How to Improve the Liliana, Death Wielder Planeswalker Deck from Magic the Gathering's Amonkhet7/29/2017 by ElspethFTW, Old School Duelist  The Liliana, Death Wielder planeswalker deck has proven to be a popular product. Many players are asking how to improve upon what is already the start of a decent Amonkhet planeswalker deck. It's built around the -1/-1 counter theme, which is strong not only in Amonkhet but even stronger with Hour of Devastation. Before you go any further, you may want to refer to our out-of-the-box review of the Amonkhet Liliana planeswalker deck to see if this is a deck you want to build upon. When making suggestions on how to improve these introductory decks, it makes the most sense to use the current set as the starting point. The reason not to use previous sets is two fold. First of all, you want this deck to be playable for as long as possible.but secondly, if another set is going to be released with similar mechanics directly afterward, you're buying into an archetype that has room to improve. While this won't always be the case, especially with Wizards of the Coast moving away from a consistent block structure, Hour of Devastation has proven to be a strong resource for improving this particular deck. Let's just say that this deck improvement article was worth the wait.  Possible additions from Hour of Devastation Ammit Eternal Probably the best addition to this deck is Ammit Eternal. Besides his awesome creature typing, Ammit Eternal fits right into what this deck is trying to do. We don't mind having to spread around some -1/-1 counters to be a bit ahead of the curve. A 5/5 for 2B is amazing, even if he gets weaker with each spell your opponents cast. However, we will have ways of actually taking advantage of this apparent drawback in this deck as you will soon see. But there is far more upside to this guy. He can lose those counters if he deals combat damage to a player, so he does have a reset button. And even if he doesn't, as soon as he is blocked his afflict 3 ability causes your opponent to lose 3 life immediately. This afflict ability can certainly make combat interesting, so Ammit Eternal could be an all star in this deck. Banewhip Punisher While he may be an outside contender for a slot in this deck, Banewhip Punisher is worth looking at for purposes of considering the options. You may put a -1/-1 counter on a target creature when she comes into play . This doesn't seem all that great for 3 mana, but we’ll have ways to make that more relevant. Plus, the Punisher has an ability to sacrifice herself for 2B to destroy a creature with a -1/-1 counter on it. This can be very useful against a problematic creature. Compared to a couple of our other options that we’ll get to, though, it probably won’t make the cut. Obelisk Spider Another 3-drop to consider is Obelisk Spider. A 1 / 4 with reach isn’t bad, but it has a couple of strong abilities. The first allows you to put a -1/-1 counter on any creature it deals combat damage to, and whenever you put a -1/-1 counter on a target creature, you gain 1 life and each opponent loses 1 life. The problem with Obelisk Spider is that he’s a bit too defensive for what we’re trying to do. Driven // Despair Driven // Despair might be a good Aftermath card to consider for our purposes. Both halves of the card only cost 2 mana. For 1G, Driven gives all of your creatures trample until end of turn, and also allows your creature to draw a card each time they deal combat damage to a player that turn. This is a nice way to gain some extra card advantage. The Aftermath side, which costs 1B to cast from the graveyard, gives all of your creatures menace - meaning each creature must be blocked or two or more creatures. If this wasn’t enough, each time one of your creatures deals combat damage to a player, that player discards a card. As this is like two cards in one, we could sneak a copy into our deck for a strong effect. We’ll see if it makes the grade. The Scorpion God? I really want to dip into red to play the scorpion god, but he sort of throws off the deck's mana base. But being able to draw a card each time a creature with a -1/-1 counter dies on it is so powerful. Can we make it work? We will have to see. This is a very powerful creature. But is it worth being our only Red card in the deck? Probably not.  Cards to Consider from Amonkhet Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons Being the master of -1/-1 counter shenanigans in EDH, it’s no surprise that we will want to consider Hapatra. Whenever she deals combat damage to a player, you may put a -1/-1 counter on a target creature. Then, whenever you put a -1/-1 counter on a creature, you create a 1/1 Snake creature token with deathtouch. That’s some good value right there! Being a Legendary Creature, however, we will only want to have a couple of copies in our deck. Drawing an additional copy is often going to just feel really bad. Hapatra's Mark This one-mana instant may be key to our deck. It gives a target creature hexproof, meaning opponent's spells can't target that creature. But, it also removes all -1/-1 counters from that creature. In a few cases, this is very good for us. We may sneak a copy or two in.  Nest of Scarabs Here’s an Enchantment that’s perfect for this deck that was surprisingly not included in the original Planeswalker deck. It does something very similar to Hapatra in that it makes a token whenever you put a -1/-1 counter on a creature. These tokens are only 1/1 Black Insect tokens, however. But there’s an upside to Nest of Scarabs. You get to create a token for each -1/-1 counter you place. So if there’s one counter, you get one, but if you need to place two, you get two tokens. These little guys can add up fast! Plus, if you get more than one Nest of Scarabs onto the battlefield, their abilities stack and you get an additional token.  Plague Belcher It’s easy to see that Plague Belcher has a drawback that has made him relatively underappreciated early on in his Standard life. When he comes into play, you have to put two -1/-1 counters on a creature you control. It could easily be him, or another creature of yours that’s expendable. The Plague Belcher, though, becomes a lot better when you have Hapatra or Nest of Scarabs or both on the field. You can always sacrifice a token and get another one in return, or two if you have Nest of Scarabs, or even three if you have both a Nest and Hapatra on board at the same time. A 5/5 for 3 mana is simply very powerful, as is the case with Ammit Eternal. But this isn’t all Plague Belcher does. Whenever another Zombie you control dies, each opponent loses 1 life. This incidental life loss can win you a game here and there, especially since there is going to be a fair amount of Zombies in this deck. What Do We Keep and What Do We Cut in the Original Liliana Planeswalker Deck? Now that we’ve identified several cards that we want to play, we have to decide what will stay and what will go. Here is the original deck list: Planeswalker (1) 1 Liliana, Death Wielder Creature (20) 1 Festering Mummy 2 Dune Beetle 4 Tattered Mummy 1 Channeler Initiate 2 Baleful Ammit 3 Desiccated Naga 2 Gravedigger 1 Crocodile of the Crossing 2 Giant Spider 2 Decimator Beetle Sorcery (2) 2 Liliana's Influence Instant (2) 2 Splendid Agony Artifact (3) 1 Edifice of Authority 1 Luxa River Shrine 1 Oracle's Vault Enchantment (7) 2 Trial of Ambition 2 Cartouche of Ambition 2 Cartouche of Strength 1 Gift of Paradise Land (25) 4 Foul Orchard 1 Grasping Dunes 11 Swamp 9 Forest We would like to keep the exclusive cards to the deck of possible, so we will start with them first. Tattered Mummy is a planeswalker deck exclusive, and while it’s not the best two drop in the world, there are several things going for it. First, it’s a 1 / 2 Zombie, which fits into our Zombie sub theme. It's also a good target for -1/-1 counter fodder. Plus, when it dies, each opponent loses 2 life. We will keep the full four copies for now. On the other hand, Desiccated Naga and her three copies will have to go. Her 4 Mana ability isn't bad, but it can only be activated with a Liliana Planeswalker on the battlefield. While gaining 2 life while also making an opponent lose 2 life seems good, it's not worth running over something like Ammit Eternal. We will be swapping these three copies out for that card. Liliana, Death Wielder and her support cards, Liliana's Influence can remain for now. They still work into our game plan. Festering Mummy is a good little creature. Unfortunately as a Singleton, he is taking up a space we will need for something else. So he needs to go. Baleful Ammit is a decent creature, especially when you can dump the -1/-1 counter on something expendable. But these two copies will go to make room for the superior Plague Belcher. We will have a third copy in place of the Festering Mummy. Channeler Initiate isn't a deck exclusive, but is a creature we want to keep around nonetheless. We will end up cutting the two defensive Giant Spiders to have two more copies. Dune Beetle is a 1 / 4 creature for two Mana. This is the deck slot which we need for Hapatra, so out go the vanilla beetles and in go two of our better cards. The two copies of Gravedigger don’t really fit our deck’s theme. We can get away with running 18 creatures, especially with our added token production. These can go and we can add in two copies of Driven // Despair. The trample and card draw will be helpful. The Aftermath side is just gravy. Gift of Paradise is a cute card that can help us ramp mana. But with a couple more Channeler Initiates in the deck, this is extraneous. We can put a copy of Hapatra's Mark in its place. The last card we need to include somehow is Nest of Scarabs. This Enchantment complements our deck’s entire strategy. Fortunately, there are some easy cuts to make here. The “brick counters” cards, while interesting, don’t really need to be in here now that we’re adding a more aggressive bent to the deck. So out go the three artifacts in the deck, and in go three copies of Nest of Scarabs. Now, here’s what our revised deck list looks like, with improvements to the Mana base: Planeswalker (1) 1 Liliana, Death Wielder Creature (18) 2 Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons 4 Tattered Mummy 3 Channeler Initiate 3 Plague Belcher 3 Ammit Eternal 1 Crocodile of the Crossing 2 Decimator Beetle Sorcery (2) 2 Driven // Despair 2 Liliana's Influence Instant (3) 2 Splendid Agony 1 Hapatra's Mark Enchantment (9) 3 Nest of Scarabs 2 Trial of Ambition 2 Cartouche of Ambition 2 Cartouche of Strength Land (25) 4 Blooming Marsh 4 Foul Orchard 1 Grasping Dunes 9 Swamp 7 Forest We now have greatly improved the core of the Liliana Planeswalker deck. Where you take it from here is up to you. We could easily add cards such as Fatal Push to the deck, since Kaladesh and Aether Revolt will remain in standard together. But for purposes of this exercise, it makes sense to just consider Amonkhet on. However, we’ll make an exception in the case of Blooming Marsh. This is the only green and black dual land besides Foul Orchard that will remain in Standard for a bit, and we already had four of those. We want to make this deck as rotation-proof as possible. That's why we won't make suggestions that include cards from earlier sets. If you're planning on playing this deck casually, there are plenty of ways you could go in exploiting -1/-1 counters. What would you add to this deck to make it better fit your playstyle? Which direction would you take it?
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by ElspethFTW, Old School Duelist  Early returns on Hour of Devastation indicated that it wasn't one of the most “valuable” Magic the Gathering sets of recent years. Of course, there are some good, playable cards in the set that trended positively when it came to singles sales. One of these is the Red mythic rare Legendary Minotaur, Neheb, the Eternal.
Neheb, the Eternal was an important card from Hour to Devastation to watch. The raw power of this creature was explored right away in Commander / EDH. It showed promise as both a Commander and as one of the “other 99” cards in a variety of EDH decks. Not every Magic the Gathering set has them, but Hour of Devastation has a number of cards that could be termed as “Kitchen Table Magic all-stars.” Neheb, the Eternal is definitely one of these. As a mythic rare in a small set, he was poised to be valuable in both the near future and the long-term. How Does Neheb, the Eternal Work? A five-mana Mono Red Minotaur with 4 power and 6 toughness is a good start. Having “afflict 3” puts him into contention for Standard playability. Essentially, Afflict means that whenever an opponent blocks a creature which Afflict, the defending player loses a certain amount of life. In this case, that’s 3 life, or 15 percent of a player’s starting life total. That’s a lot. But for 5 mana, this isn’t quite enough to find a home in competitive play. It’s what his final ability reads. At the beginning of your post-combat main phase, you get 1 Red mana for each one life your opponents have lost this turn. This means that if you play Neheb, the Eternal before combat and deal damage after his summoning, you can gain Red mana in the same turn. Typically, unless you have a creature with haste, or need it to satisfy some other condition, you play creatures after combat. But, because Neheb, the Eternal can offer you a benefit in the same turn that he’s cast, he can help pay for himself. How to Use Neheb the Eternal in Standard, Modern, and other 60-card Competitive Formats Typically, for cards with a converted mana cost of 5 or more to see consistent Standard play, they must have an immediate effect on the game as soon as they enter play. The same is true for Modern, as well. But, the bar is set much higher for the potency of the card’s effect. While Neheb, the Eternal can start paying for himself in the same turn, he would have to be able to attack immediately (i.e. have Haste) to plug into that higher echelon of the mana curve. While Neheb is probably too slow a card for Modern, in the right deck, he could fit into certain strategies in Standard. You would need to build a midrange sort of deck that has a strong life-loss engine. If you play a lot of creatures with Afflict, for example, Neheb would fit at the top of that curve. A deck with Neheb, the Eternal would also have to lean towards predominantly Red mana, which is probably not a problem. There is the ability to build a Standard deck that could play a copy or two of Neheb, the Eternal to be an endgame finisher. But, his true strength would be in a Mono-Red deck, where his mana production will be most effective. Neheb, the Eternal did enjoy some competitive Standard play. The decks were typically Gruul Ramp, red/green decks that focused on bringing out big efficient creatures like World Breaker quickly. Neheb definitely fit the bill. Another deck that had some success with Neheb was a rather creative Gruul Historic deck featured at a PPTQ in Northglen, Colorado. In both cases, only one copy of Neheb, the Eternal was played. He never really saw real success in any mono-Red decks. Neheb, the Eternal in EDH / Commander & Kitchen Table Magic As soon as you enter the multiplayer world of EDH, Neheb, the Eternal’s power level expands incredibly. Red mana acceleration stapled on a 4/6 creature with Afflict 4 becomes pretty relevant. There are so many ways to “ping” players in EDH that Neheb can generate a large amount of mana in a hurry. Turning that mana into direct damage can end games quite quickly. Think of the mana that he could generate as part of a Heartless Hidetsugu strategy. That Commander has an ability to halve players' life totals on a regular basis! Even in one-on-one EDH, you can set up Neheb, the Eternal in such a way to be a powerful mana generator, as well as a strong attacker. He’s a better multiplayer Commander than a 1-vs-1 Commander, but he’s still a solid creature. There are so many decent 5-mana Red creatures in Commander, however. Neheb, the Eternal needs to be part of a greater life loss/direct damage strategy (such as Purphoros, God of the Forge) to be effective. In casual “Kitchen Table” Magic, Neheb, the Eternal is definitely worthy of attention. He’s a force in casual multiplayer games. But, even in traditional one-on-one Magic, he’s just a really fun card to play with and build around. This is a good creature that definitely has a future in the EDH and Kitchen Table Magic world that enjoyed his day in the sun in Standard. by ElspethFTW, Old School Duelist  Magic: the Gathering has many cards that do similar things, and Bitter Feud is one such card that acts as a sort of redundancy for existing cards. To be fair, Bitter Feud is one exclusive card from the Commander 2014: Built from Scratch deck that took time to find some love love. Its effect is essentially the same as Furnace of Rath and Dictate of the Twin Gods, doubling damage done to players and permanents. The difference with Bitter Feud is that it designates two players, so that in a multiplayer environment, it would only affect two players. The cool thing about this, obviously, is that in a multiplayer setting, you need not be affected by the effects of the doubled damage.
You could make the argument that Furnace of Rath and Dictate of the Twin Gods are enough for this sort of effect. In EDH, however, having redundancy is important when you only have one copy of each card that isn't a basic land. In a one-on-one setting, it's understandable that Bitter Feud would indeed be a bit too redundant, as if you have all three of these on the board, you're increasing damage by eight whole times, which is a bit much perhaps. As far as decks that actually have played Bitter Feud with any regularity, unsurprisingly Heartless Hidetsugu tops the list. Since his ability deals damage equal to half of each player's life total (rounded down), his deck absolutely loves any damage-doubling effect. Queen Marchesa decks have begun to include this card, too. Mathas, Fiend Seeker is another Commander that's taken this Enchantment into his arsenal, as well. Bitter Feud is definitely a fun card in that it essentially puts two players into a life-and-death struggle. In 1v1 Commander, this is a particularly interesting card to consider, as long as the deck playing it can deal damage very quickly. It's a well-designed card for multiplayer Commander politics, and can be a deadly weapon in 1v1 Commander when deployed correctly. While aggressive burn lists aren't extremely popular in the Commander format, they do exist. If ending games quickly by doubling damage is something you want to do, then Bitter Feud is definitely worth a look to play alongside other damage-doublers such as Furnace of Rath, Dictate of the Twin Gods, and the like. by ElspethFTW, Old School Duelist  At its peak, Kozilek’s Return was a $25 card. But after not seeing the play many people had expected it to see in Eldrazi decks, Kozilek’s Return’s price has been on a steady downward trend. With its rotation in October 2017, its market price is around $4. However, it may not go much lower than that, due to seeing Modern and Legacy play.
The Legacy play makes sense. It’s a one-of in Legacy Sneak Attack sideboards, since it is technically possible to cast Emrakul, the Aeons Torn and take advantage of Kozilek’s Return’s second effect. But most of the time this is a Pyroclasm for one more mana that also happens to be colorless - meaning it dodges things like protection from red or protection from colored spells, which can be relevant at times. We’ve also seen a side-boarded copy of Kozilek’s Return in the occasional Miracle Control or OmniTell deck. The Modern play is a bit more confusing. Primarily, Kozilek’s Return has been seen in Grixis Death’s Shadow Aggro decks. Again, it’s basically a colorless Pyroclasm for one more mana, as there is no Eldrazi to cast in that deck. But, yet again, being colorless helps against certain creatures, such as Burrenton Forge-Tender, which sees some sideboard play. As a one-of in Modern and Legacy sideboards, and only barely any Standard play towards the end of its Standard life, it’s hard to see this card going much lower in price. This is definitely a good card in certain Eldrazi decks to help clear the way for the Titans such as Ulamog and Emrakul. Its exile ability is certainly decent, too. Of course, the main thing helping it keep its value is that it’s a mythic rare. Plus, being an Eldrazi-themed card, its price is propped up a bit, as well. Towards the end of its Standard life, Kozilek's Return often listed for $5, but no one paid more than $4. As Oath of the Gatewatch stock was liquidated around October 2017, it was $2.50 or less. In 2018, it was barely selling for $1, despite a much higher median price. But it's worth holding onto if you already have copies. There is a chance that this card gets adopted by more Modern and Legacy decks in the future. by ElspethFTW, Old School Duelist  Many Magic the Gathering players have an affinity for Angel cards - although they do not affect players' casting costs. With Seraph of the Sword from the Magic 2014 Core Set, we have an Angelic version of Fog Bank for 4 mana that conveniently has no Defender on it. Would she prove to be a good card in Constructed, as well?
Seraph of the Sword was an obvious Limited bomb when it was first spoiled. Not only is Seraph of the Sword a 3/3 flyer that’s very splashable, but she can’t be dealt combat damage. This means that she could single-handedly block bombs - except things like Colossal Whale from the same set, which will just "devour" it. Even creatures with deathtouch can't affect Seraph of the Sword in combat, since at least 1 damage must be dealt for deathtouch to activate. It’s an easy first pick, hands-down. But, since we're obviously not drafting Magic 2014 anymore, what does she do on her own? Is the Seraph good enough for Constructed play? As far as Core Sets rares go, this is in the middle of the pack. There are just a lot better creatures that cost four mana in Constructed, so it's little surprise that Seraph of the Sword never found a home in Standard. Outside of some casual Angel decks, there are just better options for this deck slot. However, she does she play in some Budget Cube Drafts as a creature who's solid both on offense and defense. Of course, Angel cards are always popular, and most tend to find a home somewhere. Seraph of the Sword would seem welcome in a wide array of Commander decks. However, she hasn't found many homes. You would think a 4-mana Angel would find a home, considering that there aren't all that many. But besides seeing play in the occasional Lyra Dawnbringer, Avacyn, Angel of Hope, or Gisela, Blade of Goldnight Angel Tribal deck, Seraph of the Sword sees inconsistent play in EDH . Really, the Seraph could see more Commander play than she does. Perhaps, someday a new Angel Legendary Creature will be printed that will be happy to run her on a regular basis. Until then, she's just a nice card to have in your collection |
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