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Liliana, Heretical Healer // Liliana, Defiant Necromancer

Liliana, Heretical Healer // Liliana, Defiant Necromancer

Legendary Creature — Human Cleric // Legendary Planeswalker — Liliana

Liliana wants a deck that sacrifices its own creatures to drain opponents' life. It also suits a deck that throws away its own cards on purpose for a reward.

  • Mana cost1 genericblackblack
  • Black ()
  • Power / toughness2 / 3
  • RarityMythic

Lifelink

Whenever another nontoken creature you control dies, exile Liliana, Heretical Healer, then return her to the battlefield transformed under her owner's control. If you do, create a 2/2 black Zombie creature token.

//

+2: Each player discards a card.

−X: Return target nonlegendary creature card with mana value X from your graveyard to the battlefield.

−8: You get an emblem with "Whenever a creature dies, return it to the battlefield under your control at the beginning of the next end step."

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Themes

Cards That Fit Liliana, Heretical Healer

Picked for what they do in Liliana's deck. When two cards do the same job, the one with the lower comes first. All of them fit Liliana's color identity.Mana ValueThe total amount of mana a card costs, all added up. A card costing two generic and one green has a mana value of three. Wizards renamed this from "converted mana cost" in 2021, so older cards and articles may still use the old name.Sol RingOpen the full glossary

plan6

The 6 Cards

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The 6 Cards

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The 6 Cards

Rulings for Liliana, Heretical Healer

explain how Liliana works in tricky situations. They come from Wizards of the Coast, the company that makes Magic.RulingThe official answer to how a card works in a tricky situation. Most rulings are written by Wizards of the Coast, the company that makes Magic, and a few are notes from Scryfall, the card database Magic players use. A ruling explains a card. It does not change what the card says.Open the full glossary

Wizards of the Coast 22 Jun 2015

A double-faced card enters the battlefield with its front face up by default, unless a spell or ability instructs you to put it onto the battlefield transformed, in which case it enters with its back face up.

Wizards of the Coast 22 Jun 2015

A Magic Origins planeswalker that enters the battlefield because of the ability of its front face will enter with loyalty counters as normal.

Wizards of the Coast 22 Jun 2015

Each face of a double-faced card has its own set of characteristics: name, types, subtypes, power and toughness, loyalty, abilities, and so on. While a double-faced card is on the battlefield, consider only the characteristics of the face that’s currently up. The other set of characteristics is ignored. While a double-faced card isn’t on the battlefield, consider only the characteristics of its front face.

Wizards of the Coast 22 Jun 2015

If a double-faced card is manifested, it will be put onto the battlefield face down (this is also true if it’s put onto the battlefield face down some other way). Note that “face down” is not synonymous with “with its back face up.” A manifested double-faced card is a 2/2 creature with no name, mana cost, creature types, or abilities. While face down, it can’t transform. If the front face of a manifested double-faced card is a creature card, you can turn it face up by paying its mana cost. If you do, its front face will be up. A double-faced card on the battlefield can’t be turned face down.

Wizards of the Coast 22 Jun 2015

If multiple nontoken creatures you control die, then Liliana, Heretical Healer’s ability will trigger that many times. However, since Liliana can be exiled and returned to the battlefield only once, only the first ability to resolve will create a Zombie token. The other abilities will resolve but won’t do anything.

Wizards of the Coast 22 Jun 2015

In some rare cases, a spell or ability may cause one of these five cards to transform while it’s a creature (front face up) on the battlefield. If this happens, the resulting planeswalker won’t have any loyalty counters on it and will subsequently be put into its owner’s graveyard.

Wizards of the Coast 22 Jun 2015

The back face of a double-faced card (in the case of Magic Origins, the planeswalker face) can’t be cast.

Wizards of the Coast 22 Jun 2015

The converted mana cost of a double-faced card not on the battlefield is the converted mana cost of its front face.

Wizards of the Coast 22 Jun 2015

When Liliana, Defiant Necromancer’s first ability resolves, first you choose a card to discard, then each other player in turn order chooses a card to discard, then all those cards are discarded simultaneously. No one sees what the other players are discarding before deciding which card to discard.

Wizards of the Coast 22 Jun 2015

You can activate one of the planeswalker’s loyalty abilities the turn it enters the battlefield. However, you may do so only during one of your main phases when the stack is empty. For example, if the planeswalker enters the battlefield during combat, there will be an opportunity for your opponent to remove it before you can activate one of its abilities.

Wizards of the Coast 8 Apr 2016

The back face of a double-faced card doesn’t have a mana cost. A double-faced permanent with its back face up has a converted mana cost equal to the converted mana cost of its front face. Each back face has a color indicator that defines its color.

Wizards of the Coast 13 Jul 2016

For more information on double-faced cards, see the Shadows over Innistrad mechanics article (http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/feature/shadows-over-innistrad-mechanics).

Wizards of the Coast 29 Sep 2017

You can control two of this permanent, one front-face up and the other back-face up, at the same time.

13 rulings, all written by Wizards of the Coast. Read the originals on Gatherer ↗

Similar Commanders

Commanders that share the most with Liliana, and what they share.

Color identityEvery color of mana symbol on a card, in its cost and in its rules text. Your commander's color identity sets the limit for your whole deck: every other card has to fit inside it. A deck led by a green and white commander cannot play a card with any blue in its color identity.Open the full glossaryBPlayers write colors as letters: B for black.AristocratsAristocrats decks sacrifice their own creatures on purpose and profit every time one dies, often by draining life from each opponent. A sacrifice outlet, a card that lets you sacrifice whenever you like, decides when that happens.Open the Aristocrats pageReanimationReturns a creature card from a graveyard straight to the battlefield, skipping its mana cost. That is why decks built around it put their biggest creatures into the graveyard on purpose. Named for Reanimate. Animate DeadOpen the Reanimation pageDeath TriggerTriggers when a creature dies, whether it is this creature, one of yours or an opponent's. These are the cards that pay you in an Aristocrats deck: something else makes creatures die, and these decide what you get each time. Blood Artist, Solemn SimulacrumOpen the Death Trigger pageLife GainGains you life, once or over and over. Soul Warden, The Great Henge. In Commander life is something to spend, not just a cushion, and many of these cards also set off others that reward gaining life.Open the Life Gain pageRecursionBrings cards back from the graveyard: to your hand, to the battlefield, or letting them be cast again from where they lie. Eternal Witness, Reanimate, VictimizeOpen the Recursion pageMadness/DiscardDiscard decks throw away their own cards on purpose and play cards that reward each discard. Cards with madness can even be cast for a different, usually cheaper, cost at the moment you discard them.Open the Madness/Discard pageOpponent DiscardMakes opponents discard cards from their hands. In a format where everyone starts with seven and refills slowly, stripping a hand can be harder to recover from than losing a creature. Windfall, Sword of Feast and FamineOpen the Opponent Discard pageToken MakerCreates one or more tokens. Different cards make very different ones: creatures Grave Titan, Treasures Smothering Tithe, Clues Tireless Tracker or Food Gilded Goose. This is one of our largest tags, so pair it with an archetype or theme when you are hunting a specific kind.Open the Token Maker pageReanimatorReanimator decks put big creatures into their own graveyard early, then bring them back onto the battlefield without paying their cost. It gets a huge creature into play far sooner than you could afford to cast it.Open the Reanimator page