The magic world is in a tizzy. Magic Origins has had one card spoiled, and it is definitely a fun planeswalker. Only one card has been revealed so far, Liliana, Heretical Healer/Liliana, Defiant Necromancer. Liliana has been a mainstay in core sets for the last few years and has been a consistently good planeswalker. Now she has her backstory revealed.
Allegedly Liliana was a clerical healer, but after the death of her brother she turned to necromancy to reanimate him. This story element is exemplified by her flip mechanic. Her requirement to flip is another non-token creature dying. This captures her brother’s death. Then you exile her, showing her leaving to learn the intricacies of necromancy, and then she returns to the battlefield transformed as a planeswalker with a 2/2 zombie token, showing that she successfully raised the dead and has gained her spark.
Mechanically this is very flavorful. Then, as a planeswalker, her abilities are are strong but definitely not the strongest planeswalker of all time. Her +2 makes each player discard a card, which you can use to discard a creature to power her -X ,which reanimates a creature with converted mana cost x from your graveyard. Her -8 is powerful with an emblem that makes it so whenever a creature dies you reanimate it on your side of the battlefield. This is powerful due to the any creature clause, which means your opponent’s creatures as well as your own. The value you get out of this emblem lies in the fact that you will always win combat because you will always get your creatures back.
Now the drawbacks: to get to her amazing ultimate, you must use her +2 three times before you can use her ultimate, even more if she takes any damage. Normally this wouldn’t be bad, but her +2 has a downside, which forces you to discard as well. As previously stated you can use this to pitch a creature for her -X, but you still lose value. All and all it’s an exciting time for fans to see more from Magic Origins and hopefully the other planeswalkers are just as interesting.