Havengul Lich looks about as playable as Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni--or perhaps better. It can enable some pretty sick recursion if you build your own deck right (Shriekmaw/Mulldrifter/etc.), and you can occasionally take others' guys with it (if you play BUG, for example, stealing dead/discarded Meliras is funny).
What looks more promising to me is Thalia, Guardian of Thraben. Better body than Glowrider for cheaper? A Thorn of Amethyst on legs? Sign me up!
The Daily MTG article explicitly stated that Shilgengar, a demon, was around before Avacyn was created and even before vampires were created on Innistrad. As other articles have said that demons naturally reassemble themselves from black mana, I suspect demons naturally create themselves to compensate for angelic influence.
Admittedly, we don't use Ravings as well as "Where the heck is my Past in Flames/Pyromancer Ascension" UR Storm, but we can use it pretty decently.
Another reason to play Grixis over Dimir (besides Bolt) is Terminate. It only kills everything black removal can but creatures with protection from red (yeah right, people sideboard in Kor Firewalkers against you). No one 2-cmc black removal spell can kill as much as Terminate (except maybe the restrictive Victim of Night).
Against 1 vanilla creature and assuming no other board presence, Elspeth 1.0 basically cannot afford to not churn out the tokens (she can pop her ultimate, but then you have no board presence while the opponent still has a vanilla), while Sorin 2.0 can quit when he hits 6 counters and steal the vanilla (oh, and he gained you 3 life in the process). Sorin 2.0 actually looks better in this case.
Against 1 Vendilion Clique, both churn out tokens and Fog twice (Sorin wins because his have lifelink), or Elspeth can chuck a guy over the edge twice and Fog twice, while Sorin can slap on a pump emblem and Fog once. I'll give Elspeth the nod if her side has board presence and Sorin the edge if his side doesn't.
Both are game over against control, of course. (Pretty hard not to be game over when both make and pump tokens and both their ultimates matter to a certain extent.)
Against combo, assuming no other board presence for Team Planeswalker, Elspeth wins, as her one token smacks for 4 every turn while Sorin's need a little more help. Things get way more complicated if Team Planeswalker has other creatures, but Team Sorin probably only wins if it has 4+ creatures.
If you don't pass priority, neither are in Bolt range and both are in Tribal Flames range their 1st turn out. Sorin is in Tribal Flames range his 2nd turn out, though, while Elspeth isn't.
Overall, Elspeth looks better against combo while Sorin looks better against aggro (except possibly for Tribal Zoo).
I say Sorin isn't as insane as everyone makes the card out to be because you can't play Sorin out into a board with those creatures in play against you. I'm going to compare it to some other planeswalkers that have been seeing play in control decks. I'm evaluating the card solely on what it does alone--power in a vacuum isn't always the best way to judge a card, but I don't think you should be playing the card with the assumption that you will always just be able to protect it with discard/removal. Now, assume your opponent has a Geist of Saint Traft in play. If you're tapping out for a card, what does this card do? Make a 1/1 and die, or make an emblem and die. With Liliana, you actually kill the creatures and Liliana is at worst an overcosted Cruel Edict. Jace, the Mind Sculptor can bounce creatures and is a removal spell in some sense that way, and even then, I think 4 mana for a Brainstorm is okay--even better if you have a shuffle effect (this is a bit unfair, but part of why Jace was bonkers is that he has never seen play in a format without fetchlands). Elspeth, Knight-Errant simply wouldn't get one-shotted and eventually makes enough creatures to trade with the Geist; Elspeth Tirel and all forms of Garruk immediately make tokens that actually trade with opposing creatures.
The fact that you can tap out with any of those other cards in this situation is why I think Sorin doesn't deserve a spot in any established control deck right now. I also feel like 75% of the cards in all of the UW Delver decks that are popular at the moment just wreck him hard enough that he only seems like something you'd want against the mono red decks that only win by punishing bad hands in the first place. But that's given our limited information right now. I have no doubt that he'll fit somewhere, and maybe even some unspoiled cards will make him look more appealing.
Jace TMS cannot bounce the Hexproof Geist of Saint Traft. Assuming no other board presence for Team Jace, the best you can get out of him is a Brainstorm and a Fog.
If Geist is alone, Liliana 2.0 kills him. (Thank goodness!) If Geist was played on Turn 2 thanks to a mana dork like Noble Hierarch (probably the case in Modern and Legacy), Liliana offs the mana dork and dies to Geist (a Diabolic Edict and a Fog) at best.
Assuming no other board presence, Elspeth, Knight-Errant makes soldier tokens for 2 turns and dies to Geist after that. (That's a Sprout and a Moment's Peace.) (Assuming board presence, Elspeth probably announces, "It's a race!" and throws a pumped flying Goyf over Team Geist, hitting that team for 6+ damage but being only one Fog if Team Elspeth only has the Goyf.)
Garruk R.'s tokens trade with Geist, but he gets one-shotted if Geist still swings. (That's a Smite and a Fog.) He also can't use his other +0 to off Hexproof Geist.
Finally, Sorin 2.0 probably either makes a token and dies to Geist (some beefed-up Sprout and a Fog or a Fog that gains 1 life) or makes an emblem and dies to Geist (some improved Orcish Oriflamme and a Fog).
Thus, against a lone Geist, Liliana 2.0 and Garruk R. look like the sweetest deals, followed by Jace TMS and Elspeth 1.0. Sorin 2.0 comes surprisingly close, though.
(Things get more complicated the more stuff you add on each team. If Team Sorin has a Bitterblossom, Team Geist is screwed if Sorin decides to use his -2 instead of the almost-strictly-worse-than-Elspeth 1.0 +1.)
Loyal Cathar doesn't look bad for a Common. It has an efficient enough body and it comes back from the dead. Too bad it can't block after it dies.
Ladies and gentlemen, we might have the first DKA Modern-playable card in our hands with Sorin, Lord of Innistrad. He churns out tokens with his +1, his -2 gives you cumulative half-Glorious Anthems, and his -6 is unreal--it's almost Plague Wind. He's also a cool 4 cmc with a starting 3 loyalty! Too bad he's BW, but I'm sure those decks will love him as a complement to Elspeth.
Sorin 2.0 looks awesome. He'll probably be playable in Modern and maybe even Legacy--he's starting to resemble Elspeth 1.0 a little. And the -6? Plague Wind, here we go. I wonder how his -6 interacts with Undying, though--whose side do the creatures go on, and do they come back with +1/+1 counters on them?
I have a few problems with that statement. The first and most glaring is what burn do you play that can take out a 10/10. The rest is creatures like tarmagoyf and baneslayer also had answers for them but saw a ton of play. Nowadays we are more opt to play creatures with sick ETBF (CITP) effects or protection or evasion but it does not mean that is a golden rule. There are swords and equipment in standard that offer protection. Those same equipment are available in other formats as well. If they release more support or another deck pops up this could easily be a very expensive card. More easily than that is it could kill you in 2 turns given the right circumstance, ie. the right deck
That person meant that Red ignores/races it. What does RDW care about a ginormous Turn 4 dude if the opponent is Shocked to death on Turn 5?
If you mean Thalia as one of them, she is legendary. (I hope others haven't made that point earlier.)
What looks more promising to me is Thalia, Guardian of Thraben. Better body than Glowrider for cheaper? A Thorn of Amethyst on legs? Sign me up!
If you're playing a more midrange, Jund-like deck, the M10 ones might be better.
Using shock mana Turn 1 and fetch-shock mana Turn 2 is definitely an option to boost your kitty.
You want the blowout early play with Kitty, so 4 Steppe Lynx or bust. Tune your fetches to be more able to get Plains.
I personally like at least 11 fetches with my Lynxes.
Admittedly, we don't use Ravings as well as "Where the heck is my Past in Flames/Pyromancer Ascension" UR Storm, but we can use it pretty decently.
Another reason to play Grixis over Dimir (besides Bolt) is Terminate. It only kills everything black removal can but creatures with protection from red (yeah right, people sideboard in Kor Firewalkers against you). No one 2-cmc black removal spell can kill as much as Terminate (except maybe the restrictive Victim of Night).
Volcanic Fallout is a nice, cheap, situational board sweeper.
For example, my pre-combo turn Gifts pile would be Heartbeat of Spring-Early Harvest-Drift of Phantasms-Noxious Revival, while my mid-combo Gifts pile would be Blue Sun's Zenith-Praetor's Counsel-Eternal Witness-Revive. That pile guarantees both USZ and Praetor's Counsel, and Reclaim effects cannot substitute in this case.
Against 1 vanilla creature and assuming no other board presence, Elspeth 1.0 basically cannot afford to not churn out the tokens (she can pop her ultimate, but then you have no board presence while the opponent still has a vanilla), while Sorin 2.0 can quit when he hits 6 counters and steal the vanilla (oh, and he gained you 3 life in the process). Sorin 2.0 actually looks better in this case.
Against 1 Vendilion Clique, both churn out tokens and Fog twice (Sorin wins because his have lifelink), or Elspeth can chuck a guy over the edge twice and Fog twice, while Sorin can slap on a pump emblem and Fog once. I'll give Elspeth the nod if her side has board presence and Sorin the edge if his side doesn't.
Both are game over against control, of course. (Pretty hard not to be game over when both make and pump tokens and both their ultimates matter to a certain extent.)
Against combo, assuming no other board presence for Team Planeswalker, Elspeth wins, as her one token smacks for 4 every turn while Sorin's need a little more help. Things get way more complicated if Team Planeswalker has other creatures, but Team Sorin probably only wins if it has 4+ creatures.
If you don't pass priority, neither are in Bolt range and both are in Tribal Flames range their 1st turn out. Sorin is in Tribal Flames range his 2nd turn out, though, while Elspeth isn't.
Overall, Elspeth looks better against combo while Sorin looks better against aggro (except possibly for Tribal Zoo).
Jace TMS cannot bounce the Hexproof Geist of Saint Traft. Assuming no other board presence for Team Jace, the best you can get out of him is a Brainstorm and a Fog.
If Geist is alone, Liliana 2.0 kills him. (Thank goodness!) If Geist was played on Turn 2 thanks to a mana dork like Noble Hierarch (probably the case in Modern and Legacy), Liliana offs the mana dork and dies to Geist (a Diabolic Edict and a Fog) at best.
Assuming no other board presence, Elspeth, Knight-Errant makes soldier tokens for 2 turns and dies to Geist after that. (That's a Sprout and a Moment's Peace.) (Assuming board presence, Elspeth probably announces, "It's a race!" and throws a pumped flying Goyf over Team Geist, hitting that team for 6+ damage but being only one Fog if Team Elspeth only has the Goyf.)
Garruk R.'s tokens trade with Geist, but he gets one-shotted if Geist still swings. (That's a Smite and a Fog.) He also can't use his other +0 to off Hexproof Geist.
Finally, Sorin 2.0 probably either makes a token and dies to Geist (some beefed-up Sprout and a Fog or a Fog that gains 1 life) or makes an emblem and dies to Geist (some improved Orcish Oriflamme and a Fog).
Thus, against a lone Geist, Liliana 2.0 and Garruk R. look like the sweetest deals, followed by Jace TMS and Elspeth 1.0. Sorin 2.0 comes surprisingly close, though.
(Things get more complicated the more stuff you add on each team. If Team Sorin has a Bitterblossom, Team Geist is screwed if Sorin decides to use his -2 instead of the almost-strictly-worse-than-Elspeth 1.0 +1.)
Ladies and gentlemen, we might have the first DKA Modern-playable card in our hands with Sorin, Lord of Innistrad. He churns out tokens with his +1, his -2 gives you cumulative half-Glorious Anthems, and his -6 is unreal--it's almost Plague Wind. He's also a cool 4 cmc with a starting 3 loyalty! Too bad he's BW, but I'm sure those decks will love him as a complement to Elspeth.
Chances are, Sorin will restore Avacyn and give her two black eyes and a Gothic set of armour.
Sorin 2.0 looks awesome. He'll probably be playable in Modern and maybe even Legacy--he's starting to resemble Elspeth 1.0 a little. And the -6? Plague Wind, here we go. I wonder how his -6 interacts with Undying, though--whose side do the creatures go on, and do they come back with +1/+1 counters on them?
That person meant that Red ignores/races it. What does RDW care about a ginormous Turn 4 dude if the opponent is Shocked to death on Turn 5?
I'm personally trying a mild blue splash for Geist of Saint Traft (more tokens to sac to Gargadon) and Moorland Haunt (often a better Kher Keep). I've also swapped Spectral Procession for Squadron Hawk (why not) and Goblin Guide for Figure of Destiny (this deck is more midrange).
2 power? YES
They can recur? YES
They can't block? NO
Since all the Zombie lords are 3 cmc, what we really need is a Zombie mana dork.