This Week in Legacy: Eclipsed
Howdy folks! It's time yet again for another edition of This Week in Legacy! I'm your host, Joe Dyer, and this week we're diving into our set review for Lorwyn Eclipsed! This is a pretty cool set and it's fun to be back in Lorwyn for sure. In addition we've got some Challenge events from last week to cover. One thing I am going to do as a trial for this week is to look at at least one more list outside of the finalists for each event, hoping that maybe it will increase the variety a little. That being said, we have five events a week so if this seems like too much decklists, let me know. I try to not make this "just a decklist dump" and still be able to adequately cover the events.
Without further ado, let's dive right in!
Total Eclipse of the Aurora
We're out of spoiler season (a very short one this go around) for Lorwyn Eclipsed, and this set is honestly looking very good. Return sets generally have big shoes to fill, and Lorwyn/Shadowmoor blocks were very well loved sets. We've got a return to old mechanics like Kindred (formerly Tribal), Changelings with new mechanics like blight and vivid.
We're going to be taking a look at the cards that may be interesting in Legacy from this set. This is in no real particular order.
Hexing Squelcher
This is a card I've definitely seen a lot of chatter on, so I figure it would make for a good card to lead on. There's a lot of comparisons to this card alongside Spider-Punk/Kraza, the Swarm as One because they both do somewhat similar things. I personally think the majority of the decks currently playing Spider-Punk will continue to do so for the forseeable future, and the biggest reason I say that is that most of these decks are Storm decks using the card to protect their combo, and those decks care about cards like Consign to Memory. This card only makes your spells uncounterable, it does not make your abilities uncounterable like Spider-Punk does, so the Punk shuts down things like Consign while this does not. Consign is a really big part of the current Legacy metagame (currently in 45% of decks at roughly 2.5 copies per deck), so I think as long as this continues, those decks will probably continue to play Spider-Punk.
That being said, this is a Goblin, so it's certainly possible it could see play there. I also think the one place it could replace Spider-Punk is over in Boros Energy, as that deck currently plays Spider-Punk as a two-of main deck. Still, I think the card is cool but I don't think it will replace certain cards at this time.
Wistfulness
The new cycle of Evoke elementals in this set are incredibly fairly designed, because they do absolutely nothing if you blink them or cheat them into play somehow. I like this design principle. That being said, Wistfulness is interesting specifically because it exists in Beanstalk Control colors. It costs five mana (and thus has a mana value of five) so you can evoke it and exile an artifact/enchantment (so being able to hit The One Ring) or it can draw two and discard one. With Beans in play you're just drawing extra cards on top of this.
Late game, you can definitely cast this for both effects. We're casting Quantum Riddler on the regular, so this seems like it would be pretty cool as a sideboard card. It would also be super sweet with This Town Ain't Big Enough to be able to recast it.
Deceit
This is another one of the evoke cycle. This one is also in the same colors as BUG Beans, which is pretty cool. You can either bounce a thing or Thoughtseize your opponent, or both late game. Again, stuff like This Town Ain't Big Enough makes for some cool repeatability of these cards.
Abigale, Eloquent First-Year
So.... Death's Shadow exists. Make your Shadow a flying first strike lifelink 13/13? Seems REAL good. It doesn't even matter if Abigale gets bounce or dies or exiled. You're still giving the other creature those counters.
Taster of Wares
Goblins got a LOT of cards in this set (and I have a bunch of others to talk about too) but this one really caught my eye because of how good this effect can be. If you have a reasonable board of Goblins, you're going to scale your ability to see their hand quite a bit, and get rid of something. This is EVEN cooler if you put it into play with Aether Vial at instant speed and take something like a Force of Will. If you have the open mana to cast it (because you're likely not alt-casting Force in Goblins) then you can just cast it on a spell later on.
Thoughtseize is cool, but Thoughtseize+ is even better.
Tam, Mindful First-Year
This is sort of cute with Leyline of the Guildpact not gonna lie. Basically give your creature hexproof from all colors until end of turn. Really clever.
Glen Elendra Guardian
Wow. Glen Elendra Archmage got slightly power crept. This does very similar things. I don't know if it's good, but it's cool.
Bitterbloom Bearer
Bitterblossom hasn't been a real card in Legacy in a really long time, and unfortunately I don't think putting it on a flash creature makes it any better. Especially on a 1/1. This is a cool callback, but I don't think it's playable.
Grub's Command
More Goblin support is something sweet, and this command effect is neat, but it's quite expensive at five mana. The fact that it's a Sorcery gives me a lot of pause, too. I don't think this is good, but it does have some strong modes.
Grub, Storied Matriarch
Both of Grub's halves seem pretty strong. You're going to get back a creature with her, or you get to make a copy of a creature (creating a copy of Broadside Bombardiers is sweet). I could see this in Rakdos Goblins Stompy. It's really easy to flip back and forth too if you need to.
Formidable Speaker
Usually World Champs cards have some teeth to them, but usually don't end up being played. This card is really interesting as like a Survival-type effect. If you can blink this it is pretty cool, but I don't think it sees play long term.
Mudbutton Cursetosser
Beholding a Goblin seems pretty easy, and using this as a way to destroy a creature is neat, but ultimately this feels very flat.
Boggart Cursecrafter
Okay this one actually seems quite cool when you pair it with Sling-Gang Lieutenant. Being able to double up on your damage with that card is absolute gas, and casting this doesn't seem too difficult given stuff like Cavern of Souls.
Moonshadow
A one mana 7/7 with a ton of hoops is pretty amusing, but it's really easy to enable growing this quickly in Legacy with cards like Fetch lands and surveil triggers with Dragon's Rage Channeler. It might not be that great, but it's a really cool card.
Mornsong Aria
This plus Opposition Agent. That's it. That's the tweet.
Meek Attack
This card is superb design space (just not in Legacy). Maybe when we return to Bloomburrow we can get Squeak Attack, which puts a creature with base Toughness 2 or less into play.
Legacy Challenge 32 1/7/2026
The first Challenge event of the week was the Wednesday event. This event had 46 players in it, thanks to the MTGO website.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.
Dimir Tempo was the most played deck of the event, but its overall win rate was pretty bad. Lands looked great in this event, as did Oops and Mystic Forge.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Lands | 1st | SenorLarson |
| Mystic Forge Combo | 2nd | e0068 |
| Oops! All Spells | 3rd | silencsong |
| Lands | 4th | Thebigempty92 |
| Oops! All Spells | 5th | LasVegasChaos |
| Eldrazi | 6th | musasabi |
| Eldrazi | 7th | Karazu |
| Lands | 8th | Sprouts |
Lands had a big presence in this Top 8, and, in fact, won the event.
Sphere Lands is a great place to be right now I feel. With decks like Mystic Forge and combo decks like Oops around, taxing their mana capabilities and keeping them from executing their game plan is really strong. Marit Lage is also just very good against the array of the Tempo decks.
In Second Place, we had Mystic Forge Combo.
This is an exceedingly straightforward list here. Perilous Snare is a sweet little fetchable Banishing Light effect with Karn.
Also in this Top 8 we had some Eldrazi.
Highly aggressive build here. Sire of Seven Deaths is such a super cool card.
Legacy Challenge 32 32 1/9/2026
The second Challenge event of the week was the Friday event. This event had 46 players in it thanks to the MTGO website.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.
Dimir Tempo was the most played deck, and its win rate was better than the prior event. Oops looked strong, while mostly everything else was above or below in some fashion.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Dimir Tempo | 1st | ecobaronen |
| Oops! All Spells | 2nd | choutin |
| Esper Control | 3rd | harmonywoods |
| Dimir Tempo | 4th | _INF_ |
| Stoneblade | 5th | TeaW1thRum |
| Oops! All Spells | 6th | Deskbot000 |
| Eldrazi | 7th | _Batutinha_ |
| Oops! All Spells | 8th | quattuorvigintillion |
Fair bit of Oops, but the winner of the event was Dimir Tempo.
Hymn to Tourach being a card in 2026 is wild, not gonna lie. It's kind of fun to see things like that and Baleful Strix. Makes one nostalgic for how Legacy used to exist for sure.
In Second Place we had Oops.
I did get some good feedback last week, that the sideboard jukes for creatures like Barrowgoyf, the primary tell for that variation was Unmask in the main deck over Pact of Negation. This list has Pact, so its juke is leaning more on Goblin Charbelcher and cards like Force of Vigor. Plan accordingly!
Also in this Top 8 we had Esper Control.
This list is pretty sweet. Stock Up is such a super cool card, and it looks really strong here. Tamiyo, Bowmasters, and Murktide are a powerful set of cards and backing that up with removal like Plow seems very good.
Legacy Challenge 32 1/10/2026
The third Challenge event of the week was the Saturday event. This event had 61 players in it thanks to the MTGO website.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.
Dimir Tempo was again the most played deck, and it had a strong win rate here. Oops looked very good, as did Lands again.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Eldrazi | 1st | oskiyaa |
| Naya Stompy | 2nd | kozz27 |
| Mardu Energy | 3rd | _Babbuja_ |
| Dimir Tempo | 4th | Prima-Plum |
| Dimir Tempo | 5th | PekkaChu |
| Lands | 6th | Narche |
| Oops! All Spells | 7th | choutin |
| Sultai Control | 8th | Ark4n |
Dimir Tempo had some presence here, but it didn't win. Instead, Eldrazi won.
Fairly stock build it seems like. Eldrazi Obligator is really interesting honestly for being able to steal opponent's threats and end games with their own creatures.
In Second Place we had Naya Stompy.
Oh man I love this deck. This is so sweet. If you like Initiative creatures, then this deck is for you.
Also in this Top 8 we had Mardu Energy.
It's cool how clean this deck is. The best part is being able to convert your tokens you're generating into discard effects with Therapy and damage with Goblin Bombardment.
Legacy Challenge 32 1/11/2026 - 1
The fifth Challenge event of the week was the first Sunday event. This event had 46 players in it thanks to the MTGO website.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.
Dimir Tempo was super well played, and it had a strong win rate. Eldrazi also did very well, while Omni-Tell didn't do great.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Death's Shadow | 1st | usea |
| Red Stompy | 2nd | monzatubarao |
| Oops! All Spells | 3rd | Deskbot000 |
| Eldrazi | 4th | r0cknati0n |
| Dimir Tempo | 5th | AmadeusPro |
| Jeskai Control | 6th | Trohck |
| Mono Black Reanimator | 7th | Matiuzzzo |
| Rakdos Reanimator | 8th | GoblinK1ng |
Pretty diverse Top 8. At the end of the event, it was DEATH'S SHADOW that won.
It's so cool to see a Shadow deck in 2026. I love it. Snuff Out with Shadow is so groovy. I am digging all of this.
In Second Place, we had Red Stompy.
This is a fairly straightforward list. Since the rules change, these decks have mainly transitioned to a Saga deck, but I don't think Red Stompy is in that great of a place at the moment personally.
Further down the Top 8 we had Mono Black Reanimator.
I am pretty happy that Reanimator seems to be in a reasonable space at the moment. It has some cool jukes to try to catch the opponent off guard, but I think this is where we wanted the deck. It's good, but beatable and has to have some sideboard juke action to get around graveyard hate. I love it.
Legacy Challenge 32 1/11/2026 - 2
The final Challenge event of the week was the second Sunday event. This event had 73 players in it thanks to the MTGO website.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.
Izzet Tempo was the most played deck here, but its win rate wasn't very good. Dimir Tempo's win rate looked great, as did Lands and Doomsday.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Dimir Tempo | 1st | grindstone-cowboy |
| Dimir Tempo | 2nd | parkss |
| Grixis Tempo | 3rd | SauTay |
| Colorless Painter | 4th | XanaZero |
| Oops! All Spells | 5th | Bawer |
| Lands | 6th | Marmotte_Lambda |
| Izzet Tempo | 7th | giabella |
| Birthing Ritual Combo | 8th | PunishingWaterfalls |
Fair bit of Tempo decks here. At the end of the event it was Dimir vs Dimir with the winner being Jeskai! No wait, Dimir.
Nethergoyf is interesting. A majority of the Dimir Tempo lists I've seen lately have not had the card, so it seemed like it had fallen out of favor. It's also curious seeing cards like Feed the Cycle over Shoot the Sheriff.
Let's look at the Second Place Dimir list.
Down to two copies of Daze is a mood.
At the bottom of this Top 8 we had BIRTHING RITUAL.
This deck is honestly amazing. Cards like Phantasmal Shieldback with Ritual are just honestly sweet. Being able to push a Shieldback into a Coiling Oracle or Ice-Fang Coatl is pretty sweet, and then being able to turn that into another creature is sweet. I love it.
Around the Web
- Bryant Cook on Quantum Riddler in Artist's Talent Storm. Check it out here.
- BeExcellent has a Trophy video on Beans. Check it out here.
- The Eternal Glory Podcast has some Rock, Paper, Scissors. This is a solid episode. Check it out here.
- DasSourKraut has a NIC FIT video. Check it out here.
The Spice Corner
Now that Leagues are posted throughout the week, let's find some Spice!
BURN BABY BURN.
Wrapping Up
That's all the time we have this week folks! Thanks for continuing to support the column and join us next week as we continue our journey into Legacy!
As always, you can reach me at all my associated links via my Link Tree! In addition I'm always around the MTGGoldfish Discord Server and the MTGLegacy Discord Server.
Until next time!
