Wizards Of the Coast should be optimistic about the upcoming Lorwyn Eclipsed pre release weekend. At least if the sentiment of the players I spoke to over the last weekend is any indication of how the set might do.

I spoke to over two dozen proven purchasers over the past four days, and almost all of them planned on making a Lorwyn Eclipsed purchase. Players were more bullish about LE than they have been about any set since Final Fantasy last year.

And yeah, I’m including Avatar. While players loved the Avatar set, and many of us were playing Commander Party and our LGS recently, players were restricted by what they could buy because of other Christmas purchases they had to make.

Lorwyn Eclipsed gets the January stage all to itself. And there are still a lot of unused gift cards that need to be spent.

And these buyers include long-timer traditionalist groups. The biggest spenders who have been critics of the “Universes Beyond” releases. Lorwyn Eclipsed hits a sweet spot for them that introduces new possibilities without straying too far away from the traditional Magic The Gathering style.

If Wizards Of the Coast keeps us at the cash register, it will keep up what has been a pretty solid streak of releases over the past year, and keep the tone positive moving towards less certain territory. They haven’t all been victories. My playgroups still diss the Spiderman release whenever possible and Teenaged Mutant Ninja Turtles has gotten some early scowls.

But it’s going to be a busy weekend at the LGS. Lorwyn Eclipsed is coming in with some good speed.

What do you think? Do you plan on buying any Lorwyn Eclipsed? Let me know in the comments.

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