Daily Card Redesign #162: Liliana of the Veil

Daily Card Redesign is a daily Magic: The Gathering design exercise where I randomly choose a card for the scenario of it being scrapped late during its own set's development. I design a replacement card that uses the same art, is the same color(s), is the same rarity, and has a name that, alphabetically, keeps it within the same collector number for the set.

ORIGINAL:

REDESIGN:

First, I thought of Liliana's story - she's actually triple-digits old but made dark deals with demons to preserve her youth. To reflect this, I designed her ultimate of you not being able to die, just like her. This emblem's effect is Platinum Emperion's ability.

However, getting an emblem that just says "Your life total can't change." is dangerous because that essentially wins the game for you. Ultimate abilities of planeswalkers aren't supposed to just outright enable you to win (or never lose). So, just like with the weakness of Platinum Emperion, I placed a restriction where you have to have Liliana around. A good thing is that if your Liliana dies to a creature, you can cast whatever other Liliana cards you have to retake your hold on not being able to die.

To help stop players from sending creatures toward Liliana to disable your emblem, the first ability was designed. Help fight off threats!

Additionally, this first ability being the only + ability meant that it was important that it was a + ability that added an even number of counters. This is because we want to not create that moment where a player feels bad for not activating Liliana's ultimate ability because it would mean Liliana would die making the emblem that only works while Liliana is alive. Well, assuming there is no intervention from the opponent to mess with the loyalty numbers. With a +2 ability, the starting loyalty and ultimate ability's loyalty cost were designed accordingly to enable Liliana being alive after activating her ultimate.

Lastly, the second ability is a flavorful nod toward her history - the effect is Sign in Blood. As a bonus,  if you use this ability while you have the emblem - you won't lose life!