Remembering Lorwyn

This month, I will reflect back on Magic sets over the years. Today, Lorwyn.

Lorwyn (LRW) was released in October 2007. It had 301 cards, art evocative of fairy tales, and a tribal theme (meaning creature types matter). It focused on creatures (169 cards in the set were this type). It was also the set that got me back into Magic after a several-year hiatus (I lived in Germany then, and remember picking up a few packs in my local game store). 

Lorwyn introduced a new card type: planeswalker. It had five mono-colored planeswalkers (I pulled Liliana Vess in a pack, not knowing about the new card type, and was very confused); I describe them more here.

My main memories of this set:

- the art. I'd describe it as soft and whimsical, even playful. I liked it.

- the tribes. I enjoy tribal* decks, and it was fun to see that be the focus of a set. And Lorwyn took this to a new level by introducing tribal enchantments, sorceries, and instants. 

- exploring new colors for tribes. Related to the last point, this set saw not just tribes but tribes in new color territory (like white merfolk or black goblins). Examples, with primary/secondary colors and number of cards following:

Kithkin (white/green), 22 cards

Merfolk (blue/white), 22 cards

Faerie (blue/black), 19 cards

Goblin (black/red), 27 cards

Elf (green/black), 24 cards

Treefolk (green, then white/black), 16 cards

Elemental (red, then the other four colors), 35 cards

Giant (red/white), 16 cards

Many creatures had multiple types (e.g. "Kithkin Soldier"), enabling various synergistic permutations:

Wizard (white/blue, black), 24 cards

Warrior (all colors except blue), 36 cards

Shaman (black/red, green), 28 cards

Rogue (black, white/blue/red), 17 cards

Soldier (white/blue, green), 13 cards

And one creature type was considered all creature types (with its "Changeling" ability), enabling it to synergize with everything:

Shapeshifter (all colors), 19 cards

Lorwyn was a beloved set, and I've heard a rumor that a Lorwyn Remastered experience may be coming soon. We'll see.

*Now called typal or kindred decks. I use the term here because it was the description during Lorwyn's era.

Mechanic: Forage

I conclude "mechanic March" by looking at forage. Like other mechanics examined this month, it involves the graveyard.

From the official rules,

701.59. Forage 

- 701.59a To forage means “Exile three cards from your graveyard or sacrifice a Food.”

Aside: forage refers to "Food." This is an artifact token:

111.10b A Food token is a colorless Food artifact token with “{2}, {T}, Sacrifice this artifact: You gain 3 life.”

Forage is a new mechanic, featured only in Bloomburrow (2024) on seven cards (all green and/or black). It is always presented as an optional ability, and sometimes only a possibility when a creature enters.

Forage is effectively an additional cost/benefit mechanism. To take advantage of forage's benefit, you need to pay the cost: either 1) have enough cards in your graveyard to exile or 2) have food tokens to sacrifice. Plenty of cards (in Bloomburrow and other sets) synergize well to get cards into your graveyard or create food tokens.

Being new, the forage card pool is small. That said, I like the mechanic and having two options to trigger it; that kind of flexibility can be huge.

Mechanic: Surveil

Continuing 'mechanics March,' today I look at surveil.

From the official rules,

701.42. Surveil 

- 701.42a To “surveil N” means to look at the top N cards of your library, then put any number of them into your graveyard and the rest on top of your library in any order.

Surveil is handy for two reasons:

1) getting through your deck faster to obtain desired cards (a deck sculpting mechanism)

2) getting cards into your graveyard faster to enable strategies that profit from that (delve pairs well)

The concept of surveil first appeared in Odyssey (2001), but it got its ability word starting in the Guilds of Ravnica (2018). It has appeared on 155 cards so far; the majority are blue and/or black.

Surveil is a powerful and popular mechanic, now featured to some degree in at least a few cards in sets each year.

Mechanics: Persist & Wither

Continuing 'mechanics March,' today I look at two (related) abilities: persist and wither. Both were first seen (and almost exclusively remain in) the Shadowmoor and Eventide (2008) sets. Both introduced a -1/-1 counter.

Persist

From the official rules,

702.79. Persist 

- 702.79a Persist is a triggered ability. “Persist” means “When this permanent is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, if it had no -1/-1 counters on it, return it to the battlefield under its owner’s control with a -1/-1 counter on it.”

In essence, this ability "can return a creature from the graveyard to the battlefield." And since you don't pay its mana cost the second time, it's like getting two-for-one. 

Intuitively, cards with powerful 'Enter the Battlefield' abilities profit from persist. The examples below show various ways it has been implemented (note the removal abilities of several).

To date, 31 cards have the persist mechanic, spread fairly evenly across all five colors. 

Wither

From the official rules,

702.80. Wither 

- 702.80a Wither is a static ability. Damage dealt to a creature by a source with wither isn’t marked on that creature. Rather, it causes that source’s controller to put that many -1/-1 counters on that creature. 

Wither is a way to make a creature's power count in combat, even if it isn't enough to destroy the other creature. Since normally damage on a creature is removed at the end of the turn (if it is not enough to destroy it), wither is way for the little guys to erode bigger creatures over several turns. And since it uses counters, mechanics like proliferate pair well with it.

To date, 35 cards have the wither mechanic, largely in black, red, and/or green colors.

-1/-1 counters aren't as common as their inverse (+1/+1 counters), but you can use them powerfully with a little planning. 

Mechanic: Delve

I kick off a new theme today: "mechanic March," where I look at various mechanics the game has featured over the years. (Note: these are technically 'keyword abilities'; the terms are often used interchangeably.) Today: delve.

From the official rules:

702.66. Delve 

- 702.66a Delve is a static ability that functions while the spell with delve is on the stack. “Delve” means “For each generic mana in this spell’s total cost, you may exile a card from your graveyard rather than pay that mana.” 

- 702.66b The delve ability isn’t an additional or alternative cost and applies only after the total cost of the spell with delve is determined. 

- 702.66c Multiple instances of delve on the same spell are redundant.

The glossary puts it more succinctly:

Delve: A keyword ability that lets you exile cards from your graveyard rather than pay generic mana to cast a spell. See rule 702.66, “Delve.”

Note delve affects only generic mana; you cannot use it for colored mana costs.

Delve is a cost reduction mechanic. For that reason, some delve cards have a higher printed cost than non-delve equivalents, so it makes sense to play the card only if you have cards in your graveyard to exile. Murderous Cut (below) is one example.

Delve was first seen in the Future Sight expansion (2007), though the Tarkir block (2014-15) features the most cards with that keyword. To date, 27 cards have this mechanic. Most are blue or black.

The delve mechanic is most efficient when you are playing a 'self-mill' deck, using other spells that put lots of cards into your graveyard. Cards like Stitcher's Supplier (below), for example, synergize well. And other mechanics (like surveil) pair well with it, too. Anything that puts cards in your own graveyard are fair game here.

Since so few cards have the delve mechanic today, I don't know how popular it is. But it is an option to be aware of for certain deck types.

Octopi

Concluding kindred month, today I look at octopi.

Introduction

Octopus first came to us in the 1997 Portal set. A fair number were released in 2001-02's Odyssey block. (Aside: they were then called Cephalids, a creature type that has since been folded into the octopus type). Overall, 43 have been printed to date.

Octopi are overwhelmingly mon-blue (35 cards), with a dash of multi-colored (6 cards), with the remaining two black and colorless, respectively.

Sample/Staple Cards

Octopi seem to focus on either tapping creatures or drawing/discarding cards, as shown by the below examples. There are only 8 legendary octopi (and thus eligible to be commanders); of those, Marvo or Queza would be the most powerful based on their abilities. But more viable still are the three legendary creatures that synergize with four creature types: Kraken, Leviathan, Octopus, and Serpent. Those add 100+ creatures to the card pool and enable better deck building. 

Unicorns

Continuing kindred month, today I look at unicorns.

Introduction

Pearled Unicorn (pictured above) was the first unicorn to be printed (in Alpha, 1993).

A unicorn (in myth) is elusive, beautiful, and thus to be desired. Perhaps that is why there aren't many unicorns in Magic; only 31 have been printed to date, with Jumpstart (2020) giving us the most at one time (five).

Most unicorns (24) are mono-white; 2 are mono-green, and the remaining 5 are selesnya (white-green).

Sample/Staple Cards

With a heavy emphasis on white, plus their mythical reputation, it is no surprise that unicorns specialize in gaining life, granting buffs (+1/+1 counters or abilities that last a turn), and protecting others. If you are running a unicorn Commander deck, your only two choices are Emiel or Lathiel:

You may as well include both . . . and almost every other unicorn ever printed. A handful of examples follow.

Related kindred types include Pegasi (23 cards, also mostly mono-white) and Horses (53 cards, a mix of colors). Two Commanders here include Thurid and Shadowfax, with the former limiting you to mono-white but benefiting Pegasus, Unicorn, and Horse creature types:

So counting all three types together limits in color but gives more options in card pool.