Shadows Over Innistrad Remastered is a welcome return to Magic: The Gathering’s second Innistrad block, a duo of sets that took the traditional gothic horror of the Plane and mixed in a hearty helping of Lovecraftian horror for good measure. Presenting a two-act mystery for players to enjoy, the sets brought together a number of key Magic characters in an entertaining, if predictable, narrative.
Many of these characters were, of course, Planeswalkers. Six new planeswalker cards in total debuted during this block, and all six have been preserved in Shadows Over Innistrad Remastered, giving us the chance to evaluate them again through the lens of Magic years later.
6 Tamiyo, Field Researcher
While Tamiyo’s scientific personality was an ideal fit for the mystery plot of Shadows Over Innistrad, she was a less-than-ideal fit for the Standard of the time. Her first two abilities are strong, but they’re also very board-dependent, with both requiring creatures in play on either side in order to function properly.
Her ultimate ability is, predictably, extremely powerful but hard to reach, likely winning you the five percent of games in which you actually manage to activate it. This limited use, combined with a restrictive three-colour mana cost, led to Tamiyo seeing limited play, and still makes her the weakest of the Shadows Over Innistrad Planeswalkers to this day.
In a very specific scenario, in a very specific white/green/blue Bant tempo deck, she can shine, but such situations are few and far between, and therefore so are this Tamiyo’s appearances in games of Magic.
5 Arlinn Kord/Arlinn, Embraced By The Moon
Given that you can essentially freely transform Arlinn Kord whenever you like, you could treat this card as one planeswalker with five abilities, rather than two separate cards. While that sounds strong, what really holds Arlinn Kord back is her low starting loyalty, and her underwhelming +1 abilities in both forms.
The two +1 abilities are fairly flavourful, with Arlinn working best with individual creatures, while her Werewolf form is best when rallying a full pack of them.
Unfortunately, they do nothing when you don’t have an existing board state, and her other abilities, creating 2/2 Wolves and casting Lightning Bolt, essentially, are fairly low-impact as well, making her ultimate a pipe dream at best. While Arlinn can perform well in creature-focused Midrange decks, there are plenty of superior options out there.
4 Jace, Unraveler Of Secrets
It is often said that the two key things to look for in a planeswalker are the ability to protect itself, and the ability to generate card advantage. Jace, Unraveler of Secrets does both, alongside a fair mana cost to loyalty ratio that makes him difficult to take down.
His +1 gives you card selection and card draw, while his -2 bounces any creature in play. These abilities together make Jace an ideal inclusion in any kind of Control deck, but are also generic enough to slot into other deck types as well.
Card draw and selection are universally useful, while the bounce ability can also target your own creatures, letting you reuse key enters-the-battlefield effects in Midrange or Combo decks.
The ultimate is impressive, but it’s best to ignore it and focus on the first two abilities here, since that’s where you’ll be getting the majority of your mileage.
3 Sorin, Grim Nemesis
While this incarnation of Magic’s angstiest antihero is expensive at six mana, he more than makes up for it with his suite of abilities. The +1 is a kind of inverse Dark Confidant effect, letting you draw a card then making your opponent take damage equal to its cost, serving as card advantage and burn damage in one.
The -X is a flexible Fireball that can hit both creatures and planeswalkers, dealing with any on-board problems and gaining you life in the process.
These two abilities alone can easily win you the game over a few turns, with Sorin covering his back by removing threats, and burning your opponent down on turns where he’s safe.
The ultimate provides you with a Vampire army in a can, but by the time you can use it you’re likely better off just using the +1 to wear down your opponent’s remaining life instead. A very solid planeswalker that’s as serious in play as the expression on his face.
2 Nahiri, The Harbinger
It’s rare that a planeswalker’s ultimate ability is the main reason to play it, but Nahiri bucks this trend in a big way. Not only can she come down relatively early, and be in a position to use her ultimate in just two turns, but she can do so unconditionally due to the ‘may’ clause on her +2 effect, which lets her gain two loyalty without looting at all, if you’d prefer.
Said ultimate is among the best ever seen, letting you tutor any creature or artifact from your deck into play for a hasty strike. In the standard of the time, this was paired with Emrakul, the Promised End to devastating effect, but there are impressive targets for it in every format.
And don’t forget about her -2 ability, a rare instance of repeatable exile-based removal that plays extremely well against the prominent graveyard strategies that Innistrad hosts.
1 Liliana, The Last Hope
The undisputed queen of the Shadows Over Innistrad planeswalkers, the Last Hope proudly keeps the tradition of extremely powerful three mana Liliana cards alive. Coming down early in the game, she can remove small creatures with her +1 ability, and grind out value with her -2, if there are no good targets to hit.
These abilities are powerful alone, but they also come packed with an ultimate that can win you the game by itself over the course of a few turns, and one that’s surprisingly easy to reach given that her +1 both removes creatures and protects her from damage.
The card saw extensive play in both Standard and Modern, where it pushed Midrange decks into prominence with its sheer power level. She may be the Last Hope, but this Liliana is certainly not the least.