A new MTG Lorwyn Eclipsed card is about to steal the fun for the wrong reasons

Despite the massive hype surrounding it, Lorwyn Eclipsed was treated to a mild and mostly uneventful spoiler season compared to Magic: The Gatherings new Marvel Heroes set is coming later this year, and even compared to the recent sets of 2025. But despite slow reveals, Lorwyn Eclipsed is already proving to be an entertaining set, with plenty of fun, unique cards that can transform Magic: The Gatheringdifferent formats. However, there is a lot of financial weight on Lorwyn Eclipsed's shoulders, as the original Lorwyn block was a commercial flop, and returning to the plane after 19 years can reignite that spark only if Wizards of the Coast sees some success in it.

Fortunately, there are some great cards to collect Magic: The Gatherings Lorwyn Eclipsed set, starting with the new Special Guest prints with stunning and thematic art, going all the way to some incredibly powerful commons, uncommons and rares that will inevitably be played. This can be seen especially with a card called Hexing Squelcher, a common rare card that will change several MTG format when it finally comes out — but it also takes the fun out of the game.

What does MTG's Hexing Squelcher do and why is it good?

Hexing Squelcher is a 2-CMC 2/2 spell that can't be countered, has ward (pay 2 life), and gives both of these effects to your spells and creatures respectively.
A 2-mana irreversible creature that makes spells irreversible is incredibly strong.
Ward (pay 2 life) deters removal spells MTG.
Hexing Squelcher being a Red creature means it can be used as an asset to counter Blue/control in otherwise fast decks.
It has synergy with MTGs Goblin deck.

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MTG's best red Lorwyn Eclipsed card is already ready

Hexing Squelcher is definitely an OP MTG card for multiple reasons and in multiple deck archetypes in the game's format, but it can also end up being the thing it tries to combat the most. What this means is that Hexing Squelcher is the typical blue/control counter, making spells unreachable and giving all creatures a ward that forces opponents to lose life if they want to target them. Still, its mana cost makes this a very easy card to splash into Blue/control decks as well.

Hexing Squelcher is a callback to the OG Vexing Shusher in the Lorwyn block, also a spell that made spells impossible.

How Hexing Squelcher Distorts MTG's Format

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Hexing Squelcher costs 1 generic and 1 Red, which is great value in and of itself. But the generic part of its mana cost and single red pip make it incredibly easy to use in the same deck it's designed to combat. This can lead to several problems:

A revival of Izzet's dominance in MTG's Standard: Izzet has been the popular color combination in Standard for a long time and a while MTGs Vivi ban combined with Avatar's release made Standard more varied, Izzet is still at the top of the meta with three different deck archetypes – Izzet Lessons, Izzet Looting and Izzet Splash.
A lockdown of MTG's cEDH: Magic: The Gatherings cEDH decks are Commander decks with powerful combos, expensive and incredibly powerful cards, and top-level optimization. But these decks are mostly run with very little removal, and cEDH games are all about counterspells and interaction to secure victory, or rather, to prevent others from winning before you do. Hexing Squelcher breaks that balance, as the first to cast it can easily secure their combos, especially in decks like Blue Farm.
Burn decks in Modern and Legacy will burn brighter: Many Burn decks in MTG rely on their cheap, powerful damage spells to do their job and take down the opponent, and having a 2-mana 2/2 creature that can attack for more damage while also protecting all creatures and making all spells irreversible is incredible value. It breaks cards like Chalice of the Void and Force of Will as well.

The Hexing Squelcher retails online for over $37 for a regular copy and nearly $90 for its special treatment.

MTG's new Lorwyn Eclipsed Rare is practically unbeatable

Magic the Gathering Dockside Extortionist card art

With all of this in mind, it's hard to argue against Hexing Squelcher when it can be used in practically any deck, distorting both counterspell-heavy and removal-heavy formats. Plus, outside of single copy formats like Commander, one could theoretically run 4 Hexing Squelchers in a single deck, leading to a board state that is hard to break through.

It is difficult to predict how MTGs meta will be adapted across multiple formats, but given that this is pretty much guaranteed to be a hit in Commander, other formats will inevitably follow once more testing is done. The problem in this case is that Hexing Squelcher can create a snowball effect, causing more and more decks within a format to use it to beat it.