I really liked this look at Liliana the first
time we reviewed her, and my opinion has not
really changed now. It's very easy for a deck of
her color to ignite her spark, and when you do,
she becomes an aggressive, disruptive threat
that both protects your own game and can turn
your opponent's quality cards against them. And
even if you can't ignite, her mortal form is a
solid creature that most black midrange decks
would be just fine playing anyway. If Liliana
wasn't your girl before Origins, she should be
now.
The number seven card of the year is Liliana,
Heretical healer which is a three mana Black 2/3
legendary with Lifelink with the easiest
transformation to trigger in the cycle. Having a
non-token creature you control die not only
transforms her it also gives a 2/2 zombie token
making it extremely efficient from the start.
The +2 is useful with an empty hand or a
creature you want to discard like Undead
Servant. The -X is excellent for zero cost
creatures like Memnite or Dryad Arborm, but just
flat out sacrificing her for -3 is a net gain
and can chain a creature like Fleshbag Marauder
or Merciless Executioner. The -8 is very
powerful and in a removal heavy build turns most
of the deck into a two for one and should make
winning nearly impossible for one opponent while
it is even stronger in Multiplayer. Overall this
Liliana is very aggressive with the only
weakness being a somewhat situational +2 and
decks built around her can function across many
formats.
In Limited the card advantage of the token with
the -X can't be ignored and even the 2/3 with
Lifelink is quite playable. A very easy first
pick in Booster even with the double Black in
the mana cost and barring a poor Black pool it
is a strong foundation for Sealed as well.
At its core, creature side is at its best, a
diversion for any kill-spells your bigger
threats would normally incur or a trick that
replaces your lost creature with a 2/2 zombie
and a planeswalker. The flip-walker is a decent
throwback to Lorwyn Lili (Off topic, I hate the
use of 1.0, 2.0 for contining walkers. It's
2015. The people you're trying to sound hip to
probably don't understand your outdated y2k
"net"-talk. Stop it.) AAANYWAY. Flip-Lili does a
decent job of continuing black's tradition of
hand disruption and reanimation.
iked this look at Liliana the first
time we reviewed her, and my opinion has not
really changed now. It's very easy for a deck of
her color to ignite her spark, and when you do,
she becomes an aggressive, disruptive threat
that both protects your own game and can turn
your opponent's quality cards against them. And
even if you can't ignite, her mortal form is a
solid creature that most black midrange decks
would be just fine playing anyway. If Liliana
wasn't your girl before Origins, she should be
now.