Modern Budget Replacements: Liliana of the Veil

Earlier installments in this series
Budget replacements for Dark Confidant: http://mtgolibrary.blogspot.se/2016/07/modern-budget-replacements-dark.html


Oh, Liliana, that very expensive planeswalker that does so much for so little mana. As I write this she costs $105 on Magic Online. Here is a true need for a budget replacements. Replacing a planeswalker with a budget card is very hard as Liliana is so versatile.

Just look at this amazing card.

My first instict would be to replace her with another walker. There are three alternatives that I can think of.

Domri is as cheap as Liliana but would require a very creature heavy Jund deck to work properly. Domri thrives if you play 30+ creatures. That is not really what Jund is about. The average Jund deck on MTGO right now has 13 creatures.

I think this is more like it. It is an alternate walker that does powerful things but costing four instead of three changes the entire composition of the deck. Can we do even better?

If you are playing Abzan with your Liliana, Sorin could perhaps be your replacement. I don't like the fact that he costs four but he does have some impressive abilites that could turn a game in your favor. 

What if we are after one of the effects of Liliana? What if we like playing off the top against opponents that rely on having cards in their hands?

I think this card is both expensive and weak but it does emulate the Liliana discard ability quite well. It does see fringe play in 8-rack decks where it is probably at its best as a Liliana replacement.

If it is the sacrifice ability we are after there is a better replacement in my opinion.

Gatekeeper of Malakir costs 3 to cast and has a nice sacrifice effect. I think this is probably the best replacement so far. However, there is a pretty big gap between how good this card is and how good Liliana is. 

In the end, Liliana of the Veil is quite hard to replace. It turns out that there is probably a very good reason she costs so much. 

If you can think of any other card as a budget replacement for Liliana of the Veil, please tell me in the comments below.  If there is any other card you want me to suggest budget replacements for, please let me know.


Modern on a budget

Some competetive modern budget decks: http://magicgatheringstrat.com/2014/06/you-too-can-play-modern-10-budget-modern-decks/
Modern decks that cost under $5: http://magicgatheringstrat.com/2015/02/cheap-as-chips-ep-1-fun-modern-lists-for-under-5/