ROE EDH General Review – Livala, Keeper of Silence

Doug Beyer gave us the last Legendary creature out of Rise of the Eldrazi, and boy will it make an impact when it hits play.

While it isn’t a complete bust like Tuktuk was, there will be very few people who will actually play this as their General. For the people who do, let me give you this message:

You’re a sick, sick person.

Let’s take a look at what she says:

Flying
Activated abilities of creatures your opponents control can’t be activated.

A quick primer in case you forgot what activated abilities are: If you see an ability in a text box that has a colon ( : ), that’s an activated ability. In other words: “Cost: Effect.” Example: Llanowar Elves have an activated ability that reads, “T: Add G to your mana pool.”

So, Linvala shuts down a huge majority of creatures. Remember that triggered abilities have the words, “At” “When” and “Whenever” and Linvala doesn’t do anything about that.

But why would you pick her as your General?

Because you’re a jerk.

Yes, in certain play circles there are combos that require activated abilities (actually, change certain to most), so she will be a great part to any deck. Yes, she’s a really great card, but as your General? Maybe that’s a little overkill. Yes, White control decks can be good and certain shut down decks, but maybe this is a little much.

As a General.

Having her in your deck against other decks is not so much a jerk thing, but building up defenses to shut down your opponents decks. There’s not a whole lot that combos with her (Doug suggested turning all your opponent’s lands into creatures so they can’t tap for mana). If you want to do that, you’re gonna have to play a different color than White, which means you need to go in another color.

Final Word: Yes, she’ll see play. While most likely she won’t be a General unless you need to teach your playgroup a lesson, she will see play in decks she can go in. Doran will love her, Crovax will certainly use her, and other Generals will be glad to draw her. I would suggest you go pick her up and teach those combo players a lesson.

Site News: You’ll get one more post before the ROE Prerelease (I encourage you to go if you weren’t planning to already), then the big ROE EDH set review. Also, I’m in the process of showing all of your requests for EDH deck clinics to some of the other writers on this site since they’ve shown interested in helping out as well. We’ll get to some of your decklists in the next couple of weeks.