Summary Dismissal is a "counter" everything spell, in the same vein as Mindbreak Trap or Counterflux. In most cases this is just going to be an overcosted Dissipate. Maybe you can nab an ultimating Nahiri if they somehow have no counterspells, but it's going to be wasted on most abilities unless the cost for activating that ability involves sacrificing something. If your deck doesn't want to hardcast Mindbreak Trap, it doesn't want Summary Dismissal.
Providence is a Leyline/Chancellor effect. Like Chancellor of the Dross, it swings life totals by 6, but it heals you more so it's focused on letting you survive rather than damaging your opponent. Combos with Sunscour or Shining Shoal: if you draw it in your opener, you can gain 6 life, then pitch it later. A gimmicky deck could come from that interaction, but I don't think it'll be very good.
Sooooo united resistance seems like it could be playable to me, 4 mana to kill a creature and burn the opponent or loot someone's whole hand and 5 to do all three? Idk what wants it but the card certainly has both power and versatility
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My Decks:
UG Merfolk RG 8-Whack BWG Abzan midrange GRB Living End UWB Spirit Control
GU Kruphix's "Hug Assassin" RW Kalemne's "Play Fatties and Hope for the Best!" BUGW Atraxa's "All counters, all the time"
Lily's Oath there is interesting. Cruel Edict stapled on and enchantment that has you gaining a 2/2 zombie if you played a planeswalker that turn. I like this card more than Lily herself.
Being able to ping each turn is nothing to be scoffed at, especially in modern where there are lots of viable targets. Even if you are just shrinking something that seems fine. And it's her +1 ability too, so you impact the board without losing loyalty. That's rare.
Her -2 is better than "draw a card" so no complaints there. Rebuying a Goyf or snapcaster (or maybe even a more grindy option like huntmaster of the fells) seems very nice.
Her oath is bad. I mean it's an edict for 3 mana which is kind of lame.
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Modern: G Tron, Vannifar, Jund, Druid/Vizier combo, Humans, Eldrazi Stompy (Serum Powder), Amulet, Grishoalbrand, Breach Titan, Turns, Eternal Command, As Foretold Living End, Elves, Cheerios, RUG Scapeshift
Nephalia Academy looks strong for combo decks. You still end up with fewer cards in hand if your opponent casts a discard spell on you, but you're guaranteed to draw into the combo piece that you would have discarded if not for Academy. We already have Leyline of Sanctity which does this, but it doesn't work against Liliana's discard. On the other hand, Leyline literally shuts down Thoughtseize and Inquisition of Kozilek - you don't just put the card somewhere else, your opponent can't even target you with those spells, so you get to maintain your hand size.
Out of the current Leyline decks, I don't think any of them want Academy though. Ad Nauseam is a 2-card combo, so sure, letting them take one of your pieces sucks, but if you only have one piece in hand, losing your next draw doesn't sound too hot either. Bogles needs Leyline against Liliana's sacrifice ability. Maybe one of the Griselbrand decks or Bubble Hulk might want it - you only need one card in hand to win, the rest can be in your graveyard (and in fact Griselbrand/Hulk MUST be in the graveyard before your reanimation spell does anything).
Actually, that sums up Nephalia Academy: "if you would discard a card, you may skip your next draw instead". When put that way, suddenly it doesn't sound that strong any more - if your hand doesn't already have everything you need and they're attacking it with discard, you're not going to improve it even with Academy. The fact that it's an uncommon instead of a rare seems to indicate that the effect wasn't that strong in their internal testing. Maybe I'm wrong and it'll work, but I have a feeling it'll turn out like Contested War Zone.
We get a black sacrifice effect now, hooray. If you play Oath of Liliana and cast a planeswalker, you get as much value as if you had casted Gatekeeper of Malakir kicked.
Liliana, the Last Hope's + and - abilities are similar to Jace, Telepath Unbound's. While Jace costs 2 mana, Liliana doesn't start out as a 0/2 creature. It's a tough call, but I think Liliana of the Veil overshadows her, since LotV can disrupt both creatures and combos while new Liliana only disrupts creatures.
Selfless Soul is a smaller, flying Dauntless Escort. First it was Loxodon Hierarch, then Dauntless Escort...now the anti-boardwipe creature costs 2 mana. It's a strong card that I expect will replace Burrenton Forge-Tender in Chord/Company decks. It even stops things that Spellskite stops, though you still need Skite for Path to Exile.
The new land seems good for combo decks, but it's going to mean they have to draw through more cards to get the combo so the discard is still slowing them down somewhat. And the deck has to be able to support the C mana. Perhaps Eldrazi will want one of it if you are facing a ton of discard.
I look at Deploy the Gatewatch, and wonder if 6 mana is enough to assuage my fears of what it could power out.
Liliana, meanwhile... I mean, there's something to be said about spamming -x/-1 effects, and the graveyard is pretty much the most accessible resource after cards in hand, and most decks in Modern win with creatures...
Also there's the whole "the best planeswalker is the one everyone dismisses" thing. I mean seriously, why does that happen so often?
Anyway since I play Faeries and Faeries' creatures are also its means of disrupting things (in addition to being quite disposable 1/1 chump bodies), I might shove her into the deck to help round out removal and CA functions. Also her ult isn't entirely dead thanks to Mutavault.
new liliana never had a chance in modern; at 1BB you have to ask yourself "why am I not playing LotV instead?" every time you'd consider her, and LotV is just unparalleled.
Nephalia Academy is really interesting but I wonder which deck would want it; dropping a colorless land on the first two turns isn't free
Selfless Spirit seems relly powerful and will probbly become a chord target, possibly slotting into hatebears as well
Deploy the Gatewatch seems really powerful but what would a decklist look like that has enough planeswalkers to consistently hit two walkers in the top 7? It has to be comparable to the creature count in coco decks!
So, Academy vs. Leyline in Ad Nauseam. Academy is definitely better against Jund because you have the option (it's not even required!) of bringing the card back if it was an integral piece. It also insulates you against Lily if you're losing important combo pieces, which again is something Leyline doesn't do. That said, it's worse on the draw because Jund has a chance to fire off discard. It's also not great even on the play, because you have to play Academy and not a cantrip.
That all said, Academy is significantly worse than Leyline in non-BGx matchups. Eldrazi and Taxes uses exile "discard" with TKS and Tidehollow. BtL Scapeshift has Slaughter Games. Ad Nauseam is tight on SB slots as-is, and I like Leyline catching all of them. I'll certainly test Academy, but I don't think it will turn out to be better than Leyline. Maybe as an additional "Leyline" in BGx-heavy metagames?
Then there's Deploy the Gatewatch. Awesome. Accelerate into that ***** on T4-T5 and power out a bunch of nightmares. Superfriends is looking mighty appealing!
Im in agreement with Dotmatrix on this one. that -2 is pretty much the cheaper Palace Siege effect with better options I was looking for. As a player who has 2x Liliana of the Veil I am looking forward to testing Liliana, The Last Hope in Faeries, because this one has abilities Id use at any turn in the game rather than sitting with a lili I dont want to activate because I need the cards in my hand. Different lilianas for different situations
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Decks I have in my bag of tricks- Needless to say, someone who wants to play will probably have a deck UB/x Faeries UR Storm XURWB Affinity G Elves UW control
It makes no sense to say if a Liliana is better than the other just because they share the same CC, they are for completely different shells. LoTV is only completely overpowered in attrition shells like Jund or Abzan, where it does absolutely everything you want. I've played with LotV in Esper and Grixis and it just doesn't cut it.
This one protects herself as well as Vryn's Prodigy (which we all know how surprisingly difficult is to kill Jace once transformed), and provides some insane card advantage if you return Snapcasters or Pias. At 3 mana, it's Modern playable.
I don't know if it will be a staple in a new kind of deck, because walkers are difficult to evaluate, but she's promising.
Then there's Deploy the Gatewatch. Awesome. Accelerate into that ***** on T4-T5 and power out a bunch of nightmares. Superfriends is looking mighty appealing!
How many walkers do you have to be running to consistently have two in your top seven? Missing on Coco is brutal, this one costs 2 mana more and is at sorcery speed so you'd better make sure you hit
It makes no sense to say if a Liliana is better than the other just because they share the same CC, they are for completely different shells. LoTV is only completely overpowered in attrition shells like Jund or Abzan, where it does absolutely everything you want. I've played with LotV in Esper and Grixis and it just doesn't cut it.
This one protects herself as well as Vryn's Prodigy (which we all know how surprisingly difficult is to kill Jace once transformed), and provides some insane card advantage if you return Snapcasters or Pias. At 3 mana, it's Modern playable.
I don't know if it will be a staple in a new kind of deck, because walkers are difficult to evaluate, but she's promising.
Wait so you're playing a deck with Snapcaster and P&K but it's not attrition-based?
This Liliana is one of the best planeswalkers ever. My jaw dropped. She's not necessarily better than LotV but it's close. I am jealous. Black has almost always been an adversary color for me.
She's ok Vs aggro but totally dead Vs something like Tron or Scapeshift.
Think about it - you drop her turn 3 and do what? You +1 for nothing? Or -2 and pray the cracked fetch in your graveyard is immediately joined by a beatdown creature?
And even then you spent your turn 3 doing this instead of actually playing a beater? What?
She takes more building around than you'd think, and comparisons with Jace, Vryn's Prodigy don't often factor in that he costs a whole mana less and is a looter who can get you non-creature cards, which is very important.
Jace's -2 also lets you work with, again, non-creature cards, which gives you way more options. You wanna bolt? K Command? Terminate? Liliana's -2 being limited to creatures will definitely offer you much less versatility in what you can do.
In a control shell you are light on creatures to begin with, and the Disentomb + Value role is taken up by K Command, which is instant and can be held back for when you really need it.
Tapping out for her on turn 3 means you are most likely stuck doing the +1. This had BETTER be killing a Birds or something.
Comparisons with Vulshock Sorcerer and Cunning Sparkmage require you to consider they require removal to take out. They 'die to removal' but planeswalkers can die to just creature attacks.
On top of that those pingers can hit the face, too. And by the way, Vs aggro she won't be killing Goblin Guide or Monastery Swiftspear with that +1. Or Vexing Devil, or Eidolon of the Great Revel, or Delver of Secrets, Or Wild Nacatl. Or Death's Shadow . . .
After all that, if you want a dedicated creature pinger then you'd probably do best betting on Izzet Staticaster, which has flash and is in the best colors for instant action. Or you could just run sweepers/general removal.
Again, she feels like a 2-of for the sideboard in some decks.
You don't call "dying to removal" if the removal is more expensive in resources than the creature. If you have to spend BG (Abrupt Decay), or W + basic land (PtE) to remove a 1G, that is not "dying to removal". Strictly speaking Goyf dies to removal, but actually your removal is dying to Goyf.
It remains to see how good the new Liliana will be, I was initially underwhelmed but she looks better each time I look at the card.
Obviously she is not LotV in terms of power level, anyone expecting as much was overly hyping up their expectations and she isn't going to replace LotV in the existing Junk/Jund archetypes. She fits into a different deck I think, perhaps one we haven't seen yet.
*edit: just to add for good measure for those comparing to LotV and being disappointed, you're comparing it to arguably the best modern legal planes walker card in the game, of course everything else is going to seem sub par initially.
You tend to want to slam down planeswalkers asap and use an ability every turn they're out. That's getting the most value out of the card.
The longer she sits in your hand, the worse she is because the further off you'll be from hitting ultimate or using her -2 multiple times. You'll have missed opportunities to +1 her.
So if you're not playing her, she's dead in your hand. And at this point, if you are holding onto a card in your hand for appropriate timing - it may as well be an instant like Kolaghan's Command. Edit: Or even Murder.
You don't call "dying to removal" if the removal is more expensive in resources than the creature. If you have to spend BG (Abrupt Decay), or W + basic land (PtE) to remove a 1G, that is not "dying to removal". Strictly speaking Goyf dies to removal, but actually your removal is dying to Goyf.
Providence is a Leyline/Chancellor effect. Like Chancellor of the Dross, it swings life totals by 6, but it heals you more so it's focused on letting you survive rather than damaging your opponent. Combos with Sunscour or Shining Shoal: if you draw it in your opener, you can gain 6 life, then pitch it later. A gimmicky deck could come from that interaction, but I don't think it'll be very good.
Spirit of the Hunt's main purpose is to beat red sweepers like Anger of the Gods. Without that, Wolfir Avenger is better.
| Ad Nauseam
| Infect
Big Johnny.
RG 8-Whack
BWG Abzan midrange
GRB Living End
UWB Spirit Control
GU Kruphix's "Hug Assassin"
RW Kalemne's "Play Fatties and Hope for the Best!"
BUGW Atraxa's "All counters, all the time"
Maybe one of the cascade decks (Living End, Restore Balance) might want it as a utility spell that can't be cascaded into, but that seems unlikely.
| Ad Nauseam
| Infect
Big Johnny.
Would even main it in noncombo decks instead of things like ghost quarter if my jund MU was hurting.
Being able to ping each turn is nothing to be scoffed at, especially in modern where there are lots of viable targets. Even if you are just shrinking something that seems fine. And it's her +1 ability too, so you impact the board without losing loyalty. That's rare.
Her -2 is better than "draw a card" so no complaints there. Rebuying a Goyf or snapcaster (or maybe even a more grindy option like huntmaster of the fells) seems very nice.
Her oath is bad. I mean it's an edict for 3 mana which is kind of lame.
~~ 1W
Flying
Sac ~~ : creatures you control gain indestructible until eot.
2/1
LotV definitely seems like the ceiling on what a 3-drop PW can be though.
Out of the current Leyline decks, I don't think any of them want Academy though. Ad Nauseam is a 2-card combo, so sure, letting them take one of your pieces sucks, but if you only have one piece in hand, losing your next draw doesn't sound too hot either. Bogles needs Leyline against Liliana's sacrifice ability. Maybe one of the Griselbrand decks or Bubble Hulk might want it - you only need one card in hand to win, the rest can be in your graveyard (and in fact Griselbrand/Hulk MUST be in the graveyard before your reanimation spell does anything).
Actually, that sums up Nephalia Academy: "if you would discard a card, you may skip your next draw instead". When put that way, suddenly it doesn't sound that strong any more - if your hand doesn't already have everything you need and they're attacking it with discard, you're not going to improve it even with Academy. The fact that it's an uncommon instead of a rare seems to indicate that the effect wasn't that strong in their internal testing. Maybe I'm wrong and it'll work, but I have a feeling it'll turn out like Contested War Zone.
We get a black sacrifice effect now, hooray. If you play Oath of Liliana and cast a planeswalker, you get as much value as if you had casted Gatekeeper of Malakir kicked.
Liliana, the Last Hope's + and - abilities are similar to Jace, Telepath Unbound's. While Jace costs 2 mana, Liliana doesn't start out as a 0/2 creature. It's a tough call, but I think Liliana of the Veil overshadows her, since LotV can disrupt both creatures and combos while new Liliana only disrupts creatures.
Selfless Soul is a smaller, flying Dauntless Escort. First it was Loxodon Hierarch, then Dauntless Escort...now the anti-boardwipe creature costs 2 mana. It's a strong card that I expect will replace Burrenton Forge-Tender in Chord/Company decks. It even stops things that Spellskite stops, though you still need Skite for Path to Exile.
| Ad Nauseam
| Infect
Big Johnny.
---
Deploy the Gatewatch is 4WW "Put Karn Liberated and Ugin, the Spirit Dragon into play. Seems neat although expensive and has variation. EDH Superfiends has been getting all of the love lately though.
The new land seems good for combo decks, but it's going to mean they have to draw through more cards to get the combo so the discard is still slowing them down somewhat. And the deck has to be able to support the C mana. Perhaps Eldrazi will want one of it if you are facing a ton of discard.
MTGO/MTGA: Tyclone
My Primers ~ GWx Vizier Company ~ Knightfall ~ RG Eldrazi ~ Green's Sun's Zenith
More Brews ~ Modern Four Horsemen ~ Gitrog Dredge
Liliana, meanwhile... I mean, there's something to be said about spamming -x/-1 effects, and the graveyard is pretty much the most accessible resource after cards in hand, and most decks in Modern win with creatures...
Also there's the whole "the best planeswalker is the one everyone dismisses" thing. I mean seriously, why does that happen so often?
Anyway since I play Faeries and Faeries' creatures are also its means of disrupting things (in addition to being quite disposable 1/1 chump bodies), I might shove her into the deck to help round out removal and CA functions.
Also her ult isn't entirely dead thanks to Mutavault.Derp, reading comprehension fail on my part.
For some reason I thought you needed at least one Zombie to get more.
Nephalia Academy is really interesting but I wonder which deck would want it; dropping a colorless land on the first two turns isn't free
Selfless Spirit seems relly powerful and will probbly become a chord target, possibly slotting into hatebears as well
Deploy the Gatewatch seems really powerful but what would a decklist look like that has enough planeswalkers to consistently hit two walkers in the top 7? It has to be comparable to the creature count in coco decks!
That all said, Academy is significantly worse than Leyline in non-BGx matchups. Eldrazi and Taxes uses exile "discard" with TKS and Tidehollow. BtL Scapeshift has Slaughter Games. Ad Nauseam is tight on SB slots as-is, and I like Leyline catching all of them. I'll certainly test Academy, but I don't think it will turn out to be better than Leyline. Maybe as an additional "Leyline" in BGx-heavy metagames?
Then there's Deploy the Gatewatch. Awesome. Accelerate into that ***** on T4-T5 and power out a bunch of nightmares. Superfriends is looking mighty appealing!
is there such a thing as white tron?
splashing it with tron seemed the most viable for modern.
Does this mean Gideon will be making an appearance in Innistrad?
Will Sorin markov be making an oath?
UB/x Faeries
UR Storm
XURWB Affinity
G Elves
UW control
This one protects herself as well as Vryn's Prodigy (which we all know how surprisingly difficult is to kill Jace once transformed), and provides some insane card advantage if you return Snapcasters or Pias. At 3 mana, it's Modern playable.
I don't know if it will be a staple in a new kind of deck, because walkers are difficult to evaluate, but she's promising.
How many walkers do you have to be running to consistently have two in your top seven? Missing on Coco is brutal, this one costs 2 mana more and is at sorcery speed so you'd better make sure you hit
Wait so you're playing a deck with Snapcaster and P&K but it's not attrition-based?
She's ok Vs aggro but totally dead Vs something like Tron or Scapeshift.
Think about it - you drop her turn 3 and do what? You +1 for nothing? Or -2 and pray the cracked fetch in your graveyard is immediately joined by a beatdown creature?
And even then you spent your turn 3 doing this instead of actually playing a beater? What?
She takes more building around than you'd think, and comparisons with Jace, Vryn's Prodigy don't often factor in that he costs a whole mana less and is a looter who can get you non-creature cards, which is very important.
Jace's -2 also lets you work with, again, non-creature cards, which gives you way more options. You wanna bolt? K Command? Terminate? Liliana's -2 being limited to creatures will definitely offer you much less versatility in what you can do.
In a control shell you are light on creatures to begin with, and the Disentomb + Value role is taken up by K Command, which is instant and can be held back for when you really need it.
Tapping out for her on turn 3 means you are most likely stuck doing the +1. This had BETTER be killing a Birds or something.
Comparisons with Vulshock Sorcerer and Cunning Sparkmage require you to consider they require removal to take out. They 'die to removal' but planeswalkers can die to just creature attacks.
On top of that those pingers can hit the face, too. And by the way, Vs aggro she won't be killing Goblin Guide or Monastery Swiftspear with that +1. Or Vexing Devil, or Eidolon of the Great Revel, or Delver of Secrets, Or Wild Nacatl. Or Death's Shadow . . .
After all that, if you want a dedicated creature pinger then you'd probably do best betting on Izzet Staticaster, which has flash and is in the best colors for instant action. Or you could just run sweepers/general removal.
Again, she feels like a 2-of for the sideboard in some decks.
"OH GOD MY BRAIN IS EXPLOADING AT HOW BAD THE ART IS ON MY OWN CARD"
-A friend's first impression of Ancestral Recall
10/10, I tapped.
Obviously she is not LotV in terms of power level, anyone expecting as much was overly hyping up their expectations and she isn't going to replace LotV in the existing Junk/Jund archetypes. She fits into a different deck I think, perhaps one we haven't seen yet.
*edit: just to add for good measure for those comparing to LotV and being disappointed, you're comparing it to arguably the best modern legal planes walker card in the game, of course everything else is going to seem sub par initially.
The longer she sits in your hand, the worse she is because the further off you'll be from hitting ultimate or using her -2 multiple times. You'll have missed opportunities to +1 her.
So if you're not playing her, she's dead in your hand. And at this point, if you are holding onto a card in your hand for appropriate timing - it may as well be an instant like Kolaghan's Command. Edit: Or even Murder.
"OH GOD MY BRAIN IS EXPLOADING AT HOW BAD THE ART IS ON MY OWN CARD"
-A friend's first impression of Ancestral Recall
10/10, I tapped.