Lorwyn Eclipsed - How does it change Value Vintage?

Lorwyn Eclipsed (and its commander decks) have brought a couple of new cards and price reductions to existing cards to our format that I think are interesting.

Starting wtih the obvious

Fury is a real improvement for Rhinos, allowing the deck to beat small creature decks with ease. It is also a buff to Reanimator, and even if a Persisted Fury only hits for 4 instead of 6, being able to distribute 8 damage however you want will clean up a lot of boards.

4 damage is also the exact amount needed to kill either Minsc & Boo or the Boo token.

This is a lovely tool to have access to. Not a lot to say about Spell Snare that hasn't been said already, but having a card that can answer both Counterspell and Amped Raptor for just one mana is fantastic for the format.

Not as cheap as Grief, but it's now a card that for sure deserves some consideration. Definitely not a free inclusion, but one you can justify in decks such as Nadu Breakfast.

Okay, now that that's out of the way, let's talk

I think Glen Elendra Guardian is going to be a mainstay of our format. I tested 2 copies in Miracles yesterday and, while I didn't perform as well as I would have liked, this card was super solid. It contests the Initiative extremely well, and it has the ability to counter something. In fact, if you manage to counter something and then steal (and keep) the initiative, the Forge gives it TWO extra counterspells. This is a bit of a magical christmasland situation, and your opponent kinda has to play into it, but it also has pretty good stats, blocks reasonably well and since it has flash, the opportunity cost is not that big.

I have big expectations for this card going forward, and I expect it to start seeing play in more archetypes outside Miracles.

This is more of a speculative pick. If it goes down in price, I think Glen Elendra's Answer is a pretty reasonable card for the slower blue decks in the format to fight things like Cascade or Storm, but also wins counter wars outright. Having an uncounterable counterspell that counters the entire stack is pretty great, and the tokens will help close out games. If you think about this card as a win condition that comes with a Counterspell attached to it rather than as a pricy Counterspell with slight upside, you'll understand what I mean. This doesn't go in the Lose Focus slot, it goes in the clunky control wincon slot.

This is not a new card for us but it used to hover around the $2 mark. Reanimator is an archetype I love, and I'm really glad it has some extra budget now.

This used to be upwards of $10. I don't think any deck right now wants this (especially with Fury running around) but it's a card to keep an eye on, especially if you're in the Jund or Reanimator spaces.

We are so close to finishing these cycles, only Izzet and Orzhov are missing. Great cards to have access to. I can't say much more about them, but when we finally get the Izzet one, it might replace Fetid Pools in Cyclestorm. Looking forward to that one.

Extremely promising card for Hatebear-type decks. The keywords are relevant, the trigger is powerful and, unlike Aether Vial, it doesn't suck to draw it in the midgame since it is a creature with stats. Thankfully it's not a Human, so it's more of a tool for Death and Taxes than it is for Humans.

This one I would love to be wrong on. I feel like this card would be promising in formats where you get cards like Force of Will, Daze, Force of Negation and Snuff Out to interact while tapped out if Orcish Bowmasters wasn't an instant punish to what it's trying to do. It also greatly benefits from Spellstutter Sprite being affordable.

Sadly, such a format does not exist. Orcish Bowmasters is legal in every format where both Flitterwing Nuisance and Spellstutter Sprite are legal together, and only Legacy and Vintage get the free interaction. As such, I don't expect this card to do that much. That said, if Spellstutter Sprite were to drop in price to around $2, I would put this as my default 1 drop Faerie.

This is a really interesting card that just doesn't have a home yet. I trust some of our most deranged brewers will attempt to break this one, and I'm looking forward to it. At the very least, Bristlebane Battler does love Dress Down, so that's a start!

This is one of the most affordable Mana Flare effects in the format. I don't know if that means anything, but it's a card to keep an eye on if you want to rebuild your Heartbeat of Spring deck from original Ravnica standard or something.

Look, mom, they named a card after me!

In all seriousness though, this is a card that could end up seeing some play in a Necrotic Ooze-focused deck. I know this is kind of a reach, but I'm always interested in such cards!

While better than Figure of Destiny, I don't think the exact words that change between that card and this one are what makes or breaks them. You would have to be interested in doing something pretty weird to want to play this card, but it's definitely a sweet one.

I think this card belongs in Hypergenesis if it ever goes below $2. Not a lot to say about it, but the trigger is definitely very powerful, scales well in multiples and plays nice with cards such as Ashen Rider, Doomskar Titan and Sphinx of Foresight that the deck already plays. If the Awakener "cascades" into a second Awakener before you resolve a Doomskar Titan trigger, you're about to go wild.

Postmortem

Other than Fury, I don't think any of these changes impact Value Vintage that much. Some of these are neat additions, but the viability rankings stay pretty much in place. Which is honestly great, our format is in a great spot right now and having new cards to play with while keeping the metagame kind of intact is a great thing. I'm hoping Fury will stabilize around the $1.20 mark so it's something you have to think about rather than an automatic include.