The Gathering’s Lorwyn Eclipsed May Finally Reset a Long-Running Pattern

One could argue that Magic: The Gathering news, releases, and spoilers are happening a bit too closely together, with Edge of Eternities coming out on August 1, Spider-Man previews starting in a couple of days, Avatar: The Last Airbender spoilers already available online, and now product information for Lorwyn Eclipsed surfacing five months in advance. Despite the schedule being very rich and potentially equally hard to keep up with, there have been major shakeups for Magic: The Gathering over the year. Now that Universes Beyond have officially been part of Standard for a few months via Final Fantasy, some key features are apparent, and Lorwyn Eclipsed may “reset” one of them.

There have been major changes in Magic: The Gathering this year, even beyond UB sets, such as Edge of Eternities adding spacecraft cards that can also be used as commanders in Commander decks. Maybe due to a matter of IP choice for the various collabs for Universes Beyond sets, maybe because it’s simply likely to happen when translating modern, popular properties into a card game, all three UB sets have one feature in common. This is the overabundance of human creatures, which are typically present in some capacity in most Magic: The Gathering sets anyway. Luckily, for those who like some variety, Lorwyn Eclipsed is likely to have no humans for the first time since August 2024.

Magic: The Gathering’s Lorwyn Eclipsed Breaks a 17-Month Trend

In August of last year, Wizards of the Coast released the massively successful Bloomburrow MTG set, which entirely revolved around anthropomorphic critters and their respective tribes. Bloomburrow was a smashing hit, selling so much that its cards ended up losing value in a short span of time because there was a larger offer than demand for them, and the fact that there were no humans and just cutesy animals helped. After Bloomburrow, though, each main set included humans:

• Duskmourn added 44 human cards
• Aetherdrift added 21 human cards
• Tarkir: Dragonstorm added 44 human cards
• Final Fantasy added 77 human cards
• Edge of Eternities added 33 human cards
• Spider-Man already has 29 human cards confirmed
• Avatar: The Last Airbender already has 39 human cards confirmed

The fact that each set has so many creatures that have the human subtype is a logical progression of crossovers with IPs that heavily focus on stories about humans, or that at least involve them to some degree. For example, if a Universes Beyond MTG set for TMNT ever happens, it will obviously have non-human characters as its focus, but there will also be several humans overall.

Since the original Lorwyn set had no humans, the return to this plane with Lorwyn Eclipsed in January 2026 is most likely to feature no humans either – at least in the main set. Even if humans end up being involved, they won’t be the focus and will only play a role in the overarching story instead. Lorwyn Eclipsed kicks off MTG‘s 2026 release schedule, but there are already two other sets confirmed for next year in the form of Secrets of Strixhaven and one codenamed “Ziplining,” with both most likely including human creatures.

Why Lorwyn Eclipsed May Be a ‘Ceckpoint’ for Magic: The Gathering

Considering that there will presumably be three UB sets next year, with WotC’s Mark Rosewater confirming that the split is going to be 50/50 for the foreseeable future, it’s hard to imagine one with no human cards at all. As such, MTG‘s Lorwyn Eclipsed may be the first checkpoint in a long time without them, and also the last for quite some more time still. Whether this is for good or bad, it depends on a player’s personal preference.

Original Release Date

August 5, 1993

Designer

Richard Garfield

Player Count

2+

Age Recommendation

13+