The 5 Best Cards for Standard in Magic: The Gathering Lorwyn Eclipsed

Hexing Squelcher

If you are an aggro player, you know the specific kind of dread that comes from staring down open blue mana. Hexing Squelcher is the cure for that anxiety.

For just (1)(R), you get a 2/2 Goblin Sorcerer that cannot be countered. That alone ensures you have a play on turn two, but the text box is what makes this card a format staple.

It grants “Ward—Pay 2 life” to itself and your other creatures. In a format where every point of damage matters, forcing a control player to shock themselves just to target your creature with a Go for the Throat is devastating.

Furthermore, it has a static ability that makes your other spells uncounterable. This fundamentally changes the control matchup.

Your burn spells resolve. Your combat tricks resolve. It forces the opponent to interact with the board rather than the stack, which is exactly where aggressive decks want the game to be.

Vibrance

The new cycle of Elemental Incarnations is fascinating, but Vibrance stands out as the premier midrange tool.

It costs (3)(R/G)(R/G) generally, but its Evoke cost of (R/G)(R/G) allows you to cast it for just two mana. The magic here is in the modality.

When it enters, it checks what mana you spent. If you spent Red, it deals 3 damage to any target. If you spent Green, you search your library for any land card and gain 2 life.

• Early Game: You can Evoke it for (R)(R) to bolt a creature, or (G)(G) to fix your mana and stabilize your life total against aggro.
• Late Game: You hard cast it for 5 mana, ideally paying both double Red and double Green, to get a 4/4 body, remove a threat, and tutor a powerful utility land.

This flexibility is what makes a card a staple. It is never a dead card in your hand.

Moonshadow

I love cards that encourage dangerous gameplay, and Moonshadow fits that bill perfectly. It is a 7/7 for just one Black mana, but it enters with six -1/-1 counters on it.

It has Menace, and here is the key, whenever a permanent card is put into your graveyard from anywhere, you remove a counter.  

This brings a Death’s Shadow style of play to Standard. Between Fetch Lands, Sagas that sacrifice themselves, and self-mill effects, you can grow this creature terrifyingly fast.

There is also a neat interaction with the set’s mechanics, if you put a +1/+1 counter on a creature with -1/-1 counters, they annihilate each other.

This means any card that distributes +1/+1 counters acts as a massive ritual for Moonshadow, effectively healing it while growing it.

It’s high-risk, but a 1-mana 7/7 is the kind of payoff that wins tournaments.

Emptiness

If you enjoy long, grindy games where you slowly strip your opponent of resources and the will to live, Emptiness is your card. Like Vibrance, it cares about the mana spent. 

• White Mana: Returns a creature with Mana Value 3 or less from your graveyard to the battlefield.
• Black Mana: Puts three -1/-1 counters on a target creature.

The synergy here is pretty awesome. You can Evoke this for (W)(W) to reanimate a value creature like Deep-Cavern Bat or even Moonshadow.

Or you can use the Black mode to shrink an opposing threat, bypassing Indestructible and Shield counters entirely.

In an Orzhov shell, this card generates 2-for-1 trades constantly, allowing you to out-value ramp decks that rely on playing one big spell per turn.

Maralen, Fae Ascendant

Finally, we have the card that makes Typal Tribal decks viable again. Maralen, Fae Ascendant is a (2)(B)(G)(B) Legendary creature that rewards you for playing Elves and Faeries.

Her ability is twofold, she exiles cards from your opponent’s library when your Elves or Faeries enter the battlefield, and then she lets you cast spells from that exiled pile for free if you have enough Elves/Faeries to match the mana value.

This is the top-end threat that Sultai decks needed. With cards like Bitterbloom Bearer creating tokens every turn, you constantly trigger Maralen, stealing your opponent’s resources and casting them without spending your own mana.

It turns your opponent’s deck into your second hand. While she demands a specific deck build, the power level of free spells is historically broken, making her the most exciting build-around in the set.