A total of 306 Standard decklists were submitted for Pro Tour Lorwyn Eclipsed, with more than half of the field comprised of Simic Rhythm, Bant Rhythm, Sultai Reanimator, Bant Airbending, and Izzet Spellementals. Beyond these decks, the rest of the metagame splintered into a diverse range of strategies, some of which stood out above the rest.

The spiciest decks are the ones that push the boundaries, whether by pairing cards in innovative ways, carving out a brand-new archetype, or unveiling a plan that no one saw coming. In this article, we will take a closer look at nine of the most intriguing Standard decks that caught my eye. Each showcases clever applications of the new-to-Standard Lorwyn Eclipsed cards and carries real potential to take the title.

Dimir Excruciator

3 Doomsday Excruciator 3 Harvester of Misery 2 Intimidation Tactics 4 Restless Reef 1 Archenemy's Charm 2 Deadly Cover-Up 4 Deceit 2 Winternight Stories 11 Swamp 2 Multiversal Passage 3 Bitter Triumph 4 Superior Spider-Man 1 Undercity Sewers 4 Requiting Hex 3 Stock Up 4 Watery Grave 4 Gloomlake Verge 3 Insatiable Avarice 2 Torpor Orb 4 Duress 1 Cruelclaw's Heist 2 Shoot the Sheriff 3 Quantum Riddler 2 Soul-Guide Lantern 1 Negate

In 2024, Javier Dominguez won Magic World Championship 30 with a Dimir deck that aimed to play Doomsday Excruciator and mill the opponent's library with Jace, the Perfected Mind or Restless Reef. While Jace, the Perfected Mind has rotated out of Standard, much of the supporting cast remained intact, and the archetype has returned with a vengeance. Dominguez and six teammates from Cosmos Heavy Play—Sergio Garcia, David Gonzalez, Christoffer Larsen, Alejandro Mora, Luis Salvatto, and Daniel Toledo—brought it back for another excruciating time.

Doomsday Excruciator [1pcDEvJc7284KtVSVF5C2Y]
Superior Spider-Man [2uF5mKxhGv8Zq0WV4UEI9k]
Deceit [6DJVTbHjtUcIy6iKynro6t]

The most important new addition since that event is Superior Spider-Man. As with its interaction with Bringer of the Last Gift, Superior Spider Man preserves enters triggers that include "if you cast it" clauses. As a result, when it enters as a copy of Doomsday Excruciator, it will still exile libraries. Setting this up is straightforward by discarding Doomsday Excruciator to Bitter Triumph or Winternight Stories. From there, a single attack with Restless Reef or an Insatiable Avarice aimed at the opponent is usually enough to force them to quickly draw from an empty library.

This core interaction existed before, but it was too inconsistent to support a dedicated deck. Lorwyn Eclipsed changed that by introducing Deceit, which neatly ties the entire strategy together. Deceit is effective at every stage of the game, from turn two through the late game, but it truly shines alongside Superior Spider-Man. When cast for {U}{U}{B}{B} and entering as a copy of Deceit, Superior Spider-Man provides both bounce and discard effects for just four mana, adding crucial redundancy for exploiting Superior Spider-Man. Combined with Requiting Hex to bolster the removal suite, these upgrades gave the archetype the consistency it needs to function as a serious Standard contender. And yet, it is far from the only deck exploiting these new cards.

Sultai Elementals

2 Requiting Hex 2 Intimidation Tactics 4 Not Dead After All 2 Undying Malice 2 Undercity Sewers 4 Overgrown Tomb 4 Watery Grave 2 Underground Mortuary 2 Gloomlake Verge 2 Blooming Marsh 4 Cavern of Souls 1 Secluded Courtyard 4 Starting Town 4 Sunderflock 4 Superior Spider-Man 4 Formidable Speaker 4 Wistfulness 4 Emptiness 4 Deceit 1 Swamp 2 Quantum Riddler 1 Naga Fleshcrafter 2 Glarb, Calamity's Augur 2 Deep-Cavern Bat 1 Black Cat, Cunning Thief 2 Soul-Guide Lantern 1 Vivien Reid 2 Deadly Cover-Up 2 Requiting Hex

Formidable Speaker, which bears the name and likeness of World Champion XXIX, Jean-Emmanuel Depraz, emerged as the most-played new card from Lorwyn Eclipsed, with 419 registered copies across all Pro Tour decklists. Fittingly, Depraz registered the full four copies of the card. Along with four of his teammates from Baguette Sirop d'Érable—Max Dore, Julien Henry, Ha Pham, and Remi Roudier—he brought a particularly spicy Elementals list that makes excellent use of Formidable Speaker.

Formidable Speaker
Wistfulness [bf7maGG21Ilk1tdFxrK1s]
Not Dead After All

In this build, Formidable Speaker can discard Deceit, Wistfulness, Emptiness, or Sunderflock on turn three and tutor for Superior Spider-Man, setting it up to enter on turn four with a devastating enters trigger. On later turns, Formidable Speaker can also untap a massive Elemental, effectively granting it vigilance and allowing the deck to win tight damage races.

Another defining feature of this Sultai Elementals deck is the inclusion of four copies of Not Dead After All and two copies of Undying Malice. Previously seen in Modern where they enabled Grief or Fury to return as early as turn one, these effects can now return Deceit, Emptiness, or Wistfulness as early as turn three. While this line does not generate another enters trigger since the creature wasn't cast, it still produces an imposing threat at a steep discount. More importantly, it naturally curves into a turn-four Sunderflock that's capable of resetting the opponent's entire board. In a metagame defined by Badgermole Cub, Sunderflock looks well-positioned, and Formidable Speaker effectively grants access to eight copies of that board-sweeping effect.

Jeskai Elementals

4 Sunderflock 4 Ashling, Rekindled 4 Vibrance 4 Beza, the Bounding Spring 4 Cavern of Souls 4 Starting Town 4 Steam Vents 4 Wistfulness 4 Deceit 3 Spirebluff Canal 4 Secluded Courtyard 4 Eclipsed Realms 4 Ashling's Command 4 Flamebraider 1 Island 4 Roaming Throne 2 Disdainful Stroke 4 Pyroclasm 1 Spider-Sense 1 Abrade 1 Torpor Orb 1 Tishana's Tidebinder 1 Quantum Riddler 4 Soul-Guide Lantern

Elemental decks come in all kinds of shapes, sizes, and color combinations, but Nick Talbot's take stands out as one of the spiciest in the field. Talbot, who qualified through the Regional Championship for Australia and New Zealand, registered a remarkable Jeskai version that pushes in a novel direction.

Ashling, Rekindled [258IVkgmsVH0W8KH1XeoPs]
Flamebraider
Beza, the Bounding Spring [31zTtXzgS5gO6AoowcuVcZ]

While Jean-Emmanuel Depraz and his teammates leaned toward a Sultai configuration, most Elemental players anchored themselves in blue-red with Ashling, Rekindled. By paying one mana to transform Ashling, you generate two mana of any one color for casting expensive spells, making it easy to ramp into Deceit, Vibrance, or Wistfulness while covering their black or green costs. However, the challenge has been to find a reliable four-mana play for the mid-game. Roaming Throne is a suitable four-mana support piece that doubles Elemental triggers, but Flamebraider cannot accelerate into it on turn three.

The solution? Beza, the Bounding Spring. Already a familiar presence in control decks since it entered Standard, Beza also happens to be an Elemental, making it a natural fit. At first glance, adding a double-white pip spell to a base blue-red deck looks demanding on the mana base. But between Ashling, Rekindled and Flamebraider adding white mana and five-color lands like Cavern of Souls, Eclipsed Realms, Secluded Courtyard, and Starting Town, Beza is remarkably easy to cast on curve. It is a clever piece of deck building. While several Grixis Elemental players also included a single copy of Beza, the Bounding Spring, no one else at Pro Tour Lorwyn Eclipsed has multiple main deck copies, and that's why this Jeskai Elementals list stands apart.

Four-Color Reanimator

1 Swamp 1 Sunderflock 2 Willowrush Verge 1 Pyroclasm 4 Starting Town 3 Stomping Ground 1 Underground Mortuary 2 Ill-Timed Explosion 3 Wistfulness 4 Deceit 4 Bringer of the Last Gift 2 Ardyn, the Usurper 2 Multiversal Passage 4 Superior Spider-Man 4 Ashling, Rekindled 1 Undercity Sewers 4 Cavern of Souls 2 Bitter Triumph 2 Requiting Hex 3 Watery Grave 1 Terror of the Peaks 1 Steam Vents 1 Blood Crypt 4 Formidable Speaker 2 Overlord of the Balemurk 1 Gloomlake Verge 1 Disdainful Stroke 1 Dauntless Scrapbot 2 Torpor Orb 1 Intimidation Tactics 1 Sab-Sunen, Luxa Embodied 1 Duress 1 Wistfulness 1 Spider-Sense 1 Pyroclasm 2 Soul-Guide Lantern 1 Spell Snare 2 Sunderflock

Markus Valori and Roope Metsä registered a list that blends many of the synergies I've discussed here with the raw power of Sultai Reanimator.

Ashling, Rekindled [258IVkgmsVH0W8KH1XeoPs]
Bringer of the Last Gift
Ill-Timed Explosion [7GJaYnwKfFlAwrQPWwF5mY]

Ashling, Rekindled not only transforms into a creature that accelerates you into powerful Elementals, but Ashling also lets you discard and draw when it enters. That makes it an ideal setup piece for Superior Spider-Man, functioning much like Formidable Speaker by offering a clean outlet to discard Bringer of the Last Gift; Ardyn, the Usurper; or Sunderflock. Even better, Ashling's transformation enables you to ramp into a turn-three Superior Spider-Man. By adding red to the traditional Sultai Reanimator shell, Valori and Metsä unlocked Ill-Timed Explosion as yet another potent discard outlet to make Superior Spider-Man the best it can be.

Two Grixis Reanimator decks also appear in the field, piloted by Samuel Chang and Peter Yeh, and they explore similar concepts without relying on Formidable Speaker. While the four-color mana base is undeniably more demanding, this version still maintains reliable access to its colors. More than anything, it is a pleasure to see so many interlocking synergies from Lorwyn Eclipsed converging into a cohesive, ambitious strategy.

Selesnya Landfall

4 Doorkeeper Thrull 4 Earthbender Ascension 2 Sapling Nursery 10 Forest 4 Temple Garden 4 Seam Rip 2 Sazh's Chocobo 4 Llanowar Elves 4 Icetill Explorer 3 Traveling Chocobo 4 Fabled Passage 2 Nature's Rhythm 1 Eden, Seat of the Sanctum 4 Mightform Harmonizer 1 Ba Sing Se 4 Escape Tunnel 2 Plains 1 Ouroboroid 2 Sheltered by Ghosts 4 Get Lost 2 Keen-Eyed Curator 2 Sapling Nursery 2 Avatar's Wrath 1 Soul-Guide Lantern 2 Clarion Conqueror

Landfall decks leverage Escape Tunnel and Fabled Passage to generate multiple triggers for cards like Mightform Harmonizer, Icetill Explorer, and Sazh's Chocobo. Variants of this strategy have been a familiar presence in Standard for some time, and Lorwyn Eclipsed recently added Sapling Nursery as a welcome upgrade for longer, grindier games against control. Yet the list registered by Yuta Yokokawa, who qualified through the Regional Championship for Japan and South Korea, stands apart thanks to one especially daring main deck inclusion.

Doorkeeper Thrull [5hUom3dnjvapZzGaet0mbj]
Sapling Nursery
Fabled Passage [2sZ30xZSnWgNlPV87bMv7r]

While Doorkeeper Thrull is a relatively common sideboard card, only four copies appeared in main decks across all 306 Pro Tour submissions, and every one of them belongs to Yokokawa's list. That makes it a bold metagame gamble with potentially enormous upside. With Doorkeeper Thrull in play, creatures and artifacts lose their enters abilities, which means that Badgermole Cub no longer allows you to earthbend, Quantum Riddler stops drawing cards, and Formidable Speaker loses its tutoring ability. Yokokawa neatly sidesteps the downside by running zero copies of Badgermole Cub himself. Doorkeeper Thrull also shuts off some of the most impactful triggers in the format, including those on Sunderflock; Bringer of the Last Gift; Craterhoof Behemoth; Marang River Regent; Aang, Swift Savior; Interdimensional Web Watch; and Appa, Steadfast Guardian. In a Standard environment defined by such triggers, Doorkeeper Thrull is uniquely positioned to shine.

That said, it is a bit of a double-edged sword. If you control Doorkeeper Thrull and your opponent responds by evoking Deceit or Wistfulness, you might be in trouble. They won't get any beneficial bounce, discard, exile, or draw triggers, but the evoke ability won't trigger. This means that they won't have to sacrifice their creature, giving them a two-mana 6/5 or 5/5 that sticks around. Doorkeeper Thrull is therefore a high-risk, high-reward choice, and it'll be fascinating to see whether Yokokawa's bold call will pay off.

Golgari Gravefall

2 Swamp 4 Umbral Collar Zealot 1 Agatha's Soul Cauldron 2 Forest 2 Gene Pollinator 4 Llanowar Elves 4 Badgermole Cub 3 Nature's Rhythm 2 Multiversal Passage 4 Blooming Marsh 4 Wastewood Verge 4 Overgrown Tomb 1 Disruptive Stormbrood 4 Dredger's Insight 4 Bloodghast 4 Festering Gulch 4 Formidable Speaker 3 Beifong's Bounty Hunters 4 Overlord of the Balemurk 1 Surrak, Elusive Hunter 1 Agatha's Soul Cauldron 1 Reclamation Sage 2 Webstrike Elite 3 Intimidation Tactics 2 Duress 2 Disruptive Stormbrood 1 Ba Sing Se 2 Requiting Hex

Matthew Dewitte secured his Pro Tour invitation with a top finish at the Modern Regional Championship for Australia and New Zealand, piloting Golgari Broodscale. This weekend playing Standard in Richmond, he registered another Golgari combo deck.

Beifong's Bounty Hunters [3GVD2qjJ1kc1ruiH08MrUK]
Bloodghast
Umbral Collar Zealot [5yXwLxdRTTpl9BRFUxDaHH]

The core combo in the deck revolves around Beifong's Bounty Hunters, which can go infinite when paired with a sacrifice outlet and a creature that returns whenever a land enters. With Bloodghast and Umbral Collar Zealot in play, you can start the chain by sacrificing Bloodghast to Umbral Collar Zealot. This triggers Beifong's Bounty Hunters, allowing you to earthbend a land. You can then sacrifice that creature land to Umbral Collar Zealot, letting it return to the battlefield because of earthbend. When the land enters, Bloodghast returns as well, enabling you to loop for infinite surveil triggers. This engine converts into infinite life with Dredger's Insight or into infinite damage if the recurred land is Festering Gulch.

While this combo predates Lorwyn Eclipsed, the deck's defining upgrade is Formidable Speaker, which fits the strategy perfectly. It helps assemble the three-card Bloodghast combo by tutoring whichever piece is missing, and discarding Bloodghast is an ideal way to pay the cost. Doing so not only preserves card advantage but also avoids having to pay Bloodghast's mana cost altogether, since it simply returns with the next land drop. For that reason, Golgari Gravefall, as I've called the deck, may be one of the best possible homes for Formidable Speaker in the entire field.

Abzan Roots

1 Craterhoof Behemoth 1 Dundoolin Weaver 4 Emptiness 1 Forest 4 Molt Tender 2 Temple Garden 3 Dawnhand Dissident 4 Badgermole Cub 4 Gene Pollinator 4 Blooming Marsh 4 Wastewood Verge 1 Hushwood Verge 4 Overgrown Tomb 3 Bleachbone Verge 4 Insidious Roots 1 Rite of the Moth 4 Dredger's Insight 2 Formidable Speaker 2 Godless Shrine 4 Overlord of the Balemurk 3 Scavenging Ooze 2 Cathar Commando 4 Deceit 2 Ketramose, the New Dawn 3 Harvester of Misery 3 Get Lost 1 Kutzil's Flanker

Cheng Han Lin, who qualified through the MIT Championship, brought a wholly different graveyard-based combo deck. He stood alone as the only Pro Tour competitor to register Insidious Roots.

Insidious Roots
Dawnhand Dissident
Emptiness [6oNdhJftb2oGLpNjZlMpOC]

Insidious Roots generates a Plant token and grows all Plants whenever a creature card leaves your graveyard. Traditionally, this effect has been enabled by cards like Molt Tender, Overlord of the Balemurk, or Scavenging Ooze. Lorwyn Eclipsed expands that toolkit with two new enablers: Emptiness and Dawnhand Dissident. Emptiness primarily functions as a removal spell, but when cast for white mana, it can return a creature card to the battlefield, conveniently triggering Insidious Roots in the process.

Dawnhand Dissident, however, is the real standout. Each turn, it can exile a creature card from your graveyard, which triggers Insidious Roots. You can cast the exiled creature cards you own by removing three counters from among creatures you control. In most cases, those counters come from the -1/-1 counters you place on your own permanents when you blight. But Dawnhand Dissident is not restricted to -1/-1 counters. With such elegant synergies, this Abzan Roots deck looks like an absolute blast to play.

Temur Harmonizer

1 Willowrush Verge 2 Earthbender Ascension 1 Thunder Magic 2 Forest 2 Spider-Sense 3 Burst Lightning 3 Starting Town 4 Consult the Star Charts 1 Wistfulness 1 Analyze the Pollen 3 Icetill Explorer 4 Fabled Passage 3 Island 3 Mountain 2 Spell Snare 2 Thornspire Verge 1 Into the Flood Maw 3 Sear 2 Ba Sing Se 4 Mightform Harmonizer 4 Stock Up 3 Escape Tunnel 2 Steam Vents 4 Full Bore 1 Surrak, Elusive Hunter 1 Essence Scatter 1 Sear 2 Spell Pierce 3 Pyroclasm 2 Soul-Guide Lantern 1 Quantum Riddler 2 Heritage Reclamation 1 Sandman, Shifting Scoundrel 1 Songcrafter Mage

Team Sanctum of All has built a reputation for bringing some of the spiciest choices to the Pro Tour, and Pro Tour Lorwyn Eclipsed is no exception. This time, Valerie Jade, Toni Portolan, Jennifer Wang, Tom White, and Rei Zhang brought a unique combo deck built around Mightform Harmonizer.

Mightform Harmonizer [42hxGqMBGLYM37frmNsWN9]
Full Bore
Spell Snare

The game-winning sequence can unfold as early as turn four. First, you spend three mana to warp Mightform Harmonizer, then play Fabled Passage to boost its power to 8. Next, you sacrifice Fabled Passage to fetch a Mountain. With the landfall trigger on the stack, you cast Full Bore, pushing the Harmonizer to an 11-power creature with trample and haste. When the power-doubling trigger resolves, Mightform Harmonizer swells into a 22-power Insect Druid that's ready to charge in for the win.

Playfully dubbed "Temur Twin" or "Bore-ing Harmonizer" by the team, the deck relies on Consult the Star Charts and Stock Up to assemble its combo and is supported by a suite of cheap interactive spells. Sear and Spell Snare from Lorwyn Eclipsed add valuable new options to that toolbox. Spell Snare in particular pulls double duty, slowing down opponents by countering Badgermole Cub or protecting Mightform Harmonizer from Get Lost, Shoot the Sheriff, or Combustion Technique. With instant-speed removal being relatively low in the metagame, Temur Harmonizer appears well-positioned, and Spell Snare provides crucial insurance when the moment arrives.

Rakdos Monument

4 Blazemire Verge 4 Blood Crypt 3 Mountain 4 Multiversal Passage 3 Starting Town 5 Swamp 4 Bloodthorn Flail 3 Grim Bauble 4 Moonshadow 4 Marauding Mako 2 Inti, Seneschal of the Sun 4 Fear of Missing Out 2 Bitter Triumph 3 Iron-Shield Elf 3 Case of the Crimson Pulse 4 Monument to Endurance 4 Flamewake Phoenix 3 Soul-Guide Lantern 1 Ghost Vacuum 4 Pyroclasm 4 Sunspine Lynx 3 Abrade

Two players brought a Rakdos deck built around a dense package of discard effects to exploit Monument to Endurance and the newly printed Moonshadow. Pro Tour Phyrexia finalist Benton Madsen was one of them, with Adria Martin registering a similar Rakdos Monument list.

Moonshadow [5l3AbU7aAoxjdjvFZY4GiI]
Iron-Shield Elf
Monument to Endurance

In this deck, Moonshadow is the clear headliner. It starts as a 1/1 creature on turn one, but it grows when one or more permanent cards are put into your graveyard. This can happen whenever one of your creatures dies, you sacrifice Grim Bauble, or most importantly you discard a permanent card. With Iron-Shield Elf and Bloodthorn Flail serving as repetitive discard outlets, this is easy to accomplish. Each discard also lets Monument to Endurance; Marauding Mako; and Inti, Seneschal of the Sun provide incremental value.

When choosing which cards to discard, Flamewake Phoenix is an ideal option, reinforcing the deck's aggressive and grindy game plan. Discarding the right mix of card types can also enable delirium on Fear of Missing Out, while Case of the Crimson Pulse rewards you for quickly emptying your hand. With so many interlocking synergies, this Rakdos Monument list is shaping up as one of the spiciest strategies in the field.

Conclusion

If you're on the lookout for an exciting new Standard deck to experiment with, any of these nine innovative builds could be the perfect choice. They might just hold the key to victory at Pro Tour Lorwyn Eclipsed. Should they perform well, you can watch them in action during this weekend's livestream!