Pointed Discussion

Incredible synergy with Jace Beleren. (That combo's gonna get me to Pro Tour!)

I agree with stygimoloch- she's to expensive to play for her abilities, and they work better in theory than practice.

I'd say however, that if she were just 1 mana less, she'd be a lot better.

so what if the card costs 5 mana if u have enough in your deck/ play then you should b able to work Vess th her fullest in a deck destroyer / creature safacricer deck just because u can have an army and if u have souless1 from onslaught put vess in a zombie based deck and you got a team that should work

People seem to be terribly harsh to Lilliana Vess so I feel I should offer an alternative view! I've found various good uses for her. I tend to use her first ability as another way to help Vulturous Zombie on its way to being gigantic. I agree with the view that her tutor ability is somewhat frustrating as you usually have to wait till your next draw for you card but a tutor is a tutor nonetheless and I'm not going to complain at a repeatable one! Yes, I know, her final ability is virtually never going to happen but I've made it happen once and it put a f***ing big smile on my face when it did! So don't be a tournament snob and berate her because she's not going to win you any top-prizes; she's fun and nasty in a casual environment and that's good enough for me!

Mana cost aside, build the counters to play her final ability and rope that in next turn by first playing Traumatize and your set.

I have to agree with Asinine-Ultimatum. (How funny it is to agree with someone who is "asinine".^_^)

A very decent first ability! I can't fathom why people seem to think that this is bad? Yes she does cost 5 to bring out . . . and 5cc for discard 1 card does suck (if that is the only thing that spell does) . . . but at that point in the game (in an aggressive format, or if your thing is discard) they don't have many cards in their hand . . . and a continual -1 to their hand is vicious when supported with other cards.

Her second ability is nice. A continual tutor effect!? (Yes it would be better as an instant, but isn't everything better as an instant?) Black tutors stuff. It's what it does. And her continual tutor can give you just what you need when you need it. (And isn't it really similar to Diabolic Tutor because you often don't play the card you tutor up that turn?)

Her last ability... A game winner. Right then and there. When it goes off it says: YOU. WILL. WIN. THIS. GAME. (Unless they can prevent all the damage that you are about to do next turn.) There really is very little any of the colors can do (save white) to stop the effects of her ultimate ability after it goes off. (Aside from winning the game that turn . . . RED)

A great black start to begin this new card type. And like most 'walker's abilities . . . her "build-up" ability and her "ultimate" ability have awesome synergy with each other. (Discarding creatures into a graveyard . . . only to be reanimated into a huge army under your control poised to kill your opponent!)

I'm not a massive fan of any of the planeswalkers, but I downright dislike the Villainess. I have literally not once seen her justify her mana cost or deck slot. In my experience she just doesn't work out in play as anything other than a not-tremendously-efficient tutor.

@ Asinine-Ultimatum: I do feel the need to point out that I'm not a tournament player, and in fact quit playing in tournaments over five years ago. I've only seen her final ability go off a handful of times in casual play, and even then, you really need either a deck dedicated to abusing the ability or to be playing in a large multiplayer game, otherwise it's still not as big a deal as it feels like it ought to be. Very few of the Planeswalkers actually make that much of a difference on the board in my experience, but if you can get their ultimate off, that's usually a huge deal. Liliana's has never really worked out in games I've played or watched. Be it a board sweeper, or the opponent having enough defenders to absorb it, or there just not being that many creatures in graveyards anyway, it's never really proved pivotal the way Chandra, Ajani or Garruk's final abilities have. That said I admire the design touch that as the ability gets better (the longer the game goes/the more players there are), the easier it becomes to deal with it. That's well-balanced imo.

@ Queen-of-the-Fae: Obviously I disagree with you statement about the final ability being a game-winner (see above), but I guess we just have different experiences of her. But as for her first ability, I don't think it's bad, I just know I can get better repeatable effects for five mana. Taken as an overall package, I've just never seen her do anything other cards couldn't do more effectively.

putting her to work with jace is perhaps the most powerful planeswalker combo out there... and if you use elspeth and her, well the end result is something men only dream of, the ability to bring the entire graveyard into play as one invincible mass!!!!!

probally best in a milling deck, where you need an army to finish

although, I have been running her with chandra and nicol in my grixis deck, have chandra and nicol clear the field, call on vess to summon them back, plus your creatures with unearth get one more life, before they have to unearth to swing, would be nice if they gained haste when they came back though

vess is ok, but thats the most i can give her. her +1 of making an opponent discard a card... they'll keep getting rid of cards they dont need. -2, tutor, that is probably lilianas best ability in the long run, your creatures will do more than she will. her last ability... well the game will be one sided by the time you use it, or it wont do much if you use it when most finishers do make a differense. only if you synenergy with jace berlin will she be very good. this planeswalker could be way better.

I love playing this card with Jace. Fetch lands, play Nicol Bolas :-)

i love this card it fit right into my zombie deck and for what she does she is not that expensive with her and my souless one and nercromancers covent is the best

She's okay. Her first ability is essentially useless, her second ability is insane (2 Vamp Tutors!), and her ultimate ability is situational and easily foiled (Wrath of God anyone?)

she made me very happy then very disappointed, I pulled off her ability thinking that she brought them back as zombies only to, upon closer reading find out that she didn't they were just normal creatures.

did I mention I had 2 death baron's and an undead warchief in play

Vess works well in a discard deck.

Look up the Brilliant Ultimatum Decklist, cower in fear at the abilities of Liliana Vess.

Her +1 ability played alongside Liliana's Caress...

Meh.

if you open a pack locking for her you look inlorwin can beliv shes a rare nice in mi zombie deck

Mind Peel
Modified Vampiric tutor (no life loss)
Nezumi Graverobber on crack (without mana)

So Avacyns restored, alls well and we have ourselves a new mechanic, but I'm sure you already know all about the "Miracle" already, and her -2 creates miracles like NONE other! I've got a deck running her along with Temporal Mastery.. Yeah. Haven't gotten to try it out yet but can't help but something tells me the good times are fixin' to ROLL!! lol..

It felt weird to see a planeswalker at rare instead of mythic... until I realized this was before mythic rares existed. Still seems a bit strange though.

Just traded my Sorin,Lord of Innistrad for this, she's my favorite planeswalker excluding Jace and Karn.

@x2FAR2CRYx
Idiot, u shouldn't have. Sorin is worth way more, is more powerful, and WAY better.