Every good Magic: the Gathering limited format needs a selection of fun build around cards. Build arounds are cards that encourage you to… Well build around them, taking your deck in new and unexpected directions. Whether it's Waterbending Scroll, from the recent Avatar set, encouraging players to go mono blue, or Mechtitan Core from Kamigawa Neon Dynasty turning into a 10/10 Gundam if enough artifacts are stapled onto it. Not all build around cards are created equal, though, and Lasting Tarfire from Lorwyn Eclipsed is a real dumpster fire of a card.
Lasting Tarfire is a two mana enchantment that deals two damage to the opponent during your end step if you put a counter on any creatures during your turn. The implied plan is clear, include a bunch of blight cards in your deck that put counters on your cards, and then gradually burn the opponent down with tarfire damage turn by turn.
Unfortunately, this plan often fails to play out in practice, and the damage dealt by the tarfire fails to bring the game to an end meaningfully more quickly than if it had never been cast. Playing a two drop would be a far better use of your second turn than casting this.
That's not just my opinion, either, this is backed up by data. The site 17Lands uses gameplay submitted by MTG Arena players to track the performance of all of the cards in a given set in limited. According to 17Lands, Lasting Tarfire has, at the time of writing, the worst "Improvement In Hand" rate of any card in the set at -4.3%. This means that in a game where a player draws Lasting Tarfire they are 4.3% less likely to win than if they had never drawn it at all.
The format is still fresh. though, and Lorwyn Eclipsed's meta is far from solved. Do you think that Lasting Tarfire might see a resurgence, or is it well placed at the bottom of the barrel? Share your views in the Wargamer Discord.
For more Lorwyn Eclipsed content, check out our financial breakdown of the Commander Decks that were released alongside it.