The malevolent many-legged lady, Lolth, Spider Queen, has arrived!
…and she’s a Planeswalker!
When this 3BB Planeswalker is not ruling over the Underdark in the Forgotten Realms, Lolth will be busy gobbling up your dead creatures for loyalty counters.
For the low cost of 0 (and a small blood donation of 1 life), you can expect to at least be gaining card value each turn.
Her next ability is a costly -3 on her already small default loyalty counter pool of 4. Assuming that you play her in your first casting phase and force some equitable trades or sacrifice some Pests gumming up your board, that -3 looks a little less steep. Whichever way you get there, double (!) 2/1 Spider tokens with menace and reach provide a noticeable arachnid board presence.
For -8 loyalty counters, you get one of the more restrained emblems in Magic. Any damage under 8 (look at that continuity) done to an opponent is rounded up to 8. Before you get too excited, remember that this can only happen to any number of opponents only once per turn. The emblems also do not stack. It’s safe to assume that with the mechanic to add any number of loyalty counter with your dying goons, WotC needed to curb her ultimate. Sorry Yawgmoth EDH players!
It will be interesting to see how Lolth plays with the other yet unknown mechanics in the rest of the set, but at least for now we can plan whether or not she has a place in our Commander decks that you can start to build here on BlackLotusGo!
(Side note: For the arachnophobic or those just interested in MTG lore, WotC has announced that Lolth is without the “Planeswalker Spark.” You can stop worrying she’ll show up unannounced to that tea party you had planned in Eldraine.)
