How good is Liliana in sealed?
Limited forum
Posted on July 19, 2016, 8:52 p.m. by nfcnorth
As someone who didn't attend the pre-release I am curious about how one card in particular did and that would be my favorite planeswalker lore wise Liliana and her new form Liliana, the Last Hope. She is a mythic so she won't appear that often but when she does how good does she preform? I am mainly interested in hearing from people who either had her in there pool or faced her on the opposite side of board. Did she under-preform, Over-preform or turn out just ok?
MindAblaze says... #3
Aka enough of a perceived threat to eat a burn spell instead of an attack step.
July 19, 2016 9:36 p.m.
She honestly isn't that strong. Even at 3cmc she is one of the weaker liliana.
July 19, 2016 9:39 p.m.
I am looking to hear how she preformed in matches that she was in on either side nothing more nothing else so I would appreciate it if people would limit to only talking about that and nothing else. No offense to anyone its just what I am personally looking for with this thread. A general theory thread this is not supposed to be there are plenty of other threads for that.
July 19, 2016 9:52 p.m.
AwesomeOctopus says... #6
She is a walker, so she has that going for her, but tbh, not that great. shes a 3 drop that if you play on curve will probably die eventually, although serving as a good distraction, and if you play her late it would take too long to get her to her ult which is really the only game changer. She's kind of a weak planeswalker, but in the right constructed deck she could be pretty decent, but in limited shes powerful but maybe not as powerful as a normal planeswalker. If she was the only decent thing in black in my sealed pack I wouldn't let that put me in that color. then again I never played with or against her at the pre-release.
July 19, 2016 10:57 p.m.
demagicman says... #7
I opened a Lili in my pool and I saw her in every round that I played in. Sometimes twice or three times a round. Did not get to play her every game however. I can say though that she did underperform a lot for me. I'll preface this with saying that I did manage to go 3-1 at prerelease. So I didn't build a deck that was terrible, maybe I just wasn't using her right.
If we talk about her plus one for limited purposes, we see that there are a total of 54 creatures, in this limited environment, that her plus one can outright kill. One of those is a mythic, Eleven are rares, Twenty-Five are uncommons, and seventeen are commons. And with the distribution of Eldritch Moon to Shadows packs (2 Shadows and 4 Eldritch Moon) a great deal of these will not be seen do to probability. Some of these may also be just bad filler cards that won't get played regardless if they were in your pool. So the average sealed deck may contain anywhere from 2-5 creature cards that Lili will be able to outright kill.
Her plus one is good at slowing down a big creature, but it does not feel like it does enough to slow down a bigger creature. Her plus one is not that fantastic at protecting her as one might think, it would definitely be better if it was -1/-2 (it isn't though, so I digress). And if you intend on getting to her ultimate than you need to use her plus one and try to protect her at all costs. This is the reason I lost two games, I was focused on trying to get to her ultimate to hopefully take control of the game. My opponent knew this as well so I was chump blocking and losing creatures trying to get her to her ultimate.
If you don't want to invest in her then her minus two is fine. Nothing spectacular. There was a few times when I found myself with no creatures or no good creatures in my hand and did not want to risk milling a removal spell or something that I would like better than a Weirded Vampire. Her minus two feels like a bad Macabre Waltz or Cemetery Recruitment.
And you may have a better chance at getting one of those in your pool. And clearly her ultimate would most likely be completely back breaking to your opponent in limited if you got there.
Overall, I feel like she underperformed greatly. Even for a three casting cost planeswalker. Sometimes you may not have anything to protect her well enough that early. And other times you rather just play a creature. And when she does hit the board your opponent focuses all of their effort into killing her. So if you get her I recommend dropping her into play, using her plus one and using her as meat shield while you get ahead on your board.
In very first game of the prerelease, I was on the draw, I dropped her on turn three and was able to plus her up to shrink a Mournwillow down to a 1/1. I passed the turn to him and he played a Backwoods Survivalists and put Lili back down to three loyalty with his Mournwillow. He passed back to me and I played a Niblis of Frost and put his Mournwillow back to a 1/1 and passed to him. He then promptly played a Somberwald Stag, fought my Niblis and killed Lili with his other guys. And while he may have gotten the perfect draws that game, I would have much preferred Lili had been a Murder or anything else honestly.
And the ensuing game that I played her went much like that. Me trying to protect her and getting nowhere because her plus one just isn't good enough. By the end of prerelease when I saw her, whether it be a late game top deck or in my opening hand. I just held her in my hand until I wanted to bring a creature that I cared about back to my hand. Then just left Lili to her fate. Hell, I wasn't even mad when one game the guy played Pick the Brain and exiled her from my hand. If I could've chosen one card that I just didn't care about it would have been Lili.
So, she is definitely playable. But, not spectacular whatsoever.
July 20, 2016 12:16 a.m.
demagicman sums it up pretty nicely. I actually had a match against someone who pulled TWO Lilis in their pool (ie one promo, one in a pack). Game 1, she dropped early, pinged off one of my spirit tokens then promptly died. I won this one purely because I aggro'd out quickly.
Game 2, he drew into both, and she provided enough of a distraction for him to stabilise, and I struggled to find removal for any of his threats, so he eventually won after going into time.
I did however see one game he had against some other dude where he actually ulti'd a Lili, but he was in time (again) so undoubtedly he won that round.
Also, not sure if you need to know this, but he came 1st, and I was 2nd (with GW human aggro)
July 20, 2016 4:31 a.m.
I had a Lili in my pool, and for me, she was great. She distracted my opponents from better plays. If I knew she would go down soon, I would -2 her straight away, if I saw her sitting around for a few turns, I would +1 her.
I was never sad to see her in my hand (which happened alot) and always played her as soon as she was a good play. The important part with Planeswalkers is to never focus on the Ult; most of the time you wont get it to go off.
Here is my pool, in case you are interested:
Eldritch Moon Pre-release Sat 16/7/16 7pm
Limited*
10 VIEWS
July 20, 2016 4:38 a.m.
Didn't play against her, didn't see her played, but I agree just from my experience of the format that she is playable (she is a planeswalker after all, and will win you the game if left unchecked, and if she dies you effectively gained her loyalty in life), but playable does not mean good. I mean, the red Grizzly Bears is probably better in the format than Lili is.
jecder says... #2
There is a lot of burn in this set. or rather I pulled a lot of burn. so the one round I saw her 2x I ended It to her face.
July 19, 2016 8:55 p.m.