There are two entirely different mindsets at work here. On the one hand, clearly, a LOT of players like to play Sorin. On the other, though, he is objectively bad. Ask any player in a top 10 coalition and they’ll tell you never to play Sorin in an event; his mana is poor, his starting life is too low, his abilities do nothing without creatures on the table, and his first ability is awful anyway.
So, what I was thinking was, why not buff Sorin? This seems to me like a win/win situation. There is currently no WB PW worth playing competitively (this includes Kaya, who is very disappointing), so buffing Sorin opens up a brand new color combination to veterans. Meanwhile, for all Sorin fans in the game, he gets better! How could they not love that?
I don’t use him any more, but Sorin was always strong in PvE. As many have said, as long as they don’t do 82 damage to you in a single turn it doesn’t really matter what your opponent does. If you play a lot of PvE then maybe he’s great? IDK. Karn > Sorin in all circumstances for PvE IMO.
I have 2 deck slots set up for AWR with Sorin. As an entry level event for newbies, he’s powerful enough to win against it, and I can leave my decks there for the next AWR, since I’m never going to want to use him for anything else.
H2 and Samut have the saving grace that they are green and have access to green mana acceleration; maybe not so impressive in Standard, but in Legacy they can produce a heck of a lot more mana than Sorin ever could.
Let’s not forget that Kiora’s base mana is pretty awful, but she makes up for it by being green. And I suppose blue isn’t too bad a color either
I’m personally in the realm of “Give him 20 more health, maybe increase the mana from his first a bit, then leave him alone”.
His mana isn’t bad. Not every Planeswalker should be ramping shit out like it’s green. Unless they’re blue in PQ. Then they should make green feel bad.
I like Sorin okay, but what I really like is the white/black vampire theme in Ixalan and Orzhov in Allegiance… I would rather see him get a totally revamped first ability than a buff to it… And like 20 HP, of course.
Kaya’s okayish, but she’s really only good at one playstyle, as far as I can tell. I don’t have her yet, but she isn’t going to be supplanting Sorin.
sorin needs a life linker honestly to stand a chance but as has been said, the gain isnt bad for a dual color and is about on par for most dual pws better than some. vampires are pretty much always available and they arernt locked to one defunct block. a bit more life wouldnt hurt and a bit more mana from the first ability are all i would consider honestly. just my 2 cents worth take it as you may
Give an option to empower the lifegain cantrips which no one uses and curb Sorin’s complete dependency on creatures being on the battlefield?
“Create a support which says ‘Whenever a spell would cause your planeswalker to gain X where X is life gained, double that amount then remove one shield from this support.’” .
Or, if you’re feeling crazy… make a Sanguine Bond support >:) .
… or, hells, if Sorin is in War of the Sparks… just make Sorin II.
I would leave him as is except for a change to first ability to add “Create 1 1/1 Lifelink Vampire token and then” before the current text, the black ones from his block.
Then his first would always be useful and he could recover better.
Otherwise, yeah, in PvE he can get insane with all the lifegain effects, his 2nd with Azor’s Gateway for crazy mana, then his 3rd when you’ve finished objectives and want to win…
To be frank I find it somewhat odd that people still regard Sorin highly considering his low health and his creature-dependent abilities considering how NASTY creature removals can be these days, but on the other hand I do find agreement with those who say that he’s good in PvE, where the opponents usually won’t have five removals in a deck (meaning that he’s frankly a little dud against Elenda and Azor’s Gateway).
For me personally, I think he could indeed stand to have that extra health and maybe one of abilities does not require creature to work. I rarely play him these days, but if people think he can get more love, sure.
I mean, sure, he’d be fine: Why not make him A GOD?! They could pump his power levels through the roof and we still wouldn’t play him in TDW because he can’t play with BSZ.
@Mburn7 aren’t you a staunch defender of power cards like BSZ and Quasi-Naru in Standard? Why be satisfied with Sorin just getting an extra 20 health?
I don’t know about “staunch defender”, I have proposed reasonable nerfs for both of those cards at some point.
I’m a bit of a centrist. I don’t want anything stupidly overpowered, although I will definitely use stupidly overpowered stuff it it exists. Also, I’m not going to propose a change that I feel has no chance of being implemented, since that’s just a waste of time for everyone.
Besides, Sorin was already completely reworked once. I don’t mind him in this form as a bit of a niche Lifegain/Creature focused walker. He just needs a little better survivability to be viable.
I always hoped they would release a version of him.
But seriously, I agree with @Kinesia about changing his first to create a token creature. Maybe something like “Create a Markov Bloodline (minor/major/advanced) Vampire token.”
Other than that, I’m with the majority here so far, give him 20 more hp and he would be amazing.
