. Since you cast them by paying one color, the front needs a ability of that color, and the back (which is another color) needs an ability that fits into both colors' abilities.
  • DFC enchantments that automatically flip at the beginning of your upkeep.
  • MDFC enchantments. These are strictly worse than Duskmourn: House of Horror's Rooms, though.
  • MDFC cards in white and green that are creatures on one side and instant-speed Auras on the other. The intent was to call back to reinforce but without using +1/+1 counters. As long as we had DFCs in the set, we could do it, but it broke the "Lorwyn on one side, Shadowmoor on the other side" paradigm.
  • MDFC cards that are lands on one side and creatures on the other as callbacks to the Spinerock Knoll cycle. Recent versions have abilities on the land side that let players exile them and return them on the creature side.
  • Vision Design's intent was to make some legendary creatures using one of these paradigms, but the team hadn't gotten there yet.

These documents are meant to help the set design lead and their team understand what design space exists. To do this, you often want to spell out the many things you tried, both to help the Set Design team understand the possibilities and to help illustrate how you ended up where you did. It was clear at handoff that the DFCs needed a lot more work before definitively deciding on how to build them.

For a while, the set included a dedicated DFC slot in each booster pack, replacing a common. More recently, they had been dropped into booster packs at their appropriate rarity, replacing a card of the same rarity, which is a tactic that the Magic: The Gathering®—FINAL FANTASY™ team is employing.

The DFCs started at a high as-fan and mostly dropped as the design evolved. In the end, we chose to do just seven but make them splashy and impactful.

Rainbow

This is a new mechanic that's like party, but for colors. You count up permanents you control of different colors. For example, if you have a green permanent and a five-color permanent, your rainbow count is two. You have one permanent that's green, and one that's, let's say, blue. Your rainbow number ranges between zero and five.

The final version of vivid functions more like domain than party in that it just counts the number of colors you have rather than only allowing each permanent to contribute to one color. Like the blight change, this was mostly done to simplify the mechanic.

Example implementation:

When CARDNAME enters, tap target creature an opponent controls. Put X stun counters on it, where X is the number of permanents in your rainbow. (Your rainbow consists of up to five permanents, one per color.)

Its Shadowmoor influence is that this mechanic is based on original Shadowmoor's colors-matter theme and is enabled by hybrid cards, and its Lorwyn influence is that it's a bright, inclusive mechanic.

One of the challenges of the vivid mechanic is that it mechanically felt like Shadowmoor, as it cared about color, but emotionally felt like Lorwyn. This was one of the things that pushed us to want to find ways to allow Lorwyn and Shadowmoor to intermix on the same card.

Goals:

  • A colors-matter mechanic that leverages hybrid. Rainbow makes hybrid mean something mechanically (they're not just easier to cast) and couldn't exist in a set without hybrid mana.

Rainbow appears primarily in blue, red, and green. The archetypes that focus on it are green-blue and blue-red. Red-green is more focused on ramp.

In the finished product, the vivid archetypes ended up being red-green and green-blue. Blue-red would become an Elemental-focused archetype.

It is a "collect permanents on board" mechanic, so it has difficulty coexisting with typal cards. As a result, typal cards at low rarities tend not to be "collect all the permanents of a type"-style cards. See the "Typal" section for more information.

Typal and "colors matter" are battlefield-centric themes and challenging to mix. This was consciously done in original Lorwyn and Shadowmoor blocks to make the two settings feel connected. This was cool when each was its own set but became problematic as we started mixing the themes.

Mashups

"Wrestling" has mechanic mashups that couldn't have existed in either Lorwyn or Shadowmoor. Changelings were only on Lorwyn, and -1/-1 counters were only on Shadowmoor. But "Wrestling" can have a changeling with -1/-1 counters on it. Typal cards were only on Lorwyn, and hybrid was only on Shadowmoor. But "Wrestling" can have a hybrid typal card.

Goals:

  • Create fun new cards that feel like Lorwyn and Shadowmoor but couldn't have existed in either previous set
  • Take full advantage of all the design tools available to us

Early in vision design, cards were slotted as "a Lorwyn card" or "a Shadowmoor card." We realized that we were restricting ourselves. The set is a mashup of the two aspects; its cards can be as well.

Exploring whether the concepts you start with allow you to access the potential of the design is always important. When they don't, you need to shift your concepts. Having every card be a Lorwyn card or a Shadowmoor card was preventing us from making cool new things.

New Content

Of course, "Wrestling" is not limited to only returning mechanics or mechanics inspired by Lorwyn and/or Shadowmoor.

A structural challenge with the major mechanics listed above is that both typal and rainbow incentivize players to build up a stockpile of permanents on board. So, the set needs some incentives to attack.

Cavort

Cavort is a mechanic we're trying in red and white (and could be green, too). You're rewarded if you deal a total of four or more damage during your turn. This includes combat damage to players, combat damage to blocking creatures, damage from spells, and damage from abilities.

Example implementation:

Whenever you cavort 4, create a Treasure token. (You cavort 4 as sources you control deal their fourth total damage during your turn.)

Goals:

  • Incentivize action and attacking
  • Feel playful, even in its aggression
  • Give the red-white deck a non-typal identity

Once we decided to limit the typal themes to five archetypes, the Vision Design team was looking for mechanical identities for the other archetypes. In the end, we found that blight and vivid could support two archetypes each and ended up not needing "cavort."

Hunt

Hunt is something we're trying on black and green Elves. It's resonant to the Lorwyn Elves' original identity. Hunt creates an Aura token you put on a creature, and when that creature dies, you draw a card.

Example implementation:

When CARDNAME enters, hunt target creature an opponent controls. (Create a Hunted Aura token attached to that creature. When the creature dies, draw a card.)

Goals:

  • Incentivize action and attacking
  • Be resonant with Lorwyn Elf identity of hunting parties
  • Give the Elf deck an identity beyond Elf typal

Wilds of Eldraine introduced Roles, Aura tokens that grant a basic function. Numerous sets have explored using just a single Role token, with "hunt" being an example we tried for Lorwyn Eclipsed. It didn't end up working out for this set, but it was an interesting design space.

Set Structure

Each vision design handoff document is different because what you need to convey will vary greatly from set to set. Because creature type as-fan was such a big deal in this set, Gottlieb spent some time in the handoff walking through the set structure. Again, remember that this handoff occurred after three months of set design.

Common creatures per color

  • 2 Creatures of primary creature type A (Kithkin, Merfolk, Goblin, Elemental, or Elf)
  • 2 Creatures of primary creature type B (Kithkin, Merfolk, Goblin, Elemental, or Elf)
  • 1 Shapeshifter with changeling
  • 1 Creature of secondary creature type (Faerie, Treefolk, or Giant)
  • Other creatures can be anything

Gottlieb is explaining what the expectation is for each monocolor creature card at common. Each of the primary creature types has a main color (what he's calling type A) and a supporting color (what he's calling type B)

Let's use white as an example. White would have two creatures of its main primary creature type, Kithkin. It would then have two creatures of its supporting primary type, Merfolk. There would then be a mono-white Shapeshifter with changeling. Common would have one secondary creature type. For white, that could be a Giant or Treefolk. Some colors, such as white which has the most creatures of any color, can have some additional creature cards. I would assume white would have the other secondary creature type as there's room for it.

Common creatures per hybrid pair

  • 1 HH signpost-like creature. If the archetype has a primary creature type, it should be that type.
  • 1 H more general creature for any deck. If the archetype has a primary creature type, it should not be that type.

H means a specific hybrid mana symbol. For white-blue, common would have one creature with a mana cost of {N} where N is an amount of generic mana, possibly zero. This creature would be the primary creature type of that color combination. In the case of white-blue, that would be Merfolk. "Signpost-like" means that the card would lean more heavily into the mechanical theme of the Merfolk archetype. The second common hybrid creature would have a mana cost of {N} and wouldn't be a Merfolk.

Uncommon creatures per color

  • 2 Creatures of primary creature type A (Kithkin, Merfolk, Goblin, Elemental, or Elf)
  • 2 Creatures of primary creature type B (Kithkin, Merfolk, Goblin, Elemental, or Elf)
  • 1 Shapeshifter with changeling
  • 1 Creature of secondary creature type (Faerie, Treefolk, or Giant)
  • Other creatures can be anything

It's interesting to note that uncommon has the same structure as common.

Uncommon creatures per hybrid pair

  • 1 HHH signpost creature. If the archetype has a primary creature type, it should be that type and care about that type.
  • 1 HH creature. If the archetype has a primary creature type, it should be a "reuniter."

The signpost is an uncommon card in all the archetype's colors (hybrid in this set) that informs you what the draft archetype is doing. A reuniter is a creature that, when it enters, searches the top four cards of your library for a creature card of the species type of the creature or one of the two basic land types of its colors. In Lorwyn Eclipsed, they all have Eclipsed in their name. While both cycles exist in the final set, they don't all have the same number of hybrid symbols.

No common dual lands

In a typical set, a two-color deck has access to roughly 40% of the cards. Splashing a third color means nearly less than 20% of cards are now available to you (you don't want the double-pip cards or the cards clearly for different deck strategies).

In "Wrestling," a two-color deck has access to 40% of the monocolor cards and about 70% of the hybrid cards (though the HHH cards in only one of your colors are a tough ask and a possible strategic mismatch anyway).

Mana fixing is light, because too much mana fixing turns the set into five-color soup. The mana fixing lives in the mana costs of the hybrid cards. There are no common dual lands for this reason.

The set ended up having Evolving Wilds at common but no common dual lands.

Cycles

Behold spells

  • One common instant removal spell per color. They each have "You may behold two [type]. If you do, scry 2." [Type] is the primary creature type for the color, Kithkin for white, Merfolk for blue, Goblin for black, Elementals for red, and Elves for green.

Behold creatures

  • One uncommon creature per color. They each have "As an additional cost to cast this spell, pay {N} or behold a [type]." [Type] matches the card's creature type and is the primary creature type for the color.

The finished set has two behold cycles, one at uncommon and one at rare. It also has a third green behold card at mythic rare. All but two of the behold spells are creatures, and one of those is a kindred.

Reuniters

  • One uncommon creature per hybrid typal archetype. They each have "When CARDNAME enters, look at the top four cards of your library. You may reveal a [type], [basic land type A], or [basic land type B] card from among them and put it into your hand. Put the rest on the bottom in a random order." [Type] is the primary creature type for the color pair (white-blue Merfolk, blue-red Elemental, black-red Goblin, black-green Elf, green-white Kithkin). The basic land types match the two colors of the card (for example, the black-red hybrid card can find a Goblin, Swamp, or Mountain).

HHH signposts

  • One uncommon creature per color pair that serves as a loud indication of that color pair's archetype. Some of them are typal build-arounds, as appropriate.

Both of these cycles stayed, although not all the signposts are HHH.

Changelings

  • One Shapeshifter with changeling of each color at common
  • One Shapeshifter with changeling of each color at uncommon

The uncommon cycle stayed. There are others, including some colorless ones with generic costs, but not cycled.

Uncommon MDFC creatures

  • A ten-card cycle of uncommon creatures. Each one is two different colors on the front and back, and all ten color pairs are represented. For each one, one side represents the creature's Lorwyn identity and the other side represents the same creature's Shadowmoor identity. Their power and toughness is the same on each side, but the abilities are as diametrically opposite as possible.

The final set has seven DFCs, all rare or mythic rare. There is a legendary creature of each of the primary types, an Elemental God, and an Oko planeswalker. All the creatures have the same power and toughness on both sides.

Leaders

  • An eight-card cycle of creatures, one per Lorwyn creature type. Each one has a leader ability that allows you to fetch it from outside the game if your deck is typal enough. Currently, they're all monocolor cards, though some or all could be multicolor cards. Currently, they're legendary.

These got cut.

Commands

  • A five-card rare spell cycle. They have multicolor costs (not hybrid) and appear in ally colors. Each one is a Command (a "choose two" modal card with four modes); this is a callback to the original Commands which premiered in Lorwyn. Each one has the kindred card type and a Lorwyn creature subtype. The first mode is "Create a token that's a copy of [type] you control," where the type matches the card's subtype. Cards in the file are white-blue Merfolk, blue-black Faerie, black-red Goblin, red-green Giant, and green-white Kithkin.

This cycle made it to print close to this. The biggest change is what the creature types were. White-blue Merfolk, black-red Goblin, and green-white Kithkin stayed, but the other two became blue-red Elemental and black-green Elf. A blue-black Faeries theme still exists but with a lighter typal touch.

Elemental Incarnations

  • A five-card rare creature cycle with the subtype Elemental Incarnation. They have hybrid costs and appear in enemy colors. They are conceptually based on emotions or psychological states (Emptiness, Catharsis, etc.). This is a callback to the Lorwyn cycle of Elemental Incarnations (Hostility, etc.). Each one has evoke (another callback to LRW); the evoke cost is a single hybrid mana. Each card also has two ETB abilities. One works if you spent one color to cast it, the other works if you spent the other color to cast it. Thus, if you evoke it, you can get one of these ETB abilities.
  • Note that the Elemental Incarnations and the Commands use quite a number of small modal effects. They've been designed such that they don't overlap; this will need to be monitored as they change.

This cycle also made it to print.

Transcendents (Quints)

  • A five card cycle with costs of , , etc. These are meant to be reminiscent of the Shadowmoor and Eventide Spirit Avatars. Each one lets you colorwash by paying and blighting 1 rather than paying a mana of its designated color pip. For example, you could cast the red one by paying and blighting 1 three times. Each one grants or mimics the functionality of a Shadowmoor keyword (persist, conspire, wither, chroma, or rebound).

This cycle didn't make it. I believe five hybrid symbols proved to be a bit too much. Many of these keywords would cameo on other cards.

Rare land MDFCs

  • A five-card cycle that calls back to the Spinerock Knoll and Knollspine Dragon cycles from Lorwyn and Shadowmoor. One side is a land that represents the sleeping creature. The other side shows that creature awakened. Currently, the lands each have a typal activated ability that allows the land to wake up.

These didn't make it to print. When Set Design pulled back on the number of DFCs, this cycle got cut.

Shocklands

  • "Volleyball" will have five of the shock lands and "Wrestling" will have the rest. The current plan is for "Wrestling" to have the five that correspond to the primary typal color pairs. It's a nontraditional cycle, but each color is represented twice. "Volleyball" will cooperate with the preferences of "Wrestling," but they'll need to lock their choices in much earlier than "Wrestling" would if it was operating alone.

This cycle made it. Once we locked in Edge of Eternities, this cycle was essentially locked in.

Archetypes

  • White-blue: Merfolk typal—tap your creatures for fun and profit
  • Blue-black: Control—rewards for playing spells during opponents' turns; light Faerie typal theme
  • Black-red: Goblin typal—blight and death triggers
  • Red-green: Ramp with Giants and Treefolk as the top end
  • Green-white: Kithkin typal—go wide
  • White-black: Remove -1/-1 counters
  • Blue-red: Elemental typal—rainbow
  • Black-green: Elf typal—Hunted Aura tokens?
  • Red-white: Cavort—rewards for being aggro; works with wide Kithkin and/or single Giants
  • Green-blue: Rainbow

Most of these archetypes made it, although many of them were tweaked a little. Red-green ended up more as a vivid archetype. White-black became a controlling blight archetype. Blue-red became Elemental typal, and black-green stayed Elf typal but lost the Hunted Auras. Red-white became one of the two blight archetypes, playing into you casting large creatures that enter with a bunch of -1/-1 counters that you remove to make them huge.

What's Missing?

Mostly legends. "Wrestling" is interested in the following:

  • Returning legendary characters from Lorwyn, Morningtide, Shadowmoor, or Eventide, if they're still alive
  • New legendary characters native to the plane
  • At least one [REDACTED] version of a legendary character (Oona)
  • Five visiting students from Strixhaven that got lost and wound up here; to later appear in "Yachting"
  • The sun Elemental and moon Elemental representing day/Lorwyn and night/Shadowmoor, respectively
  • Desirable reprints from the original Lorwyn and Shadowmoor blocks
  • Other callbacks to Lorwyn and Shadowmoor, as appropriate

Most of this list ended up in the file.

That brings us to the end of the document for Lorwyn Eclipsed. I would like to thank Mark Gottlieb for allowing me to share this document with all of you. If you have any feedback on anything you read today, you can email me or contact me through social media (Bluesky, Tumblr, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter) with feedback.

Join me next week for another installment of Making Magic.

Until next time, may you figure out whether you enjoy your Lorwyn half or Shadowmoor half better.