While there were rumors that Lorwyn Eclipsed wouldn’t be getting an Alchemy set for MTG Arena, they’ve been well and truly squashed this week. Following on from the initial reveals on Monday, today brought us a trio of great new spoilers from Magic’s next digital-only set. As you’d expect, there are some fairly outrageous designs in here, with more than one broken mechanic making a comeback. While it’s always a shame for paper players to miss out, the fact that we get to enjoy cards like this at all is a big plus.
Aquatic Subtlety
Aquatic Subtlety is, ironically enough, a not-so-subtle callback to one of Magic’s most broken cycles. Specifically, the Modern Horizons 2 Evoke Elementals, of which Subtlety is a member. If you can cobble together the three blue mana needed to cast it, you get a standard looting effect here, before the real juice: granting every blue creature in your hand Subtlety’s “free” Evoke cost.
In theory, this effect is absolutely outrageous. There are a bunch of high-impact blue creatures available in Historic and Timeless, including Atraxa, Grand Unifier and Agent of Treachery. With Aquatic Subtlety, you can snag their huge enters triggers without investing any mana at all.
Looking at the current MTG Arena metagame, there could well be a home for Aquatic Subtlety in Timeless Show and Tell lists. These decks already run Atraxa at four copies, and this gives them another way to get it out on turn three, other than the titular sorcery. It also works great with Scholar of the Ages, letting you rebuy your draw spells and tutors for “free” if you’re struggling to get all your pieces together. Since Show and Tell is a Combo deck, the looting aspect, while underwhelming elsewhere, is very welcome here.
Unfortunately, outside of this deck, Aquatic Subtlety is a bit of a hard sell. There just aren’t any decks running pricey enough blue creatures to justify its inclusion. Even if they did exist, the triple blue cost and heavy demands on resources would still be limitations. While it’s certainly cool and flashy, I don’t expect this card to make too many waves in the Arena metagame.
Limitless Rekindling
If Aquatic Subtlety was flashy, then Limitless Rekindling is a full-on light show. This card is the epitome of what’s possible in MTG sets like Alchemy: Lorwyn Eclipsed, combining a busted mechanic with some serious random shenanigans.
Looking at the instant and sorcery pool for Lorwyn Eclipsed, there’s a ton of variance here. You could hit some hugely impactful spells, like Dream Harvest or Mirrorform. On the other hand, you could roll complete duds, like Celestial Reunion or Spell Snare. Even with a Storm count of around three, there’s a very real chance that this whiffs completely on resolution. On the other hand, it could provide more value for your five mana than any other sorcery we’ve seen.
The randomness alone pretty much excludes Limitless Rekindling from any serious conversations on competitive play. Even in a dedicated red Storm deck,like Historic Lotus Field, the uncertain outcome makes it a poor choice of payoff. Why roll the dice on this when you can just use Grapeshot or Storm of Memories, after all?
For that reason, I expect Limitless Rekindling will see most of its use in casual Historic Brawl matches. In games like that, the chaotic randomness here is a strength, not a weakness. Even though it probably won’t advance your game plan in most cases, but it will create some very memorable moments, and there’s a lot to be said for that.
Thorna And Twigtooth
Closing out today’s Alchemy: Lorwyn Eclipsed spoilers, we have an intriguing new MTG legendary creature. Thorna and Twigtooth feels like a rejected concept from the Blight Curse Commander precon, bringing a similar flavor of counter manipulation to digital formats.
At baseline, this is a four-mana 4/5 that becomes a 6/7 when it swings, drains your opponent for two, and buffs up your next drawn creature. While the stats here are good, there’s very little here beyond that. Things get more interesting when you get creatures like Moonshadow involved, but there are very few of those available.
Where Thorna and Twigtooth could well see play is as a funky new Commander in Historic Brawl. As some have pointed out in early discussions of the card, it’s a neat way to get extra value out of Saga creatures. A deck built around the best of those from Final Fantasy, like Phoenix, Warden of Fire and Summon: Bahamut, could be legitimately interesting to explore. With aggressive options like Summon: Brynhildr and Summon: Choco/Mog also available, the minor stat buffs and life drain this offers could also start adding up. It’s not the most nuanced Commander we’ve ever seen, but Thorna and Twigtooth is unique enough that it should get people brewing at least.
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