CoolStuffInc Playtests Vivid Convergence Commander Deck Built Around Lorwyn Eclipsed

Stephen Johnson at CoolStuffInc reports that Mass of Mysteries - a five-color commander from Lorwyn Eclipsed - benefits from leaning into the set’s new Vivid keyword: "Vivid is stronger and plays well with Mass of Mysteries in the command zone," and "The precon list seems to only have 2 cards with Vivid, so upgrading that list with more cards from Lorwyn Eclipsed and leaning into that keyword would probably work."

Magic Wizards design commentary frames what Vivid does and why it matters for a five-color commander build. "One of the challenges of the vivid mechanic is that it mechanically felt like Shadowmoor, as it cared about color, but emotionally felt like Lorwyn," the designers wrote, and they added that "This was one of the things that pushed us to want to find ways to allow Lorwyn and Shadowmoor to intermix on the same card." The team says "The final version of vivid functions more like domain than party in that it just counts the number of colors you have rather than only allowing each permanent to contribute to one color," and offers a clear example: "When CARDNAME enters, tap target creature an opponent controls. Put X stun counters on it, where X is the number of permanents in your rainbow. (Your rainbow consists of up to five permanents, one per color.)"

Johnson’s playtest notes temper enthusiasm for Converge even as he recommends Vivid-focused upgrades. "My biggest takeaway from the test game is that Converge is a pretty weak mechanic, but it's completely playable in Bracket 2, and probably in Bracket 3 under the right conditions," he wrote, positioning Converge as situational but usable in mid-power tables while Vivid should be the primary pathway for a Mass of Mysteries build.

Playtesting produced concrete table moments Johnson shared. "My buddies were charitable about my little experiment of a deck and were impressed with how well Squawkroaster impacted the early game," he said, and he recounted post-game talk: "We had a good conversation afterwards, as the Freyalise player was very new to the game, and was playing a list put together by the Ferrafor player (notably, the two decks that drew 30+ cards in a turn)." That 30+ cards stat highlights the kind of high-variance games a five-color Mass of Mysteries table can produce when other players’ lists explode.

Design experiments adjacent to Vivid also show what did and did not ship in Lorwyn Eclipsed. Magic Wizards documented trying a Hunt role for black and green Elves - "Hunt is something we're trying on black and green Elves. It's resonant to the Lorwyn Elves' original identity. Hunt creates an Aura token you put on a creature, and when that creature dies, you draw a card" - but they concluded "it didn't end up working out for this set, but it was an interesting design space." The design notes also state archetype intentions: "Rainbow appears primarily in blue, red, and green. The archetypes that focus on it are green-blue and blue-red. Red-green is more focused on ramp," and later, "In the finished product, the vivid archetypes ended up being red-green and green-blue. Blue-red would become an Elemental-focused archetype."

As a publishing note from the CoolStuffInc playtest, the article’s closing analysis was duplicated in the supplied copy: two identical "Final Thoughts" blocks repeat the same assessment that Converge is weak but playable in Bracket 2/3, that "Vivid is stronger and plays well with Mass of Mysteries in the command zone," and that the precon contains only two Vivid cards and should be upgraded.