After years of hope for a return, then hype following its announcement, Lorwyn Ecilpsed had a lot riding on it. MTG players haven’t been this excited for a set in a very long time, and, thankfully, it didn’t disappoint. With powerful new staples, incredible Commander options, and a pair of fantastic precons, it’s good times all around.
As if all that somehow wasn’t enough, Wizards of the Coast has you covered. Next month, on February 3rd, Wizards is releasing Alchemy: Lorwyn Eclipsed on MTG Arena. To kick off this mini set’s spoiler season, Wizards has just revealed a pair of the set’s legends. Offering unique and somewhat wacky designs, these cards are sure to be coming to a Brawl deck near you soon.
MTG Providence of Night
Recently, it feels like Wizards of the Coast has been phoning it in with five-color Commanders a bit. The majority of them we’ve seen recently are just engines for new set mechanics that otherwise wouldn’t see much play. Providence of Night, however, bucks that trend by providing support to a surprisingly untouched mechanic.
While Wizards has been increasing the number of hybrid mana cards in MTG recently, there aren’t any hybrid mana-focused cards. Providence of Night fixes that problem by serving as a unique Commander for Brawl. Depending on your deck construction, this new legend could theoretically copy every single spell in your deck.
Admittedly, while this is a powerful ability, the lack of hybrid mana support from Wizards means it’s not a cohesive strategy. Instead, Providence of Night is more of an excuse to play with all of the best hybrid mana cards, like Deathrite Shaman and Fiend Artisan. Unfortunately, while there is potential here, many of the best hybrid mana cards are legendaries, which die to the legend rule when copied.
Realistically, while Providence of Night is certainly unique, the card seems just okay. At worst, however, it’s a five-color Commander, allowing you access to any archetype. Due to this, Providence of Night could still see play just to empower a deck’s already powerful hybrid mana cards.
In theory, so long as you Rule Zero it in with a proxy, Providence of Night is entirely playable on paper, too. With no digital-exclusive mechanics holding the card back, there’s little reason why you couldn’t use this card. Sadly, while this technically means the card could be reprinted on paper, I wouldn’t hold out hope for it.
MTG The Grand Goatnapper
While Providence of Night is an entirely paper-playable card, The Grand Goatnapper is Alchemy through and through. Not only does it leverage two Alchemy-exclusive mechanics, but it’s adorably weird and wacky. Miraculously, beyond just being silly, The Grand Goatnapper is actually a surprisingly powerful threat.
Unfortunately, unless Alchemy: Lorwyn Eclipsed provides a bunch, there aren’t many Goats to use with The Grand Goatnapper. In fact, Frantic Scapegoat is currently the only on-color Goat that’s playable in Brawl. Thankfully, The Grand Goatnapper solves this problem itself since it can make anything a goat.
With a big enough board, using this ability every turn will quickly reduce the cost of all of your spells. This, in turn, can lead to massive impulse draw-fuelled turns that could inadvertently have you storming out. Realistically, though, doing this requires a lot of setup, which takes a fair bit of time with The Grand Goatnapper.
Mercifully for MTG’s Goat fans, The Grand Goatnapper doesn’t have to be an all-or-nothing big swingy engine. Instead, just turning something into a Goat will get you a Goatnap, allowing you to steal an opponent’s creature. At most, this should only cost two mana, making it fairly effective at causing shenanigans, if nothing else.
More Coming Soon
Thankfully, if neither of these Alchemy: Lorwyn Eclipsed cards is for you, there’s plenty more coming soon. With just over one week until the set’s release on February 3rd, it shouldn’t be long before more spoilers surface. That said, considering Wizards’ recent experiments with Lorwyn Eclipse’s spoiler season, we might not get the usual drip feed.
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