So let’s have a short recap on the previous Trial of Strength planeswalkers and the synergy behind them:
Gideon of Trial
Summon embalmers (makes total sense in white since there are a lot of white embalm creatures)
Lose creatures - - totally synergizes with embalmers + Gideon’s FIRST ability (generate fodder reach tokens to get them destroyed by opponent attackers)
Nissa Steward of Elements
Cycle (once again makes total sense anything that’s blue cycling, since blue is literally the color of cycling)
Cast spells (which again is unsurprising in blue green and Nissa can support up to 5 spells all of which can cycle too) - - sort-of synergizes with Nissa’s first ability since mana generation can be used for casting stuff, not necessarily cycling
And now let’s move on to Liliana…
Zombies (well d’oh, black is all about zombies, no problem here)
Lose creatures - renders Liliana’s first ability useless.
Now, I understand that this is supposed to be a challenge, but for the love of god, was it really necessary to discourage players from playing the first ability of a planeswalker you force on a node?! Makes ZERO sense to me. If it were a regular black node, sure, I’d play that game as I found no problem with Tezz2, Ob Nixilis, or even Liliana2 (which discards, but does not destroy its own creatures).
It was not enough a black planeswalker has near zero means of protecting itself against a removal heavy deck (let’s not name Pact of Negation which is a masterpiece I expect only a handful of people possess), putting this game of russian roulette in the hands of abusive players going full removal specifically to cripple other opponents who run into them with their Liliana decks.
Finally, I would mention this goes against two of the best zombies in Standard in the first place, crippling players even more (recurring defender & Fleshbag Marauder) but I can see sort of a challenge in that…
Discard spells are a good idea of being proactive, already trying that It’s a good suggestion Ohboy, thanks. But some of those Koth decks out there… it’s like they were built specifically against creature decks.
It wasn’t the proactive answers part that bugged me the most to begin with, but not being able to use the first ability of a locker planeswalker. It’s silly…
I actually like it. You still can use the first ability in a case of extrem danger (I had a situation that required me to do so), because it’s not “lose 1 or less”, so there is some buffer. Also, if I see that I’m up against a black deck, I’ll cover with a bit discard, like ohboy suggested. It’s challenging, yes, but it feels right in sense of the level of the challenge.
I fully agree with OP.
That’s annoying.
Also, the first Objective - why should I focus on playing zombies, if her first ability gives all creatures that I want to use zombie tribe?
I agree, they should create objectives that make you want to use the abilities of the new planeswalker they forced you to buy to compete in their event.
It’s definitely a weird way to get people excited about the brand new planeswalker, to bar you from using her first (and IMO, most interesting!) ability.
I will also note that the AI does not seem to ever use her first ability…which means even after this event ends, decks built around using it are likely to fare about as well in the hands of the AI as cycling decks do.
her 3rd ability stacks, so is great when used with
stir the sands, lilliana’s mastery, wayward servant.
the drop from 5 to 3 own creature deaths allowed
looks a bit much considering some decks will be
using frog. in a zombie deck there is no real need
to use her 1st ability. those who really want the
ribbons can also try cycling.
(this might be a response to the 30+ tied at 1st
place the last time round)
I think the number of perfects can be attributed more to having everyone (3K) in one bracket versus being put in brackets of 500 – also this event generally has big ties early.
Posts regarding the usefulness of her 2nd/3rd abilities are irrelevant to the point at hand: the tertiary objective is directly in opposition to, and punishes you, for using her 1st ability. Given that she is required for the node, the objectives should have played to her strengths, not punish you for them.
Says who? Perhaps the point is to make you use her in new and interesting ways. I never used her ult before this event and now I don’t think I’ll use her other abilities.
It’s a good suggestion Ohboy, thanks. But some of those Koth decks out there… it’s like they were built specifically against creature decks.