Lorwyn eclipsed draft archetypes
Limited forum
Posted on Jan. 19, 2026, 9:03 p.m. by Bookrook
In lorwyn eclipsed, there are five main draft archetypes: blue white, red black, green black, red blue, and green white. However, for the other five colors, there are archetypes that have received some support, just not as much as the other ones. Blue black faeries and black white treefolk receive the most support, but the other combos have very little. Does anyone know why wizards may of done this?
hyalopterouslemur says... #3
There are always "hidden" draft archetypes. They don't have the same degree of support, but it's not uncommon to have a three-color draft archetype floating in there when you're supposed to be drafting two colors, or a choice between control and fliers.
Typal sets in particular need these because outside of Bloomburrow, ten creature types is rare.
January 20, 2026 5:30 p.m.
hyalopterouslemur That's true. I think the difference here is that the Sealed packs usually come with a sheet explaining the ten two-color archetypes, but this set only had five, and the other five got almost no discussion in any official material. So it's less that there was a couple of hidden overlapping archetypes, and more that half of the two-color archetypes didn't get mentioned at all. There was no hint that flash/Faeries was even a thing. (This is all third hand, I haven't drafted the set yet.)
January 20, 2026 6 p.m.
My main question is why faeries and treefolk seem to have so much more support than the other three archetypes.
January 21, 2026 10:33 a.m.
hyalopterouslemur says... #6
I don't know, I noticed a lot of support for elves too.
January 22, 2026 11:45 a.m.
The difference is that elves are one of the main 5 archetypes.
January 22, 2026 3:24 p.m.
Bookrook and don't really have associated creature types here. There are two interpretations I can see here, and I don't know which of them is the intended one. Either (1) those archetypes get less support because they don't have types in a type-focused set, or (2) they get extra support because most green cards in the set can fit into both.
For Treefolk, there's only seven actual Treefolk cards, and only four of those actually deal with counters. But there's a lot of other counter manipulation in those colors. I think Treefolk is more of a subtheme in , and the blight/anti-blight (not to be confused with Auntie Blyte) is the main draft archetype.
legendofa says... #2
Digging around a little bit, it was an experiment. Less experienced drafters would have clear signposts for what to draft, while more experienced drafters get to discover a "hidden" strategy. It doesn't seem to have gone over very well, from what I can tell. Lots of confusion.
My take:
: Faeries, flash + instants, Voracious Tome-Skimmer
: big creatures, ramp, Noggle Robber (overlaps with for easy colors)
: no type, vivid, Glister Bairn (overlaps with for easy colors)
: Treefolk, blight, Reaping Willow (overlaps with for manipulating counters)
: Giants, removing counters, Hovel Hurler (overlaps with for manipulating counters)
January 19, 2026 10:29 p.m. Edited.