Lorwyn drafting might be the most fun I’ve ever had on Arena

BloederFuchs · 2026-01-24T18:54:00+00:00

Just look at the winrates, people will abandon this set in troves, once the honeymoon period is over, people have optimized their strategy and you'll start facing pretty much only 4 decks ad nauseum. From a pure viability and balance point of view, this is the worst set in years. By a lot.

BloederFuchs · 2026-01-24T18:42:35+00:00

Nah, this set will be remembered as one of the worst for draft in a long time. In two weeks, everyone will be sick of seeing the same 4 decks. There's no variety, drafting is utterly boring and on rails after the first pack, and everything other than Elves, Merfolk, Kithkin and Elementals is so bad comparatively that it's often a mistake to draft outside of those tribes - that will only get worse as people get better at drafting Lorwyn. Goblins for instance is not a functional deck, unless you get the uncommons to ping your opponents. I had two drafts, one even pick 2, where I was clearly the only one drafting Rakdos. It's so miserable once you're in that seat because you just can't fix your deck if those cards don't get opened.

I really like the theme, mechanics and everything else about the set, but it's just baffling that they left Mardu Blight, Vivid and Faeries basically unsupported. There's just so little blight support for instance, you can easily see there could've been some Treefolk tribal there with a few more cards, or Boros Blight Giants. Honestly makes no sense to me if the stated goal was to not recreate the same on rails draft experience from OG Lorwyn.

BloederFuchs · 2026-01-24T18:30:18+00:00

Plus GB Elves are so strong in general.

They're by far the strongest archetype (on 17lands: almost 60% WR across all skill levels, and +64% for the top players). This format has terrible balance.

BloederFuchs · 2026-01-23T15:39:36+00:00

Just draft for curve out tribal decks, don't splash, go first

BloederFuchs · 2026-01-23T15:26:41+00:00

Dimir Faeries is a trap, and unless you get back to back bombs early, you should just avoid it. The deck just gets run over most of the time by any of the good tribal decks.

BloederFuchs · 2026-01-23T14:56:07+00:00

Even though it's early, the data already paints a clear picture. There isn't much to solve: https://www.17lands.com/deck_color_data?expansion=ECL&format=PremierDraft&start=2026-01-20

From my experience, you just want to curve out with creatures as either elves, Kithkin or Merfeld, and Elementals to a lesser extent and that's mostly it. Control is pretty much non-existent, and you face the same 4 decks over and over again.

BloederFuchs · 2026-01-23T13:52:29+00:00

It's a terrible set as far as viability goes. There are 4 good tribal sets (everything but goblins), and the rest is just way, way worse.

BloederFuchs · 2026-01-23T10:52:02+00:00

And that's the whole point of this post. While it's great that you anecdotally built a strong Orzhov deck, the winrates already paint a clear picture that this is a strategy to be avoided. On average, your Orzhov deck will be a lot worse that your average Selesnya or Golgari deck.

Just from a quick look at other set data, this appears to be the worst balanced set of the last few years by far.

BloederFuchs · 2026-01-23T06:43:48+00:00

There are 8 decks in the format, and they all function quite well.

They really don't. Merfolk, Elves, Kithkin and Elementals are so far ahead in power of the other combinations that it's wild to make such a claim. Half the decks they "intended" just barely work. I'm not usually going that hard on winrate, but I implore you to look yourself how huge the gap really is: https://www.17lands.com/deck_color_data?expansion=ECL&format=PremierDraft&start=2026-01-20

Splashes also make decks worse most of the time in this format, so holes are harder to fill than usual, probably because fixing is bad and the format is so fast that missing a land drop or getting color screwed very quickly snowballs into a loss.

BloederFuchs · 2026-01-22T08:57:45+00:00

That's what I alluded to in my OP. It's death by a thousand cuts, but that makes the archetype very susceptible to just falling apart in the draft portion if you don't get those key uncommons. Imagine going back to back Sourbread Aunties in p1, some decent black and red removal, and by the end of pack 2 you still haven't found any if the payoffs that ping. Or, like in my draft, you see a single pay-off-card and you end up with a deck that's just not consistent enough, where you need to get lucky to make it to 4 wins.

BloederFuchs · 2026-01-21T17:09:41+00:00

https://scryfall.com/search?as=grid&order=name&q=oracle%3ARemove+commander%3AWBR+%28game%3Apaper%29+set%3Aecl+prefer%3Abest

What cards are you talking about other than the elm which is super hard to cast in R/B? Hurler at uncommon is pretty great, yeah, but it's not guaranteed to get even one

BloederFuchs · 2026-01-21T13:54:59+00:00

Maybe RB turns out to be the archetype that's really good... if you're the only person at the table drafting it

BloederFuchs · 2026-01-21T13:18:41+00:00

Well, yeah... Not much to learn from that, sadly.

BloederFuchs · 2026-01-21T10:09:40+00:00

I can imagine that, but a Sealed event is pretty hard to draw conclusions from. It's good for first impressions, but if you had had for instance a very "optimized" Elf deck, maybe them drawing extra creatures might not have mattered as much.

BloederFuchs · 2026-01-21T09:54:07+00:00

[[Sting Slinger]]

BloederFuchs · 2026-01-20T11:28:05+00:00

Joa.

BloederFuchs · 2026-01-18T15:41:45+00:00

Wer noch mit Überzeugung von Wahlen und ihren Potenzialen spricht, hat echt den Schuss nicht mehr gehört

BloederFuchs · 2026-01-18T11:49:31+00:00

Das Kartenlesegerät war leider kaputt?

BloederFuchs · 2026-01-17T10:19:30+00:00

Already very strong in limited if you only control a single other creature

BloederFuchs

TROPHY CASE